Tomas Franzese
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2
- Pokémon Sapphire
- Batman: Arkham City
Tomas Franzese's Reviews
The Council – Episode 2: Hide and Seek does bring more interesting characters and puzzles into the mix, and I am definitely curious to see where The Council's plot as a whole goes from here. Sadly, Hide and Seek is ultimately a poor follow up to The Mad Ones, resulting in a short, technically flawed, and an overall disappointing episode that has killed some the anticipation I had for future episodes of The Council.
If you are looking for a game that will give you an adrenalin rush by letting you fight a giant ogre, then you may come away satisfied from Extinction. When you are felling a Ravenii in slow motion, things can get real gratifying, you just do have to trudge through a ton of mediocre and repetitive elements to get there. Extinction's story and some repetitiveness do ultimately let the package down as a whole, but I am glad to see Iron Galaxy tried tackle a different idea outside of their comfort zone, even if it didn't pan out entirely.
While a party can contain up to four members, players only directly control themselves. One can even set autobattle to have battles play out without having to interfere. The whole battling process is pretty hands-off, and can be sped up with the press of a button, which can make Miitopia a nice game to have on in the background or play in very short bursts. In longer gaming sessions however, the experience can really drag.
Siegecraft Commander can be really satisfying to play at times, especially when you have a large network of buildings and are storming and bombarding your enemies keep. Sadly the game does become boring towards the end of both campaigns, and its controls and lackluster turn-based mode aren’t fun to play. If you are looking for something new to pick up in the genre on PC, I could recommend Siegecraft Commander, but if you are looking to jump into the genre with a really engaging game on console or PC, I would look elsewhere, and wait for Halo Wars 2 next month.
Brilliant Diamond lacks ambition and will frustrate fans of Pokémon Platinum more than it pleases. Still, an extremely faithful classic Pokémon remake might be just what we need before Game Freak wildly changes up the formula with 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
The Medium stumbles because of its weak script, but it’s worth checking out if you have Xbox Game Pass and want to see what the next-gen fuss is all about.
Arizona Sunshine 2's technical problems prevent an otherwise solid zombie VR shooter from reaching its full potential.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name satisfyingly ties up many loose ends in Kiryu's story, but it's one of the franchise's most tedious adventures.
Ghostrunner 2's intense action is a fun as ever, but the ambitious sequel overthinks a lean concept with messy new features.
At first, Assassin’s Creed Mirage seems like it’s going through all of the proper classical motions of an old-school Assassin’s Creed game, but it lacks the passion and innovation necessary to make it a truly memorable installment. While Ubisoft’s ability to create historical locations in immaculate detail is still unmatched, the bland story and missions demonstrate that Assassin’s Creed still needs to make a true leap of faith.
Synapse is a flashy PlayStation VR2 exclusive roguelite that gets too repetitive for its own good.
Saints Row is a perfectly fine open-world game. Just don't expect any surprises, as the reboot lacks much character.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has lots of ambition but lacks focus.
Grid Legends' Driven to Glory story misses more than it hits, but this is an otherwise solid, if unambitious, racing game.
I'm ultimately sad to see that I have grown out of a franchise I once loved, with underlying problems that I may have not noticed as a child building on top of one another to make LEGO DC Super-Villains much less enjoyable than I thought it would be. I may still return to LEGO DC Super-Villains in the future if I'm in the mood for some DCAU voice acting or want to play the TV show and movie themed DLC, but at this point I can tell that I'm done with the LEGO franchise as a whole, which is a shame.
Pac-Man 256 is a fun little excursion for the series that innovates and changes up the formula. Sadly, some of the title’s mechanics don’t work as well on home consoles as they did on mobile platforms. The multiplayer mode is a fun new addition, but the lack of an online component is surprising. Fans of the series will eat up this new entry, but it offers little substance and staying power for a console game.
While creativity should be appreciated and rewarded in the gaming industry, and a very interesting world has been put on display here, the rest of the game is just not up to snuff. Shiness may be worth checking out for those who are yearning for more fantastical worlds to explore and the return of PS2-era style RPGs, as it certainly scratched that itch for me. but others should carefully consider their purchase before joining Chado on his grand adventure.
While I have come out of Kingdom Come: Deliverance somewhat disappointed, Warhorse Studios still did deliver on their original KickStarter promise of creating a realistic RPG unlike any other. While the developers did squeeze as much potential as their studio could out of this concept, to sometimes remarkable results, Kingdom Come: Deliverance may have been a tad too bit ambitious for them on a technical level, and it really shows.
GreedFall takes place in an amazing and intriguing world but fails to be interesting on the gameplay front.
Despite some early game woes and a premise that doesn't fully pan out, Remnant: From the Ashes is a very unique game.