Karl Smart's Reviews
WWE 2K24 is a fun game with some of the best graphics in a wrestling game ever made. However, the game is too bloated with game modes, many of which you are forced to play in order to unlock content you already paid for. 2K Games needs to stop nickel and dimeing players after the fact and refocus on giving players the best experience for their dollar.
Tekken 8 is a solid outing for the Unreal 5 engine, using it to improve the already impressive graphics we had with Tekken 7. The gameplay is solid with a lot of modes for you to play for hours on end. However, PC users should be warned that their version may have frame rate issues. If these issues are patched, then Tekken 8 will be the best fighting game on the market.
Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a bare-bones collection featuring the early days of Jurassic Park games. While there are some minimal quality-of-life enhancements added to the overall product, it's the same we expect from all retro collections these days and does nothing to stand out like other offerings have. Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is good for people who don't have the time or money to track down the consoles and games themselves and just want to play the games on modern hardware.
Robocop: Rogue City brings the world of Old Detroit back to life with a slightly populated slum of a city while keeping the soul of the Robocop franchise intact. Placing Robocop: Rogue City between Robocop 2 and Robocop 3 was a risky move that paid off for Teyon. If nothing else, you deserve to give Robocop: Rogue City a try in a world where nothing else from the 1980s seems to be allowed to be revived and enjoyed.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 could have been up there with the best retro collections published in the last few years, however, Konami has shown that all they care about by releasing a quick cash grab with no decent extras or even the best versions of the games included in the collection. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is an example of how NOT to treat beloved franchises that could still draw money by the name value alone… I hope Silent Hill isn't next.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a good game, a solid outing for Spider-Man fans. However, there are some issues under the hood of this game that really need to be addressed in patches over time, or just let Insomniac do the Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales 2 that they really want to do instead of pushing them to keep doing Peter Parker Spider-Man stories that they clearly no longer want to do… I hope they make it up to Venom fans with some good DLC.
Mortal Kombat 1 brings the idea of a whole new universe into light with an amazing, but really fast-paced, story mode. However, the rest of the game feels like Mortal Kombat as a franchise has stagnated in terms of gameplay with nothing really innovating things outside of the cameo fighter system. Then we have the impending microtransaction additions that you know are coming, and I hate those with a passion.
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways should be shown to all developers as to how to do DLC going forward. Not only do we get a great campaign that almost rivals the main game, but it’s done at a cheap/affordable price point. The story of Ada gives us some more questions as to what is going on with the future of the Resident Evil remake franchise while keeping its own story relevant and interesting.
NBA 2K24 shows that there is a bigger problem with gaming today. While you can get a good game out there if you decide to make it into a “games as a service” model with the main goal being purchased over skill, the game itself gets lost under an avalanche of hate because of corporate greed. NBA 2K24 is the game that shows this to be true. As a game, NBA 2K24 is the same great game it always is, but the hard push for you to open your wallet hurt the game too much overall… And Michael Jordan is the GOAT.
WrestleQuest does a good job of taking something that you wouldn't think would fit as an RPG game and makes it work. The world is amazing, the characters, and cameos are really going to invoke the golden era of Professional Wrestling. However, once you rip that nostalgia away you are left with a very bare-bones RPG experience that gets boring very quickly.
AEW: Fight Forever brings me back to the "glory days" of wrestling video games with its easy-to-learn but hard-to-master controls, fun and entertaining graphics, and a KISS match selection that gives you just enough of a taste of what All Elite Wrestling is about. AEW: Fight Forever might not have the complex simulation look and feel that we've come to accept because of WWE video games over the last 20 years, but it's FUN, something that the WWE games tend to forget about.
LEGO 2K Drive is a great racing game. The world that is built using a combination of LEGO bricks and real-world objects is stunning and looks like some kid or LEGO hobbyist, made this world in their own home. However, once the game tries to do something that is not racing using a racing control system, that's when the wheels fall off this particular LEGO racer.
Resident Evil 4 improves on the original by changing the story just enough to keep players guessing, and adding new details that help with bringing the game more in line with the remakes of the previous two games, leading into the newer games in the series like Resident Evil VII and Resident Evil: Village. However, there are times when you can see the age of the original creep in, and some lazy asset use too, not to mention there are some bad graphical glitches in the review copies that I pray are fixed with the day one patch. Taking my personal bias out of this was hard, but I still couldn't see it as the masterpiece everyone else will be calling it.
WWE 2K23 takes everything that was considered an improvement in WWE 2K22 and just copy/pastes it over and expects people to buy it for 2 things: A Cena showcase mode and one new match type. While WWE 2K23 is still a solid game, you can feel that there just wasn't enough of that drive that made WWE 2K22 such a good game after WWE 2K20 almost tanked the franchise. WWE 2K23 could do much more than just be a roster update of a game, if only they didn't rely so heavily on the past.
Dead Space does a good job of being a remaster with enough changes to give enough of a challenge for returning players but also improves the scares enough that the new generation of gamers who are more used to gore will be shaking when something goes bump in the night. However, if you have played 2008 originally, it's going to be hard to justify paying full price for Dead Space in 2023. If you haven't played this game before, buy it. If you have played it before, find a sale before you buy it.
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is a great musical adventure through the past of the Final Fantasy series and celebrates everything from the 8-bit chiptune days to the crystal clear renditions of the Final Fantasy VII remake, the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV Online (With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime.), and Final Fantasy XV. While those of us with less than 20/20 vision might struggle with the speed and location of the notes, others will have a toe-tapping good time from start to finish.
God of War: Ragnarok is every bit as good as God of War: Ragnarok was 4 years ago. However, God of War: Ragnarok brings to light limitations that the industry seems to have hit in terms of graphical display and mechanics that shouldn't be something that even exists at all, let alone in one of the biggest games of the year.
Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition is a perfect package of improvements and additions to the main game that makes it well worth the purchase. The improvement of adding the third-person viewing option gives access to more people who will now be able to play the game for the first time while giving people who have already played Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition a reason to revisit the game. The addition of Shadows of Rose shows that the developers know they raised the bar with Resident Evil Village and wanted to top it with a more frightening and grounded atmosphere while keeping things as outlandish as they were in Resident Evil Village.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic is one of those games that is held back by two things: The community, which has become so toxic that it cannot be saved, and a company that only listens to its Top 1% of the player base (Streamers and hardcore raiders). Wrath Classic could have been the game that returned World of Warcraft back to its glory days, but listening to the wrong people, has doomed the franchise back into its darkest days, ruining one of the best experiences with it.
Capcom Fighting Collection brings us a good batch of arcade-perfect ports that are themed into a package that is great if you just want those specific titles to play at all times, but with 6 of them appearing in Capcom Arcade Stadium 2, and one already in Capcom Arcade Stadium, Capcom Fighting Collection comes off as a quick cash grab that really should have been pushed out as another DLC pack for either Capcom Arcade Stadium release. Your mileage is going to vary on how desperately you want 3 games that haven't seen a release since the 1990s… and by the looks of it, will never see a release again.