Stefan L's Reviews
Fast RMX is practically a must buy, but it’s a purist take on the genre and damn difficult without many, if any of the bells and whistles of other racers. That said, if you’re looking to scratch a certain F-Zero or Wipeout itch on Switch it’s absolutely worth a look.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild dramatically updates this venerable and beloved series, bringing new ideas into the fold which, while seemingly taking inspiration from others, seamlessly adapts them to fit and never loses its own identity. It’s refreshingly new and familiar at the same time, making for both one of the greatest launch titles and the sweetest swan songs any console could wish for.
For all its good ideas, inventive uses of the Joy-Con and potential as a fantastic party game, 1-2-Switch has just as many fumbles that make it far from an essential Switch launch title. It can be a lot of fun, but it fails to keep you in the moment, takes too long to explain and set up each game, and no amount of immature giggling at euphemistic games can manage to rescue it from itself. It might be quick on the draw, but what follows is more of a confused fumble.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a bit of a slow burn, but there’s more to Guerrilla Games’ latest than just its staggeringly pretty graphics. The story surprises as it takes several twists and turns and explores the past, but the games beating heart is with its excellently tense and engaging robotic monster hunting.
Sniper Elite 4 is easily the best in the series so far. It’s still the same methodical stealth game at its core, but Rebellion have added to that with more possibilities for the player, bigger and more open maps, and a handful of new modes.
Space Hulk: Deathwing does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but it doesn't manage to wrap that around a compelling co-op shooter. The missions are ponderous, the story already forgotten, and the core gunplay leaves something to be desired. Those with a fondness for Games Workshop or fraught co-op action will have wanted this to be great, but it's merely OK.
Whether you’re a returning fan, a lapsed player or a complete newcomer, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier gets off to a good and welcoming start, with more than a few twists and turns packed into the two-part episode. While it’s not perfect, that extra time has given Telltale room to breathe life into a new and interesting cast of admittedly flawed characters, build new relationships and present them with new and immediate dangers, always with the threat of zombies in the background.
Batman: The Telltale Series starts strongly, recreating and altering the Batman mythos in new and inventive ways, but can’t keep it up and fades towards the end of its run. It perhaps isn’t Telltale at their best, but still a series worth checking out for fans of their work and of Batman.
With divergent paths to choose through the final two episodes, my eventual encounter with Dent was one that focussed on that original friendship and common ground between Bruce and Harvey. It was one the brought forth some of the compassion in Bruce Wayne’s character and, because of that, felt satisfying, even with moments of awkward and repetitive dialogue.
Worth picking up for fans of Mario games, but there are too many jarring limitations that I really hope Nintendo see fit to address.
There are five scenarios built into the expansion, just to give you a little idea of what’s possible. They’re actually rather tricky, with a mixture of disasters being flung at you, time limits and tough targets to meet.
Guardian of Gotham is a solid episode, but outside of a few little flashes, doesn’t excite or intrigue me as much as what went before. I’m torn on whether or not I like the Joker’s appearance, it doesn’t have time to really linger too much in the moment, and ultimately, it’s just one of those episodes that takes you part way on a journey without getting you to your destination.
If you’re looking for a new horde mode game to enjoy with friends (or randoms), you can’t go too far wrong with Killing Floor 2. I feel it misses out on some of the deeply ingrained teamwork of other co-op survival games, especially on lower difficulties, but if you want a challenge, it brings it in spades.
Sadly, despite setting off to explore new settings and backdrops for its blockbusting action, Infinite Warfare finds itself treading in the footsteps of others. The campaign is a good and refreshing twist of putting you in command and having you dogfighting in space, and Zombies is the most accessible rendition of the mode yet, but turn to the multiplayer, the beating heart of any COD game and we’ve been here before.
Overall, this is a strong end to the series, taking one step towards a more difficult, more restrictive level design, but still with a certain leniency once you get past those barriers.
I didn’t quite realise it until I saw and played it, but VR needs these slightly mad cap social games as much as it needs racers and shooters, the kind of game where you hop in with friends for a bit of a laugh. Much like hanging out at an arcade or bowling alley, there’s only so much time before you’ll tire of the games on offer and want to head home. The VR Pool at the heart of this is great, and the other games are fun to try out as well, but your fondest memories will be of pushing the game’s limits and seeing what shenanigans you can get up to.
Telltale continue to forge their own path through the Batman mythos, picking and choosing how to stay faithful to the comics while also trying to catch people out with new and inventive takes on some characters. This episode was a little scattershot at times, but had it where it counts with some strong character progression and one almighty twist at the end.
On the one hand, you have a short, but fun single player that’s more free and open than most FPS campaign, and on the other, a multiplayer that’s an iterative improvement on an already fantastic game. In other words, Titanfall 2 is as exhilarating and refreshing now as the original was back in 2014.
Operations mode is the standout addition to the multiplayer, bringing together the behemoths, the destruction, the hellish screams of people charging into the fight. I do wish that the single player had been able to push on and draw more from that excellent opening, but stepping back to the First World War helps to give Battlefield 1 a refreshing and invigorating veneer to the game, and it’s lost none of the series’ explosive gameplay in the process.
As the only real first person shooter on PSVR, Rigs is fantastic. So long as you’re not affected too heavily by motion sickness, and aren’t put off by the price to content ratio, you’ll find a fast and fluid multiplayer shooter that gets the best out of PSVR.