god of war 1 umpteenth replay on ps2 completed
now im replaying sands of time

Hooked on The Finals (again) AND ARC Raiders, which is very bad cus I said as a new year’s resolution that I’d be playing the former less

As for single-player, trying to go for 100% completion in Metroid P4

Just finished today and the game is genuinely amazing

Was free on ps+ last month and may still be I highly recommend

quick write up on the last couple games i played in 2025:

donkey kong bananza:

admittedly ive never played any donkey kong games despite being a fairly big nintendo fan prior to this one but it sold me on donkey kong as a whole and i definitely will be playing the other games in the series soon. there is some insane dopamine rush mixed with the improved rumbles from the joycons 2 that i get i honestly dont know how to explain it without saying to try the game for yourself. my biggest gripe about i could say about it is that it is fairly easy for the most part but other than that its a pretty solid platformer. 9/10

silent hill 1:

i always hear people talk about 2 and 3 more than this one and since im a person that usually likes to experience series from start to the end, i naturally played this one first. i recently became a resident evil fan a year ago so playing this game and dealing with tank controls, and backtracking came naturally to me pretty quick, which this game also does very well. where this game really shines is in the atmosphere and visuals, for something that came out 25 years ago it is a very gorgeous looking game and the sound design is extremely top notch. the music also helps paints a very daunting travel as you play as harry mason searching for his daughter and wondering what happened to the town he's lost in after his car crash. its very impressive what team silent were able to accomplish so late into the playstation's lifespan and its limitations. 9/10

the evil within 2:

im not entirely sure how i feel about this game. i think its a pretty decent follow up to the original game but i cant help but feel like a lot of what made the first game good in some aspects were lost in this one. the first evil within wasn't perfect by any means but the things that it got right were done VERY well, right off the bat i can already tell the characters that made a return in this game like sebastien and juli all got new voices actors entirely. sebastien had such a distinct gruff and heft to his voice in the first game that reflected the situation and experience he had as an officer, but in this game they replaced him someone else who sounds nothing like that and is a lot more whiny sounding. not the worst thing ever but just something ive noticed, juli's new va did a fine job but i did prefer her original voice (at least they made her hotter in this game ).

another big change is that they completely overhauled the artstyle in this game completely, the first evil within had such a such striking art direction and lighting that its honestly one of my favorite looking games that ive played as of late and probably ever. this game has a weird mix between looking cartoony but also realistic at the same time. its really weird to describe it, the ones that suffered the most from it were the enemies for sure. the first game had some really cool enemy design and body horror but with the second game they're mostly basic looking zombies with glowing eyes, very disappointing. they also made this game semi open world for some reason. it doesn't overstay its welcome (unlike a certain game im about to talk about afterwards) but it still feels like an unnecessary addition when the first game did linear levels pretty well. now one aspect i thought this game would at least get right over the first game was the story, and while this game is a lot better on that front it is also still pretty nonsensical lmao. i dont wanna seem too negative about this game cos i did have a pretty fine time with it all things considered, but i just felt it was necessary to convey some of my gripes. the gameplay is at least pretty good like the first game. 7/10

metroid prime 4:

one of my most hype games ever since i was like a kid but man this game has way too many f***ing flaws to give it grace. everything this game does or introduced were done way better in prior metroid prime games. the inclusion of the open world hub / bike sections is one of the most useless additions to a video game that i have experienced as of late. all it does is drag out the quick traversal of going to one section from another. the very first prime game did this pretty well and didnt need some tacked on vehicle in order to do this. its like a glorified loading screen (which is funny in itself because any time you enter a new section the game quite literally makes you sit through 2-3 loading screens before you actually enter the place lmao).

the npc's are also no good either. mackenzie not only has dogshit writing but the game feels the need to hold your hand at every corner whenever you enter the open world section on where to go. if you take too long in the open world section, mackenzie will actually buzz you out of nowhere just to tell you where to go, its extremely insulting and i dont know how they greenlit this s***. the other npcs are basic as hell and they dont even flesh these characters out before killing them off at the end, so you feel absolutely nothing when you get to this point of the game . sylux is laughable as a villian and he doesnt even show up until the very end of the game.

the gameplay is basically what you get from the other 3 prime games, which is fine its pretty solid, but for a game that has been in development for 18 years (8 if you wanna choose from the official announcement) they've couldve at least tried to add something new to make the game feel fresh. metroid dread added a couple of quality of life changes / mechanics to the game and it helped breathe a new fresh of air to the metroidvania gameplay loop. just a very disappointing game all around, i hope if they attempt to make another metroid prime game they learn from the mistakes this one and do an entire shakeup to the formula. 5/10

marvel cosmic invasion:

pretty fun little beat em up to play with some friends, they took the whole combo juggles from streets of rage 4 but its not nearly as satisfying as it is in that game but overall its a fun time if you have 2 hours spare and some friends to play with. 7/10

super metroid:

still one of the best games ever made and a masterclass in visual storytelling. i still can't believe how massive of a game this is for the time that it came out in. it almost feels unfair to compare this to any other 2d metroids because of how many boxes they checked off. its influence is still felt to this day. 10/10

metroid fusion:

for the longest time this was my favorite 2d metroid for years as a kid and I still kinda feel that way i think lol. this was the first metroid game where they tried to actually tell a story and i think it's actually pretty good. they leaned into the horrors samus dealt with entering a new planet with little to no information but now she's extremely weakened due to an incident that happens in the very beginning where she gets attacked by a parasite. I always thought it was silly metroid games always made up some s*** as to why samus loses her abilities in these games but this one was pretty believable and compelling. added to the fact that now there is also a parasite in the spaceship that you are inside that is actively chasing you (well it's scripted but you get what I mean) and is basically a clone of you with all of your powers. the scene where they introduce said parasite is one of the most iconic moments in this game and probably one of my favorites in a video game next to the nemesis reveal in the original resident evil 3.

this game also switches it up by being probably the most linear metroid game in the whole series. now this is probably a big red flag for metroid fans as most really love the backtracking and exploration that you can do in them but me personally I find that as I've gotten older and don't have all the time in the world like I did as a kid I honestly welcome this change. I also don't believe something being linear is inherently bad because I feel this game executed that change pretty well. the bosses in this game are actually pretty challenging too, maybe the hardest for 2D metroids too as i always felt the bosses were mostly easy in super and zero mission. so to have an actual challenge was also welcoming. I think overall it is hard to probably beat super metroid as a whole but in terms of replaying I lowkey think i would choose this over it. 10/10

metroid zero mission

one of the best remakes of all time. its absolutely night and day with how much they've improved from the original to this game. it takes a lot of the quality of life changes that super and fusion did and still executes them very well. they even went above and beyond and added an entirely new section where you play as zero suit samus which follows with one of the coolest sequences in the game when you get the gravity suit. just a very awesome game all around. 10/10

Just copped BRAZILIAN D*** DEALER 3: I OPENED A PORTAL TO HELL IN THE FAVELA TRYING TO REVIVE MIT AIA I NEED TO CLOSE IT

Jade Empire

Been revisiting some PS2 favorites, like playing a lot of Bully lately. I heard there was a remaster but idk, I wanted to emulate it first.

I've also been jumping in and out of Psi Ops, God of War 2 and Max Payne 2, I haven't sat and played any of the others seriously, I just wanna relive certain mechanics that tripped me out as a kid for now

Control, Streets of Rage 2, Norco

civ 6 & hades 2 currently

made a randomized list of my backlog so im working my way through my steam library of games i've never touched or havent played in years

SUPERHOT ✅
Jet Set Radio ✅
Portal 2 ✅
Disco Elysium ✅
Undertale ✅
Hotline Miami ✅

now playing Half-Life 2

Trying to get good at Project DIVA

just replayed soul reaver on ps1. still quite the experience but also one of those early 3d games that can be tough to get past the jank sometimes.

I have a love / hate relationship w Kojima games

Replaying MGS5, gameplay is fire but what the f*** is going on

man civ is genuinely too addicting

Ratchet & Clank - A Crack in Time

Goat series

One of the best games on PS3

Finished Disco Elysium. Bounced off it when it first released but I picked it up on a whim recently and binged through the whole thing. Elegantly designed roleplaying systems with finely intelligent writing that's pure biting comedy from beginning to end. Every action the player can take contributes to the detective's journey in some meaningful way; even the most irrelevant-seeming dumb side tasks come back in a big way.

Played as a communist art cop trying to stay clean and get his life together. Kim (🐐) ended up getting shot and hospitalised after I failed a 90% success rate skill check but the game made up for and gave me the Cuno (🐐) as a sidekick.

Fallout 3

DOOM 2016.

Was in the mood for something cozy and this is it.

Considering buying Death Stranding

replaying SOCOM series. I really miss these kind of single player tactical military sims.

the ghost recons (especially advanced warfighter )
the rainbow sixs (especially vegas terrorist hunts)
the swats (especially 4)

played the demo for the eternal life of goldman, it only took 2 hours to finish. unbelievably beautiful game. the combat was very basic, pretty much all you do is use your cane as a pogo stick to jump on enemies. the platforming felt really tight and responsive. it's not quite a metroidvania, but it has elements of one (gaining new powers, multiple paths, some minor backtracking etc,). i wasn't a fan of the healing system though. the only way to heal is to find healing items throughout the level and then store them in your inventory to use later. i think through the whole demo i only found like maybe 10 or 12 healing items total? it's a very odd system cause your heals are essentially limited to how many items the devs are willing to give you and some of them were even hidden behind fake walls. i would much prefer a system like hollow knight, where your heal recharges as you hit enemies

the story is also a bit odd. it seems like a mom is narrating the story about goldman to her kid but she's pretty aggressive and confrontational towards the kid? very weird dynamic. the characters goldman talks to also talk for way too long, they just go on and on. the demo is the very beginning of the game so maybe it's not as bad as the game goes on but it wasn't a great choice to have all those walls of text in the demo imo

still interested in the game but my expectations have cooled a little bit