Post 68 - February 21st, 2025
Retirement: Tomb Raider: The Last Revalation (PC via TR4-6 Remastered, 1999)

This is the 2nd time I'm retiring this game, though this time it's for different reasons as I made it about 2/3 of the way through the game, and this retirement is permanent unless they make a full blown remake of the game. Tomb Raider 4 starts out great, but it slowly devolves to the point where it's borderline unplayable, I could not bring myself to finish it. I'll write a review even though this is a retirement.

Review
My first few hours with Tomb Raider 4 were actually very enjoyable, the remake is very nicely done aside from the lighting which is way too dark. I went into this with a pretty fresh mind, it had been a number of months since I played the original trilogy. I actually enjoyed the tutorial level. The combat is still terrible but that's just classic Tomb Raider for you, and the combat honestly isn't frequent enough to be overly annoying, so it wasn't an issue for a lot of the game. I had fun with Seth's Tomb, the Burial Chamber had some fun puzzles, and the Valley of Kings is alright, and the Tomb of Semerkhet is pretty good. Some of the level sequence triggers are in very odd places and are annoying to find though. I like the return of vehicles, they were very fun in the 3rd game and I appreciate them in 4 as well. The story is mildly interesting to follow with Von Croy being the main villain, and the very good and strong focus on Egyptian stuff. The destructible pots and crates are very nice and provide a good supply of ammo and health packs and everything. Tomb Raider 4 rewards exploration pretty well a lot of the time. I would say after the Tomb of Semerkhet, going into the train level is where the game started to become unenjoyable for me.

The train level is terrible. There's a horrible amount of enemy spam, all of which are ninjas which can just deflect bullets with a knife for some reason. The puzzle isn't even interesting or fun. The awkward platforming made for a lot of annoying deaths of just falling off the train, the game fell off pretty badly at this point. And it does not get any better at all, Alexandria gave me flashbacks to Venice in TR2 with all the ridiculous hitscan enemies. The amount of backtracking I had to do to trigger the obscure but necessary cutscene in Alexandria, and to get the gate key both of which are very easily missable was very annoying. Then the coastal ruins just feel completely empty, there are so many nooks and crannies that have absolutely nothing. After finally figuring out the gate key thing, the levels inside the coastal ruins aren't any better. None of the puzzles at this point are enjoyable or well designed. Poseidon's Temple is annoying, I love getting spammed by enemy skeletons who are only vulnerable to explosive weapons. The lost library is a similar story, it's just annoying and the puzzle is not good. The beetle enemies in the Temple of Isis are terrible, I don't understand why they need to be completely unkillable. And it's way too easy to get softlocked in Cleopatra's level. I did not get a single ounce of enjoyment out of the entire Alexandria chapter, the puzzles are very poorly designed.

And then there was City of the Dead, surely another city level couldn't go terribly right? The only cool part about it is the motorcycle, again the vehicles are fun. Everything else about is terrible. The entire puzzle sequence in the first area is "find this hidden obscure area to unlock another hidden obscure area and eventually this long sequence of levers will open the big area gate", it is quite bad especially with all the hitscan enemies around the level. The 2nd area of the chapter completely broke me, and is where I decided to put down the game. The minotaur puzzle is one of the worst game sequences I have ever experienced before, it should have gone smoothly but for some reason the first time I tried to trap the minotaur the gates bugged out and he just respawned at the start. So I gave it another attempt, this time the gates didn't bug out and I successfully trapped him, but because I left the motorcycle on the other side of the ravine I was literally softlocked and had to revert to a save from 30 minutes earlier. Keep in mind there is a rope swing, which is an almost non-functional mechanic in this game and takes me 5 minutes to even successfully use, which is necessary to use every time I have to redo this. The final attempt, the gate bugged out yet again so that the gate lever was inverted, the lever is already in a bad place because it lures the minotaur out of the trap and requires very close timing to work. The gate lever being inverted made this practically impossible, I spent maybe 30 minutes just trying to get it to work and it just didn't.

If Tomb Raider 4 was half as long I could get through it with no issues. If I'm not mistaken this is the longest classic Tomb Raider game, and so it way overstays its welcome. TR4 has some very high highs, but some extremely low lows. Honestly if it weren't for the minotaur section bugging out so badly for me I could probably finish the game just fine, but I do not want to subject myself to that again. I do well to keep a cool head in more frustrating games like this, but that section just did me in. Take my rating with a grain of salt because I obviously didn't finish the game, but I can't imagine it got much better from where I ended off.

Rating: 5/10
Completion: Retired
Time: 12 hours, 54 minutes
Days taken: 7
Next in the series: Tomb Raider: Chronicles (PC via TR4-6 Remastered, 2000)
Series progress: 9/11

Other Games & Media
I've been taking a break from playing too many games right now, I'm just not feeling it. I'm doing perfectly fine so don't worry about me, I'm just trying to slow things down for a bit. I have been playing a few games, mostly comfort games like Geometry Dash and Street Fighter 6. I've been attempting Nine Circles in Geometry Dash and I got to around 50%, it has been very fun. And I finally got past the competitive brick wall in Street Fighter and pushed all the way to Gold, which I somehow rode to on a 9 win streak, the final match to get into gold was probably the best I've ever played so it's going great. I've also been playing some Marvel Rivals competitive with some friends, I've been trying to push to Diamond 3 but I've been hard stuck in Platinum 1 for the past few days. So yeah, I've been playing mostly online and comfort games, again just taking it easy.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I haven't even started Mega Man 4 yet, and today is actually the first time in 4 days that I've even booted up Tomb Raider. I think I'll start Mega Man 4 today or tomorrow, I'm definitely feeling it now. I've heard worse things about Chronicles, but I'm hoping the much shorter length of it will make it completely doable, just 11 hours compared to the 18 hours of TR4. And I have heard some things about Angel of Darkness, apparently the remaster doesn't fix any of it's major issues so it should be a very interesting experience. I don't like to retire games, I strongly avoid it, but I definitely have my limits lol. Anyway, thanks for reading through my short TR4 rant, and until next time!

Sticking to the original question first, I have many gaming hot takes, I've played a ton of games in the past 2 years which are very highly regarded that I just couldn't see the appeal for. Without getting into too much detail because I could discuss all these games for hours, for me Doom 2 and 3 are overrated, the classic Tomb Raider games, a lot of the Halo games, Shadow of the Erdtree, Metroid Prime 2, Hades, and Oblivion just from the top of my head. I don't think these games are bad or don't deserve any praise, I just know what games I like, I have my own personal taste and those just aren't it for me. I don't have nearly as many underrated games, the only one I can think of right now is Kirby Star Allies which I rather enjoyed.

Getting into the deeper discussion here though, I completely agree with EchoEcho, Civilwarfare, and MeowZeDung. Overrated and underrated is more of a "this game is/isn't for me". People play games for different reasons, there's tons of different genres and play-styles so every person who plays a decent amount of games likely has games they believe to be overrated or underrated in their eyes. I won't get mad at someone for disliking one of my favorite games. One thing I think happens too often is that a lot of people just follow the review crowd, if a game is extremely popular and highly rated surely it has to be an amazing game right? Sometimes I think people review games higher than they actually enjoyed the game because of the pressure, I'm sure it isn't a major issue in game reviewing of course, but I think people should be less afraid to express distaste for a popular game they maybe didn't enjoy. That's something I've personally gotten better at doing recently, I try to rate games purely off of my personal enjoyment as well as other related factors, trying to ignore any mass popularity or raving reviews the game may have.

At least those are just my immediate thoughts on it, I haven't been around reviewing and playing all these games for as long as others have on here.

There's a decent difference between my longest completions and longest play times.

My 5 longest playthroughs (I don't have an exact time for all of these):
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (100%, ~185 hours)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (~140 hours)
3. Elden Ring (100%, ~130 hours)
4. Risk of Rain 2 (100%, ~130 hours)
5. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (87 hours)

As for my most played games excluding BOTW:
1. Stardew Valley (~500 hours, split across multiple platforms)
2. Bloons TD 6 (274 hours + who knows how many hours on mobile)
3. Elden Ring (254 hours, multiple playthroughs + DLC)
4. Terraria (211 hours, numerous playthroughs)
5. Risk of Rain 2 (178 hours, 100% + randomizers + new DLC)

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-17
Score: 213 / 300
🟪🟦🟪 🟪 = 95 | R | Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
🟩🟩🟧 🟦 = 52 | S | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
🟪🟩🟧 🟦 = 66 | P | Hitman 2

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

This has been my best round yet, I got incredibly lucky with the first game which I hadn't even heard of before. Definitely struggled more with the others though.

Post 67 - February 16th, 2025
Completion: Mega Man 3 (NES, 1990)

Mega Man 3 is a bit of a step back from the 2nd game, but a lot of the good things still shine through. It did drag on way longer than it should have though.

Review
Visually, Mega Man 3 is a decent upgrade from the first two games. There's a ton of really good stage variety and enemy variety, the stage backgrounds look very nice, most of the levels felt very unique. The soundtrack while not quite as good as Mega Man 2 still pops off, particularly the Snake Man level is my favorite. All things considered, I wasn't expecting an experience so different from Mega Man 2, I was expecting just a redo of the same thing. The physics and controls still feel very nice, just as they did in 2. It took me a minute to figure it out, but I do really like sliding as a mechanic, it actually adds a lot to the platforming and combat. Though despite that, many of the boss and enemy designs are still not made with the player's agility realistically in mind which was a pain. The majority of the fights I just tried to exploit weaknesses and tanked through, so this issue unfortunately does stick around. Especially the first one or two bosses when you don't have any special beams unlocked to exploit boss weaknesses, it's a massive pain and I used a ton of save states and made a ton of attempts on them, and as soon as I got a few weapons the rest of the bosses became rather easy because I actually had the tools to handle them. This is more of a fundamental flaw with the Mega Man formula at this point. Those were my first impressions with the first one or two levels.

There actually is some effort put into story near the end of the game. The random mini boss in the levels being revealed to be Proto-Man and Mega Man's brother is actually a decent twist, and there's pretty good setup for a sequel hopefully making it make more sense. The whole Dr. Wiley and Dr. Light duality is interesting, while it is tough for them to explore any sort of story on NES hardware, I am at least a little interested in it. Though I do worry that every game will just end up having this same sort of story.

First of all the new weapon menu is much nicer at least visually, it's still awkward having two different pages for them though. I really like the robot dog as a concept, I was very confused when I got to a point that I couldn't progress until I realized it existed in the first place, but again I think it has the potential to add a lot to the platforming. The overall level design is a step back from Mega Man 2's, there's a lot of cheap enemy placements a few really bad enemy designs, for example the giant bee that just spawns a horde of 5 bees which are impossible to handle damageless. While Proto-man is pretty cool, I really wasn't a fan of his random appearances in the levels as a mini-boss, he's just kind of boring and annoying. The level designs are also mediocre, some of the platforming sections are just a pain, I couldn't even imagine doing them without save states. But again, while the level designs aren't the best the amount of unique assets in every level is great, I was surprised to see not many reused assets throughout the entire game. There are a few enemies that have a very annoying technical bug, where if they manage to clip into Mega Man they become unkillable and just spam you to death. There are just a couple really annoying enemy designs and issues like this. The combination of these make a lot of the levels a big pain to get through, many sections of this game are just very unenjoyable. I'd also like to mention how bad the lag is, it was rare for the game to not be lagging at any given time, I know it's tough on the NES but it's terrible when the lag is almost constant, especially in areas like boss fights and large enemy encounters.

I really like how all of the weapons have unique strengths, weaknesses, projectile speeds and behaviors. Two parts of the game that were thoroughly enjoyable for me were the Snake Man level, and the Gemini man level. Snake Man partially because of the music which goes pretty hard. And the Gemini Man level is just extremely cool, the music with the tileset and unique enemies makes for a very fun level. I wouldn't say there are any bosses that are particularly fun other than maybe Dr. Wiley, all the men aren't very fun to fight. Probably the biggest issue with Mega Man 3 is how long it drags on for, it long overstays its welcome. Defeating the 8 main bosses is only half of the entire game, compared to the first two games where that's about 75% of the entire game. The final four boss stages just dragged on for far too long and I started to lose my patience with the game by that point. The final four levels thankfully aren't the longest so I got through it fine. And of course the game wouldn't be complete without a long boss rush at the end. The final few special bosses are whatever, there's nothing too bad or good in the Wily levels. It's mostly just more Mega Man 3. The Yellow Devil still sucks, it does not work well as a boss fight, again he only has vulnerability for 10% of the fight and he spends the rest of the time teleporting into you, it does not work well at all. Thankfully the ending isn't too bad, I enjoyed the Dr. Wiley fights and again the story parts at the end are also decently interesting.

Mega Man 3 does not manage to top Mega Man 2, but it does do a couple new things for the series which are very interesting, an I appreciate how much effort was put into the game assets and level designs. But the terrible boss and overall level designs bring it down a lot.

Rating: 6/10
Completion: 100%
Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Days taken: 3
Next in the series: Mega Man 4 (NES, 1991)
Series progress: 3/28

Other Games & Media
I've been going back and forth in Street Fighter 6 ranked, I keep going on the longest losing streak I've ever seen, into a 4 win streak that brings me straight back to where I was, it's both frustrating and kind of funny. I finished another very short game from my side-backlog, LOVE, which is a decent platformer, which was really dragged down by a pointless (at least in my eyes) life system which added too much stress. Right now I'm just picking up a few really short, and some lower rated games from my side-backlog to play and it's been going decently for me.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I started Tomb Raider IV with the remaster, I really enjoyed the first few hours, but I'm about halfway through it now and it's falling off a bit. I also didn't realize how long TR4 is, it's starting to drag on pretty badly. I played two 4 hours sessions since it released which has been fun, but I'll have to slow it down here with how poorly the later levels are going for me. I've heard similar things about Mega Man 4 and 5 as I did about 3, so my expectations aren't too high. I've only heard bad things about 6 which should be interesting. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-14
Score: 195 / 300
🟩🟦🟪 🟩 = 70 | R | Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
🟩🟩🟩 🟦 = 65 | S | Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
🟩🟩🟩 🟦 = 60 | P | Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Thought I'd try this out, I think I did pretty well.

Post 66 - February 13th, 2025
Completion: Mega Man 2 (NES, 1989)

Mega Man 2 improves on the first game in every possible way, I can see some strong potential here.

Review
My first impressions of Mega Man 2 were great, at least coming out of the first game. The physics and controls feel much nicer, the level designs are better, the enemy designs are improved, there are a lot more enemy types and there's a good amount of variety. The input delay is pretty bad, but I got used to it. The soundtrack is absolutely iconic, I was jamming the whole time. While the input lag is bad, the regular lag and slowdown lag were almost nonexistent, it seems they got the optimization figured out. I really appreciate that there are way more health pickups, as well as larger ones. There is more platforming in this game which didn't work out in the first, but with the much nicer controls and better level designs I had very little issue with them. The boss designs are still kind of annoying and on the tougher side, but with the weaknesses they were perfectly fine, though I wish there was more depth to them other than dodging. There isn't as much to say here since it's pretty similar to the first.

The stage designs are visually very nice as well, they got pretty creative with the theming. I also really like the water sections, the tall jump physics are very fun to play with, especially in the boss fight of that level. There's a lot of different weapons, in fact I didn't realize there was a second page of them till about halfway through the game, the menu design still isn't the best. A lot of the weapons feel very unique though, and I really like how there are three different platforming ones, and also since they are unmissable in this entry. But again, it took me a while to figure out there was a second page of weapons in the first place which isn't the greatest, but it was fun to use them. There's still a lot of bad enemy spawns, but it seems like they are more designed to be manageable so I had much less of an issue with them, although a few sections are pretty challenging. Relatively speaking the level quality is all over the place, there are some that were just very fun, and there are a few that are very mediocre.

I'm not a big fan of the incredibly long Wily level making a return in this game, I don't love how it's in one big stretch. The big dragon boss is pretty cool, but I didn't like having to fight in on 3 tiny platforms, especially when the attacks completely knock you into the void. The level designs near the end are pretty creative, though a few of them are quite annoying. The turret boss in the pink level is probably the lowest point of the game, having a boss that's only vulnerable to a single weapon type, and not giving any energy pickups during the fight is terrible, I had to restart it a couple times because I literally got soft-locked in the fight. The Dr. Wily fight is decent, I'd say it's probably the best fight in the game, though he's a bit of a pushover with a certain weapon. And the final-final phase is just boring, I appreciate how it's not overly difficult or anything, but the man got defeated within 15 seconds which was pretty underwhelming. Mega Man 2 is overall a very solid experience though, it's one of the better NES games that I've played. I also appreciate how it's on the shorter side, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Rating: 7/10
Completion: 100%
Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Days taken: 2
Next in the series: Mega Man 3 (NES, 1990)
Series progress: 2/28

Other Games & Media
It's only been 2 days since my last post, so nothing too much here. I've been playing a bit of Risk of Rain 2, goofing around with the heretic and Seekers of the Storm content. I also finished a game for the 2025 gaming challenge, which is a visual novel, missed messages, which is an absolutely beautiful game. It is very much on the shorter side and has a few technical issues so I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it was a very nice and emotionally impactful experience.

Up Next & Additional Notes
Mega Man 3 is a bit longer so I doubt it'll take 2 days like the first two games. In which case I'll be starting Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered before then, on the 14th. My valentines day plan is to play some Tomb Raider 4 and not much else lol. I'm worried those games will be bit of a slog considering I didn't really love the first 3, but I'm sure my motivation to finally finish the series will pull me through. I've heard almost equally good things about the rest of the NES Mega Man games except for 6, so I'm hopeful that my time with them will be of a similar quality to Mega Man 2.

Post 65 - February 11th, 2025
Completion: Mega Man (NES, 1987)

Mega Man has a pretty weak start with what I'm hoping is the worst game in the series, from what I hear it's all mostly uphill from here.

Review
Mega Man did not give any good first impressions, the enemy designs are annoying, enemy placements seem specifically placed to make the player experience as inconvenient as possible, and only being able to shoot left and right makes some sections nearly impossible to do without taking damage. Mega Man was made during the "Nintendo Hard" period on the NES, where a ton of games that released for the system were insanely difficult. The only other game I've completed from this period is Zelda II, which is my least favorite game of all time, Mega Man is a strong contender for that title now. I'm sure I'm spoiled on Metroid, but diagonal shooting would have made the game a lot more enjoyable, though obviously being an old NES game that wasn't quite figured out yet. Mega Man is also very laggy, I'm no stranger to laggy NES games, however Mega Man just has pretty basic graphics even for the NES. I'm sure they didn't have the hardware and optimizations completely figured out, but the frequent lag spikes and slowdowns were annoying to deal with. I'm glad health pickups exist in Mega Man, though I wish they were more frequent, and that they were given before boss fights.

The story is almost nonexistent, the only story text is at the end of the game. What I can assume from the game and a tiny bit of Mega Man knowledge that I have is that Dr. Wily is the big villain, and he's associated with all these special 'elemental' guys. He seems like a mad-scientist sort of guy. But there really isn't too much else to say about it.

The controls and physics feel okay, but with the way that the enemies are designed and some of the platforming sections that are in the game, the physics are terrible. It also took me maybe till halfway through the game until I figured out you can switch between weapons, it's not a very clear mechanic. The bosses are way too unforgiving, the timing to dodge their attacks and their punish windows are way too tight. It's nice that they have weaknesses though, it makes the bosses way more doable. Probably the most annoying part of the game is the magnet beam, which itself isn't bad, but it is the only beam in the game that is missable, hidden in an obscure easy to miss location. It is also required to complete the game. So I had to get a game over screen from the Dr. Wily level to get back to the level select, replay the electro-man level, get the beam, refight the boss, then get all the way back to where I was before in the Dr. Wily level.

The final boss rush isn't any better. I'm glad that it's split into multiple levels at least, but the Yellow Devil is terrible. He's only vulnerable for maybe 5% of the fight, and he spends half his time slowly teleporting to the other side of the room, dealing damage to the player the entire time, though the teleport order is exactly the same every time which makes it doable. The copy boss is very annoying. Dr. Wily himself isn't the worst, though not being given any healing after the boss rush right before the fight is horrible. If save states and the pause glitch didn't exist, there is no way I would have finished this game. At least Mega Man is on the shorter side, so I was fine enough to play the whole way through.

Rating: 3/10
Completion: 100%
Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Days taken: 2
Next in the series: Mega Man 2 (NES, 1989)
Series progress: 1/28

Since this is the start of a new series, I'll list out all the games here. This list is subject to change and updates for this particular series, I very well may miss one or two games. I will be playing the main numbered series, the X series, Zero/ZX, and Legends. I am unfamiliar with it, so let me know if I missed any if you happen to notice. The play order is also subject to change, since the first 6 or so games haven't aged the best.

1. Mega Man (NES, 1987)
2. Mega Man 2 (NES, 1988)
3. Mega Man 3 (NES, 1990)
4. Mega Man 4 (NES, 1991)
5. Mega Man 5 (NES, 1992)
6. Mega Man 6 (NES, 1993)
7. Mega Man 7 (SNES, 1995)
8. Mega Man 8 (PS1/Saturn, 1996)
9. Mega Man 9 (PS3/360/Wii, 2008)
10. Mega Man 10 (PS3/360/Wii, 2010)
11. Mega Man 11 (PS4/XB1/Switch/PC, 2018)

12. Mega Man X (SNES, 1993)
13. Mega Man X2 (SNES, 1994)
14. Mega Man X3 (SNES/PS1/Saturn, 1995)
15. Mega Man X4 (PS1/Saturn, 1997)
16. Mega Man X5 (PS1, 2000)
17. Mega Man X6 (PS1, 2001)
18. Mega Man X7 (PS2, 2003)
19. Mega Man X8 (PS2, 2004)

20. Mega Man Zero (GBA, 2002)
21. Mega Man Zero 2 (GBA, 2003)
22. Mega Man Zero 3 (GBA, 2004)
23. Mega Man Zero 4 (GBA, 2005)
24. Mega Man ZX (DS, 2006)
25. Mega Man ZX Advent (DS, 2007)

26. Mega Man Legends (PS1/N64, 1997)
27. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS1, 1999)
28. Mega Man Legends 2 (PS1, 2000)

Other Games & Media
I had some pretty bad game burnout for almost a week after I finished Halo Infinite, but I'm starting to pull through. I haven't started any new side-backlog games since I'm not feeling it right now, but I probably will soon. I just finished a Metroid Prime randomizer as well which was the only game I was able to have a blast with during my burnout. I've still been playing Street Fighter 6, I've hit a brick wall in silver 4 which is always frustrating. And I've just been playing quick matches in Rivals with some buds, not as much ranked. Nothing too new.

Up Next & Additional Notes
This is a very rough start to the series especially with my burnout, but I'm honestly feeling motivated. I will be playing two different series pretty soon, while it is pretty rough to do and takes a little extra time, I think it's nicer to have a few different options to pick up depending on my mood. I am feeling pretty refreshed having taken a 3 day break, because those last 3 series honestly felt like a slog. So hopefully this will be a fresh start, I'm definitely feeling optimistic. As much as I don't love the classic Tomb Raider games, I'm excited for the remaster to finally release so I can finally play through them and mark the series as finished, just 3 more days! Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!

Burnout is a sort of exhaustion caused by stress. So, I am curious if the drive to complete so many games is stressful for you. You said that you are wondering if you are taking completions too seriously, that you are writing lengthy notes and reviews, and so on. I feel this sometimes: "I have to keep playing to complete x games before y date!" This is usually when I'm on a Game Pass or PS Plus trial. Or, "I've completed x games and need to write reviews for all of them" (and I want those reviews to be thoughtful, which takes time!). Or, "I have to play x games for work/because my friends are playing them/so that I can play the new one that comes out/etc."

Whenever I am feeling burned out from games, it's almost always because playing (too much) is creating stress in my life. Often, this combines with other stressors like working long hours, which makes it worse. And I will use gaming to procrastinate and escape from other stressors, which makes stress from both things (games and the other stressors) even worse, like a nasty feedback loop. Sometimes, the game burnout is less defined by exhaustion caused by stress and more that I have genre fatigue. I've had this happen most with open-world games, where just the thought of booting up another game where I know I'm going to methodically check all the "?" question marks on the map makes me want to retire it before I start and do something else.

Changing genres is helpful for me, as is playing the "worst first" like GCTuba said. In fact, I am in the middle of doing that with my backlog. For the past several weeks (in addition to having some highly rated games going), I've been clearing games that have below an 80% user score. I eat my food like this too, worst first! Other helpful tricks are capping my play time and making sure I'm doing other activities that I like. Like, sure I could play 5 hours tonight, and that would be awesome, but I wouldn't do anything else. How much gaming would I be satisfied with? I'd be satisfied with around 2 hours. So instead of gaming for 5 and not getting anything else done, I'll game for 2, spend 30 minutes cooking dinner, exercise for an hour, read for 30 minutes, and spend time with my partner or do something that needs doing around the house or whatever, maybe even go to bed a little earlier and get better sleep. The eating well, exercise, and sleep are all really important for combating burnout and stress generally. I still get to play games tonight, but it is stress-free play (and guilt-free). Sure, I won't feel like I'm getting through my backlog as fast or reaching whatever gaming goal I may want to set, but I can re-evaluate my gaming goals and habits such that it's not causing me stress, and the balance feels so much better. And I am telling myself this as much as telling you, haha. It's not always easy.

You're absolutely right that games shouldn't be a source of stress, they really should be an escape, or at least a coping mechanism for it. And that's definitely something I should think about more. There are times I just decide to not take notes for a game because I don't feel like it, and I keep reviews on the shorter side if I'm disinterested, so for me I wouldn't say that's as much of an issue. But I think the self imposed time restraints are a big part of it, especially for people who may be over-optimistic about time estimates and whoever it seems like a really big stress trap to fall into, including myself. Your mention of the open world fatigue does remind me that I've actually made a big shift in the past year to not 100% complete every game that I play, because for a while I tried to do that, in fact it's quite rare for me these days to 100% a game. So I think that's a big part of why I was able to go for so long without getting any burnout for a while is because of that shift, at least compared to how often I got burnt out before that. And that advice about time management, leaving time for self care as well as other hobbies is great.

This whole thread discussion ended up being deeper than I expected lol, but I'm all for it.

Weekly Update #28 - Searching For Friends and Finding Frustration

I only have a small update this week since there isn't much to say. I haven't had a lot of time to play, and quite frankly I've found it very hard to get invested in FFVI at this point, but I think I'll make it.

Once the World of Ruin phase of the game began I basically found myself on a scavenger hunt with very few breadcrumbs. I found Sabin, Setzer, and Terra quick enough. Edgar and Cyan were a bit more work, but very doable. Somewhere in there I got the airship. Gau was easy once I figured out the gimmick. I saw Strago at the cultist tower, but I can't interact with him.

I couldn't find Relm or Locke anywhere, and in a fairly spacious open world with lots of hidden stuff that isn't immediately obvious on SNES graphics I simply did not have the patience to search high and low for the next breadcrumb. I consulted a guide briefly, which I hate doing, but holy crap the game wasn't giving me anything to go on. So, it tells me I need Relm before I can get Strago. I went and fetched her from the cave she was in, but now I have to wait as she recovers. I'm not sure what triggers her being playable again. My brief minutes in the guide also revealed that there were 3 characters I haven't even met yet, even this late in the game! I went and got Mog because I saw it said he was in Narshe, but I'm going to let the other two remain a mystery for now. I've got to assume one is the Yeti that Mog mentions.

Now I'm in the Phoenix Cave where Locke is supposed to be, and it's quite a difficulty spike - but a surmountable one. I don't know how close I am to the end of it, but after a bunch of party swapping and switch pressing - and very annoying fights with relatively powerful casters and status effects - I finally got to a save point. My party hovers around the lvl 29-35 mark, and the guide I referenced suggested 40+ for going to Kefka's tower, so once I finish getting Locke, Relm, Strago, and anyone else I stumble across, I may have to grind for a bit. Ugh.

I'll spend some time really processing my thoughts on FFVI before my completion post, but the short version is that it is a game of contrasts for me. Awesome music, grand adventure, silly shenanigans, dark storytelling. . . and at times nearly insufferable gameplay.

I've been trying to puzzle out why I hate the random encounters in FFVI so much when I grew up loving FFVII, VIII, and IX despite their random encounters. I think part of the answer is the way the FOV works with the centered camera in a purely 2D setting. Essentially, I can barely tell which direction I want to explore before I start walking, and once I decide, my exploration is promptly interrupted four times before I realize it was the wrong way and I have to backtrack and win or flee (due to impatience, not difficulty) from four more encounters. Feeling punished for exploring is... really crappy. It makes me dread every branch in every hallway in every dungeon. Too many forced encounters, period. It might be different if the combat was a bit more dynamic, but it's very repetitive. Even against trash enemies - like in the outrageously stupid second visit to the Zozo towers - the random encounters are just instant tilt for me. If it weren't for the fact that the battle music is so amazing, I might have rage quit a while ago.

The truth is I very nearly did hang this one up before I decided to consult a guide. SNES games and old RPGs were just built different, I get that. Maybe I have just grown too fond of more modern quality of life features to ever fully love a game like this. It kind of bums me out, because I'm not at all bothered by the other stuff that comes with an older game. I'm fine with the 2D graphics, the goofy soundfont, the lack of voice acting, etc. Everything just hit a big wall for me after the World of Ruin was triggered. The story practically halts after Celes leaves the island (THAT was an awesome scene), or rather turns into a heist movie where I've gotta get the gang back together. The total lack of meaningful plot progression for something like five hours of gameplay now has been rough. I am genuinely looking forward to getting Locke back and going after Kefka though, and I sure hope the payoffs are there.

Until next time nerds!

I'm sure it's different but I've been having a somewhat similar experience with FF1, not being able to go anywhere without multiple forced encounters. For me it was fun at first since the combat is enjoyable and I really like the party system, but at a certain point I just want to get on with the game. And I had no issue following the first quest, but as soon as that was over I just got lost, no idea where I'm supposed to go or what to do, which is where I'm currently at so I'll probably find a guide too lol. It's giving me second thoughts about playing through the first 6 games in a row, though the remastered quality has been great for me so far. I hope your journey goes smoother after this though!

Your idea of playing too many 10/10 games and not being able to reach that high again is how I dictate what order I play my games in. I don't understand why people will get into something by immediately jumping to the best version of that thing and then being disappointed that nothing else compares. Like buying your first VR headset and starting with Half-Life Alyx. Of course other VR games will pale in comparison! That's why I generally play my games from lowest rated to highest so the bar is slowly moving up. It may sound counterintuitive, but I feel like sometimes it's important to space the great games apart with some mediocre ones to truly appreciate them.

That seems like some sound advice, though it's a little tough to do with the nature of my series completion stuff. But re-ordering a few games in my side backlog by rating is something for me to consider. Looking at my profile I have 9 games marked as 10/10 masterpieces, they are some of my favorites, and 6 of them I completed in just 2024, so I think you're onto something there. I'll definitely consider this strategy once I get back into action.

As for your advice 2arda. I have been meaning to watch the Evangelion Rebuild movies, and I always love a good book, branching out to other media seems like a good strategy. I've actually been replaying one of my favorite games Metroid Prime recently and I've been having a blast with it, the Metroid games are always fun to replay for me even in burnout so maybe I can come back to that series periodically. I appreciate all the thoughtful replies :)

I think co-op is a big part of the Halo series that you unfortunately missed out on. Everything is better with friends and it makes combat less punishing by dividing enemy fire and respawning after death if your partner is far enough away from danger instead of restarting at a checkpoint. I'm curious how your ratings would've changed if you had someone to play with (if at all). Glad to hear it was still overall positive though. I still need to play Infinite...

That's what I've heard, and yeah I can see it. If I had played it with any of my siblings or friends I think my experience of it would have been much more positive. And there's still the multiplayer aspect of all of the games which I have minimal experience with, I played Halo 5 multiplayer back in the day and had fun with it, but that's all I've played online with the series. So playing a few multiplayer rounds of each game would have likely improved my experience as well.

I've been experiencing some pretty severe game burnout in the past few days and it got me thinking, so I'm going to try to revive this thread here.

I've completed more games in the last year than I have in all of the previous years of my life combined, I've been playing a ton, mostly because I'm trying to branch out, try different genres and series. I'm certain it'll pass and that fire will be re-lit for me, but what I noticed is that I've gotten pretty bad burnout even with all these new genres and games, to the point where none of my comfort games seem enjoyable and I don't feel like starting anything new at all. So I guess a question is do video games as a medium just become more boring the more you play, and maybe less enjoyable despite efforts to keep playing fresh new games and genres? I have a few ideas, like how if you've experienced the highest of highs in so many games and you've played so many 10/10s that it eventually becomes more difficult to reach that again. Another theory I have is that I may be taking game completions too seriously, I'll write pages of notes while playing games and write lengthy reviews for my blog, so maybe that's taken some of the enjoyment out of playing these games, as much as I love writing reviews. And maybe I'm way overthinking it, it could be something really simple like external factors, or maybe our brains just get bored sometimes and need a second to recover.

I managed burnout very well for a while but I think it's caught up to me now. I've retired a few games very recently just because I got bored and frustrated with them which I suspect is related, I had trouble enjoying Hades, FTL, and the GOTM Turnip Boy Commits Tax evasion, retired all of them within almost a week. So I'm just wondering what other ideas people may have, do you experience burnout at all? How do you manage it? etc. Really just anything that comes to mind with your experience of it, and I'm not particularly looking for a solution, I just want to hear some thoughts.

I'm not and haven't been, this is the only forum I've been active in. I honestly never had an interest in them, but one day I stumbled upon this forum on this site I used to track my Metroid playthroughs, and I loved how chill this community seems. It's fun keeping up with other's blogs and seeing/participating in discussions here. I do think Reddit has taken a lot of users from forums, but honestly it's a great way to keep up with specific communities, although it's a lot more boring to post and communicate on. I personally prefer Discord as well for communication, though I find myself being active a lot more on these forums than even on the HLTB Discord, or any other Discord community other than a few small friend servers.

I used to use a lot of social medias like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, etc. But now I only use those first 2 to keep up with family, and Reddit to keep up with a few random communities. HLTB replaced a lot of that for me, it's just a nicer place to hang out and have discussions about video games.

I purchase the majority of my games on sale, I usually check a few times per week. I'll even sometimes check price history on SteamDB to see if a sale is imminent if I'm itching to get a particular game. For pricier titles like first party Nintendo games which hardly ever go on sale for much, I'll often use Ebay to grab a used copy which are usually 20%-50% cheaper, though Ebay is a little iffy sometimes. That DekuDeals site seems pretty dope though, I'll probably keep an eye on it.

The only games I buy at full price are new releases that I'm excited about, which isn't too often. But with $70 price tags becoming more common I'm not sure I'll be able to keep doing that.

Post 64 - February 5th, 2025
Series Completion: Halo

As of writing this, the mainline Halo series consists of 8 games:

- Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, 2001)
- Halo 2 (Xbox, 2004)
- Halo 3 (Xbox 360, 2007)
- Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360, 2009)
- Halo: Reach (Xbox 360, 2010)
- Halo 4 (Xbox 360, 2012)
- Halo 5 (Xbox One, 2015)
- Halo Infinite (PC/Xbox Series, 2021)

Halo CE was well ahead of it's time in both gameplay and graphics, though I had the luxury playing through the remastered MCC I'm aware that the original for it's time was great. I did have some fun with the earlier levels, but the long missions did eventually start to get annoying. The gameplay is repetitive, the combat is very flawed, and many of the later combat sequences were frustrating to get through. The flood were also just very annoying to deal with. So while I respect Halo CE, I didn't have very much fun with it, pretty much the only thing I sort of enjoyed about it is the story and campaign writing.

Halo 2 made a lot of improvements over Halo CE, the story is very strong, and the storytelling is very high quality. But it shares many of the same flaws as the original such as long, repetitive sequences and missions, and very flawed and frustrating combat. Halo 2 also has some unique issues, snipers are horribly designed, and enemies like to grenade spam and use explosive projectiles, which became way too overwhelming. I didn't enjoy the arbiter missions at all either. And I just didn't end up having much fun with Halo 2 either because of a lot of those same flaws, as well as other issues. But despite that, the story and storytelling are very high quality and sets up very well for a sequel. Halo 2 did introduce some great things to the series as well though, such as dual wielding. Honestly Halo 2 and 3 blend together a lot in my mind, Halo 3 just has the same issues and then some. The flood make a return which would be cool if they weren't horrible to fight, the horde gimmick just doesn't work well with the combat system. The story is a bit of a step down from Halo 2 as well, I didn't find it as interesting or easy to follow. The larger combat environments of Halo 3 are probably the best part of it, it's very fun going into a large open battlefield, it captures that aspect very well. But even then, the combat issues persist. One side affect of these large combat sequences is that the enemies love to focus on the player, which made them a pain to get through. While I didn't enjoy the combat or the story in any particular way, I do feel it was a solid conclusion to the trilogy and the larger story.

Halo 3 ODST is pretty unique, the storytelling method is cool. Combat in the early campaign has a few hiccups, but the missions throughout most of the campaign ended up being pretty fun. It still shares the same flawed combat system, but the missions themselves were fun to play through. The final mission or two are very weak, but I had a decent time with ODST. Halo Reach was about as enjoyable as ODST, fighting alongside a squad is very fun, they absolutely nailed those sequences. The story is fine, up until near the end where it gets interesting. But at the end of the day it's honestly just another Halo game, same upsides and downsides.

Halo 4 fixes some of the combat issues of the previous games, in fact I found it moderately enjoyable at times. The story is very interesting in good and bad ways, I love how Cortana is made into more of a character in 4, but the larger story of the game is just very hard to follow after a certain point. The equipment system was much improved, and the lonely mysterious atmosphere of the game is great. You might be noticing a trend here but it has many of the same downfalls at the end of the day. Halo 5 is an odd one. The gunplay and combat mechanics are great in Halo 5, though there is a lack of enemy variety. Some of the environments in Halo 5 are just beautiful, it's a very pretty game. The squad gimmick that sticks throughout the entire game just doesn't work, the system itself is terrible, and it shouldn't be a massive part of a mainline Halo game in the first place. While the combat is good for the most part, the story and campaign are just terrible, Halo 5 has by far the weakest campaign in the series, I just didn't have a good time following it, it got extremely boring and hard to follow.

Halo Infinite is an attempt at a spiritual reboot of the series, the environments and everything remind me a lot of CE which I think is a good design choice. Halo Infinite has the best combat in the series, it has some of the same downfalls, but all the rest are completely mitigated by the great equipment system, and well balanced enemies. Halo Infinite has a very weak campaign, but the character writing is the best in the series. There's also great enemy and weapon variety in the game, I never got too bored of it. Though the missions themselves for the story progression were very repetitive and boring, and while the open world is cool I found almost no incentive to explore it. But overall the great combat quality and interesting characters made up for a lot of the issues, Halo Infinite is just a good game.

Stats
Total games: 8
Best game: Halo Infinite
Worst game: Halo: Combat Evolved
Completion: Main story
Total time to beat: 61 hours, 52 minutes
Average time to beat: 7 hours, 44 minutes
Total days taken: 46
Average review rating: 7.2/10
Series completed: 9

Halo Infinite actually ended up making this not my lowest reviewed series, the average rating is actually just above Mario Kart and Luigi's Mansion, though realistically is essentially the same. This streak of 3 low rated series has been rough, the fact that I played my 3 least favorite series so far all in a row is crazy. I wouldn't say the Halo series is a bad series by any means, I got some enjoyment out of it, but I just don't think it's for me. I couldn't see much of the appeal to the first three games, I just saw flaws that severely dragged down the combat experience for me. I was glad to have some fun with ODST, Reach, and 4. And I'm still surprised that I enjoyed Infinite as much as I did, probably because it's so different from the rest of the series.

What's Next?
I think I'm going to take a short break from playing any new series, so I will not be starting another one right now. I'm probably going to play the game of the month and some Final Fantasy until Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered releases on the 14th. If I get an itch to start another series which is possible, it'll be Mega Man. It'll likely be a bit till my next post, unless I end up starting Mega Man within the next week which has some very short games. Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Post 63 - February 5th, 2025
Completion: Halo Infinite (PC, 2021)

The final Halo game currently in the series ends on a surprisingly strong note, this game caught me off guard and I actually had a good time with it.

Review
Similar to Halo 4 and 5, Infinite right from the start seemed significantly different not just from the original trilogy, but from 4 and 5 as well. But unlike the shift that 4 and 5 made, I saw some good potential in the first few minutes of Halo Infinite, it's different in a potentially good way. One change that I like is that sprinting was just fully ingrained into the gameplay instead of being an awkwardly implemented mechanic, I think it adds a decent amount to the combat. I enjoyed using the grapple equipment right from the start, it's a gimmick that works really well for this game and adds a large amount of depth to the combat, unlike the equipment in all the previous games. Even from just the first mission in the game, I could tell that Halo Infinite has the best gunplay in the series by a decent margin, the combat mechanics overall feel pretty well refined. My first impression of Halo Infinite were great, the combat is actually enjoyable, and the small changes made with the movement and equipment make a large positive difference on the gameplay.

I'm going to discuss the whole story in just this section here to separate it out. Earlier in the game I found the story to be interesting, I was interested to learn more about it. There was a decent jump made from the events of Halo 5 which confused me a little, but a little bit of retroactive storytelling did explain some of it all throughout. But overall having gone through all of it, the story is very mediocre. The Banished aren't well written as antagonists, the leader is just a yapper who spouts out empty threats and philosophical nonsense, he's just a very shallow generic character. One part of the story that caught my attention was the new AI lady, The Weapon. While the overall story of the game is very forgettable and boring, the character writing and interactions are actually very well executed. Master Chief is an actual character in this game instead of being an empty shell, and he's even pretty well written. The echo pilot is actually relatable and his character arc is great to follow, the conversation between Master Chief and him about being human is great. And The Weapon is also very well written, she is a very good companion to have throughout the game and I found her character arc to be enjoyable, her cutscene in the Repository even got me feeling a little emotional. While writing of the larger story isn't anything special, the character writing is the best in the entire series in Halo Infinite. I found myself actually caring about these characters.

Again the combat in Halo Infinite is the best in the series, from the gunplay, to the equipment, and a lot of the smaller things like explosive barrels which added a lot to the gameplay. There's also a lot more weapon variety, refillable ammunition for all weapons types which is something that should have been in the series a long time ago. While the variety of equipment is cool, I found myself using the grapple 99% of the time, since I found it to be the most fun/helpful and I often forget the others existed. Even the enemy variety is much better, while it's still just the regular covenant and brutes, there are different variants of those variants which added a lot to the combat, kept it from feeling dull. Especially with the decent amount of unique boss enemies thrown in I had a pretty good time. I wouldn't call the combat perfect, it does share a lot of the same inherent flaws from the rest of the Halo games, that being overpowered explosive enemy weapons, snipers still being a pain, Hunters still being one of the worst enemies to fight, and a lot of overwhelming combat encounters. But I found most of those issues to be toned down in Infinite, and the high quality combat mechanics made up for a lot of it. I love the combat on a larger scale as well, there are a lot of closed space battles, but some of the larger ones at the Banished bases are really fun with all of the vehicles and weapons to scavenge, and I like how there's actual objectives in the bases too. Though I did find it annoying how all of the enemies respawn in the bases after clearing them. The armor/gear upgrades are really nice, and it's pretty much the only real incentive to explore the open world.

Similar to the larger story though, the missions are very generic. I didn't enjoy any of the power seed "puzzles", and while the open world is very cool I saw almost no incentive to explore it when I could just go straight for the next objective. Most of the objectives were just the same thing, it just felt like running errands. In particular the sequence where you need to activate the four beacons is drawn out way longer than it should be. The larger gameplay loop got very repetitive because of this, story progression was just very uninteresting and boring. But in some of the more linear sections I had good fun, the environment design had almost no variety so it got a little boring in the long indoor sequences. The combat does make up for a lot of these issues, even with all the issues it has. So while the gameplay loop is very repetitive and gets boring after a little while, some of the smaller things like the combat, character writing, a decently made open world, and a very pretty Halo ring environment made up for a lot of that lost enjoyment.

Halo Infinite has a lot of flaws, but I honestly found myself having more fun with it than I had with any of the other Halo games. I am very excited to see how this potential gets used in future games. And so to my own surprise, Halo Infinite is my favorite game in the Halo series. I really like to see these series completions end on a strong note.

Rating: 8/10
Completion: Main story
Time: 12 hours, 12 minutes
Days taken: 6
Next in the series: Series review
Series progress: 8/8

Other Games & Media
Oddly I don't think I've mention it, I've been playing a lot of Marvel Rivals in the past month or so. I recently reached lord for Magik and reached platinum in competitive, it's been very fun. I've still been struggling with FTL, I have about 20 hours in it and I have yet to get a single victory, I am considering retiring it not because I'm not enjoying it, but because I know it'll take me hundreds of hours to feel completely satisfied with it, so it would be a retirement of a game that I just feel like I got enough out of despite not getting a victory (it is ridiculously difficult). BTD6 got a paid DLC yesterday which I bought immediately, it's decent. I honestly can't say it's my favorite, but for such a cheap game that I've poured hundreds great hours into I don't mind giving Ninja Kiwi my money. And the final other game, Mai released last night for Street Fighter 6 and she's a very fun character. Cammy will always be my main, but I'll probably be putting some more time into learning Mai for a little while.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I'll try to get the series review up within a few hours, but there's always a possibility I won't be able to finish it until tomorrow. I'm still not decided on what I'll do now that I've finished Halo, with TR IV-VI right around the corner, I'll think on it while I write the series completion post I guess lol. Anyway, thanks for reading!

I'm off to a good start after this first month. I completed a majority of the Halo games which are on my list. Doom: The Dark Ages got a release date which solidifies my challenge 1, though the price tag is on the higher side for me so I may wait a month or two until it possibly goes on sale, or I may just end up getting game pass sub for it since it releases on there day one. I ended up retiring one of my picks for challenge 16, Hades, I put a good 8 or 9 hours into it and I wasn't enjoying it. But I'm almost certainly going to complete a GOTM sometime in 2025 so I'm not stressed about finding a new pick. At my current pace I probably won't finish all of these games, but I'll be able to do a lot of them which I'm happy about. I also ended up switching my replay to Halo 5, because I just happened to be replaying it.

I hope to finish Halo Infinite, FTL, and a majority of Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered in February, it'll likely be a slower month completion-wise.

Games completed: 6

1. A new game (released within the past year) - Doom: The Dark Ages (Backup game is Atlyss) - Incomplete
2. An old game (released 10+ years ago) - Halo 3 - Completed
3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago) - Fallout - Incomplete
4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago) - Final Fantasy - In Progress
5. A time sink (50+ hours) - Fallout 4 - Incomplete
6. A quickie (less than an hour) - Missed Messages. - Incomplete
7. A remake or remaster of a game - Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster) - Incomplete
8. A game with 6+ endings - Fallout 2 - Incomplete
9. A collection of games - Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered - Incomplete
10-2. A game named after the main character - Mega Man - Incomplete
11. A game from a genre you don't normally play - Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! - Incomplete
12-2. A game adapted into another medium - Stardew Valley (board game) - Completed
13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less) - LOVE (2014) - Incomplete
14-1. A game with over 1k completions - Celeste - Completed
15-2. A replay - Halo 5: Guardians - Completed
16. A game that's been game of the month - Hades - Retired
17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer - Fallout: New Vegas - Incomplete
18. A game with a real or fictional religion - Halo 4 (Covenant) - Completed
19-2. A spin-off - Mega Man X - Incomplete
20. A cornerstone of gaming culture - Bioshock - Incomplete
21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - Incomplete
22. A game heavily featuring zombies - Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP - Incomplete
23. A game that hasn't aged well - Fallout 3 - Incomplete
24. An indie game - Slime Rancher - Incomplete
25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years) - Bioshock 2 - Incomplete
26. A sequel that's more famous than the original - Street Fighter II - Incomplete
27. A game that has no business being in its series - Super Mario Bros. 2 - Incomplete
28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games - Mega Man 11 (rare at least by Mega Man standards in recent times) - Incomplete
29. A game with an interesting hook - FTL: Faster Than Light - In Progress
30-1. A game with a great plot twist - Bioshock Infinite (allegedly has a crazy plot twist) - Incomplete
31-1. The definitive edition of a game - Mass Effect Andromeda (Deluxe Edition) - Incomplete
32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms - Final Fantasy III - Incomplete
33. A game you beat to 100% completion - Emily is Away - Incomplete
34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games) - Puyo Puyo (1992) - Incomplete
35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long running franchise (7+ games) - Halo Infinite - In progress
36. A game that's smaller than 100MB - Peggle Nights - Incomplete
37. Game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards Hosted by Geoff Keighly - Metroid: Samus Returns - Incomplete
38. A game that made it out of development Hell - Metroid Prime 4 (Backup is Metroid Dread) - Incomplete
39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand - Guilty Gear Strive (Japanese) - Incomplete
40. A game with a memorable soundtrack - Undertale - Incomplete
41. A game from someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list - Mass Effect (Valcrist73's 49-2) - Incomplete
42. A game with a female protagonist - NieR: Automata (Backup is Metroid Prime) - Incomplete
43. A game inspired by Mythology or Folklore - Okami - Incomplete
44. A game inspired/based on real world historical events - The Oregon Trail (2021) - Incomplete
45. A game developed by a single person - Cave Story - Incomplete
46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game - AM2R: Return of Samus - Incomplete
47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award - HuniePop - Incomplete
48. A game with a silent protagonist - Halo 3: ODST - Completed
49-2. A game that features space travel - Mass Effect 2 - Incomplete
50. A game that prominently features food/cooking - Cooking Mama - Incomplete

January felt like a very slow month for me in terms of completions, but I ended up doing a decent amount. Overall average for me.

Jan 8th - Halo 3, 7/10
Jan 12th - Stardew Valley (perfection), 10/10
Jan 13th - Halo 3: ODST, 7.5/10
Jan 20th - Halo: Reach, 7.5/10
Jan 21st - Celeste, 9.5/10
Jan 25th - Halo 4, 7.5/10
Jan 25th - Halo: MCC, 8.5/10
Jan 30th - Halo 5: Guardians, 6.5/10

The best game from this month for me is Stardew Valley, I finally got perfection in a save file which I'm very happy about. I didn't think it possible but I'm actually burnt out on Stardew after that, so I'm giving it at least a couple months before I start any sort of modded playthroughs. But a good contender is Celeste, which is one of the greatest platformers I've ever played, the only blemish holding it back from being a 10/10 is the Mirror Temple which I just didn't enjoy at all, but everything else about it is great. The worst game was Halo 5, the gunplay is great and it's a very pretty game, but the campaign is horrible. The squad system is highly unnecessary, the story isn't very well written, and it overall just felt soulless. Honestly Halo 2 and 3 are blending together for me, but I do remember not particularly enjoying Halo 3, the story is just okay, and the combat is pretty flawed. The one thing holding Halo 3 above 5 is the more solid campaign. I'll also point toward my first retirement, Hades, but I wouldn't call it any worse than Halo 3 or 5 by any means, Hades just isn't for me and I had a lot of trouble seeing the appeal to it.

I expect February to have less completions for me, because Halo infinite is decently long, I'm currently playing FTL which will take me a long while to complete, and Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered releases on the 14th which will consume a good amount of my free time in the 2nd half of the month.

Post 62 - January 30th, 2025
Completion: Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One, 2015)

I'm bad at taking notes for couch/console games so I'm going off of memory here, I also got through Halo 5 very quickly in around 4 hours so there isn't too much to write in the first place. This game ended up being exactly how I remember it from my first playthrough 7 years ago, very forgettable.

Review
Right from the start, Halo 5 is much different from its predecessors. The very over the top cinematic cutscene, then going into combat against the odd prometheans with a character who isn't Master Chief is a very bold writing choice. It's cool seeing Buck from ODST being one of the main characters, but that's about it. I have no idea who any of the other Spartans are so I had no attachment to them in the story. Combat against the prometheans is a little more deep than it is in Halo 4 as there's more enemy types, and the gunplay is very high quality so I had few issues there, though the same can't be said for the overall combat quality. Visually Halo 5 is very pretty, the graphical jump from the 360 is very large, so at the very least Halo 5 isn't an eyesore, there are some beautiful well designed environments all throughout the campaign. My first impression is that it doesn't feel like a Halo game.

As for the story, it's there. The whole gimmick of following two different and opposing squads alternating from mission to mission didn't work very well, I've seen this narrative style work very well before, but I just found it uninteresting in this. Especially since the only character I have some sort of attachment to is Master Chief I found the side-character squad to be boring, in fact Master Chief is one of the most boring characters ever written in this game, so I didn't even get any sort of enjoyment out of his storyline. It's interesting that Cortana was brought back for this story, which I'm not complaining about because again I think she's an interesting character. But unfortunately she just isn't the same character in Halo 5, she just fills the role of evil AI antagonist. The story has somewhat of an interesting setup, but most of the characters and the storytelling was butchered. Similar to my experience with Halo 4 I think the prometheans are pretty cool, but I still have no idea who they are, what their purpose is, or why Cortana is just with them now. Overall the story is just a complete mess.

The one thing that's decent about Halo 5 is the gameplay. I'll note again that Halo 5 has very high quality gunplay, the combat mechanics feel great. There's a bit more variety with the extra promethean enemy types, and with the more numerous covenant encounters. The covenant are perfectly fun to fight in this game, but the prometheans even with the extra variety were still boring to fight. A majority of the enemies are just dogs and humanoid grunts, their spawning mechanism which is just appear out of thin air feels very cheap, and they overall aren't very fun to fight. The knights are some of the only unique to fight enemies, but their only vulnerability being on their back similar to hunters makes them terrible to fight. I understand them being less polished than the covenant because the covenant have been around for many games and work very well as an enemy, but that's no excuse for the prometheans being so horribly lame to fight.

Halo 5 does something similar to Halo Reach with the squads, all of the missions in the game are done in a 4 person squad. While it worked well for Reach, it doesn't work for a mainline Halo game. The only upside is that the revive system was very convenient, but outside of that the squad system just made for a very weird experience for the entirety of the campaign. Squad members would often die then magically revive behind you in combat, and they just teleport onto quest markers with the player all the time, it's such a flawed system for a mechanic that shouldn't exist in the first place. One of the things I enjoyed about Halo 4 is the lonely, mysterious atmosphere to it, figuring out what's going on with Master Chief and Cortana. In Halo 5 the campaign just feels like I'm following the quest markers from one place to the next, occasionally clearing a few waves of enemies or pressing the occasional terminal. I'm aware the other games are guilty of this but it's very noticeably repetitive in this entry, especially in the final two missions which are essentially 'kill all enemies in this area' and 'clear a few waves of enemies waiting for this thing to happen'.

Halo 5 offers some of the strongest combat in the series, if it weren't for the prometheans being in this game I'd even call the combat exceptional. But in the end the poor mission design, story, and new enemy types bring it all down. I don't mind when games deviate from the rest of the series especially in the Halo series, but it doesn't work well at all for Halo 5.

Rating: 6.5/10
Completion: Main story
Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Days taken: 4
Next in the series: Halo Infinite (PC, 2021)
Series progress: 7/8

Other Games & Media
I ended up retiring Hades, I just found the combat to be extremely repetitive, every run ended up feeling almost exactly the same even with different weapons and boons. So with that I've already started the next game in my side backlog, FTL: Faster Than Light, which is a roguelike that I'm already enjoying substantially more. FTL is one of the most challenging games I've ever played, I've already poured 15 hours into it and I've only reached the final boss twice, let alone defeat it. Completion is very open ended for FTL, the most basic requirement being just to defeat the final boss, but with how many ships and things there are to unlock I'll try to at least go for a few victories.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I've heard better things about Halo Infinite, how it's an attempt at a return to form. It's looking like I'll finish Infinite with perfect timing, with Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered releasing in 2 weeks, I find it crazy how I'll end up managing to complete 3 series during this short break period from Tomb Raider. Anyway I think that's it, thanks for reading, and until next time!

To my own dismay I just added my very first retirement to my profile, Hades, after putting around 8.5 hours into it.

I don't think it's a "roguelikes aren't for me", I absolutely adore games like Risk of Rain 1 + 2 and FTL. I just have some gripes with the very repetitive combat system, every run feels almost the same even with all the different boons and weapons. I do appreciate the permanent upgrades with the mirror as well as the gift system, but at the end of the day every run has the same repetitive combat. Then I hit a brick wall attempting the Minotaur and Theseus fight a few times, not even coming close to victory, which was the final straw for my Hades experience. I'm aware it's a very popular game, it's just one of those games that really isn't for me. I'm not one to particularly play games for their story either, so I had a lot of difficulty finding the appeal.

Post 61 - January 25th, 2025
Completion: Halo 4 (PC/Xbox 360, 2012)

First of all, new PFP of the best Eva pilot. Asuka has become my favorite character from a piece of media so she has gained PFP status for me. Anyway, Halo 4 was an interesting experience, it is different from any of the other games in a few big, but mostly subtle ways.

Review
My first impression of Halo 4 was pretty good, where Halo Reach improved on the gunplay of the original games, Halo 4 improved it even more. Basic combat encounters are pretty good, and the gunplay feels consistently very nice all throughout the game. Elites feel like they have just the right amount of armor, they aren't too tanky or too weak. Sprinting is a nice addition to the game as it gives more movement options around the missions, and can be handy in combat. I wasn't a particularly big fan of equipment in Reach, but I found it to be a lot more useful in 4 right off the bat. The visuals are also fantastic especially for the time this released, the environments and everything look great. For a lot of the first two missions I had a good amount of fun. Halo 4 had the potential to be a very good game with these improvements, but as I started to notice with the repetitive combat encounters and sequences the same amount of effort wasn't put into every part of the game.

The story is very interesting, and not in the best way. The writing quality is fine at best, at some points it's good, and at other times it's a little rough. I enjoy how Cortana is more of a character in this, she actually has some personality and her story line is pretty interesting. With a little more backstory of Cortana from Halo Reach I understood what was going on in her plot line a little more, it was interesting to follow throughout the campaign, for sure more than it was in Halo 3. The Prometheans are pretty cool, their designs are very good and it's nice to have another faction in the mix so that the story isn't just about more covenant shenanigans. Speaking of the covenant though, why are they in this game? The real answer is probably because enemy variety which I appreciate, but there is no good explanation as to why they are even present in this game, they held no relevance in the larger plot. The story is decent though, I enjoyed following it up until the Shutdown and Composer missions where the story just completely lost me, to my knowledge there is deeper lore to this in the books and stuff, but I didn't really understand who the prometheans are or why they're even hostile in the first place, I couldn't tell you. The ending is pretty good though, it's sad too see Cortana go, but it's pretty well written.

The new weapons added along with the prometheans are very fun to use, like the light rifle with the alternate firing modes, unique grenades, and a proper shotgun. The prometheans themselves while very interesting, just aren't the best to fight. They have the same variety as the Flood in Halo 3, so for having such a large presence and being half of the combat encounters in the game, the prometheans are boring to fight. The dog enemies are annoying with their aggressive movement and one weak point, and the knights just seem like elites, just more tanky if anything. But I will say the covenant combat encounters are actually well balanced in this, again the elites seem fair to fight, and the larger encounter designs are good with a few exceptions. One thing I want to note is that the camera shake is too intense at times to the point where it affected gameplay, but for most of the game it wasn't too much of an issue. The equipment system is actually good in this entry, every equipment that I found seemed pretty useful. The decoy equipment is really cool, the shield is nice, invisibility is cool, and then sentry is very handy. It's nice to see that the equipment system got a nice makeover after their disappointing debut in Halo 3 and Reach. Overall, the combat mechanics are good, the gunplay feels great and at a basic level combat encounters are good. The new mechanics from the guns to the sprinting and equipment are also quite good. At this level Halo 4 is an improvement over the previous games.

Getting into more depth with the missions and larger scale gameplay, similar to the rest of the series Halo 4 has a lot of downfalls, but in this case the downfalls are different. The combat was fun at first, but after a couple missions I realized that was the entire game. The combat encounters are very repetitive especially with the low variety prometheans, and even outside of combat with the mission objectives, they are just all the same essentially. It comes down to "here are a few objectives in this room, go handle them, then move on", the missions were very boring to play through with the very repetitive nature of them. I did enjoy the first 2 missions of the game, but it was downhill from there. Thankfully the gameplay isn't all the same through the campaign, I really enjoyed piloting the mantis, and the tank sections were very fun as usual (ignoring the escort section of Reclaimer). There were a few standout moments like that in Infinity and Forerunner as well, but most of the rest of the game suffers from the repetitive gameplay. Later in the game, I did enjoy finding the thruster pack equipment which is basically a dodge button, but the final 3 or so missions were the worst overall. Shutdown is extremely repetitive and has issues with the combat encounters. It was cool to finally make it off the planet into the space station, it was a nice change of scenery, but that mission has the same repetition issues, and the final defense section at the end of it is boring. The starting ship part of the final mission is cool, but that's basically the only good part of it. Again, extremely repetitive combat and mission objectives, and it was a pretty underwhelming final sequence.

Halo 4 has a pretty strong start, with the high quality combat and enjoyable gameplay, but as soon as I realized that was a majority of the gameplay especially after finding the prometheans I didn't have the best time. I wouldn't call Halo 4 a bad game, but it is a boring and underwhelming one. The story is interesting with the Cortana lore, but it became difficult to follow with the Forerunner stuff. So despite the improvements over the original games, Halo 4 has some other issues that bring it down.

Rating: 7.5/10
Completion: Main story
Time: 6 hours, 36 minutes
Days taken: 4
Next in the series: Halo 5 (Xbox One, 2015)
Series progress: 6/8

Other Games & Media
I finished Celeste the other day, my enjoyment hit a low point with the Mirror Temple, but past that the game is great. The final 2 (main) chapters of it are fantastic, the final in particular is extremely fun. I'm not planning on doing any of the bonus stuff, I'm perfectly content having finished the main game, but yeah Celeste is pretty great. I've now moved onto the next game on my side backlog, Hades. I'm 4 or 5 runs into it now, and I'm honestly struggling to enjoy it a ton. Maybe it takes a minute to get into it or maybe the first few runs are always rough, given the length of the game it's unfortunately a retirement candidate for me, but I'll try and give it 5-10 more hours before kicking the bucket. As for other media I don't have much to say at all, I haven't gotten around to starting the Evangelion movie series yet. I'm still sitting on the main series and End of Eva, still processing it, but I should be able to get around to it soon.

Up Next & Additional Notes
Halo 5 will be a replay for me, but it's been 8 years since I played it so I'm sure it'll be a mostly fresh experience. I'm starting to approach the end of the series here, unfortunately I don't see it getting too much better from here and Halo is going to end up being my least favorite series so far. I think it's safe to say the series just isn't for me at this point. While I'm sure Halo 5 will be a similar experience to 4, I'm looking forward to Infinite just because I actually have zero experience with it, it'll at least be an interesting one to dive into even if the game isn't the best.

For the regular nomination I'll nominate Metroid Dread

And for the 2015 special I will nominate Rise of the Tomb Raider

Post 60 - January 20th, 2025
Completion: Halo: Reach (PC/Xbox 360, 2010)

Halo Reach is a nice refreshing game coming from the mainline games.

Review
The combat in Halo Reach feels like the best in the series up until this entry. The first few missions were very enjoyable, the gunplay and the combat encounters are very well designed early in the campaign. Being a customizable spartan was very fun, and the mission/battle style of the missions fit the game extremely well. It's very cool being able to play in a squad through these missions, it added a lot to the experience. The gunplay and combat (at least early in the campaign) feel very smooth, and the squad style of the missions made the larger combat sequences much more enjoyable and manageable. I had a ton of fun using the air strike weapon (which I sadly only managed to find once), and particularly the Nightfall mission is great.

The story is almost nonexistent at least until the end of the game, there is a story there but there was almost no effort put into storytelling and I had very little idea of what was going on, at least on a larger level. The New Alexandria missions were just boring plot-wise, quite a few of the missions were just boring in that way. The tie back to Halo 1 with Cortana and the Pillar of Autumn is really cool, the story was very interesting as a setup for Halo CE. There was a bit of setup in the story for the big scary indigenous creatures, but the big reveal and lack of them after that was very disappointing. But aside from that, the story is mediocre.

Again the gunplay feels very clean and great, it is the best in the series up until this game. The combat itself is good, again the first few missions were very fun. But unfortunately that quality doesn't persist, the later half of the game falls short due to the exact same issues that the mainline games have, which is overwhelming combat sequences and a good amount of repetition. The equipment is a lot more useful than it is in Halo 3 with the sprinting and jetpack, it did actually add to the experience. The space combat sequence was unexpected, but it was pretty fun, and the boarding sequence after it was all very enjoyable. But I'd say after that was the point where the game started to fall off. Again, the New Alexandria mission was just boring and that's when the combat sequences started to become overwhelming. I also started to have a few issues with the checkpoint system which seemed to be pretty inconsistent. A lot of the later missions are just 'defend this point' or seem like I'm being sent to do chores for the entire mission.

And sadly it didn't ever get better, the final 2 missions are pretty bad. I didn't know it was possible to screw up a tank section, but the ghost tank sequence in The Package mission is some of the worst gameplay I have ever experienced. There were way too many explosive projectiles starting halfway through the game, but The Package is a complete joke. And the aerial support doesn't do anything during that sequence, all of the enemy fire in that sequence is directed straight onto the player, that section was just abysmal. The Package didn't end too well either with the long defense sequence, though I did appreciate the frequent checkpoints during it. And this is ignoring the story, because the story actually became pretty interesting at this point. The final mission, The Pillar of Autumn is fine, it isn't as bad as The Package but it still had most of the same issues mentioned previously. The long vehicle sequence is somewhat fun, but the dual hunter fight near the end was miserable, and the wave defense ending wasn't very fun.

The very end of the game was quite good, again the tie into Cortana, the Pillar of Autumn, Keyes, and the Halo was very well done. The final combat sequence of the game of just endless enemies was good, even without spoilers I was fully aware I was not expected to survive it, but I can always appreciate an ending like that. Having a tiny bit of experience with Halo 4 and 5, I am aware that Dr. Halsey has significance so I am interested to learn more about her and any potential Cortana lore.

Rating: 7.5/10
Completion: Main story
Time: 7 hours, 12 minutes
Days taken: 5
Next in the series: Halo 4 (PC/Xbox 360, 2012)
Series progress: 5/8

Other Media
I started Celeste and I'm most of the way through chapter 6 now. I'm having a good time with it, I'm not a big fan of a few of the gimmicks but for the most part I'm really liking it. I'm not planning on going for 100% or anything, I'll just finish the main story. Onto other media, I got to an Evangelion episode that just hooked me and I binged the entire series and the movie within 36 hours. Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the greatest pieces of media I've consumed, it is an absolute masterpiece, I can very highly recommend it. Here is my review with spoilers (EVANGELION + END OF EVA SPOILERS): Asuka's character arc emotionally destroyed me, I can't think of a single piece of media that has ever made me as depressed than her death scene, it was absolutely devastating. She is one of my favorite characters in a piece of media now, her entire arc is extremely well written. the entire story is just masterfully written, the ending is confusing for sure, but I think I'm starting to mostly understand it now.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I'm starting to get better at taking break days when I'm not particularly feeling like tackling my backlog, so it took me a little extra time to complete Reach, but I think I had a better experience with it because of that. Burnout has been a slight issue with the Halo series for me but I think I'm managing it well. I have played Halo 4 and 5 before, and I actually remember enjoying them, so I'm very interested to see how they fare now that I've played the rest of the series, and also since I've had a ton of different game completions since then.

Post 59 - January 13th, 2025
Completion: Halo 3: ODST (PC/Xbox 360, 2009)

ODST improves on the original games in a lot of ways, but it has a lot of same issues as well.

Review
Halo 3 ODST is noticeably darker, and more quiet than the Master Chief games, the atmosphere is very well done because it isn't just another Halo game, and the atmosphere is very well crafted. The plot setup is also pretty interesting, the rookie hunting for clues and the flashbacks are a very cool way to tell a story. There aren't a ton of gameplay differences from the main game, other than maybe the health system which honestly isn't very good. It would be nice if the soldiers played a little more differently than Master Chief in the main games, but it's overall fine.The storytelling is very creative and interesting, but the story itself isn't all that great. It was cool seeing the squad regroup and work together throughout the campaign, it just seems like the final mission and ending were thrown onto it. It felt like it came to a good conclusion when the whole squad met up and managed to escape, but the final mission seems like it came out of nowhere. Overall the storytelling is great, but the story itself isn't too well written.

The gameplay isn't too much different than regular Halo, the one major difference is the shield/health system, which is more like stamina/health system I believe. Not having a visual indicator for shields other than a progressively more red screen was pretty annoying, and it felt like it broke way too quickly in combat encounters. I'm also not the biggest fan of the visor system, I wish there was just a flashlight rather than just the visor toggle, it was pretty boring. Most of the solo combat encounters in the game are terrible, the game just throws way too many enemies at the player and it becomes extremely unreasonable to try and handle all of it. I did start to enjoy the game a lot more once the the squad started to meet up, since I wasn't taking on massive hordes of enemies solo. I actually had a lot of fun in the later half of the game because of that, even in the phantom escort mission it was pretty enjoyable. The few missions in the middle of the game with all the main squad meeting up were genuinely very enjoyable, the combat felt challenging but fair, and I found myself finding new strategies and whatnot through every encounter. The final mission was disappointing though, the escort is so incredibly long and made the ending extremely underwhelming, unfortunately that long streak of great missions was broken by that.

I don't have too much else to say about ODST, it's short, and it's similar to the other Halo games. Similar to Halo 3 the larger combat encounters are great and are the strongest point of the game, but there are a lot of parts that bring it down a lot like a lot of the solo combat encounters which were just overwhelming. The atmosphere is very well done with the lonely dark and empty city, and the storytelling was very cleverly told, even if the story isn't the most interesting. The game started off pretty weak, got a lot better in the middle, and fell off in the final mission. But honestly there was a good streak of 3 or 4 missions where I was just having a really good time which is more than I can say about any of the mainline games so far, so ODST is actually quite decent.

Rating: 7.5/10
Completion: Main story
Time: 5 hours
Days taken: 4
Next in the series: Halo: Reach (PC/Xbox 360, 2010)
Series progress: 4/8

Other Media
I finally finished my Stardew Valley perfection run, as much as I love the game the grind for 10 million for the gold clock is terrible, but I got there. Perfection ended up taking me 90 hours over the course of almost 3 months and it was a very fun experience, but I'm happy to be moving onto my next side game which is Celeste! I'm not sure I'll go for 100% completion in Celeste, I'll gauge it on my enjoyment in just a regular playthrough first, to my knowledge it's pretty tough to do. I finally have another interesting media besides video games to discuss here, music! Tiny bit of backstory since I've never discussed it here, I've always been a bit of a metalhead, Nu and Alt metal are some of my favorite genres, but my guilty pleasure is JPOP. I took 4 years of Japanese classes, and during that I started listening to Japanese music and discovered some great artists, Kenshi Yonezu, Eve, and One OK Rock, but the one that stole my heart 4 years ago was Yoasobi who I have recently rediscovered yet again. Let me tell you Yoasobi is like crack, I'm not really one to get obsessed with music artists, but Yoasobi just hits that perfect note for me and I cannot stop listening. I could probably go on for hours about it so I think I'll cut it off there, I hadn't thought to include music in this section before so maybe I'll throw it in here and there.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I'm not sure what to expect out of Reach, maybe since it's different I'll enjoy it more, it'll be very interesting to play. I don't have too many extra thoughts since ODST was so short, so thank you for reading, until next time!