Genshin Impact.

Listen. I understand that the entire thing was hyped up upon release. It was, after all, a gamechanger for mobile gacha games. We went from turn-based games to things like Honkai Star Rail and Tower of Fantasy and of course, Genshin Impact. Honkai Impact 3rd existed, but it wasn't quite the same as these ones.

However. Despite the hype, there was a problem that made me reluctant to play it.

I really suck at gacha games. Every gacha game before then I would drop within what, 6 days? I love the characters, love the story, hate the game.

So imagine my surprise when I logged into my settings the other day and found out that oh, It's now been over 500 days logged, lmao. I've taken breaks from it once in a while, but I haven't quit it yet. What have I become?

Elex had some really rough reviews, and didn’t exactly have me chomping at the bit to try it. A while back I noticed it was included in my PS+ subscription, so I gave it a shot out of curiosity.

It’s actually pretty great. The beginning of the game is really hard (tip - get a companion ASAP, as they are substantially better than you at first), which is kind of refreshing to be honest to have a game where you’re told ‘you have lost your power and are weak’ and you actually are. But as you level up and get used to the systems, you gradually become an absolute monster on the battlefield. There’s nothing more satisfying in a game than returning to a monster that once killed you if it even looked at you, and being able to beat the crap out of it now.

I also felt it did “post apocalyptic world’ very well. Where most games of the type take the approach of making a world that looks like the world was destroyed a month before you set off on your adventure, Elex takes a different approach of showing a mixed world of areas that are well on their way to recovery, and areas where the land itself is so damaged it’s unlikely to ever recover, and a few places in between. It works, at least it did for me.

The game is not perfect by any means, there is a level of jank that can be both charming and annoying, but it’s a very solid adventure that at least dares to try to be different than the top games in its genre. Definitely worth a try for fans of RPGs, open world games, or adventure games.

Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky had poor reviews on IGN so I decided to give it a shot and it became one of my favorite games of all time.

No man's sky, plenty of people who told me it was a bad choice (and at the time it truly was) I love how the game is today though

I thought "Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion" was a game trying a little too hard to be quirky, with an attention-grabbing title and little depth beyond one or two jokes.

That game... went places. Places I did not expect.

Judging by the trailers I thought "INFRA" was going to be a short first person exploration puzzler type of deal. Take photos of damaged structures, explore abandoned buildings, marvel at the graphical excellence of 2020s gaming, that kinda thing. It had rave reviews, but I chose to go in blind in terms of story.

Turns out, it's an over 30 hour puzzle adventure game with an ARG, pretty deep lore, comedy elements, horror elements, open exploration, collectibles, secret areas, easter eggs, etc. Most of it is pretty standard "walking simulator" gameplay, and part of the middle chapters can feel like a serious slog walking through tunnel after tunnel, but I found myself consistently surprised and even awed by the crazy environments the developers managed to create. The puzzles can also be seriously difficult at times, usually requiring some pretty good logical skills or even prior knowledge of how engineering and physics works. (although there is that one electrical wiring puzzle at the end of chapter 6/7 or whatever that has everybody stumped no matter their education level)

SaGa (the series in general). Always heard it was the obtuse bastard child in the RPG family. The series has tried a lot of interesting things and while most games in the series are flawed, they are all really interesting in spite of themselves.

I really loved Singularity, but it was pretty much a flop.

Vampyr. On release a lot of people and reviews said it was clunky and not very good, it has a 72 on Opencritic and 55% of critics did not recommend it. It also got a lot of negative reviews from the community.

Well I think those people were high, it was one of my favorite games of that year! It's not a perfect game by any means but it was a ton of fun. Great atmosphere, great gameplay, good story... I never really got the hate.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. It was a short game that was more story than game so I was hesitant that I wouldn't like it. I played through it in vr and it became my favourite game to date.

To anyone who wants to play it, whether it's flatscreen or vr, you must have a good pair of headphones to fully appreciate it.

I think Halo 5 is one of the best Halo games, in terms of both single player and multiplayer. Fight me

The first Knack on PS4. It has okay to low review, tons of meme but I bought and played it. To my surprise it's actually pretty deep in terms of fighting mob mechanism at higher difficulties. Example, some of the AI can work together and bait your action, then another will follow up to hit you. Those behavior won't show up in easier difficulty cause you just delete them so quickly with your power/punches/slams. With higher difficulty the order of how you approach multiple enemies in an area becomes it's own action-puzzle game. It can still have some extra polish but still exceeded my expectation.(no I haven't played knack 2 yet.)

lol, I should've copied over my knack review etc from reddit.

It's not a remarkable game, but watch dog legions was nowhere near as bad as the original reaction made it out to be. Better than 2 I think, I didn't like The protagonist in 2

Fallout 76. I preordered the game and absolutely enjoyed every bit of it. I have since stopped playing but for the first two years of that game being out I was on the hook! People complained that it wasn’t a traditional fallout game. And that’s is honestly what I loved about it. That and the amazing community that there was at the time. Really wish I could back into it.

Elder Scrolls blade was such a fun game! On the note of playing a smaller game Motherload is a surprisingly fun flash game where you dig for resources on an alien planet. The game is easy to learn but difficult to master. You get to experiment with different upgrades to find the best build for your playstyle. The levels are procedurally generated so it’s my go-to fall back game once a blue moon. Enjoy!

http://www.xgenstudios.com/play/motherload

EDF 4 was one of my big ones. Bought it after seeing the strangely high steam reviews. Turns out it pretty much captures the feeling of that fun game that you played on your friend's PS2 after school on Friday. Something about chucking increasingly large explosives at piles of giant ants really just does it for me.

Blasphemous. I was told by some that it was a very shallow game with boring lore, and that it only succeeded cause it was marketed at a basically Platformer Dark Souls.

Not true. There is a lot of lore I find really interesting, the map is much larger than I originally thought, there are tons of secrets and hidden passages, and it's pulled all the best parts from Metroid, Castlevania and Dark Souls and combined them into a very well polished game.

Currently going for a 100% completion run before 2 comes out.

Probably Dark Sector. Pretty sure I found it in a bargain bin and I heard it described as a violent ultimate frisbee. The game play mechanics and atmosphere made it a surprising amount of fun

I know it's a bit of a darling, but Persona 5. Thought it was too anime, but picked it up after my partner suggested that it might be fun. 300 hours later I 100% completed it, finished P4G and am starting P3Fes. Next stop: P2IS/EP

The Walking Dead Season 1. I knew it was good but I didn't realize how good

The game "Power Shovel ni Nourou" for playstation looks like a typical construction simulator budget title on the surface, but the gameplay is absolutely absurd. You use an excavator bucket to scoop curry and move turtles out of a swimming pool, etc video

Spec Ops: The Line looked like yet another generic first person shooter, but it is full of surprises and gets deep in a way I never expected. Highly recommend it, and go in as spoiler-free as possible.