@bam541 I wouldn't play them if I was torturing myself. Life is too short to play games just because they reviewed well. I'm actually pretty intrigued by them all, even Days Gone to an extent. I just wish Sony 1st party didn't go all in on AAA open worlds. Even God of War had a semi-open world and weapon XP grind. Spidey = side missions for upgrade tokens to make combat better Horizon = side missions to upgrade skill tree to make combat better GoW = XP to upgrade weapons so the pace of the game picks up and combat becomes better Days Gone = money to upgrade motorcycle I understand that starting weak and improving is a common tried and true video game design choice, but I just don't appreciate how the open world of Spider-Man or the combat in God of War only become bearable once I'm very upgraded. I feel like I only warmed up to both of those games about half way through when I was upgraded and the game felt more fully fleshed at that point. Anyways, I don't have much more to add about Days Gone until I play it so I'll keep on topic after this.

@jdincinerator I felt that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim was a great story-driven game but the tower defense gameplay is nothing special. So that's why I wouldn't recommend it over Ghost, but it would be my next pick. I also don't know how much you care for sci-fi anime stories. Which is probably the most important deciding factor for enjoying this game.

Song of Sadness from Suikoden is a personal favorite of mine. Youtube Video

I relate a lot to Ian and I've found a lot in common with him over the years. That said, I love them all. Blood and Damiani are great writers and I think Damiani doesn't get enough credit for his journalism and insight on the industry. They're all good and they've all taught me something new. Ian got me into some good movies, Huber got me into Resident Evil, Ben had me playing JRPG games which I hadn't played in years, Jonas has taught me about editing, life, and work insights, Blood has a ton of knowledge about gaming and is a fantastic writer and editor, Don is an extremely unique person who taught me to find joy in some simple things in games, and Brad also is a great advocate for just enjoying yourself and appreciating games. I really like them all.