I jumped into this years after completing Zero Dawn's main quest, and was immediately floored with the presentation - not only are the environments and character models stunning, but the facial animations were super impressive and able to capture more subtleties than I'm used to seeing in games, even in recent AAA titles.

I had to reacclimate myself to the gameplay, which took me some time, but overall I was reminded that Horizon is a solid game with an intriguing world and an overwhelming amount of side stuff I will likely never pursue.

The combat felt frantic (which I remembered from the base game) and repetitive (which was new). I think the latter was mostly because I was cheesing all the biggest enemies with my endgame weapons, and I didn't want to take the time to re-learn the intricacies of the combat's systems, so that's definitely on me.

The above might sound harsh, but I want to stress Horizon is an extremely polished and fun game, and if you let the atmosphere of its world wash over you you can get really sucked in to the adventure. As far as "Everything Games" go, it's definitely one of the best, and Frozen Wilds is more of that "everything" with more character-focused writing.

The awkward stepchild of the original Crash trilogy.

Let's start with the good stuff: The music, colors, and character personalities still pop, and there's a decent amount of fun to be had when the game actually lets you play it as a platformer.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of vehicle levels that run the gamut from boring to frustrating. The boss fights are also mediocre, and none of the levels really stand out. The platforming feels looser overall, and playing as Coco is a slog - she's just a more limited version of Crash with no unique moveset of her own, which is a missed opportunity.

Definitely not a bad game, but it doesn't even stand in the shadow of its predecessors' greatness. Based on what I've read, it had a troubled and rushed development, which explains a lot - the bones of a good Crash game are all there, but it's missing the meat and potatoes that make the original games' platforming feel so satisfying. I'm glad it sold well enough to give Traveller's Tales another shot at the ole' Bandicoot, and I think they hit their stride with this game's follow-up: Twinsanity!

2D platformer of the punishing "one hit and you die" variety.

The characters and art style are cute as a button, and the music is phenomenal. The story is solid with moments of real poignancy, even though I found it got a too twee sometimes...but that's just me.

The actual running and jumping is extremely tight and responsive, and even when you fail, you don't lose so much progress that it feels like a chore to try again. When you finally get past a screen that was giving you trouble, you feel like a platformer pro.

I would like to note that the free DLC stuff is harder by a considerable magnitude. I appreciate wanting to give hardcore gamers and super fans an extra challenge, but as a player who just wanted those last few morsels of story, I felt a tad excluded. Thankfully, the numerous accessibility options meant I could zip through the hard stuff and still get to experience the narrative, so chalk up another win for versatile accessibility options!

An arcadey space combat game with tight controls and gorgeous graphics.

The story is dense and filled with too much capital L "Lore", but the voice actors give it their all and the relationship between the main character, Nora, and her sentient ship is well-developed. Its presentation is straight-faced and portentous, which was honestly a nice break from the self-aware, quip-filled narratives that have been so prevalent over the past decade. It was refreshing to feel a story take itself seriously for once, even though it is undoubtedly overwrought.

The flying and shooting is exciting, and pulling off a lighting fast maneuver to put yourself behind a pursuing ship and blast them into dust is...well, a blast. The super powers you unlock along the way are a neat wrinkle that add some extra depth.

The open-ish map makes things feel aesthetically big, but the side activities aren't especially interesting, and towards the end of my playthrough the long trips between objectives began to drag. If they ever make a sequel, I think they should drop the side-missions entirely, or at the very least focus on quality over quantity.

Chorus was still a fun time, and in its best moments made me feel like an ace fighter pilot. If you're looking for a space combat game that focuses purely on combat and maneuverability, I'd definitely recommend it!

A fun little RTS/3rd person shooter hybrid that "technically" belongs to Nintendo's "Famicom/Advance Wars" series.

The art style, story, music, and voice acting are straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, in a good way. I love the exaggerated marching of the grunts, it really captures the feeling of kids playing out big battles using any toys they have lying around :)

Gameplay-wise, things are fun and responsive. The shooting is loud and crunchy, and the strategy elements give you a lot of options without feeling too overwhelming. Keeping the battles "battalion-sized" and letting the player personally control units was a smart way of making the levels feel like sweeping military campaigns without losing the more immediate thrills of a shooter. It makes me wish more war games took this hybrid approach.

Mission settings and objectives are varied, and there are a decent amount of different units, including infantry, combat jeeps, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. Most of them control well, with the exception of the fighter jets, which can be awkward to fly.

The difficulty was mostly fair, at least for a dummy like me, and I was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat a few times, which gave me a great sense of accomplishment...until I saw the post-mission rankings. There were a handful of frustrating missions, but nothing ever felt insurmountable.

I'm really glad I came back to this! The first time I played it was back when I was 9-10 and desperately wanted to play Halo, but lacked both an Xbox and the permission to play anything rated above E. I'm excited to check out the sequel!