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Gianluca Arena


Favorite Games:

281 games reviewed
76.7 average score
79 median score
60.1% of games recommended

Despite the long time that has elapsed between the first release and this Switch port, Kingdom Come Deliverance Royal Edition fails to align with the excellent quality of most of Saber Interactive's previous works on Switch.

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It's not clear why a new fan should start their journey from the third chapter of the series, but Trials of Cold Steel III and IV are still enjoyable and a must play nonetheless.

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It's not clear why a new fan should start their journey from the third chapter of the series, but Trials of Cold Steel III and IV are still enjoyable and a must play nonetheless.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Unscored - Outer Wilds
Dec 27, 2023

Outer Wilds is still a brilliant game in its Nintendo Switch version, which also includes the Echoes of the Eye DLC, and we recommend visiting the small but fascinating universe Mobius Digital has given life to. It's just that this version is the worst of the bunch, and the other ones are much cheaper now, four years after the original release.

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Nov 26, 2023

If you loved Dead Island 2 madly or bought the Gold version which also included the Season Pass, Haus will give you a couple of pleasant evenings, but in all other cases the advice is to wait for a price drop or the inevitable Game of the Year Edition which will include all the post-launch DLC.

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Unscored - Alan Wake 2
Oct 30, 2023

The console version has not highlighted any particular problems in terms of code cleanliness and preventing bugs, and the sacrifices in graphic terms compared to the PC version, although present, are not such as to diminish either the authorial vision of Sam Lake and company, or the visual beauty of a title that finally allows you to breathe next-gen air.

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Oct 17, 2023

Borderlands 3 on Switch in handheld mode is surprisingly enjoyable and feels like a good option for players that still have to play the beloved looter shooter from Gearbox.

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Unscored - Baldur's Gate 3
Sep 11, 2023

Baldur's Gate 3 for PS5 then reveals itself as an extremely valid option for those who do not have a good gaming PC, also thanks to the security of not missing anything, in terms of content and adjustments by the development team in the coming months.

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We are not at the levels of the expansion dedicated to Donkey Kong of the first game, nor to the excellent ones of the base game, which remains one of the pearls of the rich softeca of Nintendo Switch, yet Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - Rayman in the Phantom Show is a fun and carefree DLC, which will not engage veterans too much and could paradoxically please newbies or those who, Like us, he missed the most beloved eggplant man in the history of video games.

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Jun 7, 2023

It may have its appeal to the public who, as a neophyte, look for an unpretentious JRPG, but overall The Caligula Effect: Overdose fails to do enough to stand out and be remembered.

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The Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy comes to a close with a great piece of DLC, that offers a lot of quality content and gives a couple of much needed answers to long-time fans. Our only concern regards its nature and the fact that a lot of people could potentially miss this one and all of the important story beats it comes with.

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May 19, 2023

Despite the discreet work done by Falcom and NIS America on the PS5 version of Ys IX Monstrum Nox, we are forced to recommend players who already own the PS4 copy of the game to "settle" for the free patch that brings the one to 60 fps, instead of buying from scratch the one reviewed here.

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Apr 9, 2023

Batora is extremely enjoyable on Nintendo Switch, with all the previously released content ready to go from the start.

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The only slice of the public that could still enjoy the complete package and technical improvements is represented by those who only own PS5 or Xbox Series X, but even to the latter we recommend waiting for the first, inevitable price drop and at least a couple of other improvement patches.

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Feb 21, 2023

It's really a shame that Bandain Namco didn't realize how important and beloved Tales of Symphonia is for both the franchise and the public. This is a barebone remaster, with a missing game and a little overpriced too, even if the game itself stil deserves praise.

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Unscored - Risen
Feb 11, 2023

If despite problems that are not at all secondary such as a backward technical sector, controls that are not always precise and at least revisable general balance, the role-playing games signed Piranha Bytes are never completely rejected, neither by critics nor by the public, it is because they have a soul – and also not negligible merits as much as their defects.

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Jan 28, 2023

We do not feel like rejecting the work that Cold Symmetry, because in the vast majority of cases, especially during the main campaign, Mortal Shell has also managed on Switch (especially in portable mode) to offer a satisfactory gaming experience for stability and image quality, although the compression has been particularly aggressive and we have found several drops in performance in the most agitated situations.

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Unscored - Persona 4 Golden
Jan 22, 2023

We see no reason why you should not play Persona 4 Golden in this "new" version: the improvements are not many, but they are all useful to refine the experience of the user who had never played the masterpiece Atlus and to warmly embrace those who, instead, wanted to return for a second (or third) run.

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Don't just be dazzled by the golden shine of the best game in the PSP game library: our only advice is to play Persona 3 Portable before Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal, which are both superior to it by several spans. Only by doing so you can appreciate, despite some limitations too derived from the portable nature of the original output, the writing, the characters, the combat system, the longevity, the soundtrack. All these merits would come out in any case, of course, but the overflowing quality of the two subsequent titles, brought to Switch in more inviting formats for the new generations, could partially obscure what is good in this third episode, a real watershed for the franchise and the founding basis of all the Persona who will come.

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Nov 28, 2022

Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana is and remains probably the best episode of a long-lived and beloved series, to which just over a decade ago we assigned a very high vote, which we would not hesitate to assign again if we had to examine only the purely playful aspect of the matter. But here we are called to judge the work done for PS5 users, the presence of novelties and, from these points of view, this version of the Falcom game has not particularly excited us, although it is, in absolute terms, the best among those published so far.

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