post any games lists you wanna share or discuss with others, yo

Summer 2023 Gaming:

• Bought a PS5 cause I really wanted to play the new God of Wars (2018 & Ragnarok). GoW 2018 wasn't bad, I enjoyed my time with it, wasn't perfect, but I didn't regret playing it. Ragnarok was bad, I would be living a happier life now not having played it. Felt like a modern soulless Marvel movie. Shame. To any GoW fans reading this, GoW3 is an incredible ending and you should be satisfied with it, but if you can't let go of Kratos, 2018 ain't bad, but leave it there, yo.

• Checked out the Destroy All Humans remakes. The first one was ok, it could be argued better than the original, but Destroy All Humans 2 should be experienced exclusively in it's original glory, so: emulation-only. The remake does it disservice. Didn't beat either, just sampled them.

• Didn't get around to Mass Effect ¯_(ツ)_/¯ It's on my bucket list, maybe next year. Though I doubt it because now the PS5 is a "Waiting for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf" machine which I'll likely prioritize. Might also eventually play Spider-Man 2, but that is not a priority.

• Bought a Switch (boy did I game it up this summer). Switch > PS5. Sorry, not sorry, fight me. Tears of the Kingdom is not the masterpiece people claim, but it ain't bad and I'm sure for the children it's targeted at, it is a masterpiece. Better kids play this than the 1,000 other predatory options. I'm never beating it, but a fun waste of time.

• I'm a Fire Emblem fan. Played both Three Houses & Engage. I thought I was going to hate Engage for obvious aesthetic reasons, but it like, wears its heart on its sleeve? It is sincerely, charmingly over the top. There's this one unit that, when you select them, screams "Oh my god, player-character looked at me!" and at first you're like: "Bruh" but the more you play it, like, the game doesn't take itself seriously and neither should you which is in-line tonally and yet not coming off of the recent games. Ignore me, I'm a fan, I approve.

That's it for me and my gamer indulgence(s), tune in next year (or maybe 5) when I find the time.

That is a shame to hear. I briefly was in touch with the original dev team back in 2003 - they threw everything at that title... until the frame rate couldn't take it any more that was. They had to scale it down but it still worked so well. I do wonder what some of those folks are up to nowadays.

I hear you with Tears of the Kingdom. BotW while really cool was not the most focused effort, TotK is more of the same only even less focused. Nintendo are usually good at the quality over quantity argument but in this case they mistook scale for quality.

Yo, that's crazy. It's legit a series that I think about "often". My feeling with the remakes was the 1st one WAS a remake, and it was ok. But they did NOT remake the 2nd one. No, what they did was tack on to the first remake. Which really does DAH2 a disservice because it was a significant upgrade from the original. To me, it possessed that "threw everything at it"-soul, while this remake just feels like cash-grab, no matter how logical it is to just add-on to already completed work. I respect that they (allegedly) kept all the story-aspects of the games, cause they are a little wild for 2023. Like, we have that thread for "what movies couldn't be made nowadays?" and this series is a gaming equivalent. But, ofc, no game dev is gonna have the passion for remaking another dev's work as the original devs would have bringing their vision to life + add-on what the modern video game landscape looks like nowadays compared to 2003-6.

Absolutely! I didn't even play Breath of the Wild and I'm like, damn, I'd potentially feel insulted if I had been a fan of that game and this is what they give me after ~6 years (covid-excuse included / understood ofc).

TokT was a lot of hype but completely misses the point of what Zelda was. BotW was already considered by many fans of the series to not be a "real" Zelda title but merely a side experiment that needed to happen to at least be a pallet cleanser. Something between the main titles, in stead Nintendo has been taken in by that style of game and has derailed the Zelda franchise.

Here is a link to a review of TotK from youtuber Nerrel that hit these points so well.

There are two things to say about a review from this guy. One, his sense of humor is always on point. Two, the guy know Zelda. Even reskinned the entirety of Majoras Mask! But all the points made here are very valid, it is usually those that love you the most that can make the most honest assessments.