Content from Last 48hrs

Absolutely obsessed with Nioh 3 right now, which is no surprise since it's one of my favorite game series of all time. They made it open world this time so all those people complaining about the mission based structure of the last two games can finally quit bitching about it. It kinda feels more like a Metroidvania than an Assassin's Creed or a Ghost of Tsushima because the map has a good bit of platforming as well as areas you can't access until you acquire the right spirit guardian to help you through.

Painkiller: Black Edition Lots of enemies, cool guns, excellent music, not much more to say lol. Pretty fun, holds up well and ran without issues. This version also includes the Battle out of Hell expansion. Grade: A+ Painkiller: Battle out of Hell Ten new levels (sorta, last one is just a boss fight), some new enemies and a lot more sources of frustration lol. Unlike the original one, which started out in a traditional hellish setting, with graves, creepy cathedrals, and skeleton knights and then ramped up to more modern and weirder settings and enemies, this one does the opposite, ending in some rather boring levels. More importantly though, the platforming is incredibly frustrating, there's a couple of areas where you need to do some jumping, including most of the ninth level, and it's annoying as hell, specially with how wonky physics are, try jumping and if you clip debris or the edge of a platform you'll go into orbit lol. Doesn't help that some checkpoints are placed in hard to get locations, so it's easy to spend a good chunk of time just making your way back up, miss the checkpoint and end up all the way back down, I was actually pretty close to dropping it when I reached this part in level 9 where I kept missing the jump to get the checkpoint lol. Some of the boss gimmicks are also pretty annoying, specially the last boss. Rest of the game is still fun, but the platforming and design of the last couple of levels really drag down the whole thing. Grade: C-

One of the more tedious parts of Soulslike games is using consumable resources to top off however much exp you need to level up, especially in the early days when you had to use these items one at a time. Nioh 3 finally streamlined that process. When you're at the level up screen you can hit a single button and it will ask if you want to use however many items you need to reach your next level up. You hit yes and you're DONE. Can every soulslike do this from now on, please?