Paul Tassi's Reviews
Yes, this is “more Starfield,” a game I liked, but I am very disappointed in the way it has barely evolved a year later, and the best thing about is Bethesda going back to a Bethesda-like zone structure. That’s good, but also feels very inauthentic to what the game was supposed to be. This is not going to convert anyone, nor may it satisfy many veterans. I did get some pretty screenshots, though.
This is as close to perfect as a Destiny expansion can get. If my biggest complaint is “I don’t love the new shader icons” and “the Ritual Pathfinder system should be tweaked,” I think we’re doing well. Instead, The Final Shape represents a stunning finale for a plot arc a decade long that’s not just a huge event for Destiny itself, but the entire industry, as I simply do not think that has another comparison point in the history of gaming, provided you’ve been on this ride for this long. Bungie left everything on the field and delivered on all fronts.
I enjoyed many parts of Hellblade 2, and there are some environmental/music sequences in particular, one near the beginning, the other nearer to the middle, that are going to stay with me a while due to the absolute crushing, horrifying, intense atmosphere paired with amazing audio. But as a game? Something I enjoyed playing? Generally speaking, no, it wasn’t really for me.
Stellar Blade is a good game, not a (don’t say stellar) fantastic one. Its peers do a lot of the things it does but better, though that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own right. Don’t go in expecting a revolution, but this may be the start of a solid series and could make Eve a Bayonetta/2B-esque star. The ensuing discourse about this game is going to be exhausting, as it has been already, but divorced from that, the game itself is solid, and that’s what matters the most.
For fans of the first game, or Spider-Man, or action games in general, Spider-Man 2 is an easy recommendation. There are about five dozen teasers and easter eggs by the end so I’m sure we’re in for more, whether that’s another Miles-sized game or another sequel down the road. But for now, yes, this is all the Spider-action you need for a good long while.
Phantom Liberty is a thoroughly excellent swan song for the tumultuous saga of Cyberpunk 2077. And after playing, you will be glad that CDPR has already greenlit a sequel, despite the fact that the initial release could have sunk the entire company. It’s a redemption story on the level of No Man’s Sky or Final Fantasy XIV, and deserves to be experienced for yourself, no matter what you may have thought of Cyberpunk three years back.
I really do love this game. Yes, Bethesda doesn’t match some of its peers in many places, but in part that’s because it’s trying to do everything, all at once. But if you wanted a giant Bethesda RPG set in space with better combat and a whole lot of time to level and build things and explore and find secrets, yeah, this is it. They did it. Enjoy.
Though in theory, an “endgame” playthrough of Diablo 4 is probably 100-200 hours across a larger span of classes, I feel like I can judge what I’ve seen. My impressions are overwhelmingly positive based on what I’ve experienced so far, from the map to the gameplay to the new systems to even the story, which I was not expecting. Blizzard really seems like they’ve nailed this, and I’m going to say the only way this will be poorly received at launch is if technical issues kill people’s ability to play. But once it gets rolling? Yes, I think you’re going to like Diablo 4.
I would recommend Hi-Fi Rush to anyone, even many non-gamers. It’s joyful, addicting and something I may play twice just for the hell of it. An absolute win.
God of War Ragnarok is a beautiful, moving game, no longer purely centered on a father getting to know his son, but also about vengeance, forgiveness and attempting to change both prophecy, and the people we used to be, both of which prove to be equally difficult.
Elden Ring is a gaming achievement the likes of which we rarely seen, and you will be remiss to not pick it up and see what the hype is about for yourself.
Given that all my progress from the review build is about to be wiped, I’m not sure I’ll go through it all again to start re-grinding the endgame, but perhaps on a new class. Melee this time? That fact is what I really want to see is some substantial leaps forward for this series, as it’s starting to feel pretty dated in a lot of ways, but I also have to understand what Wonderlands is, a game Gearbox made from home during the pandemic that’s meant to be a stopgap before Borderlands 4. And I do think it succeeds at that job well enough to please most fans.
I cannot call this a “return to form” for Bungie because Destiny has already been so good lately. But if you’ve been missing Halo-style campaigns with variable difficulty, gorgeous level design and impressive fights, Witch Queen checks every box. This is the best thing Destiny has produced in seven years.
I am incredibly impressed with the size and scope of Lost Ark. Even some of the later storylines started to resonate with me a bit, albeit there’s a ton of throwaway sidequest content that exists just to fill space. I am less impressed with the game’s loot system so far, but I know I have not fully mastered all its finer details at this point. But in a game like this I wanted to get excited about new drops, but other than things looking cool, that never really happened in the first 40 hours here. Another complaint is that because this is such a well established game that already got a number of updates over the years, dumping everything here all at once can feel overwhelming. It’s just a whole lot of stuff and systems and things to sort through, and it’s easy to feel lost.
Halo Infinite might be the best campaign 343 has done, but considering I didn’t love the last two, I’m not sure how much weight that carries. Halo Reach remains the gold standard for me in that department, and while I had a lot of fun here zipping around the open world, and I can see the potential of the concept, something about Infinite feels small and unfinished to me compared to both other Halo campaigns, and other open world titles. I don’t need (or want) a sprawling Assassin’s Creed map that takes 200 hours to clear, but I think I need more diversity than what’s here, and a better story with better characters told within it.
I suppose we can now venture into the old “is Guardians worth $60?” debate. If you miss hyper linear story games with no live service BS, and are a big Marvel fan, then this might be the game for you. If you are hoping for Devil May Cry level combat and God of War type puzzles and exploration within a linear story, you will be disappointed. But I can safely say this is probably a better end product than most people were expecting, and that alone is a pretty big win for a game that felt like a bit of a risk and like it’s been lacking in buzz leading up to launch here. It has issues, but it gets a lot right, and pushes storytelling in ways I haven’t seen in this genre before.
Outriders has surpassed my expectations in almost every way. Months ago, I figured this would be another looter flop, but now, it’s one of the best current entries in the genre, and even with no “live service roadmap” at hand, it’s clear you could potentially extract hundreds of hours from it regardless. I plan to do just that.
I cannot recommend this game at full price. Again, as part of a free subscription it might be worth checking out and getting a few hours of slashy combat in. But I wouldn’t touch it unless the $70 asking price comes down by at least half, and even then, there are a half dozen other better games out this fall alone. I wanted to like Godfall. I never want to see games in this genre fail. But fail it does, and in a worse way than anything I have seen in a long while.
It is easily one of the best games of the entire PS4 generation, and given its competition, that’s saying something.
It’s remarkable, and it will stay with me a long while, just like the first.