Brandon Orselli
I really can’t get enough of the game, and I feel like it takes all the things I love from the Souls series but throws it within a new setting, with further refined mechanics. It’s a thoroughly refreshing take on the legacy Miyazaki and his team have established, and I really hope we can get more of it in the future. For now, I’m going to go try speed-running various regions in Sekiro again.
I really couldn’t be happier with how this game turned out, and I’m a thousand times excited for where Capcom might take the franchise next.
I really hope Inti Creates explores more of this universe seen in Dragon Marked for Death, as I think they have a solid new IP to work on in future titles. There are snippets of DLC that go into the Dragonblood Clain, but I definitely want to see more. Now with a base, they can refine and experiment!
Some criticize JRPGs for being weird, having too much talking, brain-dead gameplay, being pretentious, and even pandering too hard to be likable to nerds. I can think of one game that fits those criticisms, and it was trying to honor the best of them. YIIK? Yuck…
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is an interesting yet enjoyable side-step for the No More Heroes series. Suda and his team took a risk in offering a completely different experience from what fans have known, and it’s a trippy ride that only they can produce.
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is the best version of an already fantastic RPG. The game’s visuals hold up very well and have been remastered perfectly without any real flaws. This is an excellent port, and is absolutely worth checking out for newcomers and longtime fans alike.
Black Bird is an excellent shoot ’em up and a landmark release for Onion Games. As this is their first release on proper gaming platforms, it makes sense they went all out and produced an exceptional game within a shiny package. It really is a fun time, and can get legit challenging.
There is so much content packed into this absolutely massive party fighter, and there will be years upon years of enjoyment to be had out of Ultimate. I really can’t believe a game like this exists in this day and age, and yet here we are. This is a must have game.
I may have tiny gripes here and there, but all in all, I really enjoyed my time with Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! and was pleasantly surprised by how well this re-imagined vision of the Kanto works. I can’t wait to see how the next main games in the franchise come out.
All in all, Fallout 76 comes off as the core gameplay experience you’d find in Fallout 4, only with multiplayer sort of tacked on somehow. There’s no real overarching story and no NPCs to really speak of, and yet there’s a giant map to explore and collect things while just getting stronger. It’s the modern Bethesda Fallout experience, distilled to that core gameplay loop.
Little Dragon’s Cafe is an interesting attempt from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada that plays to his strengths. The game takes you away to a rural, sparsely populated island and drops you into a cute and heartwarming story about strangers growing together.
Diablo III is an unabashed loot-fest of an action RPG that has successfully bridged the gap between a strictly mouse+keyboard experience and those of us who prefer a controller. The game has quite a lot of content, is now fully portable, and keeps me coming back for more.
I think any fan of these two games can't really ask for anything more considering both games have been perfectly ported, in full high-definition, to PlayStation 4. The added trophies are nice, and the games basically feel just as they did all those years ago – they just look way crisper now. I really can't recommend this package enough, if only it had a physical release too.
While there are lingering issues with Dark Souls as this is simply a remaster, they are largely inconsequential as this is a spectacular game. Sure, the game may simply be channeling old school difficulty and storytelling, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you're tired of modern games treating you like an infant, please give Dark Souls a chance. Enjoy undeath.
While there are some areas where the game sadly hasn't changed since the last game, there's enough minute improvements that really bring this football simulator to an entirely new level. Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is the definitive soccer game for gamers wanting that extra oomph in their kick, quite literally.
A line from a certain character is very apropos to how this game sees our current year politics and culture: "Everything is political, Sean." I think the game has a good road movie story in there with the two brothers, however the heavy-handed politics are written for pretty much only one crowd: the folks who think our current president is literally Hitler..
It's really a solid and refreshing new entry in the series, and further reiterates how Nintendo isn't running out of ideas in the gameplay department. Just give me online Mario Party mode already!
I can't recommend Star Control: Origins enough, and while there were some minor performance issues here and there, the game is such an enjoyable and unadulterated love letter to science fiction. If you're looking for a fun and rewarding story-driven space-adventure game, look no further.
I really enjoy the game, I just wish it had more MMO meat to compliment its experience.
La-Mulana 2 is a testament to the metroidvania genre, and it simply cannot be missed.