For better or worse it's a pretty faithful remake, nothing too immense and nothing too boring, but just right. Helps massively that the writing isn't abysmal and shows a coming of age story for everybody's fave Hero King with the same gameplay that you would come to expect of a FE title.

My only major gripe is that this remake started one of the worst trends that still plagues modern FE to this day and that is the choice to completely homogenise your units via infinite reclassing. I will never understand why IntSys came up with this idea, it totally devalues a character's strengths and weaknesses with their base class and promoted class. Wendy in FE6 is funny and challenging to use because she's dogshit. There is nothing fun and challenging about turning half your army into Dracoknights and sweeping through the game, it's so boring. Player freedom isn't always a good thing, engage that smooth brain and use tictacs, you are playing a strategy game.

Anyway, infinite warp range is always funny. Rant over, a very middle of the road Fire Emblem game and it's not such a bad thing.

Somehow Edward ended up coming 1st in my rankings, which completely shocked me because it's always Ike, Haar or Jill lol

Greatest Fire Emblem game of all time, there is actually no contest

I also gave the boots to base level Meg and never fed her a single point of experience because funny

From Software’s most recent title is my favorite game this year and I don’t see that changing. In some ways, it feels too big to talk about. I can give the overused shorthand, “Breath of the Wild but Dark Souls” but that feels like both an inaccurate and insufficient description of this monstrous game. It feels less like a more fully realized Dark Souls and instead positions the Dark Souls games as more linear attempts at Elden Ring. It’s… a lot. And I’m doing a bad job describing it. Just needed to get some of this bloviating out of the way to have a coherent thought. Elden Ring is great. So what is it?

First, it is a From game. Elden Ring feels less like a new IP for the developer and more like a similar formula placed in a rich open world and allowed the space and time to breathe. As a player, you are continually rewarded for exploration by beautiful vistas, branching quests, and tons of visually varied loot. Whereas Dark Souls would reward a player for choosing the less obvious hallway in a castle, Elden Ring rewards a player for traveling hours off the critical path to fight a weird lichen guarded by floating beach jellyfish.

Controls feel familiar yet just new enough to make even the most recent Souls games feel sluggish and constrained. It’s also wonderful to see the influence of Sekiro on the new title. Elden Ring calls on the traversal and stealth mechanics of its shinobi-themed pseudo-predecessor often to great effect.

It is important to note that Elden Ring is not some one-size-fits-all jumping on point for the franchise. Fans of other action RPGs may find some of the game’s quirks troubling to parse such as a total lack of a quest log, a somewhat subtle shove to the game’s tutorial, and the sheer volume of skippable areas. I make no excuses for the game and remember when such quirks would have bothered me but it’s an absolute treat for fans of the franchise and those willing to give it a chance despite some momentary confusion. All-in-all, Elden Ring is an undertaking for better and worse. It’s a great game to get lost in, a tough game to marathon, and as satisfying as it is frustrating from time to time. It’s exactly what fans of the game hoped for from the trailers. It just makes me want a Sekiro 2.

"oh no, he's playing classical music"

Never cared about the first one, both back when it came out and now, but this one? Perfect game. Not sure if I realized it then, though I HIGHLY enjoyed it when it came out, but I certainly do now. The experiment/test-run that was the first game (as much as I admire it's bare bones/simplicity) constructed and paced to the highest degree. Never realized how hard I associate this game with 2011/my mid-teenage years. Definitely felt my body being transported back to those horribly awkward/demented years. So glad it's over. So glad to finally revisit this and see it even more for what it truly is.

This game was quite the journey. A lot of ups, but so many downs that it made reaching the end such a bitter note for myself.
In terms of combat gameplay, this game is one of the better entries for Bethesda. Weapon control feels much heavier and interesting, much more potential moments where VATS feels like an extra thing and the focus is absolutely on your aim. The guns, be them normal or laser ones, feel so distinct one from another and the fact that the game constantly gives you new and different (but not necessarily stronger) versions of a weapon with benefits (and sometimes detriments) makes the weapon rotation a lot more interesting.
Also, weapon/armor customizations are so cool. I absolutely digged how this game wants you to focus on DIY stuff. "Want a more potent pistol but with less recoil? Try changing these parts!" or "Do you want to carry more stuff with your armor? Put some extra pockets in it!" Simple stuff that can fit your general behavior during a playthrough.
Also, how can I not mention the absolute coolness that are the power armors in this? The fact that they have their own HUD, mixed with the sturdier movement and noises truly make you feel like a behemoth walking around the wasteland.
Naturally, the atmospheric soundtrack that this game has is maybe my favorite of the entire series so far. Some tracks feel barren and whistful, while others just exhale the technology that survived the 200 year nuclear blast.
Now.... how come I wrote an obscene amount of paragraphs praising the hell out of this game, and yet it's just a 3/5 for me?
Well... they really screwed up on making this the role-playing game of the 2010s by streamlining it to almost a fault. And I just don't mean the 4 option type of dialogue, oh no. While those are bad enough as they are, since it's generally a positive, a negative, a "push further" and a sarcastic comment, I also felt that the main character, "The Lone Survivor", isn't.... great. It's really funny how Fallout 3 almost nails how to build your character's personality from the very beginning of it all, and New Vegas just gives you total and full freedom from the get go (arguably my favorite of the two), and this one.... welp, if you pick the Man, he's always going to have the former job of a soldier, while the Woman has the job of a lawyer. And considering how the plot in this works, you can't make me believe for a second that either of them would just nail how to use a Power Armor from the get go, and even crazier, fight one of the strongest enemies in the series on like the second quest.
Also, the skill tree from the previous games is long gone. No more skill point allocation for you! Now they're pretty much streamlined into the perks. There's no way I'll screw up my point allocations and miss some key mechanics because of this, right???
Welp, as much as I praise the DIY element, I'm not too fond of building the houses and security stuff in this. It's... just not my thing? But at some point I gave it a shot and found it was pretty alright.... until I noticed I couldn't do everything with it, like say, build some stuff that can help you create better armor and upgrades, since that is stuck on a Charisma Level 7 perk.
The game wants you to use such mechanics so badly, and yet it locks out some key elements that makes them a lot easier for the player behind the SPECIAL points.
It's not that terrible of a deal, since leveling up goes pretty much ad infinitum here, so you will get there. But having such elements locked out don't feel interesting enough. Maybe locking out stuff like people selling stuff at settlements and higher quality defenses behind the perks wouldn't be such a bad idea, but in the long run it just made me less interested in investing such time.
Now... for me, Fallout is about exploring the barren wasteland, and Commonwealth has so many cool stuff around it! I was just walking around and found a building where people were locked inside trying to figure out how to build a better chest piece for a power armor. And I did manage to get it and it was really cool!
Cut about 60 hours later, and the game takes me there. The main character never ever mentions being there beforehand, nor the game seems to care. This happened way more than I'm happy to say. I pretty much killed one boss type enemy, just so a lot of hours later the game told me to "capture" him, and I was like "oh god. I killed him, though." so I went back there and voila, he's alive and well once again.
I barely even talked about the main plot here, and.... what's there to say. Like, really. I feel like I've seen Fallout use this "Can X be considered human, too?" with Ghouls, Super Mutants, and whatever it's not a normal walking human on the past games, so making this the main focus really got me the wrong way. Doesn't really help how I didn't like the "plot twist" here. It's somewhat well done, yes, but I kinda wish there was more to it.... oh well.
While I didn't find Fallout 4 an atrocious experience, I do feel some resistance coming back to it and finishing the DLCs. Although I do hear some good stuff about Far Harbor.... I'll leave that one for next month, maybe.
Overall, if you're playing this, expect a more streamlined experience altogether. Wouldn't say it was a waste of time, just..... expected a little more from the biggest game in the series. (I'm ignoring 76)

Everynow and then I stumble across a game so great that I'm at a loss for what to write as a review, so this won't exactly be a traditional review. I’m writing this about 10 or so minutes after finally beating Halo 3 and completing the original halo trilogy. I won't go into too much of an in-depth review for this game because I feel there is not much more praise I can give to it gameplay-wise that I didn't already give to Halo 2.

Wow this is the perfect ending to this amazing trilogy. It's incredible that with every subsequent game the story just kept on getting better and better. It was amazing to see the technology and design behind every aspect of these games just keep on advancing through every release. Every step of the way this game’s universe just kept on expanding more and more, until ultimately culminating in this incredible final battle for the fate of everything within it. I absolutely loved the feeling of unity felt in Halo 3. Teaming up with all of your former enemies at one point or another to aid a greater cause was incredible, and I especially loved that the covenant never ended up being a 100% evil, brainwashed, or crazy race of villains. There's overall a strong sense of hopefulness found within this game. It’s a very refreshing difference from many other edgy and cruel first person shooter games, even from the first two Halo games at times. Ultimately I believe this not only to be one of the best FPS games ever made, but probably one of the best video games of all time.

So I just wanna say... any game that has dinosaurs in it is automatically cool. But uh, this one just aint It i think. It is another boring survival game that runs abhorrently on consoles. Its pretty much impossible to figure out what you're supposed to even do without watching 10 youtube tutorials by people who have been indoctrinated to enjoy this game. The character creator is also just... what the fuck? The default male character is like dollar store M.Bison and even just the textures on their characters arms when you first start up a new island is terrifying, the female character particularly seems to have her fingernails grown into claws and its just awful all around. BUT this game does have a setting called "poop interval" which made me laugh so all is forgiven.

Oh, the platinum is pretty easy too. Doubt I would of given this a shot otherwise.

Trophy Completion - 100% (33/33 Platinum #195)
Time Played - 2 hours 50 minutes
Nancymeter - 40/100

Sifu was quite a surprising hit when it first came out earlier this year. It seemed interesting to me but I wasn't fully sold on it - and it was pleasantly surprising to see it get a bunch of good reviews. That and finding out despite it not really being marketed that you could chose the gender of the protag ultimately made me pick this up quickly. And then proceed to not beat it until the year is nearly over.

Sifu's a game a lot of people compare to John Wick for some reason but there's no gun fu. The combat is pretty solid. It feels great and the finishers are satisfying but honestly I wasn't really a big fan of it beyond that. There's very little in the way of tells for attacks and some of the combos you can unlock are awkward to use. It really basically just felt like spamming deflect was the most reliable way to play. The bosses are actually pretty enjoyable comparatively but the third one basically just dodges and spams projectiles which made her by far the most annoying part of a pretty brutal game. The whole idea behind the aging system is really cool in theory, especially with how it ties into upgrades and seeing your characters appearance change. But that "in theory" part does a lot of heavy lifting for me. Sifu is a pretty rough game despite its short length and since you only have basically 10 lives before having to restart you'll end up replaying each of the five levels to beat them with a better age making this game basically almost a rouge-lite. It does a neat thing where if you put more exp into an upgrade you have you can permanently unlock it for future runs which is cool but this facet of gameplay was just not enjoyable for me. Maybe i got filtered but the combat didnt seem fair enough to make me wanna smash my head against a wall and keep replaying the first two levels a million times and I actually ended up dropping this game for quite a while.

And then it got an update! New difficulty modes, new modifiers, new challenges. Always love when games add new ways to expand your playtime especially when its for free. Student difficulty is basically the "easy mode" of the game. I'm not sure exactly what it changes about enemy health and player damage but the main draw of this for me was that the death counter now only goes up by one, so instead of having ten lives you have more like fifty. For me this was the optimal way to play. Student difficulty is still no joke and i got my ass kicked a lot, particularly by that annoying boss i mentioned earlier. But not having to participate in all the level replaying made this a much smoother experience and I'm glad this game gives you as many options as it does.

The visuals are also really nice. The art syle is pretty basic but it does some really cool stuff with it especially when it throws in some more surreal things. Each of the five levels are unique and have fun little references to movies like Oldboy and Kill Bill Volume One. It all works great. The story is there... its not meant to be anything more than an excuse for violence and thats all it needs to be. Now to actually see the credits in this you need to get the true ending which can be done by sparing all the bosses. This really doesnt add much to the game though as it really just gives you a new cutscene but I did it anyways to feel like I actually beat it. There's also some collectibles you can get which do interconnect between the levels. It's kinda fun to get all these and find the different shortcuts throughout but most of the enjoyment for me was just getting the silver trophies for it lol.

Overall, Sifu is a really sleek and fun (even if you might need to tweak it a bit) game. It may not blow you away but with all the accessibility options there's a lot to get out of this whether you want a tought as tits challenge or to just beat the fuck out of a lot of people.

Thanks for reading y'all. More stuff coming soon I promise <3

Nancymeter - 75/100
Trophy Completion - 91% (38/43)
Time Played - 17 hours 56 minutes (i really don't know how)
Game Completion #148 of 2022
Game Completion #2 of December

Modern Warfare and Call of Duty as a whole has always been a series that meant a lot to me. The original MW2 was one of if not my very first video game experiences. My dad was big on xbox and Call of Duty so that's what I spent a lot of my time playing as a kid, yknow way back when you'd still get made fun of for being a girl that plays video games lol. I was never pro level but I got quite (inconsistently) good at multiplayer. But what really mattered most to me was the campaigns. Modern Warfare especially I have incredibly fond memories of replaying the trilogy repeatedly. Sometimes id just replay specific levels that I thought were just that cool.

I eventually fell off on the series as a whole. Especially when they introduced Black Ops 4 as not even having a campaign I just gave up on caring about the franchises direction. But relatively recently I've been replaying the series and getting to ones I've skipped like World War 2 and Infinite Warfare. These are all widely varying in quality but with the exception of BO4 and Vanguard (which i've not tried the campaign) I've enjoyed them all. The real standout for me though was the Modern Warfare reboot. I was both really curious and cautious about rebooting the franchise but Modern Warfare 2019 turned out to be one of my favorite games in the series (can't beat Black Ops 2 though). So I was really pumped for this game. And while it mostly delivered on what I wanted, I can't help but feel a little disappointed overall.

The 2019 campaign can be criticized for relying on shock value and such but for me personally it really worked. One of the first missions I had to put the game down because it got me too emotional. I loved the gunplay and the story and holy fuck Clean House is the coolest mission of any fps since anything from Titanfall 2. Basically all I wanted from this game was to have more levels like that (really I want an entire game of just levels like that) and actually this game does have a lot of similar segments which left me very pleased. I didn't get my dream of Clean House raiding a massive drug cartel compound because they forced that to be an overlong AC-130 mission but I was happy with what I did get. But that's kinda all my positives about the campaign. I still really enjoyed it but it just lacked a lot of what was so compelling about 2019 for me. It really feels like they were taking a step back and aside from a few instances the game as a whole just feels like its playing it very safe. It never hit hard for me like its predecessor. The cast is really good but the main villain is completely forgettable and the more interesting one is dealt with in a very unsatisfying boss fight. The final level also felt incredibly underwhelming and the only cool thing about it was all the sequel bait for the inevitable third entry. Which I am still very excited for. Idk, I'm really conflicted here lol. On one hand its nowhere near as good as 2019 but on the other its still a really solid time as a whole.

The multiplayer is a different matter however. I don't care much for this side of the series anymore but this is just one of my probably least favorite mps ever? Cold War was fucking broken but it was at least still fun. 2019 wasnt great either but it still felt good. This just doesnt have any of that. I don't like the lightning fast TTK and the 15 or so matches i played all just mostly kept putting me in the same three boring maps from the beta. Not to mention the incredibly stupid way loadout customization is set up.

In all honesty though, the worst thing about this game is the UI. It's fucking BAD. Why the main menu has spots dedicated to the other games is beyond me. Its just so cluttered and ugly. When I came back to this game after a pretty long hiatus It took me like two minutes to find where the fuck the campaign even was. Its terrible and another reason why I hate Warzone and its consequences.

The game is also pretty buggy. I think it may of gotten better after the day one patch but there were so many times that a character model would glitch out or the scripting just completely failed. My teammates would just stand there and do nothing. Restarting the checkpoint wouldn't fix this issue either and I had to redo entire levels to get them to work properly which is the bare miminum you can ask for a game.

This has been a pretty negative review. But I do want to emphasis I still like this game. I think its a good game. Just for a franchise this big and with its predecessors being so good I expect a bit more polish. Who knows, maybe when I replay this down the line on Realism difficulty I'll like it more.

I'd give it a 4/5 in a heartbeat if it used the original MW2 soundtrack instead.
Thank's for reading <3


Nancymeter - 75/100
Trophy Completion - 33% (9/25)
Time Played - 19 hours 5 minutes
Game Completion #149 of 2022
Game Completion #3 of December

I'm not very big into Star Wars nowadays, but after having a blast with Battlefront II and seeing how hype the trailers for Survivor have been I decided it was the perfect time to replay this as I've been meaning to get to it for a while. I also made sure to play it over a month before the sequel comes out to avoid burnout and as I'm sitting here writing this while watching the credits scroll I think that was definitely a smart decision.

That is not to insult this game as I did actually even enjoy it a little more this time around, but there are some pretty big issues I have with it that hold it back for me. For one, the gameplay isn't always the most satisfying. When I first played this game I had virtually no experience with Soulslikes but now I consider them a genre I really enjoy (even if I rarely find the time to play them) and I was able to pick up on more of the similarities this time around. But really its more of a Soulslite and I don't find the implementation of many staples the genre is known for to really compliment this game in meaningful ways. The lightsaber combat is pretty good - the lack of dismemberment disappointing but understandable - but it doesn't really feel as tight or as in depth as I'd expect other games like this to be. Also quite frankly while there is a good amount of enemy types, I found virtually every single one that wasnt a stormtrooper variation to be a huge pain in the ass to fight. Thats not to say that its not fun still and pushing enemies off cliffs will never not be fun, but by the time i reached the final boss I was just pretty over the system in general and ended up dropping it to story mode just to get done with it. Skill issue? perhaps but I know if FromSoft added an easy mode update to all of their games right this moment I would still never go for it. Basically the combat is good but the challenge feels more reliant on being annoying than actually honing skill.

My only other big issue with this is that the PS5 version at the very least is quite buggy. I don't remember if it was this noticeable for my first playthrough on ps4 but there were a whole lot of little things that just kinda got in the way. Once or twice Cal just randomly died for no reason during platforming sections, sometimes in fights where you get swarmed and stunlocked the camera fucked off and made it really hard to see and there were multiple cutscenes with out of sync audio that had to be fixed by closing the game. Another thing thats not really a glitch but a bit bothersome is the huge amount of clipping. The ponchos are stylish (but severely lacking in color options like cmon) and optional but its a pretty big distraction to see Cal's hands and legs phase through them in every cutscene and I wish they put a little more care into that. And this is the game that has multiple different lightsaber holstering animations that have a lot of personality so I really doubt its from a lack of love.

Story wise I think the game is pretty solid. I like the whole cast and it has some pretty good arcs and emotional moments. But it does really suffer from feeling like the first in a series. I am very curious to see where the story goes with Survivor but the story definitely feels a little underwhelming where Fallen Order ends off. Its kinda at a point where the main goal is complete but theres no real setup for how the story will continue and it just doesnt entirely work. Cal is a likeable protagonist and I am looking forward to see what they do with his character, I especially want to see more of Merrin as well. The gameplay loop mostly has you traveling back and forth between planets and there is maybe a bit too much backtracking but there are always new areas opened up so its not like you're replaying the same exact thing again and again. I also found the puzzles to be a lot more enjoyable on this playthrough where I remember them being kinda annoying to begin with. I don't generally like puzzles but the ones in this are pretty well thought out and done so I dont have any complaints about them. Overall despite having some technical issues and some complaints about the story and combat as a standalone this is a really great single player Star Wars game that I'm glad is as successful as it is.

Seeing as its been said that this story is planned as a trilogy I am more than okay with that. I definitely am a little unsure on what the story of Survivor will end up being. My biggest hopes after completing this was for a bigger cast and more of them beyond mostly just staying back at the Mantis but It seems like Survivor is going in a different direction. There is apparently a prequel graphic novel meant to explain what happens inbetween the two games but I ain't paying 15 dollars to read it and so I really just hope they have some good ideas and that they don't give the game an ending that super suffers from middle child syndrome. Beyond that I just hope its a little more polished and honestly it's looking like a big step up in a lot of ways. I'll get back to you in May for my review on that one as well :p

Thanks for reading y'all. Still working on a couple other reviews but can't say when they'll be out. I really appreciate you if you've made it this far. See you next time <3

Nancymeter - 81/100 (oh wow a 2 point increase!!)
Time Played: 14 hours for this playthrough
Trophy Completion - 100%
Game Completion #4 of March
Game Completion #54 of 2023

With this, I have finally completed every (accessible) God of War game to date. I still have my replay of 2018 coming, but I can now finally say I've finished the series.

I don't really have anything remarkable to say about these older titles. They are just simply pretty good. I didnt love them, I certainly had my problems with them. But in the end I always had a (mostly) good time with them. I think God of War III incapsulates my feelings on the series pretty well. It has some of the most badass moments, I think everyone can agree the boss fights are awesome and the game does a great job of showing spectacle with the setpeices. The combat is fun and all the weapons and magic feel good to use. The story isnt incredible but its good enough, perhaps a bit weaker than God of War II. But I dont think that really matters, after so many games of getting pulled around by the gods, ending the trilogy by slaying so many of them makes this a really fitting ending, honestly Im not sure if they could of done it better.

I do however, have some complaints. Small things first. The graphics in this remaster are really good. Game looks great. Ascension should of gone this route instead of whatever mess that game looked like. But they didnt bother to remaster any of the cutscenes, they still very much look like a PS3 game which isnt a big deal but can be jarring. Also the "parkour" feels less concise in this one. When doing the wall climbing Kratos seemed to get stuck on every bit of geometry he could, which was particularly annoying during timed sections. The grappling which was awesome in the other games also seemed to just feel less concise and the momentum needed for some jumps seemed to just not be there at all. Again, small things but they were the cause of almost all of my deaths.

My main issue with this game was, as good and bombastic the boss fights are, everything between them was pretty uninteresting. There were some cool locations and good ideas, but especially for the first half everything just felt like a bit of a retread of things that have already happened in previous games. I will say the boss fights alone make this the strongest of the older games by a small margin, but the rest of the game seemed just too familiar and did little to impress

In the end though, it does have an HD remastered sex minigame so its the best one.

Trophy Completion - 82% (33/36)
Time Played - deleted the game before I could check oop
Nancymeter - 83/100
Game Completion #69 of 2022
June Completion #4

🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 14h
🏆Trophy completion - 62%
🤬Difficulty - felt easy. I played on hard and did not find any issues with the game. Most of the time I could clear waves and plan out how i wanted to attack. The game does get you to use all abilities and I did not use the same 3 button combo over and over again. I found fire element to be the strongest for my play style.
🌄Graphics – Great graphics and still hold up today, especially on remaster. This game is just so epic and how it presents scale, amazing. The animations are smooth, its awesome to look at. Of course its not going to look like Ghost of Tshushima.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – I felt so bad ass in this game. I felt like Kratos in their world. Loved it! The music is absolutely amazing. The chanting of Kratos' name and the crescendo of orchestra. I felt such like a bad ass. AMAZING music !
📚 Main Story / Characters – Its fine its a revenge story. As usual I had trouble keeping up with the details but I got the over all gist and didn't care. I just want to go kill the next god.
🤺 Combat – This game has some of the best combat of any game. C'mon who doesn't want to scale Gaia and take on Greek gods! Who doesn't want to face 1vs1 Hercules and beat his ass? Every fight in this game is A+ and epic. God damn, just righting this review I want to play it again. The game also introduces different elemental blades, they were fun to play with and i did end up switching here and there based on what I needed but overall stuck to fire. I got familiar with all his moves and used them as i needed. I believe you can probably get through the game mashing but why....
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – did not do the collection trophies and the arena trophies. The ones I did collect were fun and some of them required skill so I had to try a few times. Arena trophies are too hard and known to be luck based, and will suck out any joy I had in this game. The puzzles in game were great too. It never felt cheap and everything can be figured out on your own with exploration.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Fluid, awesome. Scaling monsters, climbing walls.
📣 Voice acting – AWESOMEEEE. So much angst in Kratos voice. He doesn't give a crap about anything and it shows!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Epic combat and music. Immersion, Adrenaline pumping. The opening of this game is one of the best in any video game history. Somehow it manages to start that high and still keep it that high the entire game!
👎 Worst thing about the game - none. I donno doesn't last forever?
💡Final Thoughts:

This game builds on everything in 1 and 2 and makes it even better. The graphics updates make the immersion that much better. The music, the fights, the boss battle direction, the variety, this game is a masterpiece and a must play. I love god of war series so maybe I am a little biased but don't care. I had so much fun! This game makes me feel so god damn bad ass. Played this on my road to complete all the GOW games before GOW 2018. I am slowly building up to it!