I started 2026 by getting the flu. :-( One side benefit: I couldn’t do much other than lay in bed, so I played through the entirety of Resident Evil 4 Remake. It’s been a loooong time since I finished a AAA game so quickly.
Most of the time I did so on the PlayStation Portal, which performed admirably. It’s amazing that you can stream a game at 1080p / 60fps so well that it feels just like playing on the PS5 itself. The fact that the Portal has all of the DualSense controller’s features really helps.
RE4 is one of the more out-there entries in the series, but as an action game, it is superbly designed. The level of control, customization, and mastery you can have is one big lesson in game design. I was taking notes the entire way. I don’t normally connect with big-budget action games that much, but Resident Evil is different, and this remake highlighted how satisfying the formula is (and also how far you can push it, design-wise).