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Death Stranding Finished the story. It's suitably Kojima levels of nuttiness and will take me a while to unpack all the meaning. I'll probably not go back to it for a while though. Feel like I'm "done" with it. On to the next.

Even though 2020 was the year dominated by Covid, 2021 was the year where Covid really screwed over game development with a ton of releases I was looking forward to getting pushed back. I honestly didn't see a whole lot to get excited about this year, but that doesn't mean there were no good games. You know the drill, one winner and one runner-up. For me it was not a hard decision. Putting aside all the titty vampire mommy memes, this was a great game. You can debate as much as you want about whether Resident Evil is going in the right direction with its gameplay and story and characters and monsters, but to me this was a bigger, better version of VII, a game I already loved. I ran through this game probably five or six times just to unlock everything I possibly could. My only regret is that there's no VR option, but if they ever add one after the PSVR 2 comes out you better believe I'm gonna dive right back in. Runner-Up I was really torn between this and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Both are great games and, objectively speaking, Rift Apart is the more technically impressive and "next gen" title. The reason I ultimately picked Psychonauts 2, however, is that I just felt like it had more heart. Not to say that Rift Apart doesn't, Insomniac clearly worked their asses off on that game, but Psychonauts 2 is the result of a 15 year old promise that actually lived up to the hype and I can't tell you how great that feels. You can tell while playing that this wasn't just some slapdash sequel Double Fine put out because they were obligated to. They tried their very best to fulfill all the hopes and dreams of their eager fans, and even if you don't like how it turned out you could never accuse them of being lazy or half-assed. The animation is whimsical and charming. The new characters are lovable and memorable. The writing is better than before with both hilarious jokes and poignant parables about the importance of confronting your past mistakes. The level design is the best I've seen in years. The story started in the previous game is wrapped up nicely. I don't know if there will ever be a Psychonauts 3, but if this is the last time we see Raz and company then this is a great way to send them off.

Death Stranding is Game of the Year, every year.

Oh shit, World of Horror update after a year of silence from the developer! I honestly thought this game had been abandoned but now it's finally time to go back to Shiokawa, baby. Even though it's in early access I can easily recommend it to anyone who likes roguelikes, RPGs, or horror. Now that the update is going to be adding two new cases and Old Gods at the bare minimum it's even easier to recommend, especially at 15 dollars.

Had my eye on that for a while, and my OG Series X controller is starting to show some wear (right trigger)... Just grabbed this. I've already played (and loved) Prey; it's the Mooncrash stuff I'm interested in. I can't play Deathloop, but people have recommended Mooncrash as something of a substitute. I know it's not 1 for 1, but I'll take what I can get atm.