don't get mad at me also, one thing I wish I would have dove into is how for some games it is easy for me to look back at the memory of playing a game and hold onto that regardless of if I still enjoy playing it today, but for others (like the three games I talk about in this video) I can't seem to hold onto that initial memory as well and start to sour on the game as a whole. I have not thought about it enough to have an answer as to why that is. I touch on it a tiny bit when talking about games that you can't truly replay and how you go into replaying those with the mindset that a new playthrough isn't designed to be the same, but I think there is a ton more in that space to explore, especially considering that there are games that I think suck to play now that are highly replayable, yet I don't have the same sour feeling towards them as I do towards these three. Could be something about the game, could be my mindset when I replayed them, could be the strength of the original memory when I played it, could be all of these things and more. oh and one other thing I wish I would have done a bit differently was how I talked about Majora's Mask. I stand by all of my thoughts on how the game didn't hit for me on my most recent playthrough, but I think I presented it as if a switch had flipped and that the game means nothing to me now when that is not the case. The more accurate view is that when replaying it, I just could tell that if this was a game I kept coming back to, eventually the good memories I had of it (whether those be from when I played the game or was just obsessed with hearing about it) would be replaced by my more current lukewarm feelings on it, so I have decided that in order to preserve what love I still have for MM, I am better off not playing it anymore lol. anyway, have a good one.

I remember once hearing that people don’t want to play the game that they once played. They want to play the game that they remember.

It’s not necessarily the game you want to replay. It’s that part of life that you want to relive.

One thing that will never change is how damn good the music for Bioshock Infinite is

The thing that's so necessary about Assassin's Creed 2 specifically is the attention to detail in the level design. Its interpretation of historical Italy and its architectural history is honestly incredible, they did the work to create a legitimate piece of virtual tourism and that makes it timeless

ok awesome video, very insightful as usual, great points were made, but have you considered that majora's mask is actually still the GOAT and you're wrong

never have I felt more vindicated than you bringing up the problems with AC2, not just because I agree with it, but because I thought I was going crazy after revisiting it recently and absolutely not enjoying it as much as I used to

I feel like Prince of Persia would like to chat about who invented the "run on walls and climb buildings looking cool as heck gameplay"

I have nearly the opposite problem: I love things less the longer it's been. I convince myself, I'm just being nostalgic. I re-read my favorite story once a year for this reason. Each time I expect to come away disillusioned, and while its flaws become clearer each time, it remains my favorite.

As a kid, I usually assumed that hard games were hard because I was a kid and needed to get better. As an adult, there a several games that I can't go back to because I now know they're hard for other reasons, such as poor controls.

The amount of times I hear raz say “I’ve never been more moved” 😂 I love it

I think an important factor that you didn't mention is that your intentions for playing vs replaying the games are different. When you play the game for the first time you are just trying to… have fun and experience it. Maybe there was some hype around it but you are mostly approaching a new piece of content with a fresh mind. When you replay games though, especially in your case, it seems like you are trying to validate some ideas, and hunting for the "oh wow this was great" moment, which I think colors your perception of the game. You can already see the twists coming, you already know the plot, and you are kind of looking for what you didn't know before, or reaffirming certain built-up ideas of the game. You already mentioned games like Outer Wilds aren't designed to be replayed but I don't see how games like Majora's Mask are different and it seems like an arbitrary distinction. I personally don't get this whole replayable shtick that gamers / reviewers start to demand of single player games as I find that they lead to unnecessarily needpicky criticisms (e.g. even Outer Wilds sees that criticism sometimes). That's literally not the point of these games! People can play roguelike for example for replayability. But yes unfortunately we will never be able to wipe our memories to try to evaluate a game in 2023 with a fresh mind if we have already played it before. But yes, some games definitely age more poorly than others. For the memory aspect of it, a funny thing is I think for two of my favorite games (Outer Wilds and The Witness), I didn't actually enjoy them *that* much while playing them. It's only near the end, and also thinking more about them and reading what others were saying that I started to build more appreciation. Does that mean they were bad games though? I think even if the grind was a little tough and unenjoyable (e.g. The Witness had some tough puzzles that stumped me), the post-game analysis and thoughts were part of playing the game as well.

I actually have the opposite reaction to OoT and MM. Trying to replay OoT I almost always come away disillusioned. The one exception being the first time I played Master Quest. But Majora's Mask I adore returning to. Part of it is that MM has what I find to be a deeply alluring replayability hook- since I know where all the masks are, I start planning out routes for each three days to try to optimize my playthrough. Not really a speedrun, more just to avoid downtime. But it's actually really engaging and a form of gameplay that is very rare, perhape unique.

I have often felt this way about books. I sometimes miss the days when I was a kid before I developed "taste." When I could just pick up any chapter book at the grocery store book rack and enjoy reading it for what it was. Now before I commit to buying a book I have to go online and read a dozen opinions on whether or not it was "worth" reading.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and revisiting what you were nostalgic for can be a hell of a hangover.

I’ve replayed a lot of games that I initially loved but have never experienced what you spoke about here. I pretty much still feel the same about them as I always did

this video makes me appreciate super mario galaxy so much more. its my favorite game of all time, and i replay it atleast once a year if not multiple times, and it never gets old for me. i consider it one of the most finely crafted experiences in gaming.

You know it's a special game when you replay it years later and it's even better than you remembered.

Thankfully every single one of my childhood games aged like fine wine and holds up well to this day (no i wont verify this for myself)

Majora's Mask excels somewhere around the halfway point of an initial playthrough, when your mind starts to map everything in the game world together. Exploring and engaging grants you gain a new understanding of the characters and setting, and once that clicks it's an indescribable feeling of empathy, dread, melancholy, etc. You can't really experience it a second time. I was so deeply moved by that game upon my first completion, but upon coming back to it you already know the ins and outs of the game and it's hard to recreate that first contact. In the same way you can never have the "aha" moment of a mystery, for instance.

As a vintage game collector and player, I relate too strongly to this. I am very nostalgic by nature, and it has taken me aback as age has removed the shades of fondness of classics when I replay them. It’s often a reminder of how much I have changed since then.

I think the reason games such as outer wilds and BotW seem like they will be more resilient to this isn't because they are made in a way to prevent this from happening, but because they are made in a way to pretty much guarantee this happens. The awe and wonder you experience in the first playthrough is immediately gone on any subsequent playthrough no matter how long its been since your first one. Whenever you go back to it, you are not playing the same game because your first playthrough WAS the game. And you know this going in when replaying it so it helps to remove disappointment.

I work in sales and one of the things that has stuck with me from my old boss is that ‘customers will remember how they FELT when they were with you, but they won’t remember what happened’. This advice has helped me so much and I think a similar logic applies here.

Loved Infinite, came back 10 yrs later, still love it.

Resident Evil 4 (2005) still holds up in my opinion, so there's that.

This is why every game in my "best" list are games i have played several times in different points in my life. That makes those games actually grow with me.

I think it's important to remember, even as you feel loss over your experience with these titles, it just proves that art is alive. While technically unchanging, the idea that you can come back to something and understand it differently, for better or for worse, is part of that life.

The script for this is incredible, super well connected and well made. Thoughtful and personal but informative. Hats off!

I felt this way replaying The Force Unleashed as an adult. Damn shame.

I think all of this is why I love video game music so much - sure, it's not the interactive part, but it's the part that can keep the memories and emotions intact even if the gameplay or story doesn't hit the same anymore. Also, really feel that part about needing to look at games more analytically, which is why I love every time a game comes around that breaks through the barrier and DOES just immerse me in the spectacle.

I think it's always good to remember that even if you don't like a game you used to love after a later playthrough, that will never take away from the enjoyment you had during that 1st playthrough. It's already in the past so it is set in stone.

"game with time travel does not fully make sense" is not the biggest hottake ngl

Pretty great to be able to do this, I think a lot of us just stick by whatever feeling we had back when and refuse to accept any different analysis. Big props to the very idea of reevaluating your favs outside of nostalgia’s grip, which can be so strong.

I think most of what you experienced with these games comes down to nostalgia shock. If you play them for a couple of minutes every once in a while, instead of idealize them, you slowly cement your opinion of them in a more realistic and mature way. I replay my faves every once in a while for maybe an hour or so and this gradually reconciles the negatives while solidifying the positives in a realistic way. One commenter said that you don't miss the game as much as you miss the time you played, and that becomes true if the games live only in your distant memories , but if you keep playing, you bring the game to the present, giving it a fair look at its positives and negatives.

This mostly reaffirms my personal motto, "Let your fond memories remain memories." Nostalgic revisitings rarely live up to how we think they'll go.

For me it was Bioshock 1. I remember replaying it recently and just...being annoyed and even got bored to the point of dropping it. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is also a candidate. Nostalgia is a powerful drug.

nostalgia is one hell of a drug

I deadass was so moved by Infinite, I quit a dead end job out of the blue. I was cleaning some disgusting gutter in the floor of a kitchen of a restaurant while listening to ‘will the circle be unbroken” and had enough. Worked out well for me

Seeing the cracks of something you previously enjoyed can really devalue your experience of said thing

One game series that I often come back to is the Mass Effect trilogy. That game is a masterpiece in my opinion. Some people may see that ME1 is outdated and the gameplay is "old" but the story is still what makes it amazing. If you can accept that it's not a new game then the world that they built is truly magnificent! ME 2 and 3 plays like a more modern game so it's easier to play but still the story is there and it makes it worthwhile to play!

Beautiful video. I think that applies to absolutely everything - games you loved, movies, your favorite band from high school. And I love going back to them from time to time. The thing is: you should never approach something that was meaningful to you as it still should be, or if it was meant to hit you the same way it once did. Approach those things as the person that you once were, and you should be able to both enjoy the nostalgia AND appreciate how much you've changed.

I just played the bioshock games for the first time because everybody was praising them and I loved them. Games dont have to be perfect, they just have to feel perfect.

I just want to take a moment to say thank you for adding proper subtitles! It means a lot to those of us who rely on subtitles to fully understand and enjoy the video. It's appreciated. Thank you.

I just replayed BioShock infinite again, and had the exact opposite happen. I loved the game even more

As a kid from a poor background I never had games to play that I could go back and replay. Only since 2020 could I actually play different games on my laptop and I’m really enjoying all those games I missed

I think retro-reviews and replays often fail to recapture the magic because most people aren't trying to reply a game, they're trying to re-experience an emotion. A lot of good storytelling works similarly to a magic trick. Just like a good illusion, a good story will have setup, misdirection and payoff. Sometimes you come out of a story wondering how it made you feel the way it did, but understand the "trick" often takes away the magic. A lot of stories aren't made to be told twice. It's not bad storytelling per se, so much as the plot intentionally sacrifices logical consistency to deliver the intended punch, and if it does things right you don't actually realize it doesn't make sense until either a second go, or somebody points a core flaw out to you. It's not a problem exclusive to video games (and debatably it's not even a problem), but I do think gaming suffers more because gaming gets away with shallower stories and cheaper twists than some other media because the nature of interactivity builds a personal investment easier than the passive role most people take in other media. In gaming, we don't watch the magic trick, we participste in the show.

This is actually really strange considering I just had a very opposite experience you did with infinite. When I was young I really didn't like it because nothing in the story and time travel stuff added up. But as an adult I played through it again and actually really enjoyed it. Not for the story but for the atmosphere and spectacle. It felt fresh to me in the modern day where so many big games have no soul to them. It's weird how opposite our experiences with it are.

I've always been a firm believer of NOT replaying games. Lots of unique traits are improved and expanded upon in the coming years, lots of aesthetics aren't that unique to survive the test of time without being idealized by our nostalgia, and a game played for its stellar story was already experienced and will almost never hit as hard again, sadly. If none of these are true, however, and you can separate the quality of game from your nostalgia and care for it, then I really believe you found a gem.

I’d argue that the issue with every game brought up here is they all thrive off of the sense of wonder you get when first experiencing the game. All of these games use that wonder as a unique mechanic to keep you engaged and ignorant of the smaller flaws in the game’s design. However, once the game is revisited, you already know what is coming, and as such focus on the smaller details, which in the case of these games hurts the experience. Have you ever gone to Sea World twice? The first time you go, you focus on the animals and the water, and you are content. The second time you go, you focus on the wait times, the maintenance, and the quality of the exhibits. Afterwards, you begin to question why you liked it so much the first time. For the replay of a game to hold up, it needs to be a fundamentally sound game that can survive once the magic fades. Many games just aren’t built to do this. They focus on making sure the players get through that first play through, and that’s okay. I consider a game to be good if it was able to inspire me to want to even play it a second time. If I can enjoy the game a second time, then the game goes from good to great.

I feel like at least one aspect of this is also the fact that games have an impact on subsequent games. If a game excels at something, it shapes and influences new games a few years later. Games as a media constantly improves and reforms as a whole and what made Bioshock Infinite great back then is part of the DNA of games that came afterwards.

Memories and nostalgia often combine to make people remember the feeling of something at that time in your life versus the actual reality of what it was. People who "miss" video rental stores like Blockbuster forget what it actually was like and only remember the positive feeling of being a carefree kid on a Friday night, for instance.

bioshock infinite is probably my most replayed game ever. i have about 200 hours of playtime in this game and i still come back for another round every year.

Despite what you put in your own pinned post, I think you articulated well enough your feelings on Majora's Mask in a way that made *me* think about your experience in a meaningful way. Yours is such a different feeling on it from mine, where you left it alone to stew in the dreamy, half-remembered state of childhood where I played it to death, beating it a few times over in quick succession as a kid and revisiting it every year or two since then. I don't think I love it any less now and I don't think that the mythology that surrounds it and shapes the way the internet as a whole discusses it is any less valuable, even when you've come back to it and realized that you'd made something grander of it in your head than it actually is. I think a lot of value comes out of a game's ability to make an impression like that: to leave you thinking about it years later, for better or for worse. It's impossible to recapture the exact feeling you got the first time you played a game, but you can definitely stew around in it longer if you're willing to hold onto these things as tightly as I did with MM or ended up doing with the Souls games when I played Dark Souls 1-3 in the span of a month surrounding 3's launch, then kept playing 3 for another thousand hours of PvP, replays, co-op runs, modded runs, etc. I don't rightly remember what my first run was like anymore, but my last still leaves me with such a favorable opinion because I like pressing circle and R1 at the right time so much. The throughline between feelings on a game and the actual quality and merit of a game is hard to trace. I think Dragon Quest 3 might actually be the single greatest video game of all time. I'd rate it among my top 5 in a heartbeat. I don't have a lot of fun playing it, but it's not intolerable these days like it was the first time I'd bounced right off it when I was six or seven. That harsh diversion from reality that my ideals and standards take isn't something I struggle to reconcile even if I could never properly articulate it to someone else. It would be a Tim Rogers-esque undertaking across 8 hours to try to get across, "Slimes have 8 HP, are worth 4 EXP and 2 gold, and they feel good to kill, setting you up to enjoy killing much tougher guys in 20-30 hours." The purpose and process of analyzing media is heady and makes for engaging discourse and leaves room for things like spectacle, but I don't know if it leaves a lot of room for vagaries of the heart. Sometimes you hear a piece of music that gives you goosebumps and demands all the pressure in your sinuses and there's no good reason for it other than because you felt something in response to art, and maybe the artists didn't even intend it. The moment you start looking for why you felt that way, you lose some of the essence of what made you feel that feeling in the first place. For some people it can be replaced with an equally fulfilling feeling, that aforementioned heady sensation, and for some they diminish it so little that they're not missing out on much, but it instantly becomes something difference. The alien dread that comes with the first few bars of Majora's Theme has worth without critical analysis as to why, in the well-articulated language of music, it causes that feeling. I think the same can be said of our love for things we've experienced and since moved on from, even if the memories of those experiences don't stand up to our current scrutiny. Anyway, cool TED Talk, thanks for coming to mine too.

The "give me back my daughter" scene lives rent free in my brain and it always will. Honestly, the game being objectively good or bad doesn't matter to me because the story had such an impact on me.

I recently played Majora's mask for the first time, and I had VERY minimal nostalgia for it, pretty much all I did as a kid was mess around in clock town, because as you said in the video it's hard to grasp the time loop mechanic as a kid. But even though I called myself a big Zelda fan ever since I played OoT, I just remember thinking I didn't really need to experience Majora's mask because it was just the less popular version of OoT, and the thought of understanding the time loop scared me. I heard that it was "dark" and "depressing" but I thought when people said that they meant that it was for a Nintendo game, (kinda like the ending of link's awakening.) So I went into the game with lower expectations. And now I'm considering weather I like it MORE than OoT, because it really surprised me with just how emotional the game really could be. I felt the fear and dread that the npcs did when the final day was nearing an end, and the realization that I'm not really saving anyone or helping anyone, but just abandoning timelines to hopefully save the world hit me like a truck. The time loop mechanic that used to scare me away from the game was one of my favorite parts of it. I'm not saying all of this to try and convince you to like MM or anything, it's just that I agree with you that it's not that the game has aged poorly, but that expectations and poor memory can really ruin something you used to love.

AS II is a perfect example of “the “this feels so cliche and derivative” and then you remember this is actually one of the OGs and it’s the opposite in context” effect

the existential dread that came along with watching these was the last thing I needed before falling asleep thank you !

it's ok to consider something a personal favorite simply because it opened your eyes to something new and exciting, even if you find it lacking in the grandeur you remember upon revisiting it. the shows "are you afraid of the dark?" and "so weird" remain some of my absolute favorites even though i KNOW if i were to actually sit down and watch any of the episodes now, i'd probably physically injure myself cringing lol. but i still love them because they introduced me to the wonders that can be found in horror, scary stories, and mystical thinking and nothing can change that. so it's ok for you to enjoy infinite despite you recent revelation because it's the game that inspired you to explore video games on a deeper level. you wouldn't be where you are without it

Your reaction to Majora’s Mask is the reason why I’ve never played it, been tempted to because of the aesthetic, conversation, and how so many people cherish it, but I know myself well enough to know that it’s not for me, I want it to be but it’s not

This game stands out to me because it's the first game I ever played with headphones on. I was blown away by that and everything else

When I was younger I had bioshock 2, which I played a little and thought was cool but was too young to beat it because it was confusing and difficult. A couple years ago I bought the collection and played through the games (and DLC) back to back and loved every moment of 1 and 2 but saw all of infinites problems on my first play through, making it instantly the worst one in my eyes. I still enjoyed the game, particularly the DLCs, but it didn't come close to masterpiece status for me. My favourite of the games now is probably 2, it has my favourite weapons, story and plasmids.

As always outer wilds makes an appearance, along with the the music. How the heck did they make something so good

I had the opposite experience with BioShock Infinite. I just recently played it for the first time, and I loved it! It's actually my favorite BioShock game, and I'd go as far as to say that it helped me appreciate the series even more! I think it was the perfect send-off to the Ken Levine trilogy. Best of luck to Cloud Chamber Studios for BioShock 4, they've got massive Big Daddy shoes to fill.

Great video, I think going back and re-analyzing old ideas, games, media in general should be something everyone does. It really helps to keep everything in perspective, of why you are who you are and what matters to you in media. The one thing I love about my favorite games of old is that the ones I truly adore, I love because of the gameplay and the characters not so much the story. Mercenaries and Splinter Cell are some of my favorites because they really let you live out a fantasy either of being a missile happy mercenary or a cloak and dagger spy.

I still go back and play the Jak, Ratchet, and Sly games every 5 years or so. There's very little about most of the games in those series that I dislike now that I'm older. I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few things but in my opinion aside from all of the nostalgia I have for them they are still amazing games. :)

As a game dev being analytical about every game I play is removing part of the fun for me. I hate and love it at the same time. Great video and great content, as usual!

props to you for actually beating bioshock infinite at least 1 time. i couldnt even manage to do that.

Imagine not going back to Final Fantasy 8 and being excited every time you get shot into space to save Rinoa. So silly.

A couple years ago I wondered if Elder Scrolls Oblivion was actually as good as I remembered, because I always remembered it as more fun than Skyrim. After playing it again after like 15 years, yes it really was better than Skyrim 😌 (I did run it with a good amount of graphics mods though, but same thing for skyrim)

This actually reminded me of a motel my family went to when I was a child on a vacation to Cape Cod. Over a decade later my parents wanted us to all go back to Cape Cod and I was extremely hesitant because I thought the reality could not possibly compare to my memory (And in case you're wondering, the motel wasn't absolutely perfect the second time around, but it was still a great, great time)

This video made me realize Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us and GTA V all came out in 2013. Holy cow, what a year for gaming. I still feel a sense of spectacle over Bioshock Infinite, but the last time i played it (for the 4th time) was in 2016. Now, I’m almost afraid to play it again because I don’t want to lose those feelings like you did, but i can totally understand how that may happen over time. Like you basically said, we are very different people today than we were 10 years ago.

That is a really interesting video. I've just replayed the Ezio trilogy for the first time since their release and have been a bit surprised that my memory of AC2 was mixed up with that of ACB. Some details I remembered were actually from ACB which is superior to AC2 on some points. I also wonder how the perception we have of a game is influenced by what we've played and experienced just before. I replayed AC2 after having finished the Witcher 3 for the first time, with the DLC. And while the game was great, it felt very long in the end. I wanted something lighter and shorter. Thus I decided to focus entirely on the story and ignore every secondary mission in AC2. I had a blast rediscovering this founding stone of modern gaming and finishing it in less than 20 hours. It has aged, it's far from perfect, but there is a great variety in the missions and, contrary to ACB and ACR nothing gets in your way to progress the story by forcing you to play a minigame or other secondary missions. Do I still think it's the greatest AC game of the series? Probably not, but I believe that being the first one to consolidate the Ubi formula, it was simpler and more enjoyable than new titles that are overloaded with irrelevant content. With less time than ten years ago, I find myself enjoying short games more than new RPGs full of crafting systems and other xp points that artificially lengthen the play time.

This definitely happened to me when replaying Fallout 3 some months ago, due to it being the first RPG I played back when I was 13 I held it in an extremely high regard, but replaying it I realized "Wow, the story really takes a nosedive at the end, what the fuck"

I think this holds true for all media. I'll pretty regularly go back and watch old shows, or read old books and have that thought: "why did I ever like this?" I find it sad, but also almost liberating, in a strange sort of way.

Watching this, I realized i did the same thing with Majoras mask. I never beat it, but talking about it with friends heightened it in my recognition. Good video

For me I fell in love with the whole world of Columbia and the Ambience and feel of it and the feel of the story.

There does seem to be a balance between going with the flow and enjoying an experience at face value, and scrutinizing it for any flaws, inevitably dampening or even ruining your experience. That isn't to say we shouldn't be analytical or in-depth, but we can argue ourselves into almost any position. It's like being in a relationship with someone who looks for any excuse to be miserable with their partner.

I played Majora's mask for the first time ever back in 2020, and its one of the few N64 games I've played, I had an absolute blast. I think what helped is that I had heard that it was good, but I wasn't engaged in the conversation so much that it got glorified, I had seen many videos critiquing it long before I played it and when I finally did I went in without a pre-conceived notion of it being god's gift to mankind

I'm not someone who replays games or rewatches shows, but I didn't know exactly why that was the case. Fortunately, your video unearthed my exact fears of what might happen if I do come back to something I love... very complex yet great stuff!

I still love Infinite, but I also really love this video. Like I might not feel the same way about the same things, but I do entirely understand what you mean and I really appreciate your conclusion. Great job it's a lovely video.

I replayed the entire bioshock trilogy when the remastered collection came out. I still loved all of them.

I usually go back to Bioshock games to just explore the environments. Rapture and Columbia are so intricate and immersive.

I have had those moments replaying old video games where I go "HOW DID I BEAT THIS GAME!?" only to come to the conclusion that maybe I just got lucky

Really beautifull video

I recently was thinking about how actually, most levels in Sonic Adventure 2 were quite bad. But because of Chao Garden, players are encouraged essentially to replay the levels they liked again and again to grind, and since you can pick which levels you play, you end up with a memory of the best parts of Sonic Adventure 2 and none of the bad parts because of that reinforcement. Really interesting video as always Raz, thanks!

It's pretty incredible to look back at how game changing AC2 was and how it changed the gaming landscape. I tried replaying it and had the same feeling as you. The music in that game still in incredible. "Ezio's family" is one of the best and most recognizable pieces of gaming music ever composed imo

I feel this in many ways, at my age I see much more clearly the issues with my old favourites and I'm not sad at all to change my mind. I still have my old nostalgia and memory of how good I thought it was. And I've learned how to enjoy games for what they were. It's part of the fun to try to learn how things were in the world at that moment in time and immerse yourself in that via a videogame, of course with the proper controller IMO. I'm relieved that I can still play Kirby Superstar's co-op with every kind of new gamer friend I get and its always the Kirby GOAT. I hit the credits with them I'm still mad there isn't more enjoyable and digestible co-op games for anyone to play. It might not have been THEIR most enjoyable game genre but we have a ton of fun playing through it together.

Raz, I love your content so bear that in mind when you read what's next: You expecting the Ubisfot game to be above the rest in its own category was you setting yourself up for disappointment.

Replaying a game makes you look at it analytically because you know where the story is going this time. This is why before i say a game is my absolute favourite, i replay it again or look at critiques about it good/bad and eventually play it again. I do it with all my favourite games. And it helps me to appreciate my favourite games so much more.

It goes to show that a well written plot is one very important component and cannot be substituted with many shining bells and whistles!

I think what's interesting is that you developed a more analytical and critical eye, and in turn, infinite has lost a lot of it's charm. I think for me, as someone who also loved Bioshock Infinite and thought about it non-stop after release, I went down a creative path, writing stories, going to film school to learn the art, and I spend a lot of my time now telling stories in various ways, I tend to fall in love with concepts and the potential of them. While Infinite is a mess, I still love it bc I find the ideas intriguing. They might have missed while swinging for the fences, but at least they attempted, and while they might not have had anything meaningful to say, they at least said interesting things, and I think that's why I still love the game so much, because in general, I'm in love with the ideas of something more than the execution of something. It's really cool how our initial feelings of a game or film or book, etc., can grow in such nuanced ways, and what that reveals about who we are as individuals and how we've changed throughout the years.

Welcome to getting older. The game didn't change, YOU did with experience and wisdom. As a consequence, so did your perspective.

I look at things in a very different way. I've found that revisiting things I'm nostalgic about has often led to me better understanding them and appreciating them all the more. I feel more from an emotional movie or story after consecutively returning to it than I did the first time. But I've also been critical about everything I've consumed for as long as I can remember, so I could explain to you exactly why I find something important or not from the first time experiencing it.

I love infinite, even replayed recently and still liked it. I do not remember it being received as well as you said though I agree with your criticisms of it too, it's just a special game to me

You explained perfectly what I'm feeling rn playing ACII, it's all about how the game made me feel. I set too high expectations because feelings and actual gameplay turned into same thing in my memories.

You talking about how you'd remembered the feeling but not the specifics and misremembering details reminds me so much of my experience rewatching movied i once loved like Fox and the Hound, ofc its not exactly the same thing as replaying a game you once loved, but at least for me its a similar experience

"The flow of time is always cruel... Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days." E: But honestly, my experience with Majora's Mask is the exact opposite. Apparently I had some issues with anxiety and panic attacks as a little kid, and the imminent doom of that moon did not motivate me in the right way at all. Also didn't help that I never found the song of slow time. But I got an N64 just to play it at one of my low points after I dropped out of college. And it was one of the most formative gaming journeys I've ever had. You know how everybody's made a Dark souls saved me video? That was Majora's Mask for me. The moment you first get to the *spoiler* and the questions the four *spoilers* ask you are still etched into my brain like nothing else.

Raz, your placement of scenes to compliment what you are saying is masterful. Bringing a smile to my face and immersing me in the video. Great stuff.

At around the 11:06 mark, you transitioned from AC2 to Horizon FW and my jaw dropped at just how far, graphically, gaming has come.

I remember playing AC3 for the first time and it was a blast. This was years ago and hadn't touched an Assassin's Creed game since. Then I got my hands on The Ezio Collection.... And it was also a blast!! It honestly felt more like watching the formula grow: the parkour systems improving, the weapons more intricate, the missions more understandable and intriguing. It was telling a story and the mechanics grew alongside the initial premise. I found myself reading about the Borgias online and discovering more about history as a whole. It felt like the gameplay mechanics became reflexive and I could focus on the story, the people, and opportunities more. By opportunity, I mean instead of beating the next mission the same as the last, that I could find a new way or avenue to use the weapons or surroundings available to beat it. All in all, I also kept it in the sphere it belonged in. It came out during a time and place where we didn't have the improvement in systems we see today. It's like riding in a Model-T for historical purposes instead of relying on it for actual transportation. Would I play through the games again or a third time, probably not. It scratched the itch, was my sole focus as I played nothing else, and I feel like I enjoyed it as much as i ever will.