I'm approaching this month as an opportunity to try games I haven't played before, and to write about them. Name of the event notwithstanding, I generally avoid the use of the word backlog, since I think it reinforces unplayed or unfinished games as an obligation. This comes from the experience of my own evolving relationship with, (and definitely far too much thought invested in) the backlog.

My Steam library is kind of excessive. For years I bought any bundle that looked good and went all-out on sales. To make matters worse, I had a compulsion to play each game until credits rolled, and fell into a pattern of playing long past any point of enjoyment so I could check a game off the list and move to the next one. I still shudder when I think about Xenoblade Chronicles, and how little I enjoyed the last two thirds of the game, but pushed on through stupid determination just for the sake of having "finished" it. And now, years later, I can barely remember it. You'll never find me among the crowd that says all games are a waste of time, but that particular game, for me, definitely was.

Experience is a great teacher of course. And as I've gotten just a tiny bit older, I've been able to reflect on what I actually do and don't like. With a significantly decreased amount of free time, its all the more important that I truly enjoy what I'm doing. I genuinely love trying new games or following up on old ones that caught my attention long ago in a virtual sifting through of the bargain box. But now realize I won't, and don't have to enjoy every one, even when somebody on the internet stildesaid it was great.

The key was a sort of mindfulness to recognize when I wasn't enjoying something, and drop it fast. This has allowed me to try a LOT of games, some of which I loved and treasured, while other I played for an hour or two (or sometimes 20 minutes), and summarily decided there was not enough fun to be had in continuing. I call this reaching the DannyDotCafe ending, as in this model all games have Nier-esque multiple endings, one of which I can declare arbitrarily whenever I want. As you'll see below, I've made extensive use of this option this week.

Not especially relevant, but I'm duty-bound to mention: I play exclusively on Linux. Though I've had consoles over the years, and very occasionally used Windows for a game or two, I've been a dedicated (and probably annoying) Linux user for decades at this point. Now, with a Steam Deck and an upgraded desktop/server, I can really go all in! Some day I'll write about my tech setup, as I'm really very proud of it!

Despite all the games that have been in my library for ages, I threw a wildcard and trying a new game. Darkenstein is free, though I guess they're planning on releasing paid DLC later. I don't know if that makes it free-to-play, though at the very least the parts of the base game I played didn't have f2p vibes.

When playing, my first reaction was that instead of Darkenstein 3D, they should have called this game Return to Castle Darkenstein, though I would consider that a complement. Its obviously not hiding that this game is 90% Wolfenstein, though it seems much more 2001 than 1992. Beyond that, there's also the modern wave of pixel-heavy shooters, a genre of which I won't mention the common name, but say that I am a big fan of games like Dusk and Proteus.

Unfortunately, I don't think this game stands up well in any of the comparisons. To begin with, the crosshair is black, and the game itself seems to be very dark (its right in the name!), so often it felt like I had no crosshair at all. With no iron sights or some other concession to aiming, there was some instant frustration. There's also a ton of information on the screen, including 2 bars in the corner (neither of which is health) and several numbers along the bottom (one of which is). Its really overcomplicating what isn't that complicated a game.

I do wonder if UI is some oblique reference to Wolfenstein 3D's HUD. That game goes overboard with 5 numbers: Floor, Score, Lives, Health, and Ammo. The latter 2 are obviously necessary, though there's no reason I should need to constantly know what floor I'm on, and score seems like a relic of arcade days not something most players actually paid any attention to. Why Darkenstein thought this was one of the important pieces to bring back, I have no idea. And as for the count of lives, that actually brings me to my next point!

This game has a lives system. Well obviously it does, that's the bingo category. But I'm not a fan of limited lives. I'm sure there are many that are very happy having this mechanic add challenge to the game, but I personally don't see any purpose other than the fidelity to old-school difficulty, and getting thrown back to the beginning of the level was frustrating enough to stop playing.

And that is exactly where I stopped playing.

Dates all the way back to October 2012, this came from the first Humble Bundle I ever bought. Before this, the only things I had on Steam were Valve games and Geometry Wars! Steam for Linux didn't actually come out until a few months later, and I remember originally activating games from this bundle via the Ubuntu Software Center (which itself sold games for a time, a fascinating moment in history). The fact that this was kind of a hassle, and I had other games to play by the time Steam arrived to make it all easier is probably why I never got around to playing this .

The concept of Wizorb always intrigued me though. At first glance it appears to be a classic JRPG with breakout as its combat system, which sounds wonderful. Though on closer inspection, the RPG aspect is quite minimal - it actually seemed to have more in common with Super Mario 3 world map movement than Final Fantasy. At least the breakout component is exactly what you would expect.

Since I was a kid I've loved breakout in theory. It always seems so fun in my head, but when I actually play it I land somewhere between boredom and frustration. I found it somehow both too slow while trying to actually bounce correct angles to get through bricks in a reasonable time requires twitchy precision. And not landing those shots means the ball is bouncing around for what feels like ages trying to hit the last couple bricks.

Breakout probably just isn't for me, which I can accept. Fortunately I've trained my critical sensibilities enough at this point to recognize that! The fatal flaw of this game is something else, limited lives! Now that's just my luck. After working my way slowly through a number of levels, I missed one too many bounces, and got myself bounced right back to the tutorial. And that became the DannyDotCafe ending for Wizorb.

The solo dev of this game, Tom Francis, was someone I had known about before the game released, for the series he wrote in PC Gamer way back in 2012, An Illusionist in Skyrim.

Incidentally this format, playing a game in some unusual or unintended way, is a standard Youtube shtick these days, but back then it was new and I found it hilarious.

The series ended when Francis left PC Gamer to work on this game, so it was always on my list to play. Like so many others, I picked it up in a Humble Bundle and never got around to it. No time like November!

I would probably best describe this as a 2D stealth game. I'm not especially familiar with this genre, but it doesn't seem quite like anything I've seen elsewhere. The primary action is jumping, which is done with the mouse in a sort of angry birds trajectory system. You have to avoid guards who will drop you in a single shot, making the stealth itself more of a sandbox puzzle. The reload after death system is especially refreshing after the previous games. It essentially asks you how long you want to rewind (giving three increasingly far back options or the beginning of the level). Its trial and error with whatever level of perfectionism you want to strive for.

I didn't especially like the overall look of the game, though its perfectly functional. The biggest issue I had was the game space felt so far zoomed out that individual details (e.g. a lightswitch) were hard to see on a smaller screen. I suspect that distance is probably necessary for lining up some of the jumps though, so its probably a fair compromise.

This makes it a bit difficult to play on the Steam Deck though, not to mention the fact that it requires mouse control more precisely than is convenient to use the touchpads for. Its too bad, since I could see this as a fun game to play for a couple minutes at a time here and there (the Deck's specialty in my house). Beyond that, the game and the story were both fun but they didn't capture my interest enough to keep playing beyond the hour or so I tried. So I'll be ending this one here (though with a much more positive opinion than the first two games).

Throughout the years I’ve tried to get into Diablo and Diablo games a few times, on a few of its different iterations. When Torchlight appeared on one of the early Humble Bundles as a native Linux game I excitedly jumped. I even tried Minecraft Dungeons as a coop game. And in all these, I seem to hit a point where I’m no longer paying attention. Its like road hypnosis, or zoning out during a meeting at work. I genuinely like the way these games look, enjoy the way they control. When I start off they strike me as wonderful, well-designed, and genuinely fun games. Yet before long, they hit a point of samey-ness, and I fall off.

I didn't know going in that Victor Vran was going to be a Diablo-like. I remember it catching my attention back when it came up around 2015 because of a big writeup on GamingonLinux detailing its virtues and well-made Linux port. And I can confirm it still runs great in 2025! Its nothing especially wild graphically, but has a nice vision of a city in ruins without being purely dark and foggy. I'm a big fan of the way many slightly older games look when I crank up the settings and max out the framerate, and this is no exception.

I also liked the controls. There's actually a jump button which I think mainly is used for finding secrets in the levels, but added a little extra mobility that CRPGs tend not to have. Playing with a controller felt natural ,which was definitely not given for a Steam game 10 years ago.

The game is set in a city that's essentially falling to demon hoards, and star demon hunter Victor Vran shows up looking for his friend. From there its off to fight the hoards. I was actually suprised by the level layout. These areas were labyrinthine, and had a lot of optional stuff. I especially liked stumbling on a giant chessboard only to find a spider miniboss named "the Chessmaster" drop down. However to advance the story, I only had to enter the next door, which was usually just a single room away. I have no idea whether or not this continues throughout the full game, but it does have the nice effect of letting you play the game as fast or slow as you want.

I was most shocked right at the beginning of the game when Victor said his first lines. Double take - Geralt? Geralt of Rivia? What are you doing there? Same voice actor, speaking in exactly the same voice. It absolutely fits the character, but I've spent way to much time hearing that voice muttering "winds howling" to be able to think of anyone other than my old friend the Witcher.

After diving into a couple dungeons, upgrading a couple weapons, and repeating the process, I hit my point where I no longer felt the pull to continue, the curse of the Diablos. This game is great in so many ways and I'd wholly recommend it for anyone interested in the genre, but unfortunately have to say the terribly uninformative words, "it's just not for me"

Maybe I can sum it up with a quick catchphrase. "If you think Diablo would have been better with a shotgun, give Victor Vran a try!"

Remember Jason Gastrow, better known as videogamedunkey? He's the American YouTuber famous for his funny skits and sharp video essays about games. Back in September 2022, he and his wife Leah started Bigmode, an indie-focused publisher that would go on launching their first big release in 2024 with Animal Well.

Developed by Billy Basso under his studio Shared Memory, Animal Well is a 2D pixel art Metroidvania puzzle-platformer. You control a nameless, defenseless yellow blob, dropped straight into an eerie underground world the moment you start a new game. It's a masterclass in "show, don't tell" design, as everything from the controls to the story is learned through visual and audio cues. Your goal is to extinguish four colored flames scattered across a vast, water-filled cave. The result is a seamless and haunting journey of discovery.

There are only three main buttons, but the level design makes smart use of limited items, creatures, and environments. For instance…

Your only other means of defense, aside from quick thinking and platforming skills, are firecrackers. Found growing like plants, these can scare off animals or temporarily dispel ghostly enemies when lit.

What really sells the eerie atmosphere, though, is the interplay between light and darkness. The CRT filter that's activated by default adds scanlines and glow every single dot, making the colors pop like an old television screen. It perfectly captures the feeling of playing in a dimly lit room, staring into the glow of a vintage display.

Short, clever, and atmospheric, Animal Well delivers a surprisingly deep adventure, one that has well-earned its spot on my to-do list.

When was the last time Nintendo launched a brand-new, genre-defining AAA franchise that went on to sell millions, spawn multiple sequels, and even a few spinoffs? About a decade ago, the answer was Pikmin on the GameCube, which held the "newest IP" title for nearly 14 years. That's quite a decline in Nintendo's original IP output compared to the pre-2001 era.

Fast-forward to today, and Splatoon, first released in 2015 on the Wii U, still stands as Nintendo's most recent big-budget debut. Over a decade later, we haven't seen another new AAA series from them.

But let's focus on what made Splatoon stand out.

Splatoon isn’t just a friendly take on a third-person shooter. The hook is the ink; covering the ground (and walls) with your team's color while swimming through it to gain speed, stealth, and tactical advantage.

Turf War tasks you with painting as much ground as possible.
Splat Zones focuses on holding a marked area by keeping it covered in your ink.
Tower Control is about escorting a moving platform toward the enemy base while preventing them from taking it back.
Rainmaker is Splatoon’s twist on capture-the-flag, whoever carries the Rainmaker can unleash powerful ink tornadoes but loses the ability to Super Jump.

The game offers a wide range of weapon types, each serving a specific purpose.
*The Splattershot Jr. is beginner-friendly, firing erratically but covering wide areas with ease
*The Roller trades range for power and coverage, making it ideal for players who like to move and paint aggressively

Each main weapon also comes with a sub-weapon and a special ability. The Splattershot Jr., for instance, includes timed paint bombs and temporary invincibility, while the Roller comes with a small insta-kill paint shower and a much more powerful squid variant when charged.

Your gear, hats, clothes, and shoes bought in Booyah Base, features ability slots. Primary abilities are fixed, but secondary abilities can be customized. These provide perks like faster movement or reduced ripple effects when swimming in ink.

When Splatoon first launched, I tried the early demos and was instantly hooked. I spent a good amount of time in online matches before eventually moving away from competitive multiplayer. For this revisit, I decided to focus on the single-player campaign, Octo Valley, as part of my Backlog Bingo challenge.

On its own, the campaign is a solid pseudo-platformer that carries over the core mechanics of the main game. However, as a complement to multiplayer, it feels disconnected.

From what I've seen with four stages and one boss, it's clear that the single-player levels emphasize setpiece platforming rather than arena-style encounters. For example, Stage 4 introduces Gushers, the ink fountains you can use as temporary barriers against Octotroopers. It's a neat idea, but largely irrelevant to multiplayer tactics, since the mechanics and how most enemies move and attack, never appear in online play.

As a result, what you learn in single-player doesn't translate to competitive play that favors improvisational playstyle. Combined with thin lore and an improved sequel that already does everything better, Splatoon 1 doesn't offer much lasting value for me. It's going back on the shelf.

By the way, if you plan to try any Splatoon game, use motion controls. Tilt the controller for Y-axis aiming while using the right stick for X-axis rotation. With a high enough sensitivity, it's one of the smoothest control systems for precision aiming in a shooter.

It never really occurred to me that Jonathan Blow, the genius behind the influential indie platformer Braid, would go on to make something as equally impactful as The Witness. If I recall correctly, I picked up the PS4 version at a discount sometime late in the previous decade.

If you've ever scribbled through those little maze puzzles on the backs of cereal boxes or in kids' activity books, you'll instantly recognize the core idea here. The Witness takes that simple concept and blows it up into something far more complex and rewarding.

Don't expect this game to just be about tracing lines to the exit, though. Once you emerge from the starting bunker, the puzzles quickly introduce rules and constraints, but the game never explains them outright. You have to experiment, observe, and figure out each rule for yourself.

Some puzzles can't even be solved right away. They require you to explore the colorful island and learn what each symbol or mechanic means elsewhere. A few of them are so mind-bending that even when I understand the logic, I can feel my brain overheating trying to apply it.

Now, I do appreciate that satisfying "Aha!" moment when everything finally clicks. But there have been times where, no matter how long I stare at the screen, the solution just won't come. When that happens early or too often in a game, I either give in and look up a guide, or quit for good.

Fortunately, The Witness avoids that pitfall. Even its trickiest puzzles tend to be self-contained, so progress feels steady and satisfying. Compare that to something like the obscure DSiWare game Snapdots, which throws convoluted puzzles at you very early on and completely kills the pacing. That one wasn't fun at all.

All things considered, I still plan to go back and chip away at The Witness some more. It's the kind of game that rewards patience, and I’m not done with it yet.

With all the hype building around the recently released Age of Imprisonment on Switch 2, I found myself revisiting the game that started it all over a decade ago: the vanilla Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U.

At its core, this is Dynasty Warriors, a hack-and-slash action game where powerful heroes mow down hundreds of enemies within seconds. Only this time, it's fused with The Legend of Zelda universe: iconic characters, familiar locations, classic sound design, and selective gameplay elements. Surprisingly, the blend works far better than anyone expected, spawning multiple ports and follow-up entries.

After playing through the first two levels of Legend Mode on Normal difficulty, it's clear that Hyrule Warriors focuses far less on puzzle-solving than your typical Zelda title. Most missions revolve around capturing outposts and clearing areas of enemies to progress. It's simple, but it helps you ease into the rhythm of a traditional Dynasty Warriors battlefield before introducing more complex objectives.

There's a lot to process; setting up your warriors, keeping track of objectives, and managing the flood of on-screen prompts mid-battle. It can be overwhelming at first, but most alerts don't require immediate action. With generous mission time limits (usually triple the completion average of 20 minutes), you have plenty of room to recover from mistakes.

Combat mainly involves chaining light and heavy attacks while strategically unleashing special moves. Some abilities are great for clearing nearby crowds, while others excel in straight-line assaults. Leveling up heroes, crafting items, and customizing character builds feels like a solid mix of modern RPG progression systems. The weapons your characters wield also affect their move sets and abilities.

Outside Legend Mode, Free Mode lets you replay any cleared mission with any character or setup. It's perfect for grinding materials or hunting achievements. Adventure Mode shakes things up by letting you navigate a recreated map based on the NES Legend of Zelda overworld, unlocking panels one by one through themed challenges. Each mission imposes specific rules and time limits, keeping things fresh. Challenge Mode offers a more condensed approach, a straightforward list of tricky missions rather than a map, but still packed with unique scenarios and tactics.

According to its HowLongToBeat page, fully completing Hyrule Warriors can take up to 230 hours, especially with DLC included. That’s a staggering amount of content for such a repetitive gameplay loop. Still, for those times I just want some flashy, mindless fun, I'll happily dive back in to see more of what Legend Mode and Adventure Mode have to offer.

If I judged Cuphead purely by its run-and-gun gameplay and brutal difficulty, there wouldn't be too much to say. But the story behind its creation deserves some attention, it's a testament to how an impossible dream from a small Canadian indie team, Studio MDHR, became a modern classic.

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer grew up loving early golden-age cartoons and video games. Back around 2000, they first tried making a game inspired by those animations but had to shelve it due to limited resources. Years later, after Super Meat Boy proved indie games could thrive commercially, the brothers revived their idea in 2010. That's when they nailed down Cuphead's distinctive design and pushed themselves to emulate the 1930s hand-drawn animation style.

Creating that kind of authentic, high-quality animation turned out to be an exhausting and expensive task, especially as a project for many weekends. To keep things manageable, they started small: just a few bosses and core gameplay mechanics. Their work paid off when they showed a polished prototype at E3 2015. The reception was overwhelmingly positive, prompting them to go all in; quitting their jobs, remortgaging their homes, and expanding the team to bring Cuphead to completion.

All that risk and passion eventually paid off. Cuphead launched on Steam and Xbox One on September 29, 2017, instantly earning critical and commercial success. More recently, Studio MDHR has been teasing what might be a follow-up; they even announced new job openings for senior Unity programmers in May 2025.

Gameplay-wise, Cuphead is a masterclass in tough-but-fair design. It channels that old-school "NES Hard" spirit, but without most of the frustrating inconveniences from that era. The difficulty ramps up immediately, dozens of projectiles, constant movement, and towering bosses, but you get infinite lives, no upgrade loss, and quick reloads between failed attempts. Each battle becomes a mix of memorization, reflexes, and pattern recognition. Many bosses even change tactics mid-fight, keeping you on edge.

One critical tip: minimize your input delay. For precise parrying and dodging, your total input lag (monitor plus controller) should stay at 8ms or below. I learned that firsthand, both my EX2780Q monitor and wireless-mode Switch 1 Pro controller totalled around 19ms of lag, which made timing parries a nightmare. Switching to a Reflex CTRL-equipped SNES controller brought that down to about 5ms, and the difference was immediately noticeable.

If you're curious about how your own hardware stacks up, there's an input latency chart by MisterFPGAAddons (a bit dated, but still informative). For example, a wired PS5 controller paired with a fast display can easily achieve under 8ms total latency, ideal for Cuphead's demanding precision.

It's been years since release, but Cuphead is one of those games that I plan coming back to. Its distinctive art, jazz-soaked soundtrack, and relentless but rewarding gameplay make it an experience unlike anything else.

Before the 2010s, Harvest Moon (now known as Story of Seasons) was already an established farming sim series. But when Rune Factory came along, it added a medieval fantasy twist; introducing combat, crafting, monster taming, and dungeon crawling. The result was a hybrid experience blending farming simulation with role-playing adventure.

Even though the series has been around for years, Rune Factory 4 Special was my first real hands-on experience with it. I've only played about two hours so far, most of which was spent navigating endless dialogue and exploring the main hub. Based on what I've read online, it seems the additions and changes in this entry are generally more incremental than revolutionary, except perhaps in how much it leans into its "passionate love, sweet marriage" theme.

That direction aligns perfectly with producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto's stated goal: to deepen relationship-building and family interactions within the game. There's a noticeable boost in romantic variety; more dating events, heightened emotions, and even the ability for your family to accompany you on adventures.

The addition of Newlywed Mode, exclusive to Rune Factory 4 Special, makes that focus crystal clear. After marrying one of the eligible characters, you can play a dedicated scenario featuring your spouse, complete with voice lines, custom naming options, and unique dialogue. It's a charming expansion of the game's romance mechanics.

As for me, I've already set my sights on one character: Forte.

Beyond the romance, the usual Rune Factory gameplay loop of farming, battling, and crafting seems like it'll easily hold my attention rent-free once I really dive back in. For now, though, I've got a towering game backlog to clear before I can give it the time it deserves.

Level-5 isn't just the studio behind AAA franchises like Professor Layton, Yo-Kai Watch, and Fantasy Life. During the early 3DS era, they also experimented with smaller, quirkier projects; titles that were later compiled under the Guild01 and Guild02 collections.

Among them is Liberation Maiden, a short but stylish shoot 'em up with a strong focus on score attack. The project was directed by Goichi Suda, best known for No More Heroes, and features character designs by Yūsuke Kozaki, the same artist behind several Fire Emblem titles on 3DS. You can immediately recognize his touch in the sharp, seinen-style design of the white-haired protagonist, Shoko Ozora.

Control-wise, it's quite different from most shooters. If you haven't played Kid Icarus: Uprising, Liberation Maiden might feel unusual at first. Shoko pilots her flying mech suit, Kamui, which doesn't fire in the traditional sense. Instead, Kamui uses floating barrier fragments that act both as defense and offense. By sliding the stylus across enemies on the touch screen, you lock onto multiple targets, and lifting the stylus unleashes a barrage of lasers or missiles from those fragments. The more targets you tag in a single motion, the more powerful and expansive your attack becomes.

It sounds overpowered, but Kamui's defensive power is balanced by the chaos around you. In my playthrough of the first stage on Normal, the sheer volume of enemies and projectiles forced careful timing; recklessly launching your barrier pieces leaves you exposed. Every move becomes a trade-off between offense and survival.

Movement comes in two flavors. During exploration, you freely fly around stages, dodging and countering enemies from every direction. But when facing a boss, known as a Spike, the battle shifts to a confined arena where you strafe around the screen, gradually descending as you whittle away its health through hitting weak points in a certain order. Certain boss phases introduce the dramatic "Sacrifice Drive", where Kamui pierces through a Spike's shield by circling the stylus around the touchscreen. It's a simple gesture but it certainly adds gravitas while finishing off a boss.

So far, I've only cleared one of the five stages, but it's already left a strong impression. Liberation Maiden is short, sleek, and packed with energy; a perfect example of how smaller 3DS titles could shine through unique mechanics and creativity. Definitely something I plan to continue soon, only on the 3DS.

Before the rise of cable internet in the early 2000s, connecting to the web meant enduring the ritual sounds of dial-up modems and crawling through pages that felt more handmade than programmed. It was a time when imagination filled in the gaps; sites were mostly plain text, sprinkled with MIDI tunes, blinking GIFs, and grainy compressed images.

Hypnospace Outlaw captures that era perfectly, but with a surreal twist. It’s a point-and-click simulation game that doesn't just pay homage to the early internet; it builds a whole alternate version of it. Here, you explore a dream-based network through a trippy operating system that looks part Windows 9x, part fever dream. The game nails every nostalgic detail, from clunky interfaces to communities full of personality and strange in-jokes.

As an Enforcer, your job is to patrol Hypnospace, keeping it clean from infractions like copyright violations, defamatory posts, and malicious software. But it's hard to stay focused when every page oozes creativity and weird charm. I kept finding myself wandering off-mission, lost in nostalgia as I browsed through joke websites and pixelated fan pages.

After about two hours in, I’d only tracked down one obvious violation because I was too busy reminiscing about those simpler, weirder corners of the internet. And honestly, that's part of the magic. You don't need endless scrolling feeds or algorithms dictating your experience here; just curiosity and a sense of discovery like the good old days.

To my surprise, Hypnospace Outlaw also weaves a story within this strange web, building a sense of mystery and history that gives context to all that digital chaos. It's both a satire and a love letter to an internet experience that's long gone.

It's easily one of my standout Backlog Burner titles, and I can't wait to dig deeper into its bizarre, nostalgic dreamscape soon.

My first exposure to the Grand Theft Auto series came during the PS2's golden years in the early 2000s. I never played it back then, mainly out of (probably exaggerated) fear that my parents would punish me for touching an M-rated game. The themes were tame by today's standards, but at the time, it felt like forbidden territory. Still, I caught glimpses of GTA III gameplay from my relatives and got to play friendlier alternatives like Jak II and The Simpsons: Hit & Run, essentially "GTA-lite" versions for younger players.

Even then, it was clear that GTA III was groundbreaking. Having a character who could freely explore an entire 3D city was mind-blowing back then. Sure, missions were necessary for story progression, but the real magic was in the open-world sandbox freedom; the sheer fun of roaming and causing chaos at your own pace. That sense of unstructured play remains a cornerstone of the series, still inspiring others today (I've even seen Japanese VTubers streaming heavily modded GTA Online campaigns like MadTown).

Of course, running around freely is only part of the appeal. The series is also infamous for letting players commit crimes that gradually raise their wanted level. Thankfully, traffic violations don't count, or otherwise the game would grind to a halt with constant police chases. And speaking of chases, they're one of the best parts of GTA gameplay. You have to think fast, using creative escapes or hiding spots to shake cops off your tail. Lower wanted levels are forgiving; police will try to arrest rather than kill you. But things can escalate fast, from armed pursuit cars at level 3 to full-blown military response at higher ranks.

Then there's Grand Theft Auto V itself, played on PS4, where all my screenshots are taken from. More than a decade after its release, VI still hasn't arrived. And understandably so, given the astronomical production values of today's AAA industry. The leap from GTA IV on sixth-gen hardware to V on the seventh and eighth generations was astonishing. Somehow, even the Xbox 360's modest 512MB of RAM handled near-photorealistic environments, fluid lighting (better than 8th gen consoles), and incredible water and character models. You can see why Rockstar Games is taking its time perfecting VI.

The most notable innovation in V is its three-protagonist structure. You start with two during the opening heist, then fast-forward to the third soon after, and finally all three of them reuniting at some point in the game. Beyond the initial hours, there's also the ability to switch between all of them. Story-wise, it’s a clever way to weave multiple perspectives into one cohesive narrative.

If there's one element that felt like a slight downgrade, it's how the vehicles handle. GTA V leans toward realism instead of the looser, more arcade-style driving of older entries. It's not bad, just less snappy and less purely fun. The more simulation-like feel takes some getting used to. It also took me a bit to realize that hiding from the police in secluded spots works better than endlessly outrunning them across the map, especially since cop cars seem to spawn constantly no matter how far you flee.

After only an hour in, I can tell there's a lot more to GTA V than what I've seen. Since I tend to prefer structured progress, I'll be focusing on clearing missions first, with the goal of rolling credits. But even so early on, it's easy to see why V has had such incredible staying power; it's as much a living city as it is a game.