honest to god I was about to put horizon: zero dawn as an overrated game. it didn't really grab me at first but I still kept pushing on despite me being bored with it at first. after taking the time to sit down and pound out the rest of the game in one sitting I fell in love with it. that game really does deserve all the praise it gets. everything is fantastic, besides the fast traveling system (it's really hard for me to find rich meat, okay?). the story really roped me in at the halfway point and I could not put the game down when I was actually able to trudge through the story. I did play on "normal difficulty", but I ended up spending an hour battling a rockbreaker not too long ago. overall, it's a super good game that deserves an even better sequel.

also, another underrated game is need for speed: payback. yeah, it's an EA game, but it's a LOT of fun despite what people say about it. the lootbox problem is more than exaggerated in this game. it is entirely possible for you to make your car super duper fast if you know how to use the trade-in system and have a little patience. does it have its flaws? yes, it does. there's the blatant rubberbanding on hard mode (but let's be honest, most, if not all racing games have rubberbanding on harder difficulties). there is also the lack of fun police chases and the shoehorning of point-to-point routes even for the most menial of tasks (the game literally has you race through checkpoints just to take your character home). but, the game is still really fun and does its job as an arcade racer very nicely. no fancy gimmicks, no bullshit, just you, your car, and the other car(s). nobody plays racing games for their story, so I pushed their thinly-veiled and rather poor attempt at being like fast and furious aside and just enjoyed the game for what it was. it suffers from the same problem as mass effect: andromeda, only this time the game lasted longer. I'm excited to see what the next need for speed installment will be like, and hopefully it'll be much better the next time around.