Bobby Bernstein's Reviews
Biomutant feels like Rocket Raccoon meets Kung Fu Panda meets WildStar’s Chua class – in all the best ways possible.
It's a good remaster in that it makes Destroy All Humans! look significantly better than the original from the PS2 era. However, the gameplay doesn't hold up to 2020 standards.
Generally speaking, DOOM is a good game. However, it’s important to note that it’s good, and not great, which is what we were all expecting and hoping for. It’s a game that surprisingly plays it safe and doesn’t do much to stand out from the crowded first person shooter genre.
But Disney’s majestic worlds and characters shine through its flaws, and with its combat, enhanced graphics, and Disney worlds, Dream Drop Distance HD is an essential for PS4-owning Kingdom Hearts lovers. Although the game has its few minor issues, they’re basically erased because of the game’s addictive combat. And now, we wait for Kingdom Hearts 3, wondering what sort of Disney worlds will make it into the upcoming fantasy game. If you’re looking for a great appetizer for Square Enix’s next entry in the franchise, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD: Final Chapter Prologue has all of the fantasy Disney goodness you can stomach.
Randall deserves praise for its unique take on the once-popular side scroller beat ’em up genre. Its creative blend of crunchy combat, sci-fi elements, and parkour-inspired platforming make it one of the year’s best indie games so far.
Devil May Cry 5’s self-awareness is a big part of what makes it such a great game. It doesn’t care that it’s still a linear game; it doesn’t care that it’s a hack ‘n slash in 2019; it doesn’t care that its story is mostly fan service. It embraces everything that it is – despite those elements typically being labeled as dated – and we love it more because it’s doing that.
"It falls flat on just about every aspect, making us wonder why Microsoft even delayed it for this long, anyway"
Forza Horizon 4’s positives are so overwhelmingly so that its negatives feel more like a minor scratch on the paint than a flat tire
Still, what Rad Rodgers is is a good (not great), $20 game that you’ll give a playthrough of and likely never touch again. Despite its repetitive level design, samey environments and repeated one-liners, it’s still worth the play. And actually, I’d love to see a sequel hit that maybe explores some of the ideas a bit more. For now, Rad’s adventure is worth taking, and you should give it a shot.
It’s like a Diet Smash Bros, with the character unlock model leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
"likely going to be looked back upon as the game that saved the declining series."
Whether it is or it isn’t GOTY, it’s undeniably a charming platformer that ultimately deletes all of the frustrations we’ve had with Nintendo over the past couple of years, and is one of the best games of 2017.
Remember Two Worlds? The Xbox 360/PS3-era RPG that made a lot of promises it didn’t quite live up to? That’s exactly where ELEX falls.
Cuphead is a brilliant little game that is unique right down to its core, with a (mostly) welcomed challenge and beautiful aesthetics.
Despite its few shortcomings, it's a much more well-rounded game than its predecessor. It isn't as much of a change to the naked eye, but it's many subtle, smaller changes are enough to satisfy both old fans of the franchise and bring in new players.
Absolver feels like a game of martial arts chess, where both your fighting skills and your mind at the same time.
Crafting is also a big change. At any level, you’re able to craft anything, basically. The idea behind Legion‘s crafting is that as you’re basically leveling each item (there are 3 levels of crafting each item), and with each level, you’ll get bonuses and crafting becomes easier/uses less materials. I haven’t been able to fully attack my leatherworking like I plan to here soon, but I have dabbled, and it’s an intriguing idea that I think is going to pay off nicely in the long run because it means people won’t have to level from 1-800 from the start, but they’re able to level with mats they’re basically farming at their level, anyway.
If you’re not much of a multiplayer gamer and you are only in it for the zombies and campaign, I can wholeheartedly and emphatically recommend you pick up Infinite Warfare. But if you’re only interested in CoD multiplayer, like many fans of the franchise are, you might want to take your military leave right about now.
But let’s not forget that Dead Rising 4 knows that it’s a dumb Dead Rising game. It’s not trying to take itself too seriously, and if you can keep that in the back of your mind as you’re playing, you’re likely going to have some fun seeing how many dumb zombies you can kill with your dumb Christmas wreath as you play through in your dumb dino helmet. However, that fun is short-lived, and once you get a few hours in, you’ll find that you’ve had enough of what DR4 has to offer. If you liked Dead Rising 3, it’s pretty much more of the same, but without a co-op campaign.
If you like to be challenged, Rise & Shine is a game that not only presents some tough moments, but it also has a beautiful hand-drawn art style that’s bright and colorful. Despite the doom and gloom lingering over Gamearth and the warmongering space grunts of Nexgen that are trying to take it over, the game has a colorful aesthetic. Although it comes in at roughly four hours in its first playthrough, it’s four hours of a great arcade shooter. It’s likely that you haven’t heard of Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team just yet, but you should probably try to remember the name because Rise & Shine is sure to be one of 2017’s most underappreciated game; we can’t wait to see more from the developer.