Horizon: HERO Dawn

Or in the case of this magnificent game, that should be HEROINE Dawn, but heroine doesn't rhyme with zero so yeah... Anyhow, OMFG I love, love, love, love this game. The world is gorgeous, the heroine's a super bada$$, and the story is one of singular creativity. I will say that I found myself calling bull$h!t during the big reveal. SPOILER ALERT!!! Did anyone else scratch their head when Elisabet proposed creating an AI to recreate all life on Earth as a more do-able solution than just trying to figure out a way around the swarms seeming invincibility? But that I was willing to suspend my disbelief and buy that it was quicker (and even possible in little over a year) to create GAIA and give her all the genetic material necessary to repopulate a dead planet speaks to the amazing gaming experience that is HORIZON: ZERO DAWN.

From the opening cut scene to the final battle and on in to the DLC, I was hooked. I've written about it before and every gamer out there knows exactly what I'm talking about, there's this rush you get when you are playing a video game masterpiece and HZD delivers that gorgeous China White of a gaming high. I will admit that some of my infatuation with the game might have been influenced by my use of it as a crutch to get through the first anniversary of my mother's death, but honestly, I think the game is just that dang good.

The very concept of fighting metal animals that range in size from large to OMFG-how-the-f@#k-am-I-going-to-kill-THAT-with-a-freaking-bow-and-arrow all the while maintaining a very primitive human feel to the world was genius in and of itself. But then there's the creativity of the main story and a very rich world with side quests that feel just as integral to the game. No filler or annoying tedium, just beautifully executed gamer bliss.

Of course now I'm champing at the bit for HORIZON 2: FORBIDDEN WEST. C'mon Sony Interactive. Really?! Just sometime in 2021?! That's all you've got for a release date. Once again I call bull$h!t. There's a lot of 2021 left to go and I need to know if Aloy will be there to get me through the first anniversary of my father's death this summer or if it'll be more of a "y'all are getting a turkey Hungry Man dinner for Thanksgiving cuz Mama's busy gaming" kind of timetable.

Whatever the release date turns out to be, it can't come soon enough for this grown-up gamer girl.