I May Have Been Wrong About Some of My Favorite Games | Semi-Ramblomatic

In regards to Skyrim, I do remember that you distinctly said its entry was due to "peer pressure" at the time. Maybe that was the tell. As an aside, would you consider doing a retrospective of the pre-2010 years top 5? I.e. the years when you did mock awards.

Big disagree on Bioshock Infinite, I think it is possibly even the best Bioshock game storywise. It has one of the better time travel twists and just has so many fun chaotic ideas. I think you made the right call.

I'm not sure it's fair to downgrade a game because the industry did a bad job of handling it's new idea, or because part of what was new (ish) and interesting about it has been run into the ground. Like, a game is stuck being a product of its time. What you *can* do IMO is move it up or down the list of all-time games.

Re-examining our old, rigid beliefs is an important step in growing and not digging your heels in and becoming a shithead. Wolfenstein's writing was REALLY underrated, and that second game was a non-stop thrillride that Machine Games was asked to "tone down the anti-fascist rhetoric" on by Bethesda. So they released all those "Make nazis Scared Again" ads. And I've always thought the hypocrisy between people obsessed with racial purity and mucking around with their own DNA is perfectly realistic: bigots are ALWAYS massive hypocrites, ESPECIALLY those in-power, when it's convenient and benefits them. Still hate the "both side-ism" as the slave uprising is depicted as "a different kind of violence."

That was excellent - now do 2015-2017 for the next one! I personally think ZP during those years were some of the best. I occasionally use the year long ones as background when gaming.

While most would assume we become wiser in hindsight, I think there’s value in both one’s immediate feelings toward a game, as well as one’s retrospective feelings. Thank you for sharing both!

Reviews are historical documents, illustrative of both their time and author. They're useful in taking a snapshot of the cultural temperature in that moment, and providing context for people who want to know what the vibes were like before there was a mountain of reflection and analysis and new readings to consider. This is a really fascinating look back and I'd love to see more re-appraisals like it. I'd be worried if you didn't have changes of opinion over the course of more than a decade!

Feels like a theme of rethinking those games of the year is being swept along in AAA hype, Yahtzee in particular and I think the broader internet in general has gotten a LOT more jaded about big name AAA releases since then and for very good reason.

I always thought Bioshock: Infinite was way over-rated. I did play it and finish it, but I had great difficulty following the story or discerning the point the writers were trying to make. Also, it lacked the good/bad endings that the prior two games had, but I didn't know that at the time, making the final boss much harder than it needed to be.

Ok, hear me out: You were too harsh on Bioshock 2.