A satisfying remake slightly hampered by pacing issues, unnecessary combat and some wonky hit detection/item pickup. I enjoyed the atmosphere and tasteful reimagining of spaces and personalities, but found myself bored in stretches expanded from the original but with little to do.

On the one hand, this is probably one of my favorite open-world games of recent memory. The diversity and authenticity of the environments make each planet a joy to simply exist in, and the game nails the criminal underworld aspects. This is one of the most immersive Star Wars experiences available, surpassing even the newest Star Wars Jedi games in that department, and writing and characterization are also top notch. On the other hand, it's death-by-a-thousand-cuts with number of small annoyan…

This is a strange, wonderful action adventure game featuring gorgeous graphics and satisfying combat alongside a nonsensical, cliched story and character designs and voice acting that seem to have been shipped in from wildly different genres. It's got it where it counts though - the compelling moment-to-moment gameplay, boss fights and exploration are all handled with aplomb. The real star of this game is its soundtrack, featuring the composer of the Nier franchise.

Hail good knight upon your golden steed, could you kindly provide me directions to Castle Stormveil? The pale fellow yonder seems to think my travels point thither. What's this? Take up arms against me, will you villain? Well have at you then sir! You shall meet your untimely end at the sharp point of my blade! You died. This is Elden Ring.

My personal 2023 Game of the Year, Alan Wake II combines a gorgeous, cinematic survival horror experience with a meta narrative that has to be experienced to be believed. Like Hideo Kojima, Remedy understands the unique power of the medium to present stories in ways that only video games can. In this way, it succeeds where other games trying to replicate a cinematic experience fall short. It also contains a moment of such surprising absurdity and joy that I still think of to this day. A must pl…

In your vainglorious attempt to save the universe, you have damned it. Now behold and weep for the ruinous calamity you have unleashed upon untold, unsuspecting worlds.I chose to play evil Shepard. Results may vary. One of the best sequels in living memory.

(Note: Edited from my Amazon.com review of this game from 2011) First things first. When people fantasize about a game that plays the way the movie "Heat" looks, I'm sure there's only one thing that comes to mind: epic street-level shootouts involving scads of ammo, automatic weapons, cops, shattering glass, screaming pedestrians and duffel bags slung over the shoulder. I'm pretty confident no one wants to play a "Heat" game that revolves around your ruined relationship with your wife and step…

This game got me through those unnerving early days of COVID and, like Death Stranding, felt like a premonition of a time when the landscape would be empty of its inhabitants, relying on the goodwill of a stranger delivering their goods. The struggle of traversing the difficult, virtual environs were a salve to the very real internal and external crisis of that time, in that they were able to be overcome, dealt with. In trying to remember the release date of this game, I came across this deligh…

They say you can’t go home again, but they were wrong. What other lies have they sold us? We will return better, stronger, faster, if more accessible and less unique. We will smooth stark triangles into pleasing roundness. We will decry the camera as our sworn enemy, as it was in the days of old. We will both love and hate this plundering of our memories. In place if the new you will have the old made new again. Better than Legend, which uses this same engine. Haven’t tried the new remasters (2…

Thank the heavens this game only takes 15-20 hours to compete, or else how would one find time to eat, shower, or acknowledge a loved one? Digital crack. Just one more level. Just one more, then I can emerge and see the sun again, which will sadly pale in significance to the radiant visuals this game delivers again and again. Pure joy to play and behold, and hopefully a harbinger of things to come for the industry.

It is a universal consensus that one must play Tears of the Kingdom up until the final boss, then walk away forever. In this way, Tears of the Kingdom lives on, eternal, ephemeral. A half-remembered dream of sweeping vistas, rain-swept plains and mucking together an unwieldy go-kart that shoots flames, flies, and is impossible to drive. A nightmarish delve into darkness with no Brightbloom seeds. Petting a dog. Eating an apple. Getting struck by lightning. Ninjas.

A pitch-perfect remake of the best sequel of all time. It achieves the neat trick of manifesting the visuals and gameplay of your memory of the original (also see Resident Evil 3 and 4 remakes for a hat-trick of how to bring classic games into the modern age).

An incredible update to a classic title, what an introduction to the power of the PS5!