Bobby Bernstein
Bobby Bernstein's Reviews
Forza Motorsport 6 is the best new generation racer, beating out DriveClub by a full lap and Project CARS by just a hair. Its selection of cars is incredible, driving in rain is as realistic as we’ve seen yet, and somehow it still feels accessible to newcomers to the series. Whether you want to drive a Bugatti or push a Cadillac Escalade, there’s something here for every car-loving racing-enthusiast.
Halo 5 is a well-thought out story that clearly sets up a Halo 6 (don’t worry, I won’t give away the actual spoilers). If you were to tell me that 343 Industries was already working on a Halo 6 before actually playing Guardians, I probably would have been eye-rolling with the best of them. But after playing through Halo 5, another game feels necessary.
If you love arcade racers like Hydro Thunder, Star Wars Racer, and, of course, F-Zero, you’ll likely love what Fast RMX has to offer.
Its colorful landscapes built entirely of LEGOs and massive library of LEGO items you can use to create your own worlds are too bountiful to ignore. However, when you’re seeing a miserable 14 FPS and you’re unable to play smoothly, it’s a jarring experience that makes you never want to play with LEGOs again.
I'm not sure if the game would work as well for such an extended period of time if I were tethered to an Xbox One or my PC to play, but the Nintendo Switch appears to provide for the best gameplay experience.
Despite its commendable protagonist and world design (mostly), the reliance on nostalgia hinders its ability to present fresh ideas, and when that issue is paired with the performance issues, you’re better off just dusting off an old N64 somewhere or waiting for it to be deeply discounted.
"Drawn to Death feels like the embodiment of the bad reputation that 90s punk bands used to have."
"...I had to decide if I wanted to continue on for this review or come out with a DNF and go watch some cartoons to soothe my tortured soul. Seriously, Outlast 2 has some of the scariest moments you’ll find in a video game."
While not actually frightening, its otherworldly characters are well conceptualized, and they’re each ugly and punishing enough to make gameplay interesting.
If you love to gather up resources, craft things, gather more resources, and craft better things, Portal Knights is definitely for you. It’s a good mix of Minecraftian adventure and RPG. It’s delightfully whimsical, and the vibes it puts out are simply charming.
While Gods Among Us was just a good game, Injustice 2 successfully brings the franchise into greatness, providing a near-perfect superhero fighting game for comic book-loving gamers.
"Speaking in the most general sense possible, Dynasty Feud is a mixed bag. It certainly has some charm and the concept and maps are good, but it still feels like it’s a game stuck in the conceptual phase, lacking the fully fleshed out ideas that would make it a must-play game."
At its core, Micro Machines World Series had the potential to be much more than it actually is. More modes, more options, and more cars could've made this into a much more formidable game.
LawBreakers is the brute of the genre, and we’re expecting it to mean mug its way to a bigger fan base with ease.
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.
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’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.
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.
Absolver feels like a game of martial arts chess, where both your fighting skills and your mind at the same time.
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.