Ninchilla

The chocobos are maybe the worst-implemented thing in it. Types are region-locked, there's no capture or breeding minigame, and the racing isn't even fun.

I didn't gel with Rebirth at all the way I did with Remake. It's got some stuff in it that ranges from just kind of zany, to stuff that's borderline upsetting in a mostly-realistic art style (I wouldn't feel safe in a room with any real person who'd willingly stay in the Gold Saucer hotel). Wild tonal inconsistency seems to be part of the "charm" of a lot of JRPGs, but I found it distracting at best, and actively offputting at worst.

There's a bordering-on-Ubisoft amount of side crap, almost none of which is particularly compelling. I got fed up, dropped it onto Easy, and just mainlined it to the end of the plot from the middle of Spoiler - click to showCosmo Canyon. It's a shame, because some of the plot stuff it does is quite interesting, but it chickens out of the bravest decision it looked like it was going to make. It's still not quite clear by the end exactly what Sephiroth is doing, or why it must be STOPPED AT ALL COSTS.

I'll almost certainly play part 3 just to see the project through, but given how much goodwill I went into Rebirth with, I was ultimately pretty disappointed.

I didn't play very much of Control, but I found it simultaneously one of the most over-written and under-written pieces of media I've ever encountered.

Additional Play:

I got given Myst for Christmas, so I've been clicking helplessly around mysterious, low-resolution puzzles. I've never played any of these before (very few point-and-click games at all, tbh), and it really doesn't hold your hand at all - I was stuck for about 45 minutes knowing that I had to rotate something, but unable to figure out how. Got there in the end, then went through the entire next island but forgot to pick something up, and now need to go back and do it all again. Yay!

I am enjoying it, though.

Played 2025
I seem to have missed most of the big hitters from the year - didn't play Clair Obscur, haven't got GamePass, and don't own a Switch. Most of what I've done (aside from semi-regular jaunts on the Sea of Thieves) is flying revisits - Elite Dangerous, Forza Horizon 5 (on PS5), and latterly the Tomb Raiders.

Play 2026
I'm only a few levels from the end of Tomb Raider II (Floating Islands can do one). I won't be too sorry to see the back of it - despite remembering this as a bit of a favourite in the series, it's a bit of a chore, with far too much combat and not nearly the same sense of exploration of the original. I have almost no memory of III, so that'll be interesting.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series was very cheap in a sale, so I picked that up. The character models are extremely uncanny, but it's good to hear Cara Gee's Drummer yelling at people again.

I've made a little progress in the Star Wars Outlaws DLC, but as ever got sidetracked with open-world nonsense. It's a pretty great rendition of the galaxy to get lost in, though.

Want
The upcoming Tomb Raiders, Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst, are probably at the top of the list. Maybe also the Tomb Raider Anniversary remaster? I've played it before, and Legacy of Atlantis might render it somewhat redundant, but I'm feeling weirdly completionist about my Tomb Raider of late. I'm sure it'll pass.

There's a game I saw somewhere called People of Note that's a proper turn-based rhythm RPG, and might be more like what I wanted from Stray Gods.

Warren Spector's upcoming Dishonored-style PvPvE burglary game, Thick as Thieves, has been on my wishlist since it was announced, but I have no idea when it's supposed to be out.

I'd really like Sucker Punch to pack in the Ghost of… stuff and make (or remaster?) some inFamous, but that's real pie-in-the-sky stuff.

Bin
Anything that uses "generative" "AI". I've steadfastly refused to buy ARC Raiders because of its AI-generated voice work, and even Clair Obscur dropped off the wishlist after that was de-awarded for using it, too (and yes, I know it was patched out). It might be a futile stance to take, and I'm one very tiny drop in an extremely large ocean, but what use is a principle otherwise?