Thanks!

I mean I'm not against games delving into dark thematic territory by any means, I just preferred there to be a reason for it more often rather than just throwing in say the optional "No Russian" mission transparently to command press attention, shit like this. I don't know if the Spider-Man games do so or not because I've never played any of them.

When it comes to God of War as a franchise, like with apparently a lot of other gamers, my connection to it really began with the 2018 game, which I felt masterfully reimagined the series in just about every way, giving it a more cinematic and evocative feel all-around and a welcome maturation of Kratos. That's not really the same thing as what I was complaining about before.

Likewise, neither do I object to, you know, the existence of casual party games and such by any means either, but I didn't care for the gravitas of their prevalence during this period in gaming history. It felt like everything on the Wii for a long time had to use motion controls to death just because they were there, with a number of franchises having to be significantly watered down as a result. 2007 on the Wii felt especially dismal this way to me between the likes of Super Paper Mario, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast, Link's Crossbow Training, and Mario Party 8, each of which I think I'd characterize as my least favorite entries in the respective franchises. And don't get me started on the epic disappointment that was the massively over-hyped Red Steel.

I was about to say this! XD
Okami really out-zelda'd Zelda. It took everything I love about the classic 3D Zelda formula, and did it even better. And the music is amazing! It's a fantastic game, definitely in my top 3 goat.

2018 God of War was awesome, it's Ragnarok I didn't finish. I got tired of Kratos and Atreus dealing with trust and parenting issues, not thematic to the game at all imo. Same with Spider-man, don't need MJ, Peter and Harry slinging relationship issues at each other even though the game has an 'excuse' for it. I'm all for inclusivity, but can we leave negativity out of it :) (Spider-man 2 is pretty awesome how it shows black history, more of that, less jealous raging)

The Wii needing everything to have motion controls is the same curse VR is dealing with currently. Cool, you can grab the journal from somewhere on your body, too bad it only works half the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcwXFscSFQw There it takes me 10 grabs or so to get the Journal while scaring the NPC to death lol. In RE8 if you want to play sitting, the map is somewhere up your ass. (Behind you upper left thigh while standing) Just let me use a button. Same in NMS, PSVR1 you could steer with analog sticks, PSVR2 new controllers, lets do virtual flight sticks even though the controllers have analog sticks now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLRy-RUQjFA I can't play it anymore thanks to the forced motion controls.

The motion controls killed Skyward Sword for me on Wii, so won't be voting for that either. I barely had a 40% success rate for the stabbing motion, and slashes often responded on the back swing, going the opposite way as intended. It was painful and not immersive at all. That while I really enjoyed Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Shaun White Snowboarding, Zack & Wiki. There the motion controls fit and the games work around them, in Zelda it felt forced and made the game worse. Agreed on Red Steel, wasn't fun to control that way, too unreliable. I also tried playing KZ3 with the moves, sure you can point and shoot but turning a corner was a pita, nvm strafing. KB+mouse is still the best way to play fps after VR.

Okami losing from Wii Sports, another low lol. That it wouldn't survive against TP I expected already, yet Wii Sports a better game than Okami... Nothing against Wii Sports, yet in the end it's a collection of 5 mini games of which Tennis and Bowling only really worked and were fun to play together. But it was a pack in with the Wii so everyone played it.

I did enjoy Super Paper Mario, perspective changes as a game mechanic are a favorite. It was not as good as TTYD though.

Was not home all weekend so did not have a chance to post. I did vote for Oblivion even through not a huge fan of the game my self but of the games I have played I thought it was the most deserving.

The game I played the most in my entire life and still play way more then I should to this day that was original release in 2006 is Dungeon and Dragons Online. I don't actually recommend this game to people anymore as it is one huge grind with pay to save time mechanics. If my main char ever got deleted I would uninstall it and never played again but since I do have a char that already finish most the grind that needed to make the current grind easy. I play it in what I call zombie mode after work as a kind of meditation. I put on a podcast or music and just let my fingers do it from musicale memory to grind stuff.

Then when friends on I do the hard content/raids with them where I have to pay attention. It fun but would not be as fun to me if I did not already have a well equip char that finish some of the grind mechanics already that give humongous power.

For a new char it would either be 100's of hours of grind to catch up or some insane amount of money that I don't even want to calculate. Since I played for 16 years on or off I can mostly catch up when they add a new grind playing a few hours after work in zombie mode without spending a penny.

Okami for me.

While the Nintendo bias definitely shows itself again with a dominating victory for Twilight Princess and Wii Sports as runner up (wtf??!!). At least this is a Zelda game I can get behind. Oblivion and FFXII might have been significant releases at the time, but I have no desire to replay either, to many questionable choices in the game design of those. Okami and Gears have stood the test of time brilliantly, but I think Twilight Princess is more consistent. Easily a top 3 Zelda game in my opinion. It might have ditched the charming graphics of Wind Waker, but it also ditched the boring padding and uninspired dungeon design.