Stefan L's Reviews
F1 2021 is one of the broadest depictions of the sport ever created, building on familiar cars and handling alongside returning multiplayer, esports, and My Team career modes, while the new Braking Point story gives you a taste of the teammate drama you loved to watch (and mock) in Netflix's Drive to Survive.
It's great to see Mario Golf: Speed Rush reviving another Mario sports franchise for Nintendo Switch, but it's a game that feels that restrained in some places and muddled in others. The Adventure mode loses its focus half way through, and it lacks course variety, but underneath it all, this is still a fun, accessible and often frantic golf game that is easy to enjoy.
It's wonderful to have the classic Famicom Detective Club games remade with modern artwork and with full Western localisations, but the flow of these visual novel detective stories is distinctly lacking and infuriatingly obtuse at times. Still, we can hope this is a sign that Nintendo is considering a truly modern revival of the Detective Club series in future.
Milestone's MotoGP series has taken some significant steps forward in recent years; expanding the career mode, making the bike handling more realistic and lively, but it's a little tougher to see the signs of progress in MotoGP 21. This is a slighter evolution of the series, with the biggest changes the ones that you can see from the jump to the new generation consoles and, if you're on PS5, feel through the DualSense controller.
Evil Genius 2 is a worthy return to the world stage for the classic lair builder formula. While there's certain areas that could be improved in the presentation or the game balance, building up your 60s spy villain lair and defeating the seemingly endless string of agents trying to foil your plans is immensely satisfying and engaging.
It Takes Two is a great rom-com romp filled with action, oodles of variety, and more than a few twists and turns. No, you won't like Cody and May for much of the game, and some segments do feel a touch drawn out, but grab the right co-op buddy and this is a hoot.
Stronghold: Warlords is a refreshing new look for the long-running siege warfare series, rekindling much of what made the series great in the early 2000s. However, there's a number of deep-seated flaws that Firefly need to make the focus of game updates and redefine for the series going forward.
A compelling take on a Martian colonisation and terraforming project, Per Aspera also comes with a gripping mystery to unravel as you fight to survive and thrive. There's some muddled pacing and it's not always how you can proceed, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable sci fi planetary sim.
A handful of excellent new units, a much needed faction rework for the Wood Elves, Drycha's campaign, and a host of quality of life changes make The Twisted and the Twilight's lacklustre Vortex campaigns much easier to overlook.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure starts off slow, feeling like a hollow reflection of the franchise, but eventually grows into its new 3D platforming elements. It's at its best when it blends the new with the old, when there's power-ups, side-scrolling and a meaningful challenge, but it takes a bit too long to get it together.
DMC5 Special Edition for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S builds on the excellence of the original release. It's not the most essential purchase, since you will soon be able to buy Vergil as DLC for the original release, but with some new game modes like Legendary Dark Knight difficulty and the new graphical options making the game smoother/prettier than ever before, it's sure to be tempting for fans of the series. Our original review score follows.
Bright Memory is a rare good-bad game that's enjoyable partly because of its oddities and flaws, but there's signs that its sequel Bright Memory Infinite could actually just be good.
Astro cements himself as the PlayStation 5's mascot with a celebration of all things PlayStation that also showcases the full potential of the immersive new DualSense controller. Astro's Playroom is the first thing you should play on PlayStation 5.
Disc Room is a hell of floating discs, obscure puzzles and inevitable death. It's great.
Lifting the Tetris 99 template wholesale, Super Mario Bros. 35 is a fun and accessible spin on the battle royale, but it's one that's hampered by a lack of clarity over its multiplayer mechanics. Its fresh new player base also leads to endless trips through 1-1 and gruelling marathons instead of tense battles to be the last Mario standing.
Much like an actual 35th birthday party (I assume), Super Mario 3D All-Stars just feels a little halfhearted. It bundles together three great platformers, all of which benefit from the bump up to HD resolutions, and Nintendo have done well to adapt the varying controls to suit the Nintendo Switch, but there's a squandered opportunity to enhance and go beyond this in a meaningful way. Maybe Nintendo are saving themselves for the big five-oh in 2035?
Struggling is a mess. While I can't fault the controls themselves, the object physics are just not reliable enough in crucial areas, as the momentum when using some objects is too chaotic to reliably make progress. Unless you have the patience of a saint or an online audience eager to see your reactions as you're battling through, this is probably not the game for you.
The best way to think of Crusader Kings 3 as a sequel is in terms of its own dynastic gameplay. Sure, Paradox have started from scratch with a new game, but it's still full of scheming, warring amidst an impressive breadth of cultures and religions. Crusader Kings 3 is an heir that has been born from Crusader Kings 2 and its many expansions, including and improving on so much of what made that game great, but it can still grow and improve in its own right.
Reining in on the supernatural, Tell Me Why is a more nuanced, intimate and mature story that explores family trauma that challenges our memories and relationships, while making another bold step in representation for video games.
Amid its gentle but affectionate satire of Chinese norms and customs, Chinese Parents is an accessible and engaging life sim that should resonate with just about anyone who's gone through childhood and adolescence. Even if you fail, you'll still have a good time.