Robin Baird's Reviews
All in all, The War Within has been a banger of an expansion so far. The storytelling feels well done and has been paying off on moments that have been building for years. The dungeon and raiding scene is off and running and fun so far. Lastly, delves have a solid foundation that needs to be tweaked to make them the jewel they can be. I had thought it would be an impossible task to surpass Dragonflight, but The War Within may end up doing that.
As I’ve mentioned a few times, there are still several things I haven’t had the chance to mess with or get into yet. There’s a ton of content in Diablo IV and digging into it all will take some time. Additionally, seeing how everything goes on launch and immediately after will significantly impact how enjoyable it is. Lastly, seeing the shop's actual impact on everything is also a considerable aspect that will need to play out. We know what we’ve been told, and looking at the information given to us, it should be fine. Certainly nothing like Diablo Immortal. Seeing all these aspects in the live game will be the final bits needed to put a score to Diablo IV.
Dragonflight has been the revitalization that World of Warcraft sorely needed after Shadowlands. Yes, there are some issues that still could use some work, but that’s the nature of MMO development, especially when you change things up to such a degree as this expansion did. I’m also heartened to see them willing to make big adjustments like they have planned in 10.0.5. I honestly thought Guardians were going to have to suck it up until 10.1, at the least for a talent tree rework. If they can keep this up and regularly deliver content and adjustments, Dragonflight could be the best expansion World of Warcraft has ever done.
The content of Wrath Classic is still great and has held up over time really well. However, the many issues and bugs of the launch have dulled the experience, particularly for players on very high-population servers or players who were hoping to join friends already on high-population servers. I’m hopeful that as we move through phase one and into phase two Blizzard will continue to polish things up and get everything righted. However, their history of solid Classic launches has been a bit tarnished with this one.
I had such excitement for Diablo: Immortal through development, and the game itself is a solid experience and well worth the time. I'm not sure how well it will hold up over the long term as an MMO, but it's a good effort, and if I could just score that alone, it would be a 9. However, the monetization is very player unfriendly currently. Rather than getting out of the way and letting players enjoy the game and then spend money because they want to support a game they love, we are consistently being leveraged into feeling like we have to spend an indeterminate amount of money just to have a chance. Heck, you might have to shell out money just to make a clan to play with your friends. This isn't the worst monetization I have seen, but it's still a far cry from good.
Overall, End of Dragons feels like ArenaNet has taken all the lessons of both Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire and honed their newest expansion into the best of both. The few areas where things aren't quite there, they are working hard at fixing them in the right way, which will be best over the long term, rather than quick kneejerk solutions. This is the perfect capstone to the story they have been telling for the last ten years, and this expansion makes me excited to see where they will go from here.
I’ve enjoyed playing Diablo 2 Resurrected and getting to experience the story in a visually updated way. The tweaks they made to get everything working on the console also helped a lot as it gave me far more flexibility in what abilities I had at my disposal. D2R is ideal for anyone who likes dungeon crawlers and doesn’t want everything to be explained or to be told where to go all of the time.
Burning Crusade Classic has been an excellent launch of some of Blizzard’s best expansion content to date. It’s an excellent experience for veterans and players who never got to experience Burning Crusade the first time around. However, if you are looking for an authentic TBC experience, this isn’t it. I mean, you can’t get that no matter what because part of the experience is we all knew so little about WoW’s inner workings, and there’s no way to recreate that. If you’re looking for a version of WoW, that’s a bit of a slower pace and less handholding (unless, of course, you get certain addons), then you should probably give Burning Crusade Classic a try.
Persona 5 Strikers is a brilliantly executed melding of the Dynasty Warriors style gameplay with Persona 5 characters and systems. It delivers a solid story while staying true to the roots of both games. There were some small issues with how some of the systems were set up, the default sorting for the items list for one, and I wish some of the actual content of my P5R saves would have carried over. Despite these minor issues, I had a blast hanging with the Phantom Thieves again and working to make the world a better place. I would never have thought to ask for this melding, but it's a beautiful experience.
Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is a fun romp through some of the episode settings in the series. Although many old characters make appearances, there isn't a whole lot of interaction or story development in-game. This might Battle Through Time a bit harder to get into for players who weren't avid fans of the game. However, if you like old-style action RPG games, this will probably be right up your ally.
I’m honestly happy I waited until Persona 5 Royal came out to play Persona 5. It is well polished and feels like a game that could have come out for the first time this year. This is absolutely an excellent example of how to rerelease a game and make paying full price for it worthwhile. For me to only have minor complaints about a game, which is easily well over 100 hours of gameplay, even if you don’t do everything is rare. If you loved original Persona 5, Royal is worth your time. If you’ve never played the original or any other Persona game, Persona 5 Royal is a perfect game to pick-up and get into the series.
Coffee Talk is the kind of game I would never have thought to ask for, but it is exactly what I needed to take a break from my normal video game fare.
Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition brings a classic game to a more modern look while retaining everything which made the original a classic in the first place. It's worth playing for anyone who hasn't ever played it and a fun trip through memory lane for those of us who have loved it. Unfortunately, the Switch version suffers from not having the touchscreen-enabled for navigating menus and in-game.
I enjoyed every moment of Lost Ember, and when I stopped playing, I just wanted to get back in the game and wander around more and find more of the memories.
Kingdom Under Fire 2 has gotten off to a solid start, and I honestly had a ton of fun playing. Unfortunately, for me, the gender locked classes are a pretty big deal, and having issues with finding groups to do things can be frustrating.
This game delivers a deep RPG experience where the various choices you make, both in character creation and in gameplay, have a bearing on what happens and how you need to go about completing tasks. There are general guidelines of what needs to be done but not a whole lot of direction on how to do those things, which leaves a lot of room for creativity.
sadness. The Long Return is a relaxing puzzle game with very light platforming elements included. Although I was lead directly through each zone, in many of the zones, I was free to wander as much as I wanted to.
If you enjoy going out and fighting progressively tougher monsters while working your way to new rewards, then Dauntless is a game you need to checkout.
Overall World of Warcraft Classic is a solid effort and a ton of fun.
We finally have the remastered Final Fantasy VIII fans have been waiting for. They gameplay is there exactly as it was previously and it’s a fun trip through a crazy timey-wimey story. But how does the remaster hold up decades later?