Mera'din

I don't know how they managed, but this trailer somehow made me even less interested in this movie. Sony needs to give up with these weird "Spider-Man villain, but without Spider-Man and being a sort of good guy!" movies they keep doing. Someone sold their soul and somehow managed to make Venom work. The rest of these just... do not seem like they'll end well. At least this has a chance of being more entertaining than Morbius, I guess?

6.) The Last Case of Benedict Fox Was a fun little Metroidvania style game. A little lighter on combat and heavier on puzzles than your typical faire here, but that suits me fine. Story was interesting enough, and had a bit of a Lovecraftian vibe to it. Puzzles were pretty solid and decently challenging and worked well with the Metroidvania back-and-forthing through the maps. Decent game length and progressing felt pretty smooth. Some of the platforming was a bit spotty, but nothing so frustrating that it became a burden. Made for a nice distraction.

5.) Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened I've always enjoyed these Frogware Sherlock Holmes games off and on over the years. They're always slightly janky but never prohibitively so, and they're a fun relaxing play. This is one I actually backed this one on Kickstarter since a Sherlock meets Lovecraftian horror type story seemed interesting. Actually had no idea it was a remake of an older game. This one carries off of their "reboot" series though that started with Sherlock: Year One (which I haven't played yet). Based on things I've read, this one is a bit of a let down compared to the original, but as I have no played it, I rather enjoyed it. Some interesting puzzles, and story even if some of it felt rushed and a little disjointed. I enjoyed myself. May have to grab the original at some point to see how if the claims hold true.

I loved the way they did the High Evolutionary. No sob backstory, no attempts to shine a light on a brighter side to what he's doing/done. Just sheer, irredeemable, egomaniac. A sympathetic or relatable villain is nice sometimes, but there have been far too many lately. I've missed this sort of character popping up once in a while.

From what I've been seeing online, it sounds like Adam Driver may have got the role for Reed Richards. I was really hoping we'd see John Krasinsky again for it, but Driver could work I think.

4.) Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line Man, this was fun as hell. I love me a good rhythm game to begin with, and being Final Fantasy themed was just a huge bonus. I have the original 2 games on my 3DS and always enjoyed them, so it was nice to see one finally get released on console, and they did not skimp on it. I think there was well over 300 songs, and my only complaint with how it was set up is that some of the songs I really wanted were only part of the "Deluxe" version, which was a little annoying. At least they had an upgrade for it. This thing seriously covered pretty much every FF game out there too, including newer stuff like Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins. The DLC they're putting out branches into some of Square's other games too like the Saga series, Nier, and The World Ends with You which is pretty cool, though I would have preferred they do some of the really good alternate arrangement stuff they have for other FF music, like the piano pieces or more Black Mages stuff (they had 1 or 2 of theirs in the deluxe version at least). Overall, I really enjoyed myself with this. Was a hell of a nostalgia trip too. After playing it, it was really difficult not to commit to playing through at least every main line FF game again. XD

Took my son to see it. Was definitely better than it seemed like it would be. Also, that's the first time I've seen a line going out the door to get into our small town theater since the 90s. O_o Definitely agree on Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong. He was one of the ones where I was like "this seems like it will work" but it just didn't. Didn't feel like he was really trying that hard. Christ Pratt still definitely just sounded like Chris Pratt most of the time, but he seemed like he was at least trying, and it didn't feel like a distraction. The rest were pretty great overall. Definitely loved all the little references and stuff too. The story being simple really worked for it and let them fit in a lot of stuff they might not have otherwise. The Luma was definitely my favorite character. I loved that it never even explained it or why it was like that too. Also watched Dungeons & Dragons last night. It has a few issues, but overall it was really well done. Wasn't feeling it much in the first 1/3 or so of the movie, but it improved pretty quickly after that and ended up being a lot of fun by the end. There's a lot they did right in it overall, so I'm glad they finally figured out how to make stuff like this not suck between it and Vox Machina. XD

3.) High on Life This game started out pretty fun, but it wore out it's welcome pretty damn quick. The jokes got to be a bit too much after not long, or in a lot of cases felt like they were trying to hard. It had it's moments, but overall it was just fine. I have to say the fact that they paid for the rights to put 3 full length campy, B-list horror movies into the game was pretty damn funny though. I actually stood there watching them for more time than I care to admit.

Loved the reference to No Way Home they threw in there.

I love the hardcore spy thriller vibe this seems to put off. Really interested in watching it, even though I think Secret Invasion could have been more interesting as a phase (or more) long story arc than a standalone series.

Happy (slightly late) birthday.

2.) Forspoken This one was kind of rough around the edges. I didn't hate it, and the traversal was super fun, but the story was kind of simplistic, cliché and not very subtle. The main character was only likely through the lens of her companion somehow being even less likable, and the map was about double the size it should have been and strewn about with so much random busy work that it probably made Ubisoft jealous. The story had potential, but the dialogue and a lot of the core story writing was just plain not great. I really solid writer probably could have done something far more interesting with it even hitting the same story beats. The world building was pretty decent though overall. Felt like the world had a pretty rich history that was fun to read about. I don't regret buying it, and I did have fun with it, but I honestly wish it was shorter overall. I ended up only doing enough to get the Platinum, and thank god that didn't require 100% completion because I was more than ready to be done by that point.

Mine was running great until I got past the prologue and put me into the part where all the other players are running around. From that point, I had regular, severe frame drops and a lot of rubber banding and desynch issues. Was pretty frustrating. They are looking into that and the disconnect issues people have been having though, so there's that at least. Outside of the performance issues, the game has been pretty fun. They really upped the visuals and how they present the in-game scenes. Was impressed with a lot of what they've done there. Gameplay seems suitably Diablo. There is a touch of some of the things they did in Immortal that weren't scummy and actually kind of cool, which is nice, but it also gives me pause to wonder what their endgame systems might be like. Might wait a week or two if I get it just to see what the consensus is after people have had solid time with it.

When I said I was sad that important faces/voices from my childhood were dying, that didn't mean I wanted important faces/voices from my adulthood to die instead. Seriously though, this one hits pretty hard. Especially since he was posting his usual goofy shit on Twitter just the day before.

They're doing an actual open beta (as opposed to this one which is the "early access" pre-order beta) next weekend. I plan on trying it then. It's got like half a chance to impress me before I even think about maybe buying it. XD

Finally had a chance to watch it recently with the wife. We loved it so much. Just a great movie all around.

I've watched the first couple episodes with my wife and we have really been enjoying it. I really enjoy the characters she plays (Russian Dolls was a lot of fun too), so was looking forward to this and it did not disappoint. The cinematography and colors and stuff used are interesting too. The show really stands out visually.

Yeah, it didn't stand out in Remake because you didn't hear him alot, but I just couldn't with a whole game of him. The old VA was so much better. Maybe some stuff later in the game wasn't as bad, but I wasn't willing to take the chance since the Japanese VAs have always been decent. As for Dirge of Cerberus, I wouldn't mind playing it again. I remember enjoying the story (as weird and sometimes contrived as it was), I just remember the gameplay being a bit of a chore to put up with. I'd definitely give it another go now though without a doubt.

23 games total for me last year. Same as the year before, so I'm staying consistent I guess. XD 1.) Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - Reunion This was a fantastic remaster. The work they did on the character models was really well done, and it was still a really enjoyable story to play through. You can really tell this game was meant for a handheld system with the way the extra missions in the game worked though. Felt like a bit too much busy work for a console title, but could have been worse. The pre-rendered cutscenes could have looked better. The upscaling or whatever they did to them left them looking a bit low quality compared to the rest of the game, but it was a minor thing overall. Probably the only real fault the game had was the fact that they redid the voice acting for some reason and changed VAs. The new VA for Zack was really grating and I switched it over to the Japanese audio about 5 minutes into the game. X_x Overall this game was really well put together when it originally came out and hits some really hard nostalgia buttons for FFVII, but has enough going for it to easily stand on its own. This version let me revisit that 100% so it definitely did it's job. I wonder if they'll end up doing one of these for Dirge of Cerberus now. That wasn't nearly as good of a game, but I honestly want to play it again anyway after how much I enjoyed playing this one again.

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.

These last couple have really hit me in the feels. Both were absolutely massive chunks of my childhood and it feels really weird knowing they're gone. Especially since neither was particularly old.