Video Game Ratings

I still maintain that this is the best game in the series. This game has an atmosphere like no other entry could deliver.

My mom got this game for me by chance. There was a community raffle and she happened to win it. Until then I didn't know anything about the title, and for a while the only thing I cared about was that it came with a free memory card (59 blocks of space!). But after I gave it a shot it left a tremendous mark on my taste in video games, namely my love of simulation games.

Animal Crossing for the GameCube admittedly has the least amount of "things to do" compared to its sequels, but I think it's a good example of quality over quantity.

A Victorian werewolf romp that turns into Lovecraftian horror halfway through? Sign me up.

Bloodborne is an incredible game. From Software took a lot their formula in a lot of new directions with this entry, and carried many of its innovations into later titles. The only one I didn't care for is the return of consumable healing items (I maintain that the Estus Flask is the best form of healing in these games), but my criticism of that is only relevant to the early game where blood echoes are at a premium, and so spending them on healing items is kind of wasteful and difficult without committing a lot of time to farming.

Once you hit the midgame, the farming issues disappear, and so do some of the initial grievances with the setting and art. The cosmic terror Bloodborne is capable of wringing is incredible and is one of the better depictions of Lovecraft's works in motion.

I also like that the game is on the shorter end. I'd rather a game too short than too long. Here's to the game receiving a much-needed 60 FPS patch in the future.

This game is what all sequels strive to be. To surpass their predecessor in every way, and be thoroughly entertaining while doing it. The gunplay, characters, and skills are at their peak, the environmental design and worldbuilding is supreme, the art direction and new mechanics are sublime. The storytelling is also at its peak in this game (granted for the Borderlands series isn't a high bar to clear), with Handsome Jack carrying throughout.

The beat-by-beat writing and dialogue leaves a lot to desired, to be sure, but overall the writing is good: it serves its purpose and is amusingly a fun snapshot for the era this game was produced in. The crass humor that used to be met with raucous laughter will now get an eyeroll or sigh, but it's charming in how lame it is.

This is one of the greatest shooter games of all time. The campaign is a great action movie and the co-op is a neat addition but the real shiner is the multiplayer. This game, along with its predecessor Modern Warfare 1, really defined what it meant to be a multiplayer FPS.

Nowadays all multiplayer FPS have class building, as well as unlockable weapons, camos, perks, and killstreaks. I, like millions of others, have plenty of fond memories prestiging and capturing flags in Terminal and getting noobtubed in Afghan. Fantastic game, too bad it's now overrun with hackers and the original servers are no longer online.

I don't think it's hyperbole to call this one of the greatest games of all time. It's easily one of my favorites, and influenced my tastes so much that I went on to finish the entire modern From Software catalog.

You adventure through a wildly interconnected world, overcoming incredible odds in search of the Lord Souls.

Game is definitely not for everyone, but I think that's also part of its appeal. This game does not cater to everyone, and instead requires you to come up to its level.

After the monumental disaster that was Dark Souls 2, Miyazaki reluctantly came to father a sequel to put the Dark Souls series to rest. Dark Souls 3 is his answer to what a true sequel to Dark Souls 1 would look like, and it delivers.

He took lessons learned from the development of Bloodborne to speed the combat up significantly, creating some of the funnest bosses in the entire series. Twin Princes, Abyss Watchers, and Soul of Cinder round out some of the greatest base game bosses, while Slave Knight Gael and Sister Friede claim the titles for the DLC.

Dark Souls 3 does not try to surpass Dark Souls 1, but instead recontextualizes its story and its future, and creates a send-off that is both satisfying and melancholy.

Incredible hardcore dungeoncrawler by Red Hook. Every facet of Darkest Dungeon oozes character, from its UI, art, and even its narration. One of my favorite games. It's brutal but very rewarding.

It's been awhile since a great co-op horde shooter came out. The last one I remember having this much fun with is Left 4 Dead 2, back in 2009. This is a fantastic multiplayer game with tons of customization and different ways to play. I've somehow racked up over 200 hours in it without even realizing.

Friendly community, fun gameplay, and the perfect length of missions. My only wish is that they continued updating this game, or made a sequel. I'm not too huge on the other projects the developers fanned out into, but I'm excited to see what comes of them.

Rock and stone!

Unlike every other Bethesda title, Morrowind has great writing. Its atmosphere and worldbuilding is on another level, and its magic system is detailed and rewarding. The game stands as the only good game Bethesda has ever produced, across any series, across any amount of time.

The complexities of Dagoth Ur, the actions of the Tribunal, and the history of the Nerevarine are as engrossing as they are timeless.

I think this is the best Fire Emblem game. The characters, story, and setting are all great. I was worried about the inclusion of the social sim but it turned out to be woven perfectly. The only gripe I have about this game are the graphics, but that's a failing on the Nintendo Switch and how crappy of a console it is. Whenever this game gets a remaster, then it'll truly shine how my mind perceives it.

Visuals aside, the gameplay is also at a highwater mark. There's a lot of interesting complexity between the classes and the qualities of the students. Battalions are a neat addition and the simple variety of choice is an awesome decision.

I've finished this game on all four routes. I'd rank them this way: Azure Moon > Verdant Wind = Silver Snow > Crimson Flower. I find Edelgard to be a ridiculous and frankly stupid character.

My first purchase on Steam was the Garry's Mod and Team Fortress 2 pack. I think often about how different I would be if I'd bought the Garry's Mod and Counter-Strike: Source pack instead.

Anyway I was first made aware of Garry's Mod on a YouTube video showcasing a Rube Goldberg machine someone had built. I was amazed at the level of physics simulation on display, and found the game not long after. I'm not huge on sandbox games (I tend to need rules to stoke my creativity, a blank canvas paralyzes me) but Garry's Mod is an exception. I have a lot of fun just spawning in and messing around.

Beyond the sandbox nature, the game is also full of user-created gamemodes to play. Trouble in Terrorist Town is a favorite of mine. Awesome game, truly one of a kind.

Great game. Fun array of weapons, cool enemies, well paced and designed levels. Except for Xen.

A classic in the FPS genre and deservedly so. Just make sure you play the GoldSrc version, not Source. The lighting is really stupid in the Source version, among other differences.

I prefer HL1, but HL2 is also a great game. Good setpieces, fun levels, and a compelling story. If you play it now, you'll definitely feel that it's an older game. But I don't think anyone would guess it's from 2004. Certainly ahead of its time.

Awesome zombie co-op shooter. Endlessly replayable, tons of mods, and tons of players even more than a decade on. Timeless classic and often cheap. Check it out.

Awesome Zelda game. The only real criticism I have of it is that it's too easy and the beginning takes way too long to get rolling (from a fresh save to actually playing the game you're looking at like 2 hours of cutscenes). But after that the game is a great adventure through Hyrule.

Memorable dungeons, cool bosses, and a collection of some of Link's neatest gadgets yet.

Great RPG. I wish more games used its partner and battle system. The combat in this game is creative and still stands out to this day. I can only think of three other games that use it, and one is the sequel to this. I think allowing command inputs during attack animations is genius and helps break up the monotony that usually plagues JRPGs, where you jump through menus and then just watch the attack play out.

This game's got a charm and soul unlike any other. Great story, characters, gameplay, visuals, and music. It's got it all.

Another example of a sequel that lived up to its predecessor. One of the finest JRPGs around, even if you're not big on Mario or the paper aesthetic. If only the other Paper Mario games stuck to the style these two games developed... I know Nintendo finally announced a remaster of this game, which I'm ecstatic about, but I wish they'd made another one just like it too.

Out of the modern Persona games, Persona 3 has the best story and atmosphere. The game explores death in an intriguing way and I think its characters and social links rival that of Persona 4 in their quality. The soundtrack is superb too, which is to be expected in Persona titles.

The only downside is the Portable version of Persona 3 is a visual novel, and is lacking the 3D gameplay of its launch and FES versions. Despite that, I still think Portable is a fine game, and the story is the stronger component in Persona titles anyway as opposed to their gameplay.

As is typical for Persona, the characters and music are great, and the story leaves a lot be desired. Still doesn't detract that these titles are kings of atmosphere, soul, and variety. Great game from a great series, highly recommended.

One of the longest JRPGs gets even longer with this edition. Royal adds an extra semester, more social links, more music, and a multitude of QOL improvements. Story remains the same, though the additional story from Royal regarding Dr. Maruki is perhaps the best writing in the series.

I prefer Last Surprise to Take Over, and I prefer Kawakami to Makoto. I didn't care much for the Akechi fanservice but I'm glad it at least provides closure that was missing originally.

The only slight against this game is that it's too short. Creative, phenomenal puzzles are found throughout the short run, as well as incisive dialogue from the fan-favorite GLaDOS. I'm so glad this game got a sequel that not only lived up to the potential established here, but exceeded it in every category.

Valve somehow followed up one of their most creative titles with an expansive, phenomenal sequel. I was originally wary when I first heard of a sequel coming out, but my fears were quelled almost immediately.

Not much to say because there's not anything to complain about. Great puzzles, cool new mechanics, and the inclusion of Wheatley is a pleasant boon.

No other colony sim is as engrossing, detailed, and unique as RimWorld. I've had colonies of cannibalistic mountain-dwelling matriarchs, psychic meth-fueled druglord conquerers, and organ-harvesting blackmarket slavers. You can do it all in RimWorld. You can have kids, form religions, trade, and try to eke out a living on a troublesome, unfriendly rimworld far from civilized society.

This is a game I have to actively limit myself from playing too often. When I make a new colony I am liable to spend upwards of 40 hours getting things just the way I want it, and that's in one week of play. This game becomes a blackhole for my time if I let it, and it's worth it every time.

You will rarely find this game on sale. It's worth it at full price, and is one of the few games I would make such a recommendation.

This remains the only From Software title you can deflect any criticism with "skill issue" and be 100% correct. You cannot overlevel through bosses. You cannot pick up overpowered weapons and charge through whatever you want. You cannot get away with hit-and-run tactics. If you're having trouble, there is no recourse except to get good. You must learn to parry, and you must learn to outperform your opponent.

Perhaps the greatest combat system in any game.

One of my favorite games of all time. With the Brave New World expansion, one of the best 4X games of all time. Infinitely replayable and constantly rewarding. Zero complaints.

My favorite civilizations to play are the Songhai, Morocco, and Brazil.

This is in my top 3 favorite games of all time. This is a team class-based first person shooter released in 2007. I started playing in 2010 right before the Mannconomy update and actually made some money trading and selling items. I stopped around Meet the Pyro or Meet the Medic, when the game went free to play. In that time I racked up somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 hours. Back then, I played on a really crappy desktop that took 30 minutes or more to connect to a server. But after I was in, I would play all day until it was time to sleep.

My classes of choice were Medic, Demoman, and Soldier. I also liked playing the Engineer, Spy, and Heavy a fair amount. Sniper, Scout, and Pyro just aren't really my thing. My favorite gamemodes and maps were payload (pl_badwater, pl_goldrush), capture the flag (ctf_turbine, ctf_2fort), and capture point (cp_badlands, cp_granary). My fondest memories are of the 30 minute defenses on cp_dustbowl.

There's so much character baked into every weapon, map, and texture that it's hard not to adore it. When the game was actively updated it was a sight to behold and I made some really great friends and memories playing, watching, and loving TF2.

Battlefield 4's multiplayer state is what I think BF3 was intended to be. Battlefield 3 was famously rushed to compete with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 but miraculously ended up being a phenomenal title, not only beating MW3 but being probably the best Battlefield game to date.

I'll say here that I'm biased towards BF3 over BF4 simply because I spent more time with it and everything new in BF3 was rehashed in BF4, so the new factor is worn off by the time I played this. Doesn't detract from the fact that Battlefield 4 is still a great shooter, and deserves all of the praise it gets.

The complaints I have are around the setting, the art, and the maps. But at this point, what do they really matter?

I have complicated feelings about Elden Ring. This game is phenomenal at establishing scale and rewarding exploration. There are beautiful locales to visit and interesting enemies to encounter throughout... until you hit the Altus Plateau. This is where the game begins to take a tumble. Don't get me wrong, Leyndell is great but it's the last hurrah the game has before dumping you into the trashheap that is Mountaintops of the Giants. After that you have the optional Consecrated Snowfield and the mandatory Crumbling Farum Azula, all three of which are horrible, horrible levels with even worse bosses (Fire Giant... Godskin Duo... really?).

Beyond the last third being a huge waste, I also hold that this game has among the worst pantheon of bosses to date. Bosses will commonly delay attacks, read inputs, hyperarmor through flurries, jump across ends of the field, teleport and disappear, and engage in other annoying tactics designed to simply waste your time. They're not fun, they're not interesting, and they're not difficult. They're just not fun to fight. Malenia's self-healing is a ridiculous addition to her kit. Elden Beast's love of cross-country roadtrips makes my legs tired just thinking about it. And don't even get me started on Fire Giant's everything.

All that being said, this game is very fun otherwise. There's a lot to do and a lot to see, and you will often feel a real sense of adventure that no other open world game can really create. Despite its flaws, this is still a highly recommended title.

Anyway there's a lot of goofy stuff about Elden Ring that I just can't abide, but at the end of the day it's an open world game done right. I think From Software will do an excellent job with a second foray into the genre.

Probably the most complicated and bloated of all the Paradox titles, EU4 really puts the "grand" into "grand strategy". You guide a nation in the early colonial period in matters of diplomacy, trade, politics, and war through several centuries of intense gameplay.

My biggest issue lies with the Paradox model of development. They like to add DLC with new features that simply add more menus and sliders and buttons to toggle every few years without actually adding anything of substance. The game ends up feeling very empty and trifling, and the performance lag by endgame is unbearable as a result.

Overall though still a good game.

The only Grand Theft Auto with a story worth caring about. Its drama is enhanced by a goofy cast of people.

Fun match-4 puzzle solving gameplay coupled with shoddy fan-dub-tier voice acting and juvenile writing makes for a funny and memorable play. This is not a serious game and shouldn't be taken as one. It's simply a fun waste of time. I just wish my thoughts on the sequel were as fond.

My favorite girl is Audrey and my least favorite is Nikki.

If there ever was a candidate for gameplay over graphics, it's Mount & Blade. This is an incredibly rough looking title that I played back in middle school. The sequel didn't come out until after I'd graduated from college.

You lead an army of your choosing across the lands of Calradia, raiding, trading, and feasting as you please. You can compete in tournaments and be awarded castles. You can build up enterprises and hunt down fugitives. There's a lot baked in to this title and a great atmosphere the sequel somehow missed out completely on.

This is a long, long game. Like in excess of 100 hours per run long. I've done it twice.

Hallmark JRPG that somehow came out of development hell to be a modern classic. I like everything about Persona 5 except for the writing. When you stop to think about what's happening and why people do certain things you can feel the holes ripping in real time.

Still, absolutely worth playing. The Royal edition is everything here and more though, so you're better off playing Persona 5 Royal anyway.

This is a neat zombie apocalypse basebuilding and survival game. It's more realistic than other zombie survival games in that you have to manage your physique, diet, and boredom in addition to any health complications and base upgrades. Pretty cool, pretty detailed, and permadeath. When you get infected or swarmed, it's over, and time to roll a new survivor.

I do not like doomstacks. I prefer hex grids to square. I think the religions and corporation systems are goofy. But otherwise I really, really enjoy this game. It's a great strategy title, a classic in its genre, and unsurpassed when it comes to competent AI. Never before have I had to really think during a war about where to defend, how to attack, and what the AI's potential strategies could be.

It's the only Civilization game I've ever lost, fair and square, in war.

This is a great horror game. More like a thriller, really. You explore a desolate underwater research facility to uncover the truth and escape. The sound design is incredibly immersive and the writing is the best I've seen in any recent horror title.

I'm always a fan of when indie developers create the game they've been waiting for. In this case, ConcernedApe made Stardew Valley while waiting for a new dignified Harvest Moon.

The game is stylish and enjoyable. Easy to play and easy to like.

I remember playing this game when it first came out, and it was in danger of being removed from Steam for stealing Castlevania assets. The game's gone through a lot of transformations since the beginning and the content on offer is mind-boggling massive.

You can't really compare this to Minecraft but I will, and I vastly prefer Terraria to Minecraft. I really enjoy the variety of items and builds you can do and the bosses you can fight. Great adventure game to play with friends (and it's cheap, too).

Great entry by Creative Assembly. The portrayal of the Sengoku Jidai is beautiful and the tactical combat is well thought out. Instead of bloating the unit count with repetitive, same-y entries, they instead focus on a particular set of specific warriors and then allow you to upgrade them as needed. Simple, genius, and effective.

The game is great and I also love the end-game disaster Realm Divide, where the rest of Japan gangs up on you as a final attempt to stop your hegemony. Awesome title.

This is a video game in its purest form. Nothing but addictive, engaging gameplay. This game has spawned an entire genre now, one of which nobody can really agree on a name for. Some call them survivorslikes, some say garliclikes, some say bullet heaven. Either way I love this type of game a great deal.

The best part is these games are always incredibly cheap. Vampire Survivors for example only costs like $4. Talk about bang for your buck.

I like XCOM 2. I'm a fan of these squad tactics games in general but XCOM is special. Something I don't like about XCOM 2 is the countdown you're constantly playing under. There's also a roaming boss enemy (or several) that will occasionally crash your missions. I'm not all that crazy about it.

The customization is cool, the class changes are neat, but I don't care at all for the new factions and their special abilities. This game feels like it's got some bloat to it but it's really not invasive enough that I outright hated it.

This might be the second weakest in the series, only outdone by New Horizons. The game is certainly easier on the eyes than Wild World's cramped presentation, but that's about all the positive feedback I have for City Folk.

I'm not sure why but for some reason City Folk has less villagers per town than the GameCube title. The Wii is more powerful... why did they have to compromise like that? Additionally, the music isn't as good, the controls are kind of wack, and the villager dialogue is bad.

I guess it's an alright title if you started here, but knowing what it's missing is what hurts it.

This game had a nice singleplayer campaign at a time when other FPS preferred to phone in another generic action plot. The main draw of course is the multiplayer. Sweeping campaigns across huge maps full of over a hundred players and dozens of vehicles. It was true chaos and a lot of great fun.

That being said, the UI bothered me a lot as well as the selection of gamemodes and maps. It always felt very limited somehow and I never really found the game all that satisfying to play, just to look at.

It's computer Legos. You can compare it to Roblox.

A metroidvania by the guy who started the genre, Iga. It's fun, it's similar to Symphony of the Night, but it's also very choppy and kind of ugly. Kind of forgettable, kind of wack. I liked it the first time I was playing but I was getting tired of it about halfway through.

As far as popularizing the inclusion of randomly generated loot, RPG-style level ups and classes, and wacky but memorable quests in FPS games are concerned, Borderlands 1 had all the right foundation. It served as a great resource not only for other games in the series to outperform but also games from other studios. Borderlands is a fun co-op adventure through Pandora.

This game is carried hard by its gunplay and presentation. The story is horrible, even by crude Gearbox standards. Borderlands 1 and 2 weren't packing impressive narratives either but they never felt invasive or in the way. In Borderlands 3, the story is a constant obstruction.

Looting, shooting, and having fun with friends is never easier with the variety provided here. Too bad the game is intent on raining on that constantly by forcing you back to the ship to talk to Lilith to plot a course to a new planet you can't even fully explore with levels more restrictive than any other title in the trilogy.

Don't even get me started on what happened with Maya. Wack writing. Wack performances. Good gameplay. That's it.

The first grand strategy title I ever played. To this day I don't fully understand all of its mechanics and menus but it's got a lot of really good bones to it.

A big reason CK2 never really stuck for me the way EU4 or EU3 did is because I prefer leading a nation over leading a family. I don't care much for marrying off my daughters and landing my sons, I enjoy playing at a more macro scale.

In a word, Oblivion is funny. The eye-searing bloom, the strange zoom-in on faces, the goofy animations and buggy everything else. It's a funny game. You play Oblivion for even ten minutes and you'll encounter at least a handful of funny moments.

It's moments like those that keep me playing it, not because I'm actually enjoying the story, or its combat, or anything else that's traditionally reviewed in game design. The game is funny, and I like that.

This is the buy once version of ESO, not the original monthly subscription one. I'm not a fan of the continuation of the Skyrim UI and combat but I think the story's a little better and the presentation of the world and its inhabitants is a lot better than any showing from Bethesda.

It's a fine free MMO. Certainly no World of Warcraft, but it doesn't seem like it's really trying to be. I'm not big on the character design and the world is kind of bland looking, but I had some fun with it for the time I played it.

For a swing at a soulslike not of From Software, I think Nioh is a good try. Out of the other non-From attempts I've played, it's certainly the one I've enjoyed the most. I like the level design and combat the most. Team Ninja is keen to try to stand out from the crowd and not simply copy From's formula which I can commend. They lose me a little with their emphasis on loot generation and questing but nevertheless I found the game enjoyable.

Mechanically and visually this game is better than Nioh 1. However, I never finished this one. I actually dropped it a little over halfway through. Not sure why. Something with it just didn't click with me and I never felt like I was really enjoying it. Still, for the time I did play it, the game was better than Nioh 1.

Maybe someday I'll return and finish my original run.

For a new team class-based shooter, Overwatch was fine. It was certainly no Team Fortress 2, but it wasn't bad. It was trying to be an unwanted blend between MOBA and FPS that I still don't understand or enjoy, but it was okay as a popular shooter game that was fun to play with friends.

Game started to fall off as soon as Orisa was added. She was a terrible addition nobody really wanted, and certainly not an archetype the game needed. She borrowed abilities from other heroes and didn't really add anything of value... except for a second shield, which ended up dictating the next three years of updates. Double barrier meta was horrible, easily worse than GOATS, and was a preview of the eventual CC spam that ruined the game in its later cycles.

My favorite characters were Zenyatta and Reinhardt. Shame they got constantly nerfed, even into the garbage sequel.

Speaking of which, this game isn't even accessible anymore because Activision-Blizzard replaced it with Overwatch 2. What a mess.

The best of the Persona spin-off dancing games. Great remixes, fun visuals, and a story I don't really care to remember. But it didn't matter because I had fun.

A stylish Dynasty Warriors-style spinoff to Persona 5. Since it was produced at the same time as Persona 5 Royal, Strikers is a sequel to Persona 5, but not Persona 5 Royal. Yeah it's confusing.

The game is alright. I don't really like Dynasty Warriors so even skinning it with Persona wasn't enough to convince me.

I was there in the beginning for this game. I was there for Early Access. It's gone through several transformations in the intervening years, and each time it comes out better than the last. This is a fun little timewaster when you have nothing else going on, but that's really about it.

There's not a lot of depth to the construction or management of the prisons beyond a select few levels of sliders and buttons. After you get a prison of a reasonable size of say 100 or 200 prisoners going, you really don't have any reason to continue doing anything more. Not only because wealth ceases to be an issue, but also because the game starts to chug really hard.

I've always wanted to play a game where you manage the logistics of a train company transporting goods. Railway Empire attempts to emulate this in various periods, most notably the Wild West.

It doesn't do the simulation as correctly as I'd hope, but it's still a fun game.

I played this a lot growing up (circa 2006 or 2007?). It's full of user-created content so there's a lot of variety. It's a lot different now than it was when I was playing, but I thought it was a fun thing to burn some hours on.

I would say this is the weakest title in the series. At the time of writing it's also the newest. This game has some good ideas with the terraforming, outdoor furniture, and detailed interior decoration but it falls flat in too many other categories.

For one, there's crafting. I never thought Animal Crossing needed crafting, and the system's implementation here is so weak it can't justify itself. You fish and dig up fossils and are rewarded with tools that wear down and eventually break. You are forced to then collect resources to craft new copies of the tools before you can continue playing the game. To add insult to injury, there's no way to make more than one item at a time. If you want to stock up on shovels, you'll be sitting there for awhile just mashing A. Terrible system.

Not only that, but another major part of Animal Crossing is chatting up your villagers. This game has the most inane, vapid, repetitive dialogue in the whole series. The various villager types mean nothing when they all generally have the same personality, and the villagers become crabby if you try to say hello more than once a day. Not exactly the most engaging.

Anyway my biggest beef with New Horizons is that it's just straight up not fun, and the game tries really hard to keep it that way. Any time you want to go off-island or invite friends or buy tickets you have to agonize through waiting periods of departing, arriving, sailing, you name it. Did I mention the tutorial takes like 7 real-life days to get through? That's a week without the iconic hourly soundtrack. Maddening decisions all around.

Unnecessary. Very tepid entry in an increasingly disappointing series. I think the last time I really had genuine fun playing a Battlefield game was either Bad Company 2 or Battlefield 3. This one is way off the mark for what made these titles so great and unique.

Lazy. Bland. Muddy.

There are other adjectives you could ascribe to this game but I don't think it's worth the effort. Bad maps, lame weapons, horrible story.

I really wonder what it is about gacha games that makes them all have really great core systems. If they didn't have the gacha elements they would be head and shoulders above other yearly releases. It's always disappointing playing one of these and seeing what the gacha design sucked out of it.

Genshin Impact does a good job with its art, music, and environments. Where it falters is in its gameplay, which would be excusable except this is a video game, not a movie. The game is deliberately tuned to ensure the player wastes as much time as possible so they're more likely to spend money. Let's say you've just pulled a new character, this is what you have to look forward to: farming world bosses that have a real-time cooldown of 2 minutes, farming flowers in the world that have a real-time cooldown of 3 days, farming skill books that are only available on certain days of the week, farming artifacts that have no guarantee of being the set you want, the main stat you want, or the substats you want, or even the rarity you want.

At every junction this game makes you wait, wait, and wait some more. Even in the domains where you farm, you have to run for a minute just to start the damn thing, then after you're done you have to run it all over again. Then you have to mindlessly complete the domain on repeat. You cannot autobattle like other gacha. You have to experience the running and the waiting and the farming continuously.

Gameplay aside, there's also the horrible UI and story. Every storybeat is needlessly repeated ad nauseum even within the same conversation and by the same characters. Simple directions or explanations are blown into seven or eight paragraphs with ridiculous verbiage. It's exhausting to read and the worst part is you can't even skip it. The dialogue wouldn't be worth skipping if it were interesting, but the game insists on bombaring you with useless, crude text. So good luck having fun with any of the quests.

In all, this game sucks. Not only does it suck, but it also wants to suck all the money out of your wallet whenever it can. Stay away.

Boring, slippery, just wildly uninteresting. Don't get the hype, don't care to understand it.

The predecessor was too inaccessible and difficult, you say? I know... let's lobotomize the gameplay and make a horrible UI, and bloat the warring with stupid micro involving unit templates! And let's not forget to add the same level of annoying micro to the airforces, and navies, and everything else. Genius, I think.

No, this game sucks. It's just annoying. It's not any fun. Even fighting in the world war (the focal point of this game) is somehow bland and terrible. The systems are horribly designed with little connection or thought, and the AI is yet more stock Paradox bad AI. Don't even bother playing this, I say.

Finally, a competitor for Civilization! Just kidding, this thing kind of sucks. I can't get over how you're constantly changing cultures as you progress through eras. It's far more immersion-breaking than being George Washington in the Classical Era, somehow. It's just too ridiculous for me to handle that I can go from being Sumerian to Korean, maybe some Samoan and then to German. It just doesn't make sense. And it makes the game really, really hard to keep track of. Players are constantly swapping cultures and it makes it impossible to know who is what and how the political landscape looks. Civ is a lot easier, you meet personalities and they don't change. Anyway, I think the developers could've alleviated this culture issue by simply having the player choose abilities inspired by those cultures rather than becoming those cultures entirely.

Another feature I don't like: the Fame system. Unlike Civilization where you're building towards a specific victory type (domination, science, culture, etc.) in Humankind every player is building to be the highest Fame earner by the end of the match. It doesn't matter if you've wiped out a leader in Fame either, their Fame will persist and a dead player can still end up winning. The game paints itself into a corner immediately because of this design. Instead of everyone playing to their strengths and pursuing a multitude of victory types, everyone is gunning for the same one with no way to shake it up. It's boring.

The only thing I like from Humankind that I hope Civilization picks up is the way combat is handled. Instead of doomstacks or one unit per tile, you walk around in capped stacks of troops, and when armies touch they expand into a deployable battlefield. It's really cool.

Oh man where do I begin. My sister and I are huge Zelda fans, been so ever since Ocarina of Time. We loved nothing more than playing the new releases with each other. But this game? Skyward Sword is something else.

My sister was home from college and we'd been waiting to knock this title out in the week she was visiting. This thing is a disappointment, to say the least. The motion controls are very finnicky and easily ruin the rest of the game. You can't aim or attack properly, and Link is constantly doing the wrong thing or facing the wrong way or just doing something completely bewildering.

Not only that, but the game is really, really fond of making you backtrack to previous areas to play them over again and do a stealthy collecting minigame for some reason. The game is constantly padding for time in an already grotesquely long title. Another thing that doesn't help is Fi's unwanted interruptions to explain obvious puzzle solutions and basic Zelda mechanics.

I understand that Nintendo fixed a lot of my complaints here in the HD re-release, but the original Wii version of Skyward Sword is something to behold.

This game is overrated. When I read other opinions on this game, I get the impression that this is their first encounter with nihilism or the tired cyberpunk theme of "what separates a human from a robot" or "what if a robot had feelings". The way these ideas are presented is incredibly hamfisted, and yet somehow the actual story is left a confusing, obtuse puddle. I get the feeling the game is only liked by pseudo-intellectuals or something. This game tries (very hard) to be deep but falls flat at every point.

Bad storytelling aside, the gameplay is boring. Cool, 3D bullet hell and third-person action combat. I love fighting that doesn't feel like anything is actually happening, or attacking enemies that look identical to everything else.

I really think the only reason this game is highly regarded is because people were attracted to 2B and 9S.

Out of the three Persona spin-off dancing games, I think this is the worst one. All of the remixes are horrible. Am I crazy or should the music be the key focus of a rhythm game? How can you possibly put out a game like this where all of the music is grating, horrible, and unappealing? The only decent tracks to play are the ones ripped directly from the original game!

Boring. Bad remixes. Bad costumes. Bad all around.

I'll give credit where it's due. I like that Firaxis is willing to keep pushing the envelope for what Civilization should encompass. But not all experimentation works out. I really like the ability to pick governments and the policy slotting system is a genius re-imagining of the one introduced in Civilization IV, but I think the game fumbles when it comes to the turn-by-turn gameplay.

The game is full of chores and busywork instead of real strategic planning and execution. I like that combat has been expanded beyond one unit per tile without going whole hog on Civ 4's doomstacks, and I like the inclusion of the districts gameplay. It makes for some really interesting city building but the AI has never been more lost. I get that a truly difficult AI is actually unwanted in strategy spaces, but the feature bloat found throughout Civ 6 is too intense for the computer to cope with and they're constantly behind. This game is not difficult or engaging at all as a result. You're far more likely to get bored with winning than actually completing a game, that is if the late-game lag doesn't end your patience first.

While I'm piling on things I don't like about this game, let me mention the terrible mobile art style and the butchering they gave to the World Congress. The World Congress makes zero sense in this game. You can vote on proposals with other nations you've not even met yet. How are your delegates talking and voting with another nation's without actually knowing what nation they belong to? Why can't it also reveal the other players in the game, like how it worked in previous titles? Why did they make it work in a completely nonsensical manner? These questions and dozens more plague my enjoyment of this title. I hope they take the lessons learned and make Civilization VII the best it can be.

A walking simulator but you're a cat in a robot world instead of a human in a nobody world. Great.

I am no stranger to walking simulators, or these movie-games. I'm no stranger to Quantic Dream or David Cage. I am a stranger when it comes to the positive reception I've seen this title claim. I'm lost.

The story is a huge, huge mess. The locales are bland, the characters are unlikeable and the themes and messages fall completely flat. I just don't get it. The only redeeming feature is the inclusion of Willem Dafoe.

This is probably the worst game I've ever finished. There are no redeeming qualities here. The music is tinny and forgettable, the textures are muddy and unappealing, the level design is unimaginative and boring, the story is practically non-existent, and the enemy encounters. Oh boy.

The creator of Dark Souls 1, Hidetaka Miyazaki, was not involved in the sequel to his classic. He detested sequels and instead was working on Bloodborne. In the meantime, Bandai Namco greenlit a sequel to cash in on the success of Dark Souls 1 and put a separate team to work on it. It went through development hell several times and it shows. It changed directors multiple times and had to scrap entire months or years of work to start over again, and it shows.

This game is a mess. No part of it is enjoyable. No level is fun to navigate, no boss is fun to defeat, no part of anything makes me want to continue playing it. But I pushed on because I've heard that it gets better. I'm here to confirm it doesn't. This game never gets better. The base game is irredeemable trash, and all three DLCs which were supposed to be the pinnacle are equally as garbage. This game wasn't created to be fun, it was created to infuriate.

You will find in this game that it relies on spamming enemy placement as a crutch for difficulty. In Dark Souls 1, you would fight one or two enemies at a time, maybe more if they were particularly weak to form a horde, and perhaps a second strong enemy at once to increase the difficulty in the duel. In Dark Souls 2 they have no such consideration, the game will constantly throw five, seven, or sometimes even twelve enemies at you at the same time. There's no reason for this. There's no reason at all.

The developers clearly thought that the reason people enjoyed Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 was that they liked dying. They didn't. People liked those games because they had great level design, and that includes the way enemies were placed and used as obstacles. They didn't rely on spamming enemies to ramp up difficulty, the deaths you encounter in the previous titles were due to your own error or lack of skill.

Time to rattle off some more mechanics this game totally screwed up: no more invincibility while interacting with objects, Estus is now a slow heal-over-time effect, dodge frames are tied to a skill called ADP, and the movement and combat in general is floaty, slippery, and unsatisfying. Hitboxes make no sense and you'll often get phantom struck by attacks that didn't land, or grabbed by foes facing the opposite direction. Similarly, you'll commonly find your weapons do no damage when you clearly struck them in the head.

This game is an ugly, buggy, ridiculous pile of garbage. Anyone who actually defends this game really calls into question their opinions on everything they rate highly. I truly can't believe some people crown this their favorite From Software game.

This game sucks. The combat is floaty, boring, and mind-numbingly simple. You simply stand in front of the enemy and swing your sword. Their health goes down. If you get hit, you pause the game and eat twenty cheesewheels to heal up. Smacking the enemies has zero feedback beyond their health bar going down. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Magic is even worse, you stand ten feet away with your hands out watching not only their health bar go down, but your magicka bar too. Exciting.

The game is a dreary, monochrome, ugly mess. Textures look terrible, hitboxes and animations are buggy. Voice acting is horrible, not even in a charming Oblivion kind of way, and the writing is abysmal. Dialogue and quests are terribly empty and vapid. You can become the leader of like seven different factions in the matter of a week with no effort. It's just silly.

Every building looks the same, every cave and burial ground looks the same, every person stands and walks the same, every weapon swings and sounds the same, every facet is the same as everything else. Why exactly did this game have so little effort put into its other features, then? Why only like six voice actors? Bethesda is a failure of a studio.

The game is not fun to explore. The enemies are not fun to fight. The game is not fun to play. This is a bad game. The day Todd Howard steps down from Bethesda is the day that studio has a fighting chance at producing something worth playing.

I don't get it. I don't get the praise or the awards or any of the positive reception I've heard for this game. It's empty, it's tiresome, it's ugly, it's bland, and worst of all it's boring. Great, a large open world with terrible performance and a lukewarm combat system. Glad we gave up the thoughtful puzzle-filled dungeons of old for these crappy one-note shrines.

Also glad we gave up the beautiful worldbuilding and fun enemies for a wide open plain full of nothing. Have you noticed there are only like 20 types of enemies in this game? There's a disgusting amount of reuse throughout this phoned-in mess. I can't stand it. I swear if this game wasn't labeled "Zelda" nobody would've given it a second look.

I hate that this game blew up and is the best-selling title in the series. I hate that they came out with a sequel that was in the exact same map. After 7 years they had almost nothing new to show for it. What a disappointment. What a joke. I hope they don't go any further with this open world direction.

This game is terrible. I hated playing it. I hate exploring in it. It's the most useless open world title I've ever seen in my life. If this is what they came up with as a compromise for the scale of the open world, I think they should've ditched it and stuck with their typical linear style.

This game is a disaster. Instead of fixing what was terrible about the first game they decided to instead gut features and monetize everything.

The worst part is they completely replaced Overwatch 1 with this. There is no way to play the original Overwatch anymore.