For those looking for a dedicated simulation racer where you can spend hours tuning and practising to get the best out of the car and yourself, Gran Turismo 7 will no doubt appeal. But I don't think it's for racing game enthusiasts, it's for racing enthusiasts.
While animals have served as human companions, attack assists, and Easter egg distractions throughout the history of video games, Stray — in what's a rare thing — asks you to play as one. It's nowhere near purr-fect, but it's a delight nonetheless.
The largely solitary experience of No Man's Sky is monotonous, easily frustrating and loses its charm way too early. For a game with the promise of all the wonders of the universe, it delivers so little.
For what it's worth, the AI is designed intelligently and adapts quite well. It is good at identifying your weaknesses and responding with a force that stresses on those points. At the same time, it never makes you feel that you couldn't have averted the disaster and plugged in the holes, which is proof of a well-programmed difficulty curve. Outside of its lacklustre campaign, Ashes of the Singularity has the framework for thoroughly engaging matchups but the final product fails to land a convincing argument.
With the right weapon, there's a sense of dominance the game awards you with, and as you decimate your opponents, it feels rightly satisfying. By striking the proper note between challenging and fun, Good Robot manages to craft a game that is rewarding in its achievements.
[T]he UEFA Euro 2016 expansion for PES 2016 brings very little to a seven-month-old game, and that's unacceptable. But hey, at least it's free.
For what it's worth, 'Tangled Up in Blue' does do a good job with its emotional beats, and it's going to be interesting to see where it leads.
Although there are pieces of a good arcade basketball game here, it lacks polish, and seems to have been rushed out the door. Playgrounds is inherently fun because it lets you play out outrageous dunks, but it just doesn't do enough to stand up to the greats of its genre, let alone push the bar in any way.
Overall, Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame is an enjoyable racing game packed within a fairly lacklustre wrapper, one that doesn't try hard enough to please anyone but the hardcore supercross fanbase.
Thanks to the camera, it's hard to tell if you're going to make a particular jump, and the jumps themselves – especially the double-jump – don't feel consistent. The expansion also intermittently suffers from graphics bugs, where characters don't render.
It's nowhere as annoying as the problems with combat though. If you can look past the latter — and it's not easy — you'll find a story that's largely well done, especially when it comes to Kamala's role in it. Its best moments are the narrative interludes, be it the early fun, charming, and giddy moments she shares with the Avengers or the quiet moments
Ultimately, Tennis World Tour 2, with its steep learning curve and stocky animations, is a game that will largely appeal to the hardcore tennis fan. It's nowhere at the level it needs to be, but it's also operating in an environment without any competition.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too much of the same thing, and it's not nearly engaging enough.
For all the deserved flak coming Immortals Fenyx Rising's way for delivering a brazen Zelda clone, the Ubisoft game deserves some praise for executing most of the ideas well — and even adding to them.
Ultimately, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a by-the-numbers 3D action-adventure game. It might look like a modern Zelda game but doesn't play like one. It's largely just a series of arena-based combat routines, stitched together by long stretches of traversal, and cutscenes that are well-designed but feel like a forgotten Hollywood B-movie. Too often, Kena: Bridge of Spirits reminds you of better games you've played and that it's borrowing from — which is not a good sign. There's no harm in learning from others, it's certainly well made, but it's lacking in originality. There's little personality to Kena: Bridge of Spirits, for it's adopting the sheen of others. For a debut title, this is undoubtedly a good effort — but I fear Ember Labs have played it too safe.
But even if EA does get its head out of the pile of gold, it's got troubles on the pitch too. FIFA doesn't feel like football anymore to me. To be fair, it never really was — thanks to pitch size, pace dominance, and all that — but now it just seems to be going away from the sport it claims to represent each year. Maybe a new challenger can shake things up. We badly need it.
Just like Ubisoft's mega-hit franchise, Horizon Forbidden West has a lot of the right ingredients but it's let down by the pitfalls of AAA game design.
In a monopoly, you are the default choice. That's great for FIFA 23, but football fans are paying the price.
Drawing from the refined toolkit that powered Batman: Arkham and Marvel's Spider-Man, WB Games Montréal has produced a cookie-cutter superhero experience that's not looking to push any boundaries.
Lego Marvel's Avengers is likely to impress no one except diehard Marvel fans, ones that have adorned their walls with posters of Captain America and wear Iron Man costumes for Halloween. And if all you're looking for is a bit of Lego-infused action, there are unmistakeably half a dozen better entries to choose from; the game's own predecessor - 2013's Lego Marvel Super Heroes - one of the more entertaining options.