Topic: Games you've recently beat

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Score: 7.5/10
Completed: 01-02-26
Hours to complete: 21
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This game impresses in many ways, but is brought down by weak dialogue, boring characters, Ubisoft tropes, and bad acting. The game is gorgeous visually and is constantly impressing with its grand vistas and detailed jungles. The gunplay and gameplay feels generic and familiar. However, it has impressive freedom in the first person free-running system. The third person update was excellent and improved the game experience for me.

Hogwarts Legacy
Score: 8/10
Completed: 01-07-26
Hours to complete: 22
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Took me a few years to finally complete this one as I wasn’t too fond of the intermittent fetch quests to unlock required spells for main quest missions. I finally finished off the main story and was pleasantly satisfied with the core of the game and the attention to detail displayed throughout the environments. The voice acting was hit or miss and the writing was average at best. Really enjoyed the spell combat and variety of enemies. Music was awesome.

Lords of the Fallen
Score: 7.5/10
Completed: 01-14-26
Hours to complete: 26
— A souls game with a unique and technically impressive game mechanic. Quick and fluid movement. Solid build crafting and weapons. Some solid bosses and some weak bosses. Final boss was disappointing. Played this game fully in co-op and it definitely added to the fun of the game and made it an easier game overall.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage
Score: 7/10
Completed 01-18-26
Hours to complete: 15
— Refreshingly classic stealth gameplay with a concise linear story. The parkour felt worse in this game compared to previous AC games which surprised me and was disappointing. I frequently glitched on walls and ledges. The voice performances were okay but the volume and effect on some of the vocal performances felt inconsistent and generally off. The game felt like a budget AC game but I wasn’t expecting much and found myself pleasantly content with the whole package.

Tekken 8 Platinum
Completed 01-28-26
Hours to complete: 12
— Amazing fighting game and a very well rounded trophy list. The online trophies were fair requiring very little play time. Three trophies require a win in three different online competitive modes which requires some practice but is very obtainable for any skill level. The story mode trophies required completion of each mode which was quick and fun.

Alan Wake 2
Score: 🏆9/10
Completed 01-30-26
Hours to complete: 16
— Remedy went above and beyond for AW2. The production levels are incredibly high. The acting, voice acting, and sound were all superb. The environments were gorgeous and felt like a real place in the PNW. The horror elements were surprisingly strong at first then became a bit more tame and the jump scares were slightly repetitive (although some were impressively well placed). The story is captivating and makes you want to marathon it to see where it goes. Very enjoyable experience.