Fair enough but, well, you've been asking about HZD and Mass Effect..

Same here, probably because in some ways it echoes/subverts the events of the introduction with the destruction and subsequent restoration of the two main characters (esp. the fact that only one of them gets to keep their memories).

Funny that you mentioned it: I experimented with trying out a new game after finishing my first playthrough of this, and the lucky candidate was Horizon Zero Dawn. It looked gorgeous but could not push myself to bother with it for more than half an hour before rushing back to NieR to start my second run.

I'm currently in my third playthrough (and haven't started Zelda yet) but I don't see any way this can be dethroned as my game of the year. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that it's the only truly essential narrative-driven game I've played since Dark Souls. Absolutely bonkers, devastatingly sad, jaw-droppingly…

"Finally, Yoko Taro gets the recognition he deserves and this game
catapulted him with the greats like Hideo Kojima and Hideki Kamiya."

OFDP is simply a marvel of pure design, outrageously underrated title. That and Flywrench should be compulsory studies for any aspiring action game designer.

Oh no, it's spreading!

"Yes, you should watch Angel. It’s a good show. Sometimes it’s as good—if not better—than the show that spawned it." What sort of heresy is this??

*tumbleweed rolling lazily by*

Have you played Bayonetta? If not, first stop after the NG games should definitely be Bayonetta. I think there's a law about it.

Just saw it recently and was thinking the same thing about Don't Think Twice: much more honest, much less smug.

It's a decent old-school RPG but comes with despair-inducing difficulty spikes. You'll need inhuman reserves of patience and a hard min-maxing mindset for raising your stats.

Convoy. Haven't played it anywhere near as much as I'd have liked, but the little that I did was great. Plus, it's currently -70% on Steam.

Huh, sounds like the early SSI/AD&D titles where you had the booklets with the location-specific flavour text which also doubled as copy protection.

More from a historical/theoretical perspective - to see if I can trace for myself those connections, described by Matt, to games I consider infinitely superior.

Wow, didn't know that about the book - in Greece it was virtually impossible to get any original games at the time.

It is in fact a much earlier set of sensibilities that made me dislike Diablo. If I want number crunching and the luck of the roll, I want to see it happen: give me The Bard's Tale's turn-based combat painstakingly detailed on that unfolding scroll; if I want something action-oriented, give me a game that tests my…

Love Gateway to Apshai - still kill the odd hour playing it occasionally. Having said that, if I recall correctly, its dungeons are not randomly generated (though I'm not so sure about the loot).

Condors? They've always looked like Canadian geese to me

Pitfall 2 fun fact: after reaching the monkey-like creature that's the ultimate goal in the C64 version (and, I assume, most others), if you're playing it on an Atari 800, a portal to a whole new world opens up, complete with new enemies and treasures.