Finished Psychonauts 2, great game. I do wish there was a bit more puzzling like in the original, but I get why they made a more streamlined game that kind of plays out like a good animation film./series. 8.5/10 for me.
My pride did not let me leave Halo Infinite alone, so I returned and finished it. The core gameplay is excellent, but the bullet sponges and insta deaths are annoying as hell and dragging the experience down. Also, the story feels like 1/2 of a game and the ending is super open. I am not expecting The Witcher 3 or Red Dead 2 in terms of long epic closed plots, but the modern standard of AAA games is way above this, especially open world titles. That said, running around and freeing bases on the Halo Infinite is fantastic and I enjoyed the atmosphere. So ultimately I'd say it is a 7/10.
Now playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider and it is the dumbest game I have played in years. The suspension of disbelief in this game is second to absolutely nothing (films/games/novels). What happened to the combat/action? I feel like I am 3/4ths into the game and there has not been a single combat encounter that makes use of it's gameplay mechanics. It all takes place in flat areas with a couple of enemies sprinkled around (sometimes just a single enemy?). No climbing, swinging around etc. I don't think there has been an encounter that took me more than two minutes, minus a scripted section with weird people/monsters. Okay, so the game focuses on puzzles and exploration. But there has not been a single puzzle that required me to actually think. Most of them consist of finding two or three things you can interact with and activating them in order. Exploration consists of running/climbing towards a marker. 4/10 thus far, I can't believe how much of a downgrade this is over the first game and even second game that I already found a downgrade.