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Ace Attorney is a rather long-running franchise. I got the chance to play the original trilogy at the beginning of the year and it made me wonder how a series like this could evolve over time.

Not much it seems, which is totally fine.

That's putting a lot of hard work and attention to detail aside of course. The characters are now fully fledged 3D models - able to move with fluid animations instead of key poses. The courtroom itself is 3D too, with the imposing sense of gravitas that comes with it. The chiptunes of the Game Boy Advance have been replaced with a full-blown orchestra, playing some of my favourite music in the series. These advancements are largely technical, yes, but that doesn't stop them from being important.

This advancement in technology comes at risk of losing what made the low budget feel of Ace Attorney special. And while you can commend the effort to bring Ace Attorney to a more modern age, I think we should equally commend the effort made to retain the series' identity. The animations still have that charm that I loved so much, the many poses of Phoenix Wright being translated directly into his 3D ancestor. The music gently flirts with the line between a tribute to the old music while very much remaining its own thing. Mile's Edgeworth's equivalent still has that chiselled jawline and those dreamy eyes. We're home, baby.

Right, so first of all, let's talk about the first ten minutes. Absolutely wild. Completely deranged. Please watch it. No seriously, I know it's five minutes long, but it's an absolute trip.

Seriously, what on Earth is going on? You have to understand, I had some form of expectations going in here. A gentle 'transfer student on the train gets introduced to his new school' perhaps. Maybe some hints at the magical world of Persona that is to come. I didn't expect… whatever that was.

This opening really sets Persona 3 apart from its two sequels, which is fitting because the entire game feels different somehow. It feels like a prototype: an artefact that has been limited by technology, budget and scope and yet still shines through with its own brilliant individuality. The themes of both Persona 4 and 5 are noble: the truth and rebellion respectively. Persona 3 is different. Persona 3 is about facing death.

I bought The Outer Wilds about six days after release. I played it for a bit, saw Giant's Deep, thought it looked cool, 'landed' on it and then proceeded to have absolutely no idea what I was meant to be doing or what was going on. I don't even think I got to the part where the sun exploded, I got bored before then.

Second try, I decided to take it a bit more seriously. I got to Brittle Hollow and played the game the way God intended by actually trying to solve the mysteries and all that. Still didn't get to the end. Got to Giant's Deep once more and stopped. I think I tried to solve the mystery of the Quantum Moon way too early.

There were a few other attempts here and there that I can't remember.

But last week I decided enough was enough. I can't have people going around, with their opinions about a video game when those opinions might not be very good or correct. As we all know, I am the sole arbiter of opinions about video games on the internet, so it was time to suck it up, get my hands dirty and finally put this mystery to rest. Is The Outer Wilds good?

It's Tomb Raider's 25th Anniversary this year where the community gets together and talks about all the Tomb Raider games each month. Last month it was the original Tomb Raider, but I was busy playing Dyson Sphere Program and making an entire website from scratch, so I couldn't write about it then. It all worked out in the end though as this month is dedicated to Tomb Raider 2 which happens to be my favourite and therefore is objectively the best one.

I know the fandom likes to argue a lot. It's actually the original that's the best. The Tomb Raider 3 crew was going to arrive to the debate but they played the game in the wrong order and their preparation materials have been confiscated by the US Government. The Angel of Darkness stans emerge, shrieking from their caves to Parisian club music and a masochistic desire to bat for a game with bad controls, claiming that if the developers 'just had more time' the game would be good. The reboot trilogy fandom are too busy making extremely good gimmick Twitter accounts to show up. I don't think I've met a single person that thinks the LAU series is the best, so I'm just going to assume they don't exist. I'm sure all camps have excellent points of course, but it doesn't really matter in the end, since they are all wrong. Don't believe me? Here's 7 reason why Tomb Raider 2 is the best one.

This last year has been terrible. Absolutely awful. I think that I'm only beginning to realise this going into 2021. It's not been great. A lot of us who got through it with most of their brain matter intact did lots of nerd shit such as "play Animal Crossing" or "scream into the void" or "not start a stupid website as a joke". For me, it was Persona.

Return of the Obra Dinn is quite a difficult game to describe. It's usually very easy to employ the old "It's like this, but with this" technique for every game out there, but with this one, I'm honestly not sure.