Josh Hinke


145 games reviewed
72.0 average score
73 median score
33.8% of games recommended
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40 / 100 - Godfall
Nov 25, 2020

Godfall is such an unpleasant experience it's difficult for me to find anything to like. Occasionally, it flirts with just being a mediocre snooze, but then you hit an aggravating boss fight that reminds you of how poorly it was designed. It would take an entire shift in tone and genre to salvage anything offered.

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At this point you've seen the best this series has to offer and if you haven't, then I would suggest playing ACC China and leaving it at that. Unless you're a dedicated fan, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is not worth your time or money.

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50 / 100 - Coffee Talk
Feb 18, 2020

As a visual novel, Coffee Talk relies heavily on its writing, but the characters and the plot are so dull, they offer you no reason to care. Instead of visiting this fictitious coffee shop, find a local one in the real world - you'll have more fun.

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51 / 100 - Bound by Flame
May 13, 2014

Bound by Flame is playable, but it lacks anything compelling to keep you invested. When you aren't dealing with poorly balanced design you are yawning at its dull world and uninspired RPG mechanics. Bound by Flame is more akin to Spiders previous efforts rather than the many better action-RPG titles they attempted to borrow from.

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52 / 100 - Skater XL
Aug 12, 2020

Skater XL feels incomplete. There's not a lot of content, and the game is lacking a personality, a vibe to engage the player. In a year that has Skate coming to mobile, the Pro Skater games being re-released (again), and Session also working its way through Early Access, you should hold off on Skater XL.

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52 / 100 - LocoCycle
Dec 19, 2013

Lococycle isn't broken, but that's the only praise I can give it. The game offers up uncomfortably unfunny material and sandwiches it with boring gameplay. In the end, the game is a squandered opportunity and a failed attempt at an idea that could have had merit.

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Jan 20, 2016

The core of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India might be alright; the tech and aesthetics are decent enough. But once you starting playing, the experience falls apart, leaving very little worth praising.

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54 / 100 - Vane
Jan 18, 2019

Vane is the kind of game where you can see what the developers were going for. It has moments where the vision comes together and perhaps you've turned a corner, but all too quickly it goes back to its old, disappointing ways.

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Dec 6, 2019

Arise: A Simple Story is pretty to look at, but the moment you have to start playing, it falls apart. A mish-mash of imagery, tone, gameplay, and narrative that seem okay on their own, but fail to come together.

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While the title attempts to do right by Cybertron fans, it ends up making a mess of things. The core gameplay isn't bad, nor is the structure of the game itself, but it is simply boring. Mix boring with the game's technical flaws and there's not much to love about Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark.

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57 / 100 - Crossing Souls
Feb 13, 2018

Crossing Souls is one of the most disappointing games I've played where something wasn't broken or technically flawed. Fourattic relies far too much on nostalgia, hoping that rehashing gameplay mechanics and storytelling of the 80's alone will make this a good game - but it can't and it doesn't.

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58 / 100 - Black Mirror
Dec 9, 2017

There's nothing that helps redeem Black Mirror for all of the issues that plague it. There are bits and pieces of a good game but they're buried under bad design and awful tech that keep Black Mirror from ever becoming an engaging experience.

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58 / 100 - Necropolis
Jul 30, 2016

Necropolis has some good core mechanics, but the game assumes that you’ll want to start run after run simply out of your good graces, and fails to provide anything of merit for your efforts.

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60 / 100 - Empire of Sin
Nov 30, 2020

Empire of Sin gets lost in a maze of design decisions that lead to an unfocused and sprawling game. The management and RPG mechanics cannibalize each other, meaning that neither works on its own and they definitely don't work well together.

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60 / 100 -
Feb 7, 2020

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics isn't a swing and miss, because there wasn't a swing. This is a quirky and strangely-charming world, but the game has dulled it to a bog-standard strategy game, leaving behind the technical prowess that made the show interesting, and playing it safe in a way The Dark Crystal creator, Jim Henson, never would.

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60 / 100 - Frantics
Mar 15, 2018

Even as a simple party game, it's difficult to recommend Frantics. There's just nothing that really stands out as a high point. It's flawed in almost every way that really matters and doesn't offer the levels of entertainment one would hope to get from a game like this.

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May 6, 2017

Little Nightmares is like the long, intense screech of a violin before the jump scare - except that the scare never comes and the sound eventually fades to the background. Yes, it's dark and moody, but after establishing the atmosphere it never evolves into something that's really worth playing.

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60 / 100 - Alienation
May 7, 2016

Alienation feels like a series of half-measures that never come together, destined to be little more than a mediocre arcade shooter.

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61 / 100 - Madden NFL 19
Sep 1, 2018

If you're an absolute die-hard, I guess you've already picked up Madden NFL 19, but otherwise I'd warn you to hold off and continue playing last year's version. There's nothing special about this year's edition, and with all of the technical issues, it's a major bummer.

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61 / 100 - Magicka 2
Jun 5, 2015

Magicka 2 flashes potential in its gameplay, but can't come up with a way to turn that potential into a good game. Couple the boring design with the technical issues and it's a difficult game to recommend.

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