Recent reviews by Devadatta Baraka

Unoptimized, glitchy, full of jank, and arguably the best version of this game because it gets so dark you can't see in front of your face. I could just boot up Redux or Metro Last Light, but those play more like Far Cry with the clean stealth takedowns and glowing crap everywhere.
The only way I recommend this is if you already know you want to do this to yourself, which I might not wish this on my worst enemy. The optimization for this game is something I would have written it off entirely for if I didn't adore it already, but truly I couldn't run it on my modern system without some modding.
Ranger Hardcore was actually scary fun for most of my run. It was nice to keep track of where I was going without a bunch of reminders or voice lines telling me all the time, plus things like giving qualitative estimates for my ammo keeping tabs in my mind. Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 were both frustrating trial and error with no investment, I just walked forward until I stopped dying. Artyom really made it the whole way to the tower so he could tap E really hard, a crappy destination after a long eventful journey. In spite of my gripes, I'm gonna go play it again to try and get the Enlightened ending. Definitely an endearing favorite.

Total pain to get working, and even still it didn't feel worth the trouble.
Multiplayer isn't available unless on weekends, otherwise most lobbies are empty
The campaign is arguably one of the main selling points here since BF4 and BF1 have the better multiplayer anyway, but the level design is so rushed and the characters are so stupid it's pretty much what you would expect from a bad FPS campaign from this era.

Fallout New Vegas Did Nothing Wrong™

The idea sounds solid but in practice I don't like holding F over a bunch of different little tasks and errands in between waiting for the dialogue to finish it's horrible millennial comedy routine, it all ends up feeling like it's taking time away from my cool graveyard with dead people I would be responsible for. I would like something like this more if I didn't have to indulge the other characters so much and I could just work on my graveyard for hours. I thought the graphics and music were commendably cozy. Bet the sequel is cool but I probably won't check it out.

Completely functional third person shooter game with a very fun multiplayer mode. DROPS THE BALL ON THE STORY SO HARD I don't even care anymore lol
PAINFUL CRINGE: Illusive Man Flanderization, Rachni Retcon that disrepected choices made by the player all for the sake of a setpiece, proto quirk chungus dialogue that replaces the depth in dialogue from the last two games with dadjokes and banter... annoying weight system, the worst Normandy and the worst squad selection out of the three games... every mission feels like you shoot ad nauseum and a magic wand facilitates where any weight of meaningful decisions gets undercut by the insistence that something cool is happening... but it isn't earned at all logically in the story... this story is less like Mass Effect 2 and more like Shrek. It's full of characters I recognize and all that, but it's almost a parody... Vanguard ruined by replacing barrier with a doofus fist slam... Cool RPG mechanics and depth from the last two ALL BOILED DOWN into Telltale Games fake meat. Also, showed this to hb on Discord he said it looked like God of War Ragnarok lmao
In 2012 I enjoyed the first two games thoroughly and couldn't finish this one because it just didn't feel right. Now it feels like the seventh seal of everything wrong with games these days.

This game has always run about as good as toilet water in a gas tank and it gets worse every update somehow.
I've had some really fun times with this game, but it needs better hardware to run it. Not from graphical demand like Cyberpunk or anything, purely from poor optimization and coding sins.

When I was a cynical teen I thought this game was some Disney sh so I avoided it. Several years after I tried Skyrim I decided to see what the hype around this was and I realized how stupid and pretentious my earlier assumption was. The aesthetics of this game are gorgeous, even after the remaster tried to do it justice it really isn't even pretty in the same way. Looking at this game feels like walking through a Maxfield Parrish painting, and it's impressionistic in a way where the newer take on the graphics doesn't do it justice. Oblivion has some of the most beautiful backing tracks I've ever heard and they get me feeling things between the towns, like I'm actually in awe of how profound it feels to go hiking around Cyrodiil.
I gotta admit, this game runs like soupy hot garbage without mods and personally I had to fight to get this thing running. I don't mind the simple RPG mechanics, and it's nice this game encourages different specialized builds for characters. The fighting and questing were fun sometimes but they're not even nearly enjoyable as the traversal, which not only was beautiful with the art + music but also extremely fun with the acrobatics skill enabling bunnyhops to send you flying across county lines. It's difficult to recommend, but this game has artistic merit that can't be recreated by AI, which is why it's the game I played the most last year. The art team here had some soul they poured into this game at meticulous detail and that was really fun to revisit. I see no point in the soulless side-grade remaster.

Obligatory recommendation because this is one of my favorite games. Completed it three times on Xbox, PS3 and PC.
Not really recommended if you don't want to mod and troubleshoot for this to work. This game just doesn't work anymore on modern systems and without patching this yourself there are major visual glitches and crashes ahead.
Other than that, this is the same classic and it's still here if you're averse to the new version for some reason.

If you like meme heavy humor and find unbalanced RNG rolls to be fun, this is an excellent game. The RNG does get frustrating at times but as you unlock more stuff the mechanics become more exploitable and you can rack up insane scores by becoming overpowered. You will probably catch on pretty quick if you are familiar with games like Vampire Survivors and Risk of Rain.

This is by far the worst story of the series with each campaign full of contradictions, plot holes and melodrama. Some of the dialogue is kind of funny but it's mostly cringe how it takes itself way too seriously.

Definitely my favorite gameplay in the series. The fast paced fights coupled with the new weapon variety and challenging enemies make Mercenaries No Mercy mode a lot of fun. You can pull off some really crazy combos when you get used to the controls, as there's more ways to attack enemies and avert them. There are little gripes I have, like how I wish there were a separate button for dropping down ledges because it happens too often when I run. Doesn't happen as often when I remember to look out for it, like dealing with the inventory and sliding into boxes for items.

The co-op campaigns and extra modes make this more than worth it when it's on sale. You can find worldwide players to join or it's even better if you can drag your friends into it.