been laid up sick for the last three days, so its been non-stop gaming:
finally finished up
Ys 1&2 after i went back and put it on normal mode. FUCK those bosses in Ys 1, fuck them straight back to the 80s with their bullshit attack patterns. that said, everything else about the game was top-notch nostalgia. fast, fun gameplay, great graphics and music, awesome 80s animu story; just quality all over. one of those timeless-feeling games that i'll prolly go back to a million times over. made me sad that i hadnt gotten around to playing this game for 25 years; then i went and booted up the turboduo version and said "

no, it's a good thing i waited." excited to move on to the rest of the series.
going back through
half-life 2. coming off of black mesa it really strikes me how much more i like hl1 than 2. hl2 still is fantastic and is packed with memorable moments, but it kills the pacing over and over again by trying to make it feel like a long-ass journey when really they just pad it out with too many big, empty maps and bad gimmicks. damn near every map in hl1 is memorable and exciting in comparison.
almost done with
black ops on veteran. my first and last CoD single-player game. fuck this garbage
hotline miami was just as good as everyone said, though as i expected the whole "we're trying to make you question your actions" narrative they were going for felt cheap and exploitative. also the true ending was

why did they even bother putting that in there.
and
left 4 dead 2 is still a classic; if anyone wants to play some multi hit me up.