Rise of the Tomb Raider

I looked at all the RPGs I’ve played this year, trying to pick the one of them all that would be the best of the year. Several stood out, but I couldn’t pick just one. I guess if there were a game that I felt worth spending hours of my life playing, that proved its quality, maybe? Outer Wilds (PS4; finished January 26) This indie game about a hapless astronaut who is trying to stop their sun from exploding in (looks at watch) 24 minutes made a huge splash when it came out last year for all the right reasons. The clockwork solar system our astronaut lives in is full of puzzles everywhere you look. The lore is amazing. The physics are on point. And every 24 minutes, the sun explodes and you start from the beginning again, but you still have retained all you learned. ...

Since finishing Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, I’ve been sorta casually playing some Tomb Raider; Rise of the Tomb Raider, one of this month’s free Playstation Plus offerings. And it’s been no small amount of fun to be the badass Lara Croft, able to take on – and crush – entire Siberian prison camps with a couple sticks and a bit of string. But the buzz surrounding today’s release of Ghost of Tsushima (a name I am training myself to pronounce correctly) was too much to ignore. Last night I left Lara at one of her innumerable base camps beneath the very noses of the enemy, and took up the *katana and bushido of Jin Satai, last of the Tsushima samurai, off to avenge his honor against Hans Gruber and the rest of the Mongol horde. ...