TheMightyEthan

And Diana is so frickin charming! It would have been so easy for her to end up annoying, but luckily they seem to have avoided that.

I also broke down and grabbed Pragmata.

Yeah the Hotwheels DLC is my favorite part of that game, so much fun.

I'm playing Donkey Kong Bananza and really enjoying it. At first I was finding it kind of tedious, but once I started resisting my completionist urge to just flatten all the terrain in every level and instead follow the objectives like a regular platformer I started having a lot of fun.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment I really liked Age of Calamity, and was looking forward to this one since it actually tells the backstory of the imprisoning war. However, sadly, I just don't think it's as good as Calamity. It's not bad, per se, it just kind of is. With the exception of Zelda, Rauru, and Mineru, the characters don't feel as much like characters as they did in Calamity, and it's just so damn long. It took me around 25 hours, and I was ready for it to be over around the 2/3 point. That said, I did enjoy my time with it, and if you want a Zelda musou game it's certainly that. Score: 3/5 (I'm attempting a new 5-point system, no fractional points)

You don't want to know what I had to do...

I didn't technically buy Crimson Desert, but I had RAM issues so I replaced my CPU, mobo, and RAM, and got a free key for the game with the CPU.

I was thinking that about the wristbands. Like, it's on my wrist, that shouldn't take an inventory slot.

Resident Evil Requiem I really liked this game. After the first half I was at a 10/10, but that got dragged down a little (not a lot) in the back half because it was more Leon-heavy, and I liked the Grace/Leon balance of the first half more. The last section is great though, everything I want from a Resident Evil game. Grade: A

Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways Okay, this was badass, I liked it quite a bit more than the main game. Playing as Ada was fun, I felt like stealth was more viable, the story moved faster, it was just better in basically every way. Plus there's ! Grade: A

I just finished RE4R on Sunday, and now I'm trying to get through Separate Ways before Requiem launches, but it's gonna be close.

Resident Evil 4 Remake I bounced off this game on Gamecube back when it first came out, but this time the remake clicked with me way better. I'm partial to the Raccoon City incident, so the fact that this is largely unrelated to that is a bit of a ding, but it's fun game and I enjoyed my time with it. Grade: B+

Ditto.

Dual-screen Android emulation handheld. https://www.ayntec.com/products/ayn-thor

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds I'd tried and failed several times to get into A Link to the Past, so I thought I'd give this a shot instead, and it really hooked me. It's a great Zelda game, reminiscent of the old 2D ones while feeling much better to play. I was a little worried about the item rental system, but even that ended up not really bothering me, though I do think overall I prefer the classic dungeon item unlock system. This is definitely a fun game and worth playing though, and I highly recommend it. Grade: A Side note: Playing it on the Thor felt great, like that's where it was meant to be played. It looked great too, running at a solid 1080p 60fps.

Gonna play Requiem later this month so I figure I should play this first.

I wouldn't say it doesn't matter, but yeah it's not a big stressor. I do think it detracted from the experience in that when you like beat a boss and changed the state of an area it didn't stick, so it discouraged me from engaging with the changes to the world because I didn't want to have to go back and fight the boss again to re-trigger the change (even though you can skip the dungeon to do so). I still liked the game but I do wish there was some way to make those things stick, or at least make them be activated just by like interacting with a statue or something instead of having to fight the boss again.

lol no, it was Jan 25, 2026, it just only took me a few days to give up. I actually played Majora's Mask this past December too, and managed to get through it for the first time ever. I enjoyed it, but it's in the lower-tier of my Zelda games.

Previously I'd only played the Link's Awakening remake, which I did like, and Echoes of Wisdom, which I didn't. I actually ended up giving up on A Link to the Past again after I posted that, and switched to A Link Between Worlds which I'm liking a lot more. I think a big part of it is just that with ALttP you're locked to the grid, which makes combat (especially positioning) awkward and frustrating, whereas in the newer ones you can move around more freely and attack in more than just the four cardinal directions. Also ALttP gives you no guidance whatsoever, it makes Breath of the Wild look like it's on rails, and I just do not have the patience for that level of aimless exploration anymore. I think if I'd played it as a kid it would be one of my favorite games of all time, but trying to play it now without that nostalgia it just doesn't work for me. I'm a good bit of the way into ALBW now though, and unless it takes a nosedive at the end I expect to see it through. I think it does a good job of maintaining the feel of ALttP but more modernized so it's less frustrating. I do wish they'd make a remake of ALttP though like they did with Link's Awakening, I think there's a good chance I'd be able to get into it if they just freed up the movement a little more like that one.

Plan B: Terraform This is a logistics/factory game in the vein of Factorio or Dyson Sphere Program, though it's a little more simplified than those (or at least DSP, I haven't played Factorio). The premise is the Earth is fucked so you're terraforming another planet to live on. Lots of setting up mines to truck minerals to factories to make steel to truck to other factories to make more complicated things, etc etc etc. It's really pretty, and entertaining, and even the little bit of story that's there is pretty fun. The only issue for me was I do wish it was a tad more complex, as is like you can have multiple trains using the same lines to move different materials but they don't block each other, and it makes some of the logistics work a little less engaging than it could otherwise have been. But overall it's still a lot of fun, and I really recommend it if you like those kinds of games. Grade: A-

I'm giving The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past one more go. I've bounced off it three times before, maybe fourth time is the charm.

Road to Empress First game completed in 2026! This is a kind of FMV choose your own adventure/visual novel where you play as Wu Zetian, the first and only Chinese empress regnant, starting as a consort entering the palace and having to intrigue your way first to survival and then to the top. You'll definitely die a lot of times along the way though. It's a lot of fun, completely over the top in a good way. EXCEPT APPARENTLY IT'S ONLY PART 1! I haven't been got this bad by a surprise cliffhanger since Across the Spider-Verse. Still though, great game, a lot of fun. Perfectly achieves what it sets out to do, no notes. Grade: A+

Game of the Year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 What is there to say that hasn't already been said? This game is dramatic and emotional and funny, the worldbuilding is fantastic and the combat feels great, it's everything I could want from an RPG. I love this game so much, it's my favorite game in years. Runner-Up: Citizen Sleeper 2 If you like story based games and haven't played Citizen Sleeper you should, it's kind of a visual novel but also a resource management game, where you play as an android trying to survive in a system that doesn't recognize your personhood. It's a little bit Murderbot, without all the violence, and the sequel expands upon the first in a way that manages to be a lot more than just more of the same. Honorable Mention: Zenless Zone Zero I've never played a gacha game before, I kind of have philosophical objections to the whole concept, but this game has its hooks in me bad. It's a lot of fun, the periodic events keep things changing up, and the stories it tells are surprisingly moving for a gooner gambler game. It's not the best game I've played this year, but it's definitely a big part of my year in games, I started in February and I haven't missed a day since.