Chris Jarrard
I can definitely recommend MXGP 19 to newcomers who are intrigued by the sport or are looking for a different kind of racing fix. It’s not the best racing I’ve done this year, but I found myself enjoying the time I spent working through the season mode (even if its structure was boring) and all the noodling around in Playground mode was entertaining.
Madden NFL 20 is the worst major sports league video game out there.
The Contra Anniversary Collection could have been so much more.
While I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the series, I found a lot to like in Three Kingdoms.
If you have any interest in America’s favorite pastime, you owe it to yourself to step up to the plate with MLB The Show 19
While the concept behind Hypnospace Outlaw is solid and the recreation of the 1990s web experience will elicit feelings of nostalgia , I feel that it is an experience that many will get enough of after twenty to thirty minutes of futzing around HypnOS and the webpages.
Should you dive into APE OUT? Indie junkies who were enamored with Hotline Miami beyond its aesthetic will find lots to like about the feel of the combat and tight integration with the soundtrack.
I can’t really knock the game down too much for being what it set out to be - a faithful re-imagining of an eastern classic. This is the standard for which all remastered game releases should aim.
At the end of the day, PC Building Simulator is a solid experience, especially for those who may already have an affinity for PC hardware.
Insurgency: Sandstorm was a game that kind of hit me out of nowhere. I knew it was coming at the end of this year and I had intentions of checking it out, but once I finally sat down with it and had a few rounds with friends, time just slipped away.
It is the closest thing that bike nuts will get to a Gran Turismo or a Forza, and that’s a good thing. If you aren’t looking for a bike racing experience, I doubt this is the title that will open your eyes. It is far from perfect and incredibly limited in its appeal, but this is the best work from Milestone yet. 8/10 cranked hogs
As it stands right now, the game is a rough, uncut diamond that could’ve been the crown jewel of class-based multiplayer first-person shooters.
I feel that GRIP will draw lots of strong opinions on either side of the spectrum and that the diehards will stick with it for the foreseeable future. It’s not likely to set the world on fire and will appeal mostly to the nostalgia of older PC gamers, but does enough to be more than a pretty paint job on top of old ideas.
It is undoubtedly the best game Microsoft has published on the PC since Age of Empires 2. Forza Horizon 4 is Microsoft's killer app and is on the shortlist of the best games of its generation.
Sega and its new Two Point Studios have successfully revived the nonsensical hospital management genre with a slick piece of interactive entertainment.
Madden NFL 19 is a mixed bag.
I'm not a big Metroidvania guy, but Dead Cells managed to conjure up the same feelings I had when I played Super Mario World, Portal, and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl.
While there's nothing here that hasn't been done in other games before, I still feel the urge to hop in for another run to try and beat my previous high score. Testing various defense strategies and skill synergies is lots of fun. I have no doubts that some clown on the internet will discover some tactic or exploit that allows survival beyond one hundred nights, but I really like figuring out what works on my own. The art style works, though it doesn't really stand out enough to be a positive on its own. I played exclusively with a controller and found the game to be responsive. I never felt like my deaths were caused by anything other than my own mistakes. The PC version I reviewed performed wonderfully, though it lacks many of the basic options, like resolution or windowed mode, that players would expect.
Bus Simulator 18 is not a game changer and to be honest, it's not the most rewarding experience I've ever had in front of my PC. Still, it has solid driving mechanics, some detailed buses, and a gameplay loop that is strangely relaxing. A lack of content, multiplayer bugs, and a boring campaign keep me from recommending the game to all. Bus aficionados and sim game enthusiast will find lots to like in this package. It is possible that the Steam Workshop will be able to breathe life into the game in the future, but without the content available now, the asking price is a little steep. 6/10 drug addicts passed out in the back seats
While I found the larger experience to be underwhelming, the game does offer some high points. Moving around the game map and fast traveling is instantaneous and seamless. While I didn't find the game's menus to be as functional as I'd like, they all look really sharp and fit within the game's aesthetic. While music tastes are subjective, I found the included soundtrack to be very well done (as it was in the first Crew game) and it made some of the less exciting races more tolerable. Swapping between vehicles works very well and is probably the coolest part of the game.