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23.) Observer: System Redux Remaster/Expanded edition of a 2017 game. Very "dark and gritty" style of Cyberpunk game. It's one of the few I picked up after playing Cyberpunk 2077 and being disappointed at how little they used the Brain Dance stuff. Story was interesting, through it veers hard into horror a few times, it was still mostly enjoyable and the investigation parts were fun if not terribly complicated. Some interesting side quests and a wild story all around, and the main character is modeled after and voiced by Rutger Hauer, so that was cool. Had fun with it overall, but there were a couple parts where you had to run and hide from a thing chasing you that annoyed the shit out of me and really threw off the experience a little. The rest made up for it overall though.

22.) The Pedestrian Short, interesting little puzzle game that I decided to play through quick as a sort of pallet cleanser after God of War. Caught my eye since I remember being interested in it and it's leaving Game Pass next month so figured I'd do a quick run through it. Most of the puzzles were straight forward until the end when the difficulty spiked pretty strongly. Overall it was fine, but I've played better, and it overstayed its welcome just slightly. I did end up wrapping up God of War faster than I was expecting after the end. Finished at right about 54 hours exactly w/ the Platinum. That last berserker grave thing was a pain in the ass. Those fights definitely reminded me of the Valkyries in the last one for sure. Jumping into the Crisis Core remaster next. Hope to finish it up before Forspoken comes out next month, but not sure if I'll manage. One thing I didn't realize with this game is they apparently redubbed it with new voice actors, and the one for Zack is really jarring imo. I remember liking the original English voice acting a fair bit so that is kind of a let down. Thank god it has a Japanese VA option. >_o

21.) God of War: Ragnarok Damn that was a fantastic game. Technically not done as there is a fair bit of after-game content, but I finished the main story. Solid amount of content for this kind of game too. Think I'm at 56 hours having done everything I could along the way. Might hit 60 by the time I platinum. Hard to say which I liked better between this and the last one, but it's close enough that it probably doesn't matter much. I think the first had the better action sequences and over the top boss fights, but I think I liked the story better in this one for the most part. Just some really solid character development and story telling going on (though the first was pretty great in that department as well).

20.) The House in Fata Morgana - A Requiem for Innocence Decided to grab this one since I enjoyed the original visual novel so much. Most of it is an expansion of the origin story of the witch in the first game. As such, it's a pretty dark and depressing story, but they had some extra "episodes" after you finish the main game that add on to the ending of the original game that were kind of nice and helped balance out the depressing stuff. Was enjoyable overall, and a hell of a lot shorter than the original which was also appreciated. XD

Now I'm looking forward to the rest of God of War even more. It's definitely a fun game so far. Finding it very hard to put down to do other things. 19.) : Vampire: The Masquerade - Sins of the Sires This is the last of the "interactive novel" games that were put out for VtM, but unfortunately far from the best. Technically speaking, I liked it better than Out for Blood since that was less Vampire and more Hunter feeling than anything, but it was a better "game" regardless. This one felt really rushed and a lot shorter than the others. Very little choice, and what there was did not feel meaningful. You get railroaded through most the story before you even really get a grasp on what's going on, and it ended way faster than expected as well. There was some interesting stuff going on, but it felt very rushed and half assed compared to all the other ones. Unfortunate note to end on with this particular run of games.

18.) Horizon: Forbidden West Bought this when it came out, but kind of fell by the way side because of Elden Ring. Finally picked it back up so I could finish it before God of War: Ragnarok came out. Didn't quite manage, but got close. XD Game was pretty good. Great story which was expected. The bland, Ubisoft-style open world shit got a bit tiring about half way through (figured I was in trouble when I was about 10+ hours in before the games title popped up. ). Main and side quests were all fun and pretty interesting, but the random shit all over the place that it wants you to do got pretty dull pretty fast. Especially when you couldn't even do everything you came across until you had generic special tool to do this specific thing from the main story and had to treck back to everything later to finish it. More than once. Despite that, the main game itself was good enough to forgive most of that. They definitely set things up for another game as well, so that might be interesting if they can reign their bullshit in a little bit. Definitely some specific things I'd like to see in the next game too since the world building has great in these games too. The Platinum trophy was nice and straight forward at least and the game had absolutely fantastic accessibility options. Only better ones I've seen at this point were probably Last of Us Pt. 2

17.) Elden Ring FINALLY! This game was amazing, but god damn is it enormous and time consuming too if you play games like me. I know I still didn't manage to do everything still too, not counting quests that I couldn't finish because of choices I made. Really had fun with it despite the frustration at times and the fact that I don't much care for souls games. Might actually try to wrap up the achievements too since all I have left is the ones for finding the different legendary items. The environmental storytelling in this game was beyond compare, even if the actual narrative felt a little too light handed at times. I stayed engaged though, so it couldn't' have done too bad of a job.

16.) The House in Fata Morgana Not that I've played a ton of games in the genre, but this is by far the absolute longest visual novel I have ever played in my life. It just would not fucking end. 45 hours and I finally hit the credits. It was good, if a bit padded feeling at points, but fuck. I was ready to be done with it about 15 hours ago. Still was a really unique story though for what it was. It came highly recommended and I see why. Would have made an interesting anime.

15.) Stray This game was pretty entertaining. Not terribly long or particularly engaging though outside of "lol. Am cat." It being short was to its benefit here though as the game isn't long enough for the charm of it to wear off. Story felt a little forced at times, but was interesting at least. Feels like there were some missed opportunities with the game, but it was still quite enjoyable overall. Might take a stab at the Platinum if the speed run trophy doesn't end up being too bad.

14.) It Takes Two This was a really great game overall. One of the best co-op experiences I've had. It's really nice to see how much stronger this kind of game can be when it goes all in and actually requires co-op. Mechanics were fun, story was interesting if not anything spectacular (and both the characters are kind of not great people honestly XD ) and the levels were all really cool, interesting, and varied. Lot of fun moments all around. Glad this game did as well as it did, because I definitely want to see what else this studio can do. I've enjoyed their previous game as well as Josef Fares' first game, but this one was on a whole other level.

13.) (Steam Deck) Aperture Desk Job This was basically just an elaborate tutorial for using the Steam Deck controls, but was wonderfully absurd in the typical Valve/Portal style. Didn't take much to get through, but any excuse for more Cave Johnson is always welcome.

11.) Ghostwire: Tokyo Was an interesting game overall, but it leaned WAY too hard in the the open world, collectathon shenanigans to the point of extreme tedium. Combat also got a little samey by the end, but that didn't bother me too much since all the hand movement animations were kind of fun to watch. XD Lots of cool Japanese cultural stuff, and all the monsters and yokai and stuff were really interesting. Had a lot going for it, but definitely needed a smaller map overall and some things tightened up. Playing on PS5 was probably a mistake though as the aiming on the controller was utterly unpleasant at default. Had to dick with the controls for almost an hour to get to something that felt playable. 12.) Donut County Fun little indie game that was pretty straight forward and short, but quite humorous. Had a light sort of Katamari Damacy vibe. Plan to run through again to try and get all the trophies. Seems like you have to do specific stuff in levels for them and seems like it will be relatively entertaining and get. Nice palate cleanser sort of game.

10.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge As MT said, I played it through with her and web. Was a hell of a nostalgia trip. Fun little game though. Wouldn't mind playing it with others doing various shit in it whenever. Nice distraction from the other stuff I'm playing.

9.) Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong Made by the same company that made 'The Council', it's a narrative RPG that plays out something like a Telltale game, or something like Detroit: Become Human but with legit RPG style stats that effect how successful options while talking may be and important conversations kind of play out like a battle. Lots of adventure game style puzzles as well that were pretty well done. Overall a better comparison is probably Disco Elysium, but nowhere near as much depth as that game had. It's a smaller studio, so the character animations are a bit janky and character models leave something to be desired, but it isn't quite as "uncanny valley" inducing as The Council had been. Some decent replay value as well as some choices definitely take things in pretty different directions by the end. Had a lot of fun playing it. Probably going to go for the Platinum since it doesn't seem too bad overall to do and can skip dialogue if I've seen it already now that I beat it once.

8.) Sifu WAY too many games came out all at once and I can't decide what I want to play half the time. Sifu was the first of them but Jesus was it fucking hard (for me at least). I made it to a little over 3/5 of the way through the game but the 4th stage was just beating my ass, and the boss is cheap as fuck. Put it down once Elden Ring and Witch Queen came out and hadn't gone back to it until this week. They did a big update and added difficulty modes (one easier, one harder) and I was finally able to get through the rest of the game. The getting older each time you die thing is interesting. Really fun combat. It never felt unfair and was really fluid. I've just always been terrible with stuff that relies heavily on dodging and parrying with precision. Story was interesting if relatively simple. Has some decent replayability with learning the level layouts and fights, finding all the collectibles, and trying to get through stages at the youngest age you can. Going through again to get the other ending now since I feel like I won't have to fight it every inch of the way now.

7.) Halo: Infinite Kind of mixed bag here. The story starts off obnoxious as hell, and it feels like 90% of the campaign is just there to fill in the time gap where what felt like what could have just been an entire other game happened. 5% of what's left is the whiney normal soldier guy you're stuck with yelling about how they need to GTFO and the last 5% is listening to Darin DePaul as the main(ish) villain monologuing the rest of the story. It only got super interesting at the end when the other main(ish) villain does some cryptic shit that leaves the game on a cliffhanger (as usual). I spent a good few hours confused about who the bad guys were because I didn't play the RTS games I guess? Gameplay was stellar. Weapons were fun and interesting and the inclusion of the grappling hook ability was excellent, though it made literally every other ability useless and not worth upgrading. As such, the attempted open world side of the game kind of falls flat since there's no need to seek out more cores to upgrade other stuff because you have everything you need in like 3 hours worth of time. Unfortunate because the open world exploration was actually kind of fun to dick around with though it was a bit to "by the numbers" Ubisoft style for me. Attack and capture enemy stronghold > reveal things nearby on the map > get things > repeat. I'm wholly convinced at this point that Halo is just Xbox Kingdom Hearts. New race or faction of enemy what feels like every game. 8 side games/movies/whatever that all end up being important to the main story to varying degrees and you'll be completely lost half the time if you didn't at least read a synopsis on them. Also super annoyed that they never fully resolved stuff with the Flood like 4 games ago only to find out they did. Kind of? In another side game.

5.) Lost Words: Beyond the Page Pretty standard "Indie game with depressing story" sort of thing. Some interesting gameplay, but not really any challenge to it so it was almost a 2D walking simulator with light platforming. Still a nice experience with unique storytelling. Was written by Terry Pratchett's daughter. Glad I grabbed it on a sale though all things considered. Not a lot of replay value to it. 6.) Life is Strange 2 Fuck me this game was extremely emotionally draining. It was good. At least as good as the first one (though in a different way), but way more depressing overall. Even in the more upbeat parts you could just tell something was going to go south eventually and completely fuck everything up. The end of a couple of the episodes left me pretty speechless. Would have sucked playing each one as it came out. Glad they're not doing that anymore. Looking forward to playing the new one eventually. They really know how to get a person right in the feels and I'm sure the next one is no exception.

No joke there. No fucking way I was playing that on Nightmare difficulty. I googled the shit out of the manuscript pages I wasn't allowed to collect. XD

The DLC bits are probably some of the best parts of the game. I don't recall them being terribly hard either, so give them a go if you have them. The stand alone thing, Alan Wakes American Nightmare is also really good. Controls feel better (though combat is still basically the same thing) and it felt a little more arcade-y and not as frustrating. Also short so the combat doesn't outstay its welcome like the main game. XD Remedy has DEFINITELY evolved their combat since then though. Quantum Break was a massive step forward for them, and then Control refined that even further. Their shooting is still a little floaty, but Control made up for that in other areas.

4.) Greak: Memories of Azur Light little (I guess) metroidvania style game. Nothing super complicated to it, but some fun puzzles here and there that require the use of 2-3 different characters. Story was pretty typical fantasy faire with nothing to really show for itself, but it was fun to play just as a change of pace from the stuff I more typically play through. Didn't overstay its welcome.

3.) Haven This was a great, chill sort of game. Excellent co-op experience but plays well solo also. It has combat in it, but it kind of takes a backseat to the exploration and relationship of the two characters (you even get more experience from conversations than from the combat). Story was interesting, though the two endings you can get were both depressing in their own way. Was a great experience all around imo.

2.) Halo 4 (MCC) I actually really enjoyed this one. Was actively engaged in continuing the game to find out what was going on instead of playing a mission here or there when I was bored or didn't have a lot of time. Was super impressed that it was using stuff that was talked about in the first game too until I looked it up and found out that all those cool little terminal collectible scenes weren't part of the original two games and were added later for the anniversary stuff by 343. Kind of pissed now though. I actually feel a little invested in the games at this point and now find out I can't actually play 5 at all since they never put it on PC (guess that one came out before Microsoft stopped being giant assholes about everything?) When I have some time I'll just watch a video or something before I move on and if I recall that was the one everyone hated anyway, so

Only completed 23 games last year. All the online stuff I've been messing around with is definitely leaving its mark. 😧 Played a much higher concentration of PC games than I typically have in years past though. Probably partly due to finally building a new computer and having to spend way too much on a graphics card. >_> 1.) Halo: Reach (MCC) Glad I didn't play this one first. Would have downright hated the way most of the rest played after this one. Story was actually interesting even though knowing how it ends kind of lessens the impact of characters dying and the writing wasn't good enough to make up the difference. Once again the vehicle sequences shine as the best parts of the game. Also YOU CAN FINALLY FUCKING SPRINT. Easily the most annoying part of the other games hands down. That takes care of all the Bungie-made games in the series. Time to see how I feel about the 343 ones. XD