I've spent the last few years playing older games I missed when I was younger. Some notable ones that I really enjoyed: Gothic I and II, Might & Magic 6, Lands of Lore 2, Bully, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Shadow Man. I played a bunch of other ones too that I bounced off of, but mostly I haven't played a modern AAA game in years.

So I decided to try Ghost of Tsushima. It seems to be lauded everywhere, even here. I feel mixed about it. The environmental art direction is fantastic... I just wish the world was worth exploring. The storylines and characters are so insanely dull I can't believe this game wasn't laughed at for the writing and voice acting. It's worse than the worst fan fiction... but then again that's the quality of modern fiction writing in books too these days. On the plus side I found the combat to be really fun and feel good to play, but the stealth felt lame and too easy.

Overall it's crazy how much more polished and normalized game controls and interactions are. Cameras work perfectly, animations flow across the environment, interactions are simple and intuitive. The level design really effectively communicates where to go and what you can climb on. There is so much jank that we've left behind moving into modern games... but we also left behind a ton of spirit, intelligence and creativity in the mass market homogenization of safe games for 80 IQ couch potatoes.