Paulmichael Contreras's Reviews
WRC 8 is a rally racing fan's dream. This is a game that will test the skills of even veteran rally fans. Those who are looking to live the dream of taking a team from relative obscurity to championship winners will enjoy the extensive career mode. There's even split screen! In 2019! Split. Screen. While the environments may not seem as detailed as in Dirt Rally 2.0, and the co-drivers are a bit robotic, these are smaller issues and by are no means deal breakers. It seems the rally racing genre just got competitive for the first time in a while with the release of WRC 8.
Ghost of Tsushima ends the current generation of consoles on a high note.
DIRT 5 is the fun one in the DiRT family now – this is the racing game you boot up when you want to have a great time without really thinking about much else. It's funny, coming from the seriousness of DiRT 4, to see just how much has changed in three years. An irreverent style that features a campaign consisting of over 130 events, a promising arena creator that should provide countless hours of user-generated content, and four-player split screen all add up to a fun racing game that doesn't take itself too seriously and is more about simply having fun sliding your way to the finish line. A free PS5 upgrade down the line will ensure DIRT 5 stays on racers' minds for a while to come, as well. For those who want absolute realism and a focus on rally racing, DiRT Rally 2.0 is still your jam. For everyone else, there's DIRT 5.
Is Assassin's Creed Valhalla the best entry in the series yet? Some would be tempted to say so. While the map size might overwhelm some players, it remains an easy game to mainline with the right navigation mode turned on. In fact, the quick load times help to make this an even easier task than in previous generations. This is an iteration of Assassin's Creed that has a bit of everything from the previous games, as refined as we have seen to date.
Warframe has now successfully launched on two PlayStation consoles in a row, and both times as a launch title. Once again, this is the place to play if you don't have a PC that can play the game at high settings. The PS5 is also the only place to play where haptic feedback plays into how the game feels. This helps to cement the DualSense controller as less of a gimmick and more of an accessory that enhances gameplay. Even without those enhancements, though, Warframe on the PS5 is a showcase-worthy action game that every console owner has truly free access to. Ninjas play free, after all!
Manifold Garden sure took its time to reach us, but the wait has been worth it. This is a beautiful puzzle game that stretches your spatial reasoning, but not immensely so. The difficulty could have been increased, but designing and then developing these complex spaces that loop forever was no doubt a huge challenge on its own. Play Manifold Garden to engage your brain in a different method of thinking. While short, completing this puzzler will give you an immense feeling of satisfaction, and it is well worth the $19.99 asking price. Get ready to think with relativity.
F1 2021 is the most fun you can have in a Formula driver's cockpit. Braking Point brings the kind of drama you didn't realize you needed in your racing life, even if it does get a little cringeworthy on occasion. This wonderful looking and sounding Formula racer shines on the PS5, even if some of the platform's features are under-utilized at this time. With some sense of normalcy slowly returning to the sporting world at large, F1 2021 represents a great way to follow along with the F1 season while attempting to make a virtual name for yourself, and nowhere else does the sport come alive more than in F1 2021.
Elden Ring feels like the game FromSoftware has been building up to ever since Demon’s Souls released in 2009.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 subtly improves on a winning formula. It’s no real surprise that the multiplayer gunplay is the best in the series to date, but considering this is coming from the team that started this craze to begin with it’s to be expected. While the campaign may play it mostly safe, it features an enjoyable challenge, with a couple of interesting survival-type sections that almost turn it into another game entirely. There’s little doubt most Call of Duty players will feel right at home playing Modern Warfare II as it’s a solid entry and seemingly the shooter to play this holiday season and beyond.
Sea of Stars will take any seasoned gamer back to a simpler times, when the games were colorful, flat, and lengthy. If you want a turn-based RPG that is easy to pick up and yet quite challenging, then you’ll want to check out Sea of Stars. Some of the enemies can occasionally cheese you to death, but it’s nothing that can’t be overcome. The added accessibility options are appreciated, and the imaginative story is entertaining. If you ever want to just chill with a simple game after a long day, Sea of Stars would be a good choice.
I will admit, after spending some time with Granblue Fantasy: Relink across two different preview events, I wasn’t convinced Cygames had done much more than produce a by-the-numbers JRPG adaptation of their popular mobile and browser-centric franchise. But I suppose that’s the difference between being dropped into the middle of a game and starting from scratch. There are a lot of fully fleshed-out characters and systems to get used to and master, over a hundred different weapons to level up and upgrade, plenty of quests to undertake, and as much lore as most fans might be willing to sift through. Yet the main campaign doesn’t overstay its welcome. Relink also has a beautiful, if slightly technically underwhelming, look to the world. In short, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a great JRPG, and even if you’ve never played Granblue Fantasy before if you enjoy action JRPGs at all, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot.
If you want some good, classic scares, then pick up this great Resident Evil remaster as soon as you can. $20 might sound like a lot for what is really an old game with shiny new "packaging," but with multiple endings, the best visuals possible, and that iconic mansion setting, you're always going to want to come back for more. Whether you want to relive the nightmares of your youth or experience a classic for the first time, this version of Resident Evil is an easy recommendation to real survival horror fans.
If you haven't been keeping up with the series, I am happy to report that a lot of the game's references are to the first handful of seasons. A couple are from the first episode, in fact! There are a couple of newer episodes thrown in, but for the most part the missions revolve around the staples of the franchise. For $5, you get two tables rich in the venerable animated show's hijinks. Everyone's favorite character is likely featured here, and there is a lot of challenge to be found. If you're a fan of the series and enjoy pinball, buy it!
Dark Souls III is another punishingly hard game in an era of hand-holding that masochists will appreciate. While enemy AI is laughably dumb, those same enemies can take you down in no time flat. This is a game that forces you to learn its intricacies and quirks, and use them all to your advantage. Sporting a wonderful environment full of color, suffering, death, and a small amount of hope, fans can expect to sink several dozen, if not hundreds, of hours into the game, if they haven't already. From Software knows how to make challenging games that reward those who invest the time needed to properly engage enemies, and Dark Souls III continues in that tradition.
Io Interactive has taken a different approach to Hitman's release schedule, and if each mission is as fleshed out as what we've seen in Paris, then there is much for fans to be happy about. There's so many ways to take on this single mission, part of the fun will be seeing other players' creative ways that they assassinate the targets. If you've ever wanted to play the part of a super agent in a large sandbox, this is as good as it gets. With a fairly robust content creation engine, and future missions promised throughout the coming year, it looks like Hitman will be the weapon of choice of stealth gamers for the foreseeable future.
This is the game rally fans have been waiting for. DiRT Rally boasts a simple title that reflects its deceptively simple goal: to be the best rally game, or even the best racing game, released to date. While they may fall a little short of being the best racing game ever made due to its purposely limited scope, DiRT Rally is by far the best rally game we've ever seen. DiRT Rally sports world-class visuals, visceral, challenging racing, and true-to-life audio design. This is really a complete package for rally fans the world over.
Stardew Valley represents a major break from reality. It's a game where things are simple, but there's always something new to do. It's a collector's haven; a lover's respite (at least until co-op arrives in the future). This will represent many things to many gamers. Yet the one thing it will remain for as long as people are around to play it, is a magnum opus of the indie developer. Stardew Valley is a game so completely full of content, that it is hard to fathom that it was created by a single person. With a ton of secrets to discover, and fishing, farming, mining, smelting, and even dating as activity options, this feels like a perfect mix of life simulation games of the past, with a decidedly modern take. Hopefully ConcernedApe continues in his relentless march to build the perfect game for this genre, and we can all share in the fruits of his tireless labor.
Worms W.M.D. has all the fun of the older games, combined with some genuinely unique vehicle and emplacement mechanics to see that this game feels different enough from previous entries to warrant a purchase.
Fans of the series will no doubt be thankful Sega took the time to localize Yakuza 0, and those looking for a good starting point for the series can begin with this excellent prequel.
If you prefer your shooters to be more methodical or enjoy taking out enemies with pinpoint accuracy rather than just blindly rushing into skirmishes, Sniper Elite 4 will delight your trigger finger. Whether you're a long-time series fan or someone just who wants to test their sniping skills, Sniper Elite 4 hits its target.