With Stellar Blade, Shift Up joins a solid list of exclusives from the Playstation 5, and does so properly. Their first console game manages to impress with challenging battles, where the boss fights in particular steal the show, and a fantastic world. And although the side missions lack quite a bit of creativity, the main mission manages to keep your attention enough. Stellar Blade has everything it takes to become a hit, but should not be mentioned in the same breath as the biggest Playstation exclusives. The South Korean developer has already hinted at a sequel and once they manage to address the weak points there, it will not be long until Stellar Blade will become one of the most important games for Playstation.
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Outcast's return hasn't been as big as fans of the original had hoped. Where the game excels is the world and the ability to explore with your jetpack, but that's where the fun ends. Being able to personalize the weapons with the modules of your choice is nice, but on the other hand, the combat itself is not very spectacular. Add to that the bad jokes, the dramatic writing, the boring quests and the technical problems and you quickly end up with a very mediocre game. Outcast – A New Beginning falls short on almost all points, so you actually get bored after a few hours. Fans have had to wait 25 years for a worthy successor, but with A New Beginning they will be disappointed.
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It's clear, Helldivers 2 is fun. Very nice indeed. It is not without reason that this became the best-selling Playstation game on PC within a few days. The wonderful shooting, the spectacular Stratagems and the teamwork while playing makes Helldivers 2 one big party. There are few games that can give you so much fun and chaos, combined with perhaps not the very best graphics, but one of the most atmospheric. You often imagine yourself in a Starship Troopers or Terminator movie with all the explosions and bullets around you. It's a shame that the game was plagued by so many technical issues in the first few days, but the developer has done everything they can to resolve this and has already largely succeeded. The problems must of course be taken into account in the assessment, but make no mistake, Helldivers 2 is already one of the best games of 2024 and will only get better in the future with all the new free content. And for only €40 this is a no-brainer, get that trade!
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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a title that evokes mixed feelings. At times the game excels for its action and humor, but it also struggles with the challenges of its 'game as a service' model. The constant repetition of the same missions and the push for daily assignments can become quite frustrating at a certain point. The biggest frustration, however, is the wasted potential. It's clear that a linear single-player game is much more suitable for Suicide Squad. Rocksteady's attempt to get players to grind for better weapons and gear just isn't fun enough.
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The single player is extremely lousy, with the terrible open combat missions, and few fans will be really happy with the new zombie mode. Although the multiplayer plays wonderfully, it consists solely of old maps with a slightly modernized look. You can definitely have fun in the online part, it even plays better than the previous part. But in terms of content, Modern Warfare 3 is the absolute low point of the series in recent years and certainly not worth the full price.
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With RoboCop: Rogue City, does the developer know how to take the game to identical heights as the film series? Unfortunately not. It is clear that they are still on the upward trend. This is a first person shooter where you literally and figuratively go back in time. No understandable class structure, just shooting. It is of course possible to upgrade your gun and choose skills for RoboCop, but the essence is rough shooting and the game does that well. It is a shame that other elements are less well developed, such as the poor AI of the opponents. Major missed opportunities are also the detective work, which now only consists of scanning your environment, and the minimal consequences of your choices during the story.
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Spider-Man 2 does a lot right and it is therefore difficult to highlight the lesser points, which are also quite scarce. Spider-Man 2 simply builds on the previous parts, and therefore largely plays the same as what you are used to. You also notice that the citizens in the city often look the same and are considerably less detailed than main characters such as Peter, Miles and MJ. Is this disturbing? Absolutely not. Developer Insomniac would also be crazy to change the entire concept when it has worked so well in the past. This new installment does everything you expect and even more.
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Is Mirage worth it? Of course. Although it is again a typical Assassin's Creed and clearly an oversized DLC from Valhalla, it is a relief to really have to sneak around with Basim again. This is what made the series so popular and Mirage shows that it is still a lot of fun. With about 30 hours of gameplay, the game is a lot more manageable than the gigantic previous parts, but certainly no less. Moreover, you only pay €45 for Mirage instead of the full €70, for which we have to compliment the developer. The game starts off quite weak with an introduction that is far too long, but once you get past that you can really get on with it. Assassins's Creed Mirage is an excellent "snack" where stealth is back and you don't have to spend 150 hours to see everything. More is not always better, and that proof is provided here.
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Avatar The Last Airbender: Quest for Balance is clearly made for a younger audience. The gameplay, puzzles and races during the story feel old-fashioned, without much challenge. You soon notice that the gameplay consists of one loop that repeats for about 15 hours. The story follows the original series and adds some additional story elements, but this is often shown to the player through mediocre cutscenes and plain text boxes. Avatar's license has a lot of potential and the developer could have gotten a lot more out of it.
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The gameplay of Mortal Kombat 1 is excellent and it is old-fashioned coarse. Blood, sweat and broken bones will dominate your screen for hours. This is also helped by the fact that the game looks more than fine graphically. The characters look detailed, just like the environments. The running of the characters in the cutscenes sometimes looks a bit crazy, but otherwise the game jumps off your screen. The story, especially for a fighting game, is also very rewarding and an excellent introduction to future games in this series. Invasion mode is nice for variety but not good enough to keep players busy for long.
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Fortunately, the combat is fun enough to keep the whole story interesting, but for the rest it is not all. Outside of the Sigils, the loot isn't interesting with just increasing some percentages. The graphics are fine, but you can expect a lot more from a game that uses the Unreal 5 Engine.
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Without a doubt, Red Dead Redemption is a more than fantastic game that is an excellent addition, especially on the Switch, but the asking price of 50 euros is way too much for such a simple port and that leaves a sour aftertaste. If the price is not a problem for you, then this is a great game. Fortunately, it has not become such a fiasco as the GTA trilogy, but next time we would rather see a full remake.
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The Past Within is a fun co-op game that is really fun, and that is mainly due to the unique gameplay. Graphically it is not very high, but the difference between 2D and 3D of the Past and the Future just does its job. Especially fans of Rusty Lake's previous games will immediately recognize the style. Although not all puzzles are equally brilliant, it is still fun to solve them together. Do you have an hour or two of free time left and would you like to do your own escape room on the couch with a friend? Then get The Past Within for a few euros and start puzzling quickly!
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Bright colors and a cartoonish style give it the typical Crash atmosphere and the music also makes you very happy. But this is not enough to keep players interested for a long time. Developer Toys for Bob is currently working on the first season of the game and that will bring more content.
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This game is quite deep. You can completely adjust your playing style and strategy to what feels best for you. In the end it has become an extensive baseball game in which you can put in a lot of hours. It takes a while to figure out all the button combinations, but after that there's plenty of fun to be had. Moreover, there are no annoying microtransactions to make you spend even more money. Looking for something a little more light-hearted than MLB The Show, but want a game that's pretty deep? Then we highly recommend Super Mega Baseball 4.
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The package is gigantic and impossible to discuss in its entirety. This new part has become such a game that grabs you immediately and doesn't let go. The ability to customize your character in dozens of ways is nothing short of fantastic, and the story is told in an entertaining way. The most important thing about Diablo is collecting loot, and as soon as the first loot falls out of a box, the loot fever starts and you don't want anything else. All this is designed in one of the most beautiful games of the moment, full of detail and eye-catching environments.
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It hurts to burn down a game that takes place in the universe of The Lord of the Rings. But just like the series The Ring of Power, the board is completely missed here. The graphics are of a deplorable level and the bugs often make the game literally unplayable. In addition, the gameplay is extremely shallow and boring. Are there no pluses at all? One or two puzzles are quite nice and the voices of Gollum and Gandalf are not bad. But there really isn't much more than that. Daedalic Entertainment had quite a nice concept in terms of concept and also had a legendary license that they could work with. What do they make of it? A game just as ugly and rotten as Gollum itself, which you should stay very far away from.
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Outside of the main missions, there are plenty of other activities to keep you busy in the Burning Shores. Exploring ruins is one of them, known from Forbidden West. However, these are now a bit more extensive and there are sometimes even extra side missions attached to them. For example, during a main mission we accidentally came across a ruin and wanted to do it “quickly”. After completing the ruins we suddenly ran into an old acquaintance. What followed was a fantastic side mission with lots of action, emotion and nice loot. The expansion seems to contain much more of these kinds of secrets than the main game and therefore gives you a lot of content for a low price. Burning Shores can be purchased for only € 20 and that is a bargain.
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Avalanche Software has done the unthinkable and created the “Harry Potter” game that millions of fans have long awaited. We can take our wizard hats off to the impressive way Hogwarts and the world have been designed. Both are packed with little details that will keep you playing with a big smile on your face. Outside of the missions, there is so much to do and experience in the world that you can easily get lost and discover for hours. The combat is deep and the puzzles challenging so the gameplay never gets boring. Is Hogwarts Legacy perfect? Certainly not. But it is a magical adventure in which you will lose yourself completely.
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