Geoffrey Tim's Reviews
A delightfully charming platformer, Sackboy:A Big Adventure untethers the knitted knight from the creation-focused LittleBigPlanet and gives him his own grand adventure. In doing so, Sumo Digital has delivered one of the most thoughtful, interesting, and love-laden platformers in recent memory, resulting in a perpetual delight.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is a fiendishly difficult platformer that carries on Crash's legacy with aplomb. Though it sometimes feels like it hews a little too closely to the established formula, what it adds makes it more than just a worthwhile sequel. It's just a damn good game.
Budget Cuts remains a sometimes frustrating, but worthwhile delight to play. It's one of the finest things available on PSVR right now, and those toting Sony's headset should add it to their collections. Blending stealth, action, and deep immersion, Budget Cuts remains one of the best examples of "proper games" on VR.
Virtuous has done a fine job in bringing Bioshock to the Switch, delivering a trio of intriguing games from the last generation. Performance is solid and stable, they look fantastic and they're still worth playing today.
A competent remaster that gives a decade-old game a suitable level of spit-and-polish, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's campaign reveals a significant graphical overhaul but its corridor-shooter structure and worn animation give its age away. Nostalgic fans of the series might get a kick, but the barebones remaster isn't a fantastic value proposition for anybody else.
Paper Beast is a unique look at a reactive living world. It's a game that makes you feel like you're exploring an alien habitat through the lens of an interactive nature documentary. It's filled with (occasionally obtuse) natural, organic environmental puzzles. A personal and contemplative experience, Paper Beast could only be better if it were narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
Very nearly everything that's been released for Street Fighter V in the last four years is part of the Champion Edition upgrade. That's 40 characters, 34 stages and over 200 costumes included in a bargain-priced package. With the massive roster and the addition of secondary V-skills adding even more variety, this is the game Street Fighter V was always meant to be.
Patapon 2 Remastered suffers from the same poor quality video as other PSP remasters, but maintains the delightfully charming gameplay. The original wasn't the most ambitious sequel and while it lacks the freshness of the first game, it makes up for that with both increased width and depth.
CI Games has taken its lessons learned from the past and given Sniper Ghost Warrior a Hitman-inspired makeover. With improved sniping mechanics, and focus on replayable, open-ended sandboxes, Contracts is thrilling and tense - while nailing that perfect shot is endlessly rewarding.
Bee Simulator is more of a kids action game than it is a simulator. While it has an undeniable charm, it's short, repetitive to a fault and feels like it's been hastily cobbled together.
There's not much in the way of new content, but Red Dead Redemption 2 is undoubtedly best played on PC. With scalable graphics options for future PC tech, improved input latency and an already burgeoning modding scene, Red Dead Redemption will continue to shine on the platform for years.
A middling collection of mini-games held together by an unfortunately lacklustre story mode, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is, unfortunately, little more than a distraction. While the throwback retro events add a much-needed bit of flavour, they're just not good enough to bring the series out of mediocrity.
Ring Fit Adventure isn't for everybody, but for Gym-a-phobes looking to add a bit of activity to their lives, it's a far better attempt at the gamification of fitness than Wii Fit ever was.
There's an undeniable charm to Boet Fighter, with its peerless art and often biting pokes at South African stereotypes. Unfortunately, the joke wears thin, and its moral lesson has been better executed in other games. It's also a bit of technical mess, and worst of all, just isn't very much fun to play.
Overall, I'm a little disappointed with Luigi's Mansion 3 - though that's largely down to my own expectations. It's an undoubtedly good game that's competently made. It oozes charm and is filled with clever puzzles and fun boss fights. It's just that all the bits between those start to become tedious before the game's end.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a loving remake of a decades-old game remake with just enough modern touches to make it worth playing again. Graphical overhaul aside, it's perhaps a little too faithful to the original, while additions like the dungeon-builder are a bust. Newcomers get to experience one of the quirkiest games in the series, but for those who've played through it multiple times, there's little reason to play other than nostalgia or adoration - both of which are perfectly good excuses to return to Koholint.
There are missteps, especially with the open worlds feeling lifeless, but Gears 5 is a more confident turn from a developer that no longer has to prove it's capable of making a faithful Gears of War sequel. Bigger, better and more beautiful – and a bold step in the right direction for the series. The action is superlative, the writing hits humorous and emotional notes, and the number of multiplayer modes is extensive. If ever there was a reason to subscribe to Xbox's Game Pass service, this is it.
While the attempts to inject a bit of life into the series with a semi open-world mode and a track editor are laudable, the game itself is just too familiar. Newcomers might appreciate what the MXGP 2019 has to offer, but anyone who's played any previous game in the series will just feel like they've seen it all before
Control is an intriguing, fascinating experience. The third-person action, while slick and elegant, is perhaps a little pedestrian - but the completely bonkers story and the rewarding sense of exploration and discovery help cement Control as one of Remedy's best games.
Occasionally interesting ideas and untapped potential don't make up for a woeful lack of content. It's short and it's shallow, but its biggest crime is that it's dull.