tldr videogame curation
melbourne, australia

Platform: PlayStation 5

Tone, visuals, atmosphere and music are back to Diablo’s dark roots. Unfortunately the pacing, activities and uneven design quality (not to mention monetisation) become old pretty quickly. Feels more like a checklist than an epic journey, but it’ll probably be a good game in a year or two.

It feels lazy to say so, but it really is - in the best way - more of the same but improved. I wish they leaned more into the soulslike aspects, but they understandably want to retain a broader audience. The set pieces are bombastic, combat fun and exploration a bit more rewarding this time around.

Impossibly good looking, creative worldbuilding & visual design, considering its a studio debut. Combat is cool, exploration is OK, puzzles are varied and good. English VA is intolerable. Pretty cool.

Full of potential and has glimmers of greatness, but ultimately lands somewhere between dull and painful.

A simplified and more arcadey MH:W. Combat feels a bit more dynamic, navigation and traversal is easier/better, story is still mediocre. A good port considering its origins, and a pretty good game.

Everything I wanted from a monster hunting game on paper, but suffers from less than satisfying movement, particularly over janky world geometry. Needs more content, but could be really good.

A lot of Nioh buildcrafting stuff has been simplified, some new stuff has been added. Morale system is clever, forcing further exploration. Combat is very satisfying. Story is passable. Good game.

Loses some of the fat of its predecessor, and takes a bunch from DOOM (2016). Undoubtedly fun, but cringey dialogue and characters can sometimes make it a bit hard.

Somewhere between Journey and BOTW, but with a tighter and shorter focus. Great to look at, fun and satisfying to play. Could see it being repetitive and unrewarding for some, but its core is a nice.

Visceral, satisfying combat, sublime art, great sound/music and a good challenge. Relatively unforgiving but ultimately very rewarding. An extraordinarily cinematic, violently masterful blast.