Scott Ellison II's Reviews
BATTLETECH is a massive game. There are several dozens of hours in the campaign to enjoy, and when the main story is complete, you're able to continue and work the Inner Sphere to increase your reputation and expand your ragtag group of MechWarriors. Skirmish mode helps extend your gametime against AI, or against a friend. Harebrained Schemes ushers in a new style of tactical combat for all skill level of players to enjoy. It is as rewarding as it is deep. BATTLETECH is complex, immersive, and most of all, a tactician's dream.
Minit’s delightful minute-to-minute gameplay is as rewarding as it is decisive. Having Minit be so focused is to the game’s benefit. Never before has a game’s core mechanics been in such succinct harmony with the gameplay. The short run times ensure that whether you have a few minutes or hours, the game accommodates any amount of time you’re willing to put into it. And it the satisfactory return on your investment is nothing but respect for the player.
MX vs ATV All Out fails to do anything new or interesting that we haven’t seen before. It’s visually unimpressive and auditorily disappointing, seeming like like a lost game from the last generation of systems. The game-hampering bugs are problematic, though admittedly being fixed. Each of the different event types are well-made and offer a lot of variety and satisfaction with the core gameplay is fun to play once you get a handle on the mechanics of the dual-joystick controls. There’s a lot of basic things MX vs ATV All Out should already have figured out – but it doesn’t.
Sea of Thieves is what pirate dreams are made of. It's got some holes that need plugging, and I think time will be it's biggest benefit - there's plenty of hours of entertainment to be had with the existing voyages and things to see and do, but I'm incredibly excited to see how the game evolves from here. Sea of Thieves relies a lot on playing with friends and some repetition to get to legendary status. This is an incredibly social game, both verbal and non-verbal, that you'll undoubtedly have fun playing for hours upon hours singing sea shanties while drinking grog and firing off cannon shots for no good reason.
Far Cry 5 is a shining example of how to revitalize the open world, as this is the best realized game in the series to date, with a convincing villain and a tale to match its tone. Far Cry 5 will make you a believer.
Burnout Paradise Remastered is a masterpiece, just as the original was ten years ago. While I think this could have released with a slightly lower price point, what’s here is cheaper than the base game and all of the DLC on Xbox 360. While Burnout Paradise is the first open-world Burnout game, it also the only. I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the series, and I hope that this release garners attention of EA to make another. Burnout Paradise Remastered is stunning in 4K and at 60fps, the breadth of content available from the get-go will keep you busy for hours upon hours. Oh won’t you please take me home.
With clever integration with Twitch to change up how the game can be played, Crema have ideas that work well. In making connections to games like Rogue Legacy and Ziggurat, they were only the building blocks of what Immortal Redneck is, a game with its own ideas and systems that stand above its contemporaries. Immortal Redneck is a game so silly it just works, and the jokes land well – I laughed until I was Horus.
Into the Breach is enthralling from the moment you start playing, and doesn’t let go. Every calculated move by the enemy can be countered. Every mistake is your own. And as death will come swift and often, in time, so too will victory. And being victorious has a greater sense of accomplishment because it feels earned with each battle being hard fought. Subset Games have crafted a game that absolutely excellent from the gameplay to the music. Into the Breach is near perfection.
GRAVEL does just enough to keep you interested enough to keep working through each of the episodes and trying to dethrone each of the champions of their respective disciplines. It just doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before, even with the conceit of a TV show being the driving force. Milestone has the foundation of something great with GRAVEL. It is a solid first entry that needs some more attention to its delivery of the campaign structure to make it more fully realized as a TV show for future installments.
The Station from the developers of the same name have made something gorgeous and engaging. Whether you choose to find every audio log and entry or not, the developers have provided a unique science fiction point of view that usually isn’t given in a game, provoking thought. And while The Station isn’t very long, it is full of clever surprises and fascinating story that absolutely delivers.
With over 40 hours in Subnautica, I have cannot recommend the game more. I enjoyed the crafting, base building, and survival elements based on the difficulty I chose. At no point did I feel like I was ever safe, though, as the underwater tranquility can make you feel that way. Even if you don’t like survival games, playing Subnautica is likely to change your mind, and show you that it is not like others you’ve played before. The narrative threads that string you along Subnautica‘s story are intriguing from moment one as you unravel it so carefully. Unknown Worlds have made an incredible game that subverts expectations of what a crafting and survival game have been, and shows you what they should be.
Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition brings additions and fixes that make it more than worth it if you already own the game. if you have yet to play the game for yourself, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and engaged for dozens of hours. The game is also available on the Nintendo Switch, making it such a great portable game as well as a home console experience. Tribute Games continue to put a lot of time and energy into a game that is clearly made with love and care.
SteamWorld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt is still a great game, but it is undoubtedly a more compact game than what’s come after this game’s original release. SteamWorld Dig offers little exploration for curiosity as it is usually out of necessity to gather as much ore as you can find to sell for cash to then buy upgrades to make Rusty more effective. If nothing else, SteamWorld Dig serves as a reminder at how much Image & Form learned from this game when making SteamWorld Dig 2 – but thankfully there’s so much more to this game to appreciate. Whether you’ve played this before or not, Image & Form make beautiful looking, sounding, and playing games that deserve to have a place in your library.
Joakim ‘konjak’ Sandberg’s Iconoclasts is a one person show that’s a decade in the making. And it pays off so incredibly well in ways you wouldn’t expect. It has its frustrations with certain boss battles, but those can be easily looked over when looking at the larger picture. The game released at a time where in our current climate in the games industry and as a people where Robin is what we all want, and need to be. Iconoclasts is a game that defies expectations and norms, and has been worth that wait.
X-Plane 11 is an extremely detailed and authentic of truly flying an aircraft. The details and lengths that Laminar Research went to is astounding. X-Plane 11 is rich with life both in the air and on the ground. Novice and veteran pilots use this for training, and the game is such that players of all skill levels will find exactly what they are looking for here. X-Plane 11 a successor to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and is vastly superior, in just about every way.
Sky Force Reloaded is everything Sky Force Anniversary was, but bigger and better in every conceivable way. Infinite Dreams has re-imagined the scrolling shooter in inventive and exciting ways. Sky Force Reloaded is the best the series has looked, played, and felt yet. I wish Infinite Dreams would make something in the vein of their mobile series, but only for modern consoles and PCs to give it more depth rather than grind. Now, the grind is manageable, but something that not everyone will enjoy. That said, Sky Force Reloaded is still a lot of fun no matter how little or much you put into it.
The prison island of Peh is a living and breathing place, and the quests are deep and varied that you get lost in them, whether it be exploring or having a conversation. The game does a lot of different things, and does them really well in a cohesive and coherent manner that I can’t help but applaud. There are only a few issues I had with the game in terms of camera, inventory management, and its combat, but everything else is so well done and entertaining, it’s easy to forgive it. Seven: The Days Long Gone can be relentless, yes, but that’s what the plentiful saves and quicksaves you can make are for.
L.A. Noire is a game that feels better on this current generation of consoles over the last. The ability to replay cases gives plenty of reasons to get perfect ratings on each one. The investigations are deep, and rewarding as you solve each one. L.A. Noire has been given a second chance, and while flawed it is like nothing else out there today. Whether you are returning to 1940s Los Angeles, or starting new, L.A. Noire being remastered for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch is worth every bit of the experience, like a modern day adventure game.
I still enjoyed Call of Duty: WWII, more so the multiplayer over the campaign, but it had its moments that kept me invested throughout. The multiplayer feels "back to basics" like what Modern Warfare Remastered did last year that I really enjoy. It's easier to keep track of people and removes a lot of the verticality the latest entries has introduced, for better or worse. Call of Duty: WWII feels like a much-needed reset for the genre-defining series.
Offering more of the same, but for the better, Hand of Fate 2 is more of what you liked, none of what you didn't over the original. Defiant Development have done exactly what you need to do for a sequel, improve and cut out the fat. The improved missions and importance of character creation and development make it feel more personal and like your story, rather than playing someone else's. Hand of Fate 2 offers a lot of variety you would have to play several other games to get in the quality that's available here.