I haven’t written anything in a while, almost makes you think that I got tired of writing and the website didn’t interest me anymore. Which couldn’t be farther from the truth – so what’s the deal? In my twenties, I’ve grown accustomed to making to dubbing winter “Backlog Season”. I hold off on most games I find physically at retro stores until after Thanksgiving. Between December and the beginning of March, I have beaten 7 games, and now I am ready to give my collective overall thoughts.

First on the list, we have Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Now I’ve seen all the movies, played a few games, but never really been a big fan of the series in general. I found it for $10 and as many people both around me and online praised it, I figured I’d give it a shot. In the end, it’s a 6/10. The intro is great, the AT-AT sequence is cool, and everything from Dathomir forward is done well. Everything else? Bad. The maps are not the easiest to navigate (DESPISE PLANET ZEFFO), not crazy about all enemies respawning after saves, and combat never clicked with me. A few bugs too, even on the PS5 version. I will pick up Survivor eventually as I’ve heard combat improves, but yeah Fallen Order I’d consider overhyped.

Next was Bioshock Infinite. I beat the original Bioshock and a bit of 2 back on PS3, never had Infinite. It’s 60fps on the PS4 collection, so what better time to try it than now? I will give Infinite much credit for its setting, Columbia is certainly unique as composed to Rapture and I did like 1910’s aesthetic. Is it better? Eh no, Rapture has the dub on this one. The horror vibe just hits more. Regardless, I beat the game and both DLC episodes as well. The main story was interesting until it introduced the multiverse. I’m sure in 2013 that neat, now it’s an overused concept so that didn’t sit right with me. Oh and subtitles are needed, so hard to hear dialogue in some situations. I’d give Infinite a 7/10.

inFamous Second Son – I loved the first inFamous, and this was an early PS4 game, why did I never pick it up? Honestly, I think it’s because the main character wasn’t Cole Macgrath, no other reason. I can tell you that was dumb, yet it worked out in my favor. A patch for Second Son dropped a few years ago, pushing the game up to 60fps and enabling HDR. For a game over 10 years old, some of the dull cityscapes don’t age well. The fleshed-out colors of all the powers you learn and the smoothness of the gameplay is real nice though. It’s not too long either, I finished in 9 hours. 8/10.

Speaking of games that aren’t too long, that’s what Red Dead Redemption is NOT. My older brother had this on 360, I messed around on his completed save all the time and never did my own run-through. The 4K 60fps port holds up in the visual department, caught myself a few times out in the wild on horseback going “Wow for a 2009 Rockstar release this looks surprisingly fantastic”. But god does the story overstay its welcome and is plagued with the 2008-2011 open world curse in which you are given so many empty promises missions: “Go do ABC, I’ll give you #1. Oh wait you did ABC? Go do DEF, and then I’ll give you #1. Thanks for doing DEF, I actually don’t have #1. Someone else does”. I’m over that shit. Red Dead Redemption I will never go back to unless I’m playing Undead Nightmare, which in itself is a 9/10.

Dead Space I’ll say up front is an 8/10. I hadn’t dipped my toes into a horror game in a minute so the remake had my curiosity. It’s an over-the-shoulder shooter similar to Resident Evil in space on a ship called the USG Ishimura. The ship had sent out a distress signal and, naturally, everyone had been torn apart by the enemies known as Necromorphs. Almost the entire crew dies in the first hour and you need to find a way to escape all while mowing down the Necromorphs by ripping off their ligaments. It’s a unique, especially flipping shooting orientation with the Plasma Cutter, way to tackle fighting enemies. There are also sequences where you have to fight bosses or complete puzzles while in zero gravity – the smoothness in 60fps flipping around is entertaining.

I snagged the Doom Classics Collection from Limited Run, more so for the collection but in honor of Doom: The Dark Ages coming out in May I figured I’d beat the original. For a FPS from 1993, it’s upscaled and runs flawlessly. There are 3 episodes in the original game with an additional episode added from the re-release around the time of Doom II. Heard the extra episode was not consistent or fun so I skipped it. When the game is running around and blasting demons it’s at its highest (loads of secrets too). When it’s puzzles with ridiculous solutions that you were meant to take days on to find, oh it’s bad. Luckily you can use choose whatever level you want to play so if I’m pushing 20 minutes looking for a damn door that blends in, I can simply move onto the next level. 4 hours total to finish.

The final backlog title is Metal Gear Solid. My knowledge of the franchise is from Smash and that god-awful game called The Phantom Pain. In hindsight, probably should not have bought it without doing some research or understanding the lore. It made me despise Kojima. However, as I was given the Master Collection Vol 1. as a birthday gift, I would at least attempt to play the original. There are some dated controls in this thing man, and the Kojima-ness for certain situations is stupid. The overall package? Have to admit – not bad. The music and setting are the highlights, and when the controls did work in a way where I didn’t want to rip my hair out, I enjoyed it. But I would never play this again. Sons of Liberty I’ll be pushing off most likely until the next backlog season, which is not what I ever expected to say.