It'll be five years to the day on Sunday since I last posted a blog here on Giant Bomb. That's not to say I've left the site over this time; in fact I think I've kept up decently well with everything that's gone on with the site over the years, though admittedly with an ebb and flow of interest, for various reasons. When it came to the act of forming my thoughts on games into words, like I'd done so many times in the past, I just found little motivation.

The landscape of video game media these days has gotten to a pretty fascinating point, though. True, the Giant Bomb crew we all knew and loved since they decided to start this whole thing from a Sausalito basement 14 years ago has fractured, and no longer exists in the same form, but I can't get over how great it is to now have so many groups to follow, each with their own flavor of interesting gaming podcasts. Fire Escape is truly one of the greatest surprises of the past couple years. I'm actually sitting writing this blog post right now in my "About the Author" shirt--if you know, you know. Sorry, Mike. Nextlander is such a delight as well with the three legends doing their thing. And now Giant Bomb, after Jeff leaving to pursue his own vision as well, has somehow improved? It's madness, and an embarrassment of riches when it comes to being able to listen to all my favorite people all doing exactly what they want to be doing.

Sometimes I'll wonder what Ryan would be up to right now if he were still with us. Maybe instead of Jeff being a solo act they'd be a tag-team. Whatever the case I know he'd be doing things right, and enjoying the heck out of some video games, professionally or otherwise, just as he always did.

So anyway I wanted to come back and write about something here. A lot has happened over the past five years. A lot has happened very recently, in fact, as I was finally able to acquire a Playstation 5. This whole supply constraint situation has been brutal for us, the video gaming folk, but I'm happy to have finally gotten an email from Amazon inviting me to purchase a console. I've had a Series X for a good while now as well, so I feel like I finally have my bases pretty well covered. I've definitely been catching up on and enjoying a lot of the Sony exclusive situations lately, such as...

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

This is probably my favorite game that I've played on PS5 so far. It's a fairly short experience, but it builds on the combat mechanics of the first game in some ways, specifically with the venom powers that Miles possess. In addition to providing incredible crowd control, they just look super cool and are so satisfying to pull off.

The whole story beat about Peter Parker leaving suddenly for a European vacation, thus leaving Miles alone in NYC, seemed a little silly, but it provided an excuse for why the OG Spider-Man wasn't just taking care of all the trouble himself. I enjoyed the storytelling and character interaction between Miles and his friends and family, though one particular relationship seemed a little forced for the sake of the story.

Overall Miles Morales is super enjoyable. I really can't wait to see where Insomniac is able to take this series going forward. There's a lot of potential for some Spider-Verse level shenanigans to play out, which is always fun. FEUS -- 9 "Fuck yeah!"

Astro's Playroom

There was a lot of hype around this one. I definitely enjoyed the game for what it was, a tech demo, and appreciated the nostalgic aspects too. I just feel like a lot of the talk around this game being a game of the year contender (or even winner) seemed a little odd after having played it. Don't get me wrong, the museum of everything Playstation and its dedication to recreating these objects and themes in great detail was impressive, and in some cases super awesome to see, but beyond that, the game itself just didn't really do it for me. To be fair though, I've never been a guy who super appreciates platformers, and it takes really good ones to grab my attention. This game just felt like a great excuse to learn about the Dual Sense's triggers, and to marvel briefly at the PSP Go and remember how dumb/awesome that thing was. FEUS -- 6 "Meh, pretty good."

Stray

As a new subscriber to Playstation Plus Extra, I was more than happy to find that a game I'd been looking forward to playing would be a free addition to that service. I downloaded it immediately and it was, I believe, the first game I actually finished on PS5.

Stray is really good! I'm admittedly a cat person, and maybe that colors this opinion a bit, but it's just a concise, fascinating little game where you get to be a lifelike cat for a while and solve some mysteries in a dystopian world with the help of a little flying robot friend. I wasn't really sure what all to expect going into the game other than the cat stuff, and it was time well-spent at the end of the day. Again, nothing super ambitious or mind-blowing, but a fun romp through an interesting world, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Stray is like a nice, comfy short story which is satisfying and worthwhile. FEUS -- 7 "Yeah, alright!"

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

I'm not the biggest Ratchet & Clank fan in the world, but I enjoyed playing bits of the game as a kid for sure. I ended up liking the PS4 remake a lot even though it took me a long time to eventually return to and finish. I was really excited to start this new Ratchet game as well, though I'm finding that the same feeling is setting in that I had for the PS4 remake--that being that it's really fun for a few hours, but then just doesn't hold my interest like I expected it to. It's one of those odd games where you can have a ton of fun playing it, but you're kind of doing the same things over and over, and after a bit of time, you just have to take a break. I'm a few worlds into it now, and I'm looking forward to plugging away at it and finishing it, but I'm finding myself preferring to chip away slowly as opposed to forcing myself to go all-in and finishing it before moving onto another game.

The concept of discovering a parallel-universe-second-lombax is fairly interesting, and I really like being able to jump back and forth between Ratchet and Rivet (the purple lady lombax) depending on which mission you're tackling, though admittedly the gameplay is basically the exact same regardless. The art design goes a long way in providing that amazement factor too--it just looks so good! FEUS -- TBD

Ghost of Tsushima

Maaan. This game seems huge. And it's gorgeous. And the combat mechanics actually are really rewarding and flexible and cool. I'm only a few hours into this one, but it has my attention. I wasn't sure exactly what to think of this before playing it. I'd heard a somewhat unanimous opinion ever since its release that it's perhaps an "older style" open world game and maybe isn't super ambitious in what it's trying to do. I can see that in a way, but what it's trying to do in terms of atmosphere and setting and the way it blends in all these open world staples but splashes them with so much style? It's really capturing my attention in a big way. I'm impressed. I find myself just wanting to wander the land of Tsushima, observing all it has to offer. Being so early in the game still, maybe a lot of the activities I've been taking part in just keep repeating and it gets old. Tough to say for now, but as it stands, I think Ghost of Tsushima is an accomplishment, and an example of how to craft a game that truly has its own sense of atmosphere and style. I really enjoy having the option of Japanese voice acting and English subs, for example--just really does a lot to draw me into the world and feel more real.

I've always been a fan of open world games though. Assassin's Creed 2 is one of the classic examples of having a million things on a map, and just going out and grabbing it all. I admit it's maybe not the deepest way to design a game, but boy can I get enraptured in it. When I'm in the middle of a game like this, looking over a massive world, knowing there are dozens of hours of content in front of me should I choose to pursue it, just gives me this sense of adventure, and wanting to get out there and find everything. It's ultimately a very relaxing style of game for me--one I can turn my brain halfway off and just work through for a while. I look forward to seeing how far that sense of wonder and adventure will carry me in Ghost of Tsushima. FEUS -- TBD

Some other random games I've been playing?

• Tales of Arise -- Awesome game! Playing on Series X, which has an awful and truly unfortunate freezing/crashing bug, but working around it the best I can and I look forward to jumping back into this after my brief All-PS5 detour.
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions -- Wow, this is one I finally picked up on Switch, and have been wanting to play since its launch on WiiU, though I never owned one of those poor excuses for a console. The cross between SMT style and Fire Emblem characters is neat. Definitely having fun.
• Vampire Survivors -- The greatest $3 experience to be had on Steam right now. Go play this if you haven't yet. Something special.
• Returnal -- I just started this and haven't put too much time into it yet, but it seems real cool in a lot of ways. I can see why it got so much praise just based on the feel of the mechanics alone, and I look forward to diving in further soon!

This was quite the check-in. Thanks for taking a look. For the first time in five years, I've been feeling the itch to do this again, so there may be more to come from me down the line. Alright, all, have a great day!

<3

--JJWeatherman