Adrian Morales's Reviews
If you can stick through some wooden voice acting and awkward animation, there is a decent B-movie thriller here that is easy to digest if you’re looking for some video game pulp horror this Halloween season.
Overall, if you know what you’re getting into with Insurgency Sandstorm, I am confident it will be an enjoyable game. It is a competent and decently fleshed-out mil-sim shooter that is rarely found outside of the PC space. Otherwise, you might just end up playing in silence, get sniped a few times from an unseen enemy, and decide to spend your time elsewhere as the game doesn’t do much in terms of catering to solo players thanks to its hardcore nature.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is the definitive version of Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece technically, mechanically, and artistically.
Skatebird had potential, and I hate to drag it down, but I simply did not have an enjoyable experience with it.
The Iki Island expansion is a little weak, with its strange supernatural storyline that is far too brief; however, the side quests and exploration of Iki more than make-up for it. If you’re someone that enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima, then this expansion is well worth your time. Iki Island has plenty to do and lots to see.
I can see now why fans clamored for a proper English localization since its original 2015 release and I can safely say that I am fully joining the ranks of Ace Attorney fans. Ace Attorney’s logic-based puzzle solving, while simple, is satisfying and the game bursts at the seams with strong writing and great characters, all of which has been masterfully preserved thanks to a great localization. If you’re looking for a simple game to play that will suck you in for hours with its intrigue, look no further than The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.
Monster Hunter Stories 2 certainly isn’t a perfect game, the story is paced awkwardly, the voice acting is dry and it’s mostly a stripped-back Monster Hunter experience that not every Monster Hunter fan will want to play. Where Monster Hunter truly succeeds is in making the combat captivating, the story charming and the monsties fun to collect and manage. If you’re both a Monster Hunter fan and a JRPG fan, or just someone looking to scratch that Pokemon itch, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is just the game you’re looking for.
Overall Guilty Gear Strive is a great game. Arc System Works really took the time to create a tight and refined fighter that is only complemented by a rock-solid online component. For a game series over twenty years old, Strive is the most accessible in the series for newcomers by far, and if you never have played a fighter but think this one looks neat then by all means jump in. There is a lack of single-player options and the lobbies can feel clunky and tedious but, once you’re in the heat of a match, these issues simply melt away.
Virtua Fighter 5 is still a great fighting game in 2021 and this remaster, almost remake, makes that profoundly obvious. The switch to the Dragon Engine has given VF5 a wonderful visual update and great care has been taken to preserve everything that is great about the original version’s stellar animations and tight balance. The biggest drawbacks here are the lack of rollback net code, which is a must-have for any fighting game with online functionality in this era, and stripped-back character customization which has already been surpassed by VF5’s contemporaries. Overall, veteran Virtua Fighter fans should be pleased and find themselves at home with this rerelease while new fans will find a very mechanically challenging but expansive fighting game to sink their teeth into.
I name-dropped and compared quite a few games to Biomutant in this review and it is because Experiment 101 has clearly taken influences from so many games and attempted to incorporate it all into Biomutant. However, in the pursuit of taking so many concepts and creating something unique, Biomutant winds up feeling derivative and dated. It never does anything exceedingly well but also never does anything terribly bad, it simply exists in the middle and its biggest success is being an average game with a good combat system.
MotoGP 21 is a great choice for newcomers to the series as it introduces a rigorous tutorial mode that will get you playing and having fun in no time. However, returning fans might be disappointed to see that this year’s MotoGP game is mostly the same as last year’s with an included bike retrieval mechanic. Overall MotoGP 21 is still the premier motorcycle racing simulator on the market with the best feeling racing experience for both newcomers and veterans.