My Time at Portia's many parts don't always shine on their own, but together they make for a pleasant building adventure.
Powerful friends and new mechanics make for a delightful return to the Kanto region in Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee.
Black Ops 4 has a few rough edges, but any of its three modes make for an enjoyable shooter experience that feel distinct and personalized.
Stardew Valley is a beautiful, fun game that, when all of its parts are pulled together, make for a wonderful countryside adventure.
The War Machine is an uneven DLC with a great new multiplayer map and Zombies chapter but unfortunate issues elsewhere.
Detective Pikachu offers a bold take on the iconic Pokemon, which succeeds thanks to Pika Prompts that build Pikachu beyond detective stereotypes. Even though I figured out cases far before their end, each one utilized the world of Pokemon to its fullest, and ultimately offered a unique Pokemon experience that I hope we see done again soon.
The Resistance DLC adds needed map variety to multiplayer and introduces another fun Nazi Zombies map. The tighter, dense map Valkyrie gives the new Resistance Division a chance to shine with plenty of close combat opportunities, while Anthropoid offers snipers space to work their magic. Even though Operation Intercept is a new map for the wonderful War Mode, it feels like a known quantity with its repeated objectives from previous operations. On the other hand, the new Zombies map Darkest Shore has plenty of challenging (if sometimes convoluted) puzzles to uncover.
The Sims 4 on console includes all the free feature updates from the PC version, and while they are good new additions that should have been included with The Sims 4 to begin with, they don't make up for the performance issues. Most of the problems are minor annoyances, but because save and menu bugs have been so frequent, this version of The Sims 4 is a generally unreliable experience, which is unfortunate since it is a genuinely fun game. And while it is disappointing that the console version is missing some community features from the PC version, I'm glad that at least cheats work.
Call of Duty: WW2's offers a fast-paced and fun World War II experience with its new multiplayer mode and return to Nazi Zombies.
Tacoma successfully overcomes the challenge of featuring eight characters and making them all interesting in a relatively short game. Using the out-of-sequence AR recordings to learn about the exciting events on Tacoma is a unique way to see every side of a conversation, and it's one I hope to see catch on. I would have appreciated more time and events that'd have given me a reason to explore more of the beautiful station, but the time I did have in this fascinating hypothetical future was great.
After a couple of story hiccups, Gravity Rush 2 righted itself and pulled me in with the personality of its world and wide variety of activities. The new gravity powers and styles make combat exciting, and well-written side quests and character relationships grant better insight into Kat’s universe. After 40 hours I found it hard to put the controller down, and I can’t wait to jump back in to finish every sidequest I can find.
Slaying titans is a satisfying, bloody mess thanks to fun and fast combat. The meat of the campaign follows the anime through fun missions and features varied playstyles for each of the characters that matched their personalities well. While the epilogue suffers from serious pacing problems, being able to get through some of its more tedious missions with friends make the extra content a little less of a pain.
Severed is at its best when it features short, tactical fights in its eerily beautiful dungeons, but those battles largely lose their appeal by the second half. Combat becomes tedious due to boring buffs instead of introducing new ideas in order to make battles more challenging. That blow to the combat’s longevity wouldn’t have felt so bad if exploring the bizarre world weren’t so tedious.
Atlus doesn’t throw around the prestigious Persona brand lightly, and takes care of its characters in this visual novel/rhythm game mashup. The lengthy story mode fumbles with its first act, but picks up and develops into the kind of great Persona mystery that we’ve come to expect. The story is meaningful, the characters are full of personality, and the music is fantastic. The rhythm portion is a little too kid-gloves with its scoring, to the point where it might even hold you back in learning the rhythms, but the fun patterns and interesting items keep me coming back to my favorite songs.
Lost Dimension is greatly held back by its inability to keep up the pressure of the disappointing betrayal system and its poorly written story. Still, this RPG manages to find its footing with its excellent combat system and interesting character abilities. Though the enemy balance frustratingly swayed from time to time, it was genuinely fun to come up strategies to overcome each levels challenges.
Hatoful Boyfriend on Vita has some technical issues, but both versions still hatch a great story with a cool new bird.
Screamride is a destructive roller coaster simulator filled with fun explosives and great creation tools.
Funk of Titans' silly hats and weapons are fun, but this endless runner is missing its groove.
Fantasia: Music Evolved pairs conducting with music customization to create a fun, unique music game.
Dance Central Spotlight has fewer features than its predecessors, but it still has the moves to keep the party going.