BAKOON is Bay Area artist Oliver Leach. When he's not creating his art, he's being a good boy on Twitter and Twitch.

Hello again, everybody. This is the sixth time I have been asked to write about video games for Giant Bomb. Here is list number six:

Finally got around to Control and it is Real Good. Aesthetic blend of modern glitch, 1960s bland American bureaucracy, '70s Cronenberg science complex, and crisp, Northern European Ikea-ness.

And yes, while it is a game wholly influenced by the “SCP” project/wiki, you need to keep in mind the things that inspired the message board horror posts that eventually became the SCP: the work of sculptor Izumi Kato, and the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room (which is still pretty damn good). The game itself is fun as shit. The combat would have gotten obnoxious if it wasn’t so snappy and explosive. Fantastic color palette. Also, I am glad single player games are getting Big again.

Played hundreds of hours of the first one on a work computer when I had a job repairing lighting equipment. Am going to play hundreds of hours of this one, already well on my way. Perfectly extrapolated the tiny little 2D murder demon you become out into the third D. The snowball character progression during each run of it, now thats some good video game.

I liked this much more than their new Blair Witch. The new Blair Witch started great, but man. It turned into Silent Hill Homecoming: Shattered Memories. The first was about art and painting. This one is a thing about movies. A bit more of a game to it than the haunted house walkthrough of the first. It is one I will go back to again in the future most definitely. Tony Todd...

Never got around to it on first release. It turns out Studio Ghibli is good at making things charming as shit. It is Dragon Quest and Pokémon and every single corner of every area is beautiful. Perfect and extremely thorough design.

For the Sega CD. The best game to play with your family together on the couch. You hit a button and lawnmower starts dry heaving and then puking all over the lawn. Then you drink a potion and grow big ol’ hooters on every inch of your body, D-Cup boobs on the back of your head.

I finally got around to playing Resident Evil 6 this year, right before I played the remake of 2. What a bizarre series. That sixth game, that was a really strange thing. Every choice was bizarre, down to the HUD and menu sounds. If it was a movie they would show it at midnight screenings instead of The Room. Which honestly, it's been years at this point, repertory movie theaters, it is time to pick a new midnight movie. How about Mandy? People would pack in for that one. Have to get somebody to shoo out the people fried on acid from the front couple rows after the show was over, but small price to pay, I think.

Back to game. This is honestly one of the best in the series. The zombos are closer to Return of the Living Dead than the Romero style. Really hard to kill. Have to just manage around them. No furnace to burn chopped up body parts. Or oil flask, like the first remake now that I think of it. Some impressive viscera. I’m a gorehound baby, gimme da guts.

This is my favorite basketball game. A newly translated Kairosoft game is a reason to celebrate. They have four main categories: business/artist sim, town/location sim, sports management sim, and free-to-play garbage. This is their best sports sim to date. Pretty clearly a re-skin of their Soccer management game, but in this one the tiny little pixel people named Galaxy Terry yell KOBE! when they steal the ball.

Me, me. I’m the Medan Man. I am really glad they made another one of these. Next one is what, witches? Hell yeah. Night Gallery the Video Game. Larry Fessenden is becoming the king of this type of thing. Well, who would the other king even be? Nobody else is even trying, like this at least. Kojima could be, if he wanted to.

Intense little Spanish ‘Souls’ platformer. Really beautifully done. Catholic nightmare. Multiple enemy types that stand around flagellating themselves with straps. Would love to see more from these guys.

I finally tried Street Fighter V this year and wow, Third Strike was so good. What a good game. Punch that robot detective and he makes burping sounds. Looks and plays fantastic. After this game they decided to make it all look like ClayFighter for some reason.

OTHER THINGS

These all looked great but I didn’t get around to them yet. That is the best part about single player games, you don’t need to rush into playing them when they are new. Death Stranding also, I don’t want to be rushed with something like that, it looks ridiculous.

The Star Wars game was neat but it had a hollow brittleness to the experience, the seams where it was rushed to be released aren’t really visible, but they are tactile. You can feel them. That said, reflecting a laser zap back at a space nazi felt really great every time. That same feeling as recalling the axe in God of War. Really snappy.

Game was a fucking mess but it deserves mention. The Sherlock game developers made a Lovecraft game that, pretty unique to Lovecraft adaptations, directly dealt with the deep, nasty racism of the writer. The problem was it dealt with it like a person wearing boxing gloves and a blindfold would deal cards at a poker table. Ham-handed, ugly to look at, and not fun to play, but maaaaaan they went for it.

It isn’t out yet and I haven’t played it, but its gonna be the best game this year. I’m not a game journalist, I don’t have to be honest about saying things like that. You can play a toilet.

POST SUBMISSION ADDENDUM: I WAS RIGHT ABOUT WATTAM. ALSO I FORGOT ABOUT SEKIRO, THAT WAS REAL GOOD TOO.