I decided to take a break from buying new games this year, both to save money and to catch up on my backlog (I'm only making an exception for MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA, which I pre-ordered a while back). The reviews of HORIZON: ZERO DAWN and the new Zelda are making that decision feel a little painful this week, so I'm…

I just started playing TRANSFORMERS: DEVASTATION, which basically seems to be Bayonetta w/Transformers. That's okay with me. I'm terrible at fast-paced action games like this, but it's plenty of fun (and I love the old-school cartoon look).

This weekend, I'll be continuing my journey into STAR TREK ONLINE. Still just a few missions into the first main storyline, but the main thing I'm noticing right now is that the ship combat – which seemed almost laughably simplistic at first – is actually fairly complex and challenging once you're dealing with enemies…

Tokyo Mirage Sessions was one of my favorite Wii U games, as well. I was only familiar with the Fire Emblem franchise when I played it, but it inspired me to go back and check out Persona 4 Golden (which is similarly terrific).

I'm a big Star Trek fan, so I decided to give STAR TREK ONLINE a shot on PS4. I've only played the first couple of hours so far, so it remains to be seen how frustrating the free-to-play elements will get, but it seems like an interesting (if somewhat clunky) opportunity to explore the Trekverse. Got a little…

I love the meat and potatoes of Twilight Princess - it has some amazing dungeons and a genuinely compelling central narrative - but it definitely has some of the dullest/most tedious optional side activities of any Zelda game (partially due to the fact that the world is so big/empty, meaning the side activities…

Everything except the GAT OUT OF HELL expansion (which was actually a PS+ freebie recently, so some people may already heave that).

The PSN store had it on sale for $5 a few weeks ago, so I picked it up. I'm assuming a lot of people grabbed it then.

I just finished playing SAINTS ROW IV, which seemed insane when I first started it, but feels pretty muted and naturalistic in contrast to the real-life presidency we're witnessing right now.

Much appreciated. I think I'm going to stick with my core team for now, but will probably look at focusing on some of the others when/if I revisit this title in the future.

Just you wait…

This weekend, I'll be playing SAINTS ROW IV (which I picked up in the PSN holiday sale). I've only spent a little bit of time with it, but it seems completely insane. The opening stretch in particular was great: Keith David, Aerosmith, British aliens, that '50s sequence, etc. The superpower abilities are a ton of fun,…

I made it through the final handful of levels quickly enough, but it took me about three hours to beat the final boss. The thought of facing that guy again has been the one thing that has kept me from replaying it.

I loved Tropical Freeze. An improvement on DKCR in a number of a ways, the biggest one being that no motion controls are involved. Some of those boss battles are ferocious, though.

I am progressing verrrrrrry slowly through THE LAST GUARDIAN. I don't dislike it at all, but I find motivating myself to actually play it fairly difficult. The gameplay is on the repetitive side, and the bits where you spend five or ten minutes just trying to get Trico to go where you need him to go have a tendency to…

So noted. I'll be playing it on PS4, so fingers crossed it will be a better experience.

My five favorite games of 2016:

I received Final Fantasy XV, but haven't started it yet. Looking forward to it, though.

I finished up DISHONORED 2. A solid game overall, but I found the concluding section a little underwhelming. It felt so similar to the closing chapter of the Witches of Brigmore DLC, but even less compelling from a narrative and design standpoint (it's weird that Delilah seems like a more clearly-defined villain in…

The only thing in the present I know that I altered is solving the little puzzle to get the safe combination. I was generally worried about creating some some of horrible butterfly effect so tried to be as discreet as possible. Definitely want to go back and tinker with that one at some point, though.