Gabriel Bogdan's Reviews
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree exceeds all expectations and overshadows every other expansion out there. With around 20-30 hours of new challenging content and areas, designed for veteran players, is the label "expansion" a bit of an understatement. Considering the sheer amount of new elements, including some of the most spectular boss fights of the series, smaller shortcomings such as reused enemy types that could've used a bigger facelift, or that upgrades only give you a generic boost for two values, carry no weight in the full picture.
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth extends the experience of the original in many ways for the good but fails with that on the world itself and its side activities through odd design decisions. Besides that, the gameplay improved immensly over Remake and the sheer amount of main missions and nice surprises for fans, makes it very easy to look past its shortcomings.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 gets pretty much everything wrong and delivers one of the worst campaigns in the history of the series with forced warzone elements in nearly every aspect of the game. The small hint of nostalgia through the modernized maps from 2009 fades quickly away because of the rest of its bad presentation.
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Alan Wake 2 will please Fans of the previous projects from Remedy Entertainment and it is one of the best games this year, in terms of atmosphere. Besides that, the game suffers from pacing problems, framerate drops and terrible gameplay decision when it comes to action elements and navigation. Despite being better than the previous game, it stil can't compete with the big players in the genre.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage sadly doesn't fully commit on its way back to the roots and ends up as dull mix of everything what we've already seen in the past games. Simple variations of already established systems and the short uninspiring story will especially disappoint series veterans. As Expansion, Mirage would have had the right to exist but as full price title, it doesn't offer enough.
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Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is an absolutely successful return of a series that nearly got forgotten over the years. Even when you can lose track as newcomer over all the different fractions and mercenaries, or get lost with the camera in combination with a lot of explosive effects, making it hard to keep track of what is going on, the studio delivers one of its best experiences so far. If you are looking for a new kind of challenge or want to explore the world of Armored Core for the first time, you will definitely have killer fun with this new FromSoftware title.
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Diablo 4 is the best what Blizzard delivered in recent years, even when the game often loses itself in delivering more and more content. Tedious sidequests, severe bugs during the campaign and an in-game shop in a full priced title hold the game back a bit but other than that, every newcomer and veteran alike will enjoy it.
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The Callisto Protocol fails despite a solid overall performance on its high ambitions. You have to give the studio some credit for the creative approaches, especially for the gameplay and atmosphere but there is a constant lack of a final touch through the whole game, which often lets the gameplay end in frustration and boring/repetitive sections. Horror Fans with lots of endurance should still get it for the PlayStation 5.
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Bayonetta 3 suffers from a generic story and enemies with a surprisingly boring level structure. The decision to go for more quanity delivers enough gameplay variety for hardcore fans. If you can live with repeating challenges and areas, you'll still get a crazy adventure with the gameplay, that the fans love.
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Elden Ring surpasses all expectations, eliminates all doubts that we had and surprises more than any other soulsborne game so far. If you can live with rare repetitive bossfights and enemy appearances due to the open world design, you'll get the most extensive and exciting game FromSoftware has created so far.
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Halo Infinite doesn't offer all of its content at launch but shines already with a solid campaign, new innovative gameplay ideas and an expansive open world that will satisfy fans of the series. A few generic and unimaginative elements tarnish the whole package but besides these small missteps, one of the most innovative games of the series wait here for oldschool Halo Fans as well as newcomers.
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You can sum up the experience with Call of Duty Vanguard in one word: Mixed. Some campaign highlights are turned down by regularly freezes in all modes, a chaotic multiplayer and one of the most generic zombie modes in years.
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Far Cry 6 is in many areas the best game of the series so far and definitely the most extensive one. Sadly the not fully thought through gameplay balance and the poor enemy AI hold the title back from reaching its full potential. You'll still get an amazing cast of characters, a fully packed game world and a great selection of fun open world activities and crazy weapons, the series is known for. Newcomers and Fans of the series alike, will have their fun with this one.
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Metroid Dread scores with well-established strengths of the series and delivers exciting bossfights and a well thought through leveldesign. Sadly the attempts of the game to create a tense atmosphere fail most of the time and the technical limits of the Nintendo Switch hold the title back from reaching its full potential.
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Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania delivers what fans of the series would expect and puts everything into one great package with well integrated new guest characters. With the release on the current gen it finally reaches its full multiplayer potential with lots of offline and new online modes. The reducing of the story cutscenes to the new comic styled sequences and the small soundtrack selection are the only things that players will have to get used to.
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Even when FIFA 22 doesn't really offer a great jump for the series, fans will get the usual whole package with lots of small steps into the right direction. The new HyperMotion technology and the option to create and manage your own club in the career stay the only real highlights.
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Vicarious Visions stays with Diablo 2: Resurrected very true to the original release, which brings more problems than positive aspects. The new graphics in the cutscenes and character models are amazing and also the controller support works surpringsly well on all platforms. Sadly some relics of the past, server problems and a lof of missed chances in terms of multiplayer-features hold the title back a lot more than it should have been.
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Kena: Bridge of Spirits turns out to be more than just a solid video game debut of ember lab. With cutscenes at the same level as pixar movies and a gameplay that don't need to hide behind games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, players get a beautifully crafted package. A bit more focus on the gameplay elements and riddles would helped the game as a whole a lot but otherwise waits probably one of the best adventures of this year for you.
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The Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut offers the best version of Ghost of Tsushima so far and delivers some exciting new hours of content with the Iki Island DLC, even if it is not much new for people that have already finished the main game. The missing enemy variety and the lack of really new activities and upgrades are the biggest letdowns of the new dlc content, compared to the full package players get with the Director’s Cut.
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Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERmission offers a short introduction into the world of Yuffie Kisaragi, which most players can easily skip. The lack of new elements to the main game and the short and generic trip through midgar, make it really hard to recommend this DLC, even with all the technical benefits from the PS5 Upgrade.
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