One of the most underrated and overlooked video game series of all time, the Monster Hunter franchise definitely deserves much more credit than it's given. Mainly, this review will be about one of the latest releases: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate contains 12 weapon types, each with their upsides and downsides, but on purpose, and strategically designed to not let any stand out to the others, but you can still easily find your favourite. There are hundreds of different items. And you actually get to know most of them because you are constantly making notes to yourself which are the ones needed most to make different types of things. And almost every single item is useful. Even if it's almost useless, it will have a tiny role or effect. There is no real story to get into, so you don't really need to know the reason you're going different types of quests, even though they're there. There are over 200 quests to do. But you will have to do some of the same ones over and over again in order to get rare resources. The armours look brilliant and have got different advantages and disadvantages depending on what monster the armour is based on. On the topic of monsters, they are awesome. They are nothing like the monsters people would expect, like vampires, zombies or werewolves. There are none of those. The closest thing to a werewolf is a Zinogre (look it up and you will only get a glimpse of how cool these things are). Instead gamers are given something they've never seen before, including Leviathans, Wyverns, Brute Wyverns, Elder Dragons, Fanged Beasts and more. These monsters look awesome, too. My personal favourite is the Agnaktor which is basically a mega leviathan covered In lava. Amazing! You will start pretty weak, but you still feel strong enough to go out into the wilderness. You have to gather resources to make yourself a better and stronger hunter. And this is by far the best part of monster hunter: you improve yourself throughout playing the game instead of letting the game make you better. You learn what areas give you certain items and what weapons and armour best suits the monster you will fight next. And fighting is awesome, too. It' no hack and slash game. You need to do precise dodging manoeuvres and know when the right time is to strike the monster, because they do short actions that aren't too fast or slow, but just long enough for you to know what attack they will do next and what way you can prepare yourself for the next time they stay still, which they don't do for long but just long enough for you to give them a slice with your knife. The combat is extremely fun and challenging that when you injure them, there's such a triumphant feeling and you feel better and stronger the harder the monster is. So instead of letting the game make it easier for you, you make it easier through Progression by your own actions and experience. This game is not as easy as looks; there are so many different things to learn and discover that you'll never run out of things to do. I myself have played this game for over 200 hours, and I am still nowhere near completion.