Infinity Ward is back with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which attempts to find a happy medium between nostalgia and revitalization but stumbles along the way.
However, when a game is purposely difficult solely due to the amount of overpowered enemies it can throw at you, it makes for an unsatisfying experience. This blended with clunky gameplay only amplified my disappointment. I would not be surprised if someone stopped playing twenty minutes into Ruiner with its uninviting gameplay. Despite my outlook, if you're a fan of dystopian sci-fi revenge stories, Ruiner may be worth checking out.
There is something about Hob that I really enjoy. I'm not quite sure if it's the cartoonish art style, clever puzzles, or an amalgamation of the two, but my overall experience was quite pleasant. However, frequent frame rate drops, mindless combat, and its open-world facade hindered my amusement and often relinquished any feeling of consequence while exploring the game's dangerously portrayed world. Similarly, the unspoken and symbolic mystery that unfolds begins as an interesting tale, but quickly becomes shallow when there are no other factors to create a meaningful and emotional conflict. Hob boasts a lot of promising ideas at the outset, but ultimately fails to fulfill those promises by the game's end.
Expert racing game developer Codemasters brings another solid title with F1 2019, albeit with a few caveats.
Sea of Thieves is a mixed bag of emotions for me. It's a great social experience to play with a group of friends and sail on the prettiest water you will ever see in a video game. It's also bogged down by tedious and repetitive voyages that reward you with meager pay. When you can eventually purchase an item, it will only affect how you look. If that is the case, it seems puzzling that I can't create a character I want to flaunt to any passerby. There is enjoyment to be found in Sea of Thieves, but not enough to keep you interested in the long term.
You better get ready to kill.
Gaming's most funky duo are back from Funkotron in a nostalgia-fueled experience that doesn't appeal to anyone but its limited fan base.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a nostalgia-fueled retelling of the Z Fighters' adventures that is brimming with content... it's just really boring.
Codemasters' attempt to revive GRID has a lot of great ideas but struggles to bring them all together in a cohesive fashion.
I am so mixed on WWE 2K Battlegrounds. In some ways, I really dig that 2K decided to create an arcade-style wrestling game. I do believe the basics of this game make a solid foundation for another entry. The “pick-up and play” direction is great if you want to play with a few friends. Still, a lot of its flaws make it hard to recommend to those who usually play these games alone. After a couple of hours, all of WWE 2K Battlegrounds’ silly over-the-top gimmicks lose their luster.
Sure, I can fly a plane as high as I can then drop from the sky as a car and continue my path to nothingness but the fun of that can only last so long. I wanted The Crew 2 to be the new pillar for arcade-style racers. Instead, we are presented with a missed opportunity.
Conspiracies, depression, Soul Survivors, oh my!
The Sims 4 attempts to bring genuinely happy moments throughout your Sim's lifespan; occasionally, you will even find yourself smirking. However, those moments are quickly bogged down by tedious goals, a terrible HUD and menu navigation, and gameplay that is outright boring. Life events like a date or wedding put less emphasis on the occasion and more on completing monotonous objectives. These goals wouldn't be too dreadful if the commands given to the Sim would actually follow through. However, there were too many times where the Sim would completely ignore what I wanted them to do. All of these gameplay problems are bundled up in a poor performing port that chugs more than it should. The Sims 4 is an unsatisfying experience right from the start.
I mean, it can only go uphill from here, right?
Tennis World Tour is a disappointment, plain and simple. It's one thing to not have key features at launch, but the absence of solid gameplay puts the final nail in the coffin. It's not only dull with its weak and monotonous presentation but frustrating as you watch your generic created character not swing at a ball they could easily hit across the court. There is something to some of the RPG elements within the career mode, but my progression or “gear” doesn't feel like it affects my character's ability to perform well. Tennis World Tour had the opportunity to become the video game series players go on to play a professional tennis simulation. Instead, we are given a joyless and empty experience.