Karl Smart's Reviews
Sonic Mania Plus is the best Sonic game of modern times, quite possibly the best Sonic game of all time. With all the right things in place with the original release, then adding two new characters and remixing levels to add a new level of challenge, Sonic Mania Plus is a must have game.
Yakuza kiwami 2 shows exactly what happens when a good story meets good gameplay… Perfection. You’ll spend hours of your life playing the main game, then another half of your life just doing the exciting and awesome side missions and distraction events. Any game that makes taking a piss into an action filled experience deserves the highest of praise.
We Happy Few is a game that promises to be one hell of a good story drive ride from start to finish, but what we got was something that is so full of bugs and crash issues that it completely ruin the experience. Frankly We Happy Few needed to spend more time in development than it does being played. When something like this starts on Kickstarter, sometimes it just need to stay there. We Happy Few’s story is a highlight and should be an animated film more than a less-then-playable video game.
Hands down MARVEL Spider-Man is one of the BEST games I have played all year. Within moments of swinging out into the streets of New York I was hooked. From there the game took me on a wild ride that I wished would not stop. Loaded with references to other Spider-Man games, the movies, TV show, Cartoons and of course the comics; MARVEL Spider-Man is the ultimate comic book video game if not 2018 Game of the Year… Fight me!!
Just Cause 4 is just more of the same. The physics engine that has been around since Just Cause 2 is still fun to see in action, but that's about it. There is nothing new about Just Cause 4 that makes it stand out from other entries in the Just Cause series. The Extreme Weather system that was meant to make a huge difference in Just Cause 4 just isn't used enough for me to care, and outside of things going BOOM, the game just seems like more of the same.
Resident Evil 2 is much more than a HD update that so many people thought it would be. Just like Resident Evil when it was brought back for the Gamecube, things have been changed around enough to make the game fresh and exciting, even for those Resident Evil diehards who have played the original to death.
Mario & Sonic: Tokyo 2020 is one of those games where you would think it would be very stale, but thanks to some retro nostalgia it doesn't. Sure, the games are limited and do wear thin after a while, but there are so many that it will give die-hard sports fans something to play at all times. The story is enough to give you a few chuckles but is only worth one play through.
At the end of it all, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is just the same old Dragon Ball Z story with the Dragon Ball Xenoverse cost of paint and a much shinier graphical upgrade.
Resident Evil 3 is a solid remake, it looks and feels fresh compared to the original. But when you take a look at the much better Resident Evil 2 you notice that the time and care taken with the two games is much different thus creating a very different experience from the previous game.
Money aside, Street Fighter V: Championship Edition doesn’t do much to fix a long list of problems that the fighting game community has pointed out about this game since the beginning and doesn’t look like they’ll do anything about it either. Long term fans will know to avoid this like the plague, diehards would have all of the content already at triple the price, and newcomers are smart for waiting out to buy this game cheap.
CARRION is a game that only someone associated with the madhouse publisher that is Devolver Digital could create.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 is the remaster that gets just about everything right. The graphics are amazing, the skaters are here from both games alongside some newer skaters from the modern era, the gameplay is lifted from the best games in the series with the option to customize things to your liking, and the music brings that good wave of nostalgia that the series is famous for. Though there are some missteps here and there, the remaster is right up there in the realm of the best remasters available for any video game. Working nostalgia into a very satisfying recreation of two of the best games in the genre is something that will have you smiling from game to game.
MARVEL Spider-Man created a huge benchmark for MARVEL Spider-Man: Miles Morales to shoot for, and it not only achieved that benchmark, but surpassed it with new gameplay, attention to detail, representation, and story. Well worth a full-game in itself that also continues the saga of Spider-Man, while carving out a piece of the overall universe for itself. Visually pushing the PlayStation 5 as far as it can go at launch, while also giving people the option to sacrifice those visuals for extra gameplay power. Should be a Game of the Year contender due to being more of what made the first game an amazing game to play. A must-own for PlayStation owners of any generation.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands shows that the whole World of Warcraft game is really showing it's age, not to mention that since losing a lot of their key development people from the Blizzard side like Chris Kaleiki and many others, leading to this being a more "by the metrics" Activision based game experience than what Blizzard is renowned for. For a lot of people, the heart and soul of World of Warcraft is dead at this stage, but since it is still early days, future patches and content additions can revive the game into a playable state for those who are still addicted to the game after over 16 years… But only time will tell at this stage.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is one of those games that people are going to find their own value out of. For me, the story campaign was a great experience, and the Zombie mode is always a fun bonus. Graphically the game is one of the best I've seen on the market for any video game of this cross-over generation and would recommend people who have high-end PCs or Next-Generation consoles give the game a play. However Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War does nothing to change the reputation of the online multiplayer mode, from the push to buy season passes to a very toxic community, this would be the only huge negative I would point out, which will upset a lot of die-hards. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a game the die-hards will love, but won't do much to convert new players to its fold.
Resident Evil Village is a great entry into the otherwise weird third trilogy of the Resident Evil franchise. Taking a lot of what made Resident Evil 7 work as a great horror experience and adding to it with things that people enjoyed about Resident Evil 4. However, Resident Evil Village does feel like by adding things from Resident Evil 4, that CAPCOM is about to remake some mistakes of old.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a great introduction to the world of Final Fantasy for both new and old fans of the series, as well as people looking for a new or different MMO to play. While still having a lot of the standard tropes that an MMO does have, along with a lot of ones from the Final Fantasy series, the combination of both are a breath of fresh air for those people who have been stuck inhaling the stench of World of Warcraft for over a decade.
Back 4 Blood is a good game, it improves on the Left 4 Dead formula in a way that is challenging and creative. However, the move to forcing people to advance the overall game by going online, being forced to work with randoms in a very badly connected cross-platform multiplayer games where without a solid communication base, resulting in Back 4 Blood being an experience in frustration rather than a very enjoyable game. If Turtle Rock allows for private games where you can do under 4 players with bots instead, then maybe this game can truly be something that is a must-own. But at the moment Back 4 Blood is only worth playing if you have a premade group of friends.
Diablo II is one of those games where you could recommend till the cows come home, but Diablo II: Resurrected, on the other hand, is one of those remasters where you should expect something more than a fresh coat of paint. Diablo II: Resurrected should have been a game that was a true remaster, fixing the remaining few issues with Diablo II, but instead is another horrible remaster from Activision-Blizzard that removes more than it adds to the overall game and experience.
Final Fantasy XIV Online: Heavensward & Final Fantasy XIV Online: Stormblood are prime examples of how you should follow up a great opening chapter in a multi-game game like Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. The time spent with Final Fantasy XIV Online now feels like it is really getting somewhere instead of just one long introduction. While Final Fantasy XIV Online: Stormblood doesn't quite balance the leveling experience with the story questline, everything comes together as an overall amazing experience leading into Final Fantasy XIV Online: Shadowbringers.