Kirk McKeand's Reviews
XCOM: Chimera Squad is perhaps the best value proposition I’ve seen in video games for a long time.
The journey is completely worth it.
It’s still worth playing, but Resident Evil 3 Remake is a step backwards for Capcom, coming off the back of one of the best games of last year. It’s gorgeous to look at, the jump scares will get you, and it’s like stepping into a comfy pair of slippers. But even though your feet are cosy, it never feels like home.
It turns out Valve just needed new tech. It just needed VR. And it’s what I needed, too.
This is the strongest Doom has ever been.
Zombie Army 4 is the reanimated corpse of gaming’s past, stitched together from the best bits of Sniper Elite. It’s a B-movie pastiche stuffed with classic movie references and thousands of heads (and bollocks) to pop. But most importantly, it’s a new game. A new, fairly-enjoyable video game in 2020 – what a concept.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a masterpiece. No joke. If automation was to take my job right now, at least I’d have something to lose myself in during these long summer months.
Despite these annoyances, despite the fact that it’s a game designed with decades-old sensibilities, I enjoyed my time with it. It doesn’t have the conclusion we’ve been waiting two decades for and it barely drives the story forward at all, but the climactic battle is as satisfying as that 70-man tussle in the first game’s harbour.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a brave prequel that isn’t afraid of taking risks. It is innovative, surprising, stunning, dramatic, and generous – a highlight of this generation and a benchmark for other open world games to aspire to.
If you do manage to hold out, you will be rewarded with flashes of brilliance, it’s just that those flashes are buried as deep as the core story is buried in the endless dialogue.