Stefan L's Reviews
Fe is a thoroughly lovely adventure, full of wonder as you explore and lose yourself in this darkly wonderful forest. Its distinctive art style and the unusual creature designs conjure up something that's both familiar and alien at the same time, which is only enhanced by the etherial lighting and the animals' voices. A few nitpicking design issues and some shaky performance on Switch aside, it's easy to recommend this charming game of discovery and singing.
While these might boil down to being relatively straightforward ports from Wii U to Switch, that doesn't make them any less essential for fans of the action game genre and Platinum Games' work… unless you've already played them both on Wii U. Either way, with Bayonetta 3 in the works, the Switch is now the witch's new home.
Shadow of the Colossus isn't necessarily a game that needed to be remade in such an elaborate fashion, and yet, I'm so glad that it has been. Bluepoint's remake of this sublime and poignant adventure is phenomenal, both managing to stay utterly true to the original and bringing it up to date in glorious fashion.
Rise of the Tomb Kings is a great first expansion for Total War: Warhammer II.
A fantastic genre mash-up between hack and slash, boss rush and twin-stick bullet hell shooters, Furi is as unique a blend now as it was in 2016. It fits effortlessly onto the Nintendo Switch, but it's a game that is waiting to challenge you and worth testing yourself against on other platforms.
Beholder is an intriguing concept and thematically rather strong, as it twists and exaggerates a Cold War totalitarian surveillance state into the form of a video game. However, with a sequel on the way, we hope that Warm Lamp can improve on an idea that's rather rough around the edges but is dying to be fleshed out further.
Having now passed the 1.0 mark and left Steam Early Access, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds remains a diamond in the rough.
Curse of Osiris won't be viewed as the best expansion Destiny has ever seen, but its release will hopefully mark a turning point for the game as a whole. While the added content is nice to help bring people back into the fold, more important are the changes to add more reasons to keep on playing the game beyond this short story. There's still work to be done, but this is a start.
Reigns' devilishly simplistic game of Tinder-like kingdom management feels just as inventive now as it did in 2015, but Reigns: Her Majesty fixes some of its more poorly considered design choices while also putting a refreshing spin on the challenge you face by casting you as a (very powerful) woman in a man's world. The king is dead. Long live the queen!
I'm still very much enjoying Batman: The Enemy Within, and the way Telltale are forcing Bruce Wayne out of his punchy vigilante comfort zone
Knowledge is Power makes good use of PlayLink to open the door to those more familiar with tapping on phones and browsing the internet than knowing where that Square button is meant to be, and that's its real strength. Outside of that, it has a few other ideas, but ends up as a fairly middle of the road quiz game that's easy enough to put on the telly and your phones for a quick test of knowledge.
There's some good ideas in how PlayLink can be used to let a group of players (and non-gamers in particular) join together and shape a filmic story, but the actual interface feels clumsy, and the story and scripting leaves plenty to be desired. It's safe to say that Hidden Agenda is an obvious disappointment.
The most important thing about Rocket League on Nintendo Switch is that it feels like Rocket League.
Having flirted with the dark side in the run up to launch, Star Wars Battlefront II has had its reputation sullied by its underlying business model and how that is tied to character progression. That distracts from how much it improves on the first game though, with much better variety in Galactic and Starfighter Assault, character classes and team play being gently encouraged, and a broader and deeper player progression.
If you can play it on a more powerful platform, then you probably should.
Super Mario Odyssey is bursting at the seams with creativity, as Nintendo play with new ideas while also paying homage to their long history. Cappy's abilities are a perfect compliment to Mario's own, and there's a wonderful silliness and humour to their adventure as they visit a string of contrasting kingdoms that just beg you to find the secrets hidden around every corner. Simply put, Super Mario Odyssey is a masterpiece.
Transforming into a bird and soaring through skies and between the floating islands of AER Memories of Old is simply fantastic, and you'll be easily drawn in by its vibrant yet minimalist art style. It doesn't quite make the best use of the shattered world they've created, but for a few hours, it's a gorgeous game and an intriguing story to explore.
Gran Turismo Sport is a near essential purchase for PlayStation 4 racing fans. There might be a few disappointments in some of the limitations and regressions, but the brilliance of the game is in the small details that combine to enable willing players to become better drivers and racers and the implementation of multiplayer. Underneath it all, this is still a very familiar feeling Gran Turismo racing game, but it's also one that's set to grow and evolve over time and looks set to herald a new era of competitive online racing.
Despite showing its age in some places, TickTock Games have done a great job of revitalising a cult classic such as this. Rogue Trooper Redux is a fun cover shooter action romp and worth picking up if you fancy being a big blue badass.
I'm really enjoying The Enemy Within so far, after a strong opener and now a second episode that drags Bruce further than ever before, and strips him of any real sense of control over the situation.