AO Tennis 2 is quite an upgrade and a marked improvement from the previous game, with more features, a surprisingly deep career mode and refined gameplay that feels dynamic and engaging from point to point, especially once you’ve gotten used to the timing and flow. There are still some issues when it comes to the overall polish of the experience and the lack of licensed content overall that hold it back from being a total ace, but with minimal competition in this genre, AO Tennis 2 is an entertaining and fun tennis game that is easily the best of this generation.
While the combat and controls are a little bit clunky at times and the “second screen” can take up a bit too much real estate, especially in portable mode, that doesn’t stop The Wonderful 101 Remastered from being fast-paced superhero fun that anybody looking for a challenge would enjoy.
It’s interesting and innovative for sure, but what it brings in terms of magic and child-like wonderment, it loses something in the repetitive nature of each course being in the same space of your house over and over. While kids may be stoked to let their imagination run wild with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, I think most adults will enjoy the novelty for a few races, show their friends and family, but ultimately go back to the more feature-packed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The question is, beyond the real-world factors of space to play, how much are you willing to pay for that Nintendo Magic?
Black Book is a bewitching combo of deck-building RPG and D&D-esque storytelling, with a bucket load of ideas where some work better than others. With some refinement and editing, Black Book could have been a must-play release. Without it, it’s still an intriguing mix of gameplay systems that is bolstered by its striking visual style and incredible attention to detail with its Northern Slavic mythology and well-thought-out story-telling. It’s definitely like nothing else I’ve played this year, which is worth celebrating. Despite its shortcomings, I couldn’t help but be under Black Book’s unique spell.
Despite some quirks, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a super-fun superhero adventure that hits more than it misses, with a banging soundtrack and a lot of personality that more than makes up for its shortcomings.
The core gameplay of Mario Strikers: Battle League is fast and frenetic, keeping your palms sweaty as you battle with your Nintendo favourites in an intense game of soccer. It’s flashy and well animated in all the best ways, with that trademark personality and charm carrying it a long way. It’s also a wonderful example of “easy to learn, difficult to master”, that starts simple but has some reasonable depth, even within the confines of its short matches. It’s a shame then that there just isn’t much more meat on the bone; with offline modes extremely limited with only quick play and tournaments, you’re going to have to truly love the mechanics to justify spending a lot of your time in competitive multiplayer. For those with a lot of mates to kick around with, that might be enough, but for everybody else, it’s a yellow card.
Saints Row successfully reboots the much-loved franchise, although things don't feel as wild or chaotic as I was expecting or hoping. The main campaign is a short but enjoyable romp with some decent creativity, but the open world template doesn't innovate beyond the trappings of the genre. Side missions and distractions are amusing yet repetitive, and the adventure is lacking in polish overall. Still, being able to play the entire experience with a mate by your side makes for a lot of laughs, and if you can forgive the cringe dialogue, there are some fun moments between all the meandering that still makes it worthwhile. I can't say that the Saints are "back and better than ever", but gearing up for a modest romp with a lot of explosions and strong personalisation will certainly set them up for a roaring sequel if given the chance.
The Crew Motorfest very much wants to be the next Forza Horizon 5, but in forcing us to compare the two, the blemishes that hold this Hawaii-set racer back are made even more obvious. The Playlist system gives a sense of variety and scale that is exciting initially, with genuinely interesting romps through automotive history and a wide range of vehicles keeping things interesting. But the uninteresting open world that connects them all and limitations around how you unlock more of them could have you putting on the brakes sooner than you might expect. Even so, The Crew Motorfest is visually lovely and has an incredibly solid racing foundation, so it warrants a pit stop at the very least.
It's a shame that the early pacing issues with Forspoken and the slow-burn drip-feeding of abilities will likely put off a lot of players and prevent them from seeing how fun the game can actually be when it's firing on all cylinders. Bland and boring environments with some awkward visual choices and lifeless character models give an unfortunate first impression that is saved by its enjoyable parkour and versatile combat during the later stages of the game, along with a surprisingly heartfelt story. Forspoken might not be the savior we were all hoping for, but it's a decent adventure with enough soul that it shouldn't be cast aside entirely.
It’s a shame, because there are elements of an enjoyable co-op adventure here that still kept us playing over several nights. At the end of the day, it all just felt a little bit soulless; ticking the boxes of what the genre should be, but never pushing to excel in anything in particular.
Biomutant is full of creative ideas and unique thoughts that, when combined with such a gorgeous and compelling environment to explore, could have made for a top-tier experience that is easy to recommend. However, the fact that it has so many ideas crammed in that it almost feels like too much, and an open world that can feel very by-the-numbers, makes Biomutant a solid game that misses the mark almost as much as it hits the nail on the head.
There are some fundamentally great things about Atlas Fallen, like its gorgeous desert landscapes and its super-satisfying sand sliding, plus combat that has a tonne of options and flows well. But its open world of interesting enemies suffers from a rinse-and-repeat approach, where what was exciting in hour two becomes boring and repetitive by hour eight. It's not that it's poorly made, but its mission structure and by-the-numbers narrative delivered in a boring way make for an adventure that is more generic than unique. Atlas Fallen is much like a mirage in its sandy desert setting; enticing at first, but a bit disappointing once you look closer and realise it's not what you'd hoped.
Fans of the series were excited when Valkyrie Elysium was revealed, and a modern take on the loved franchise could have done it wonders. Unfortunately, the archaic level design and grubby visuals make the adventure feel like it would be more at home back on the PS3. Combat is its saving grace, dancing between combos and activating magic abilities on elemental foes in satisfying fashion. The Einherjar who fight alongside you add a nice touch, enhancing combat and adding some much-needed levity to the boring narrative. Mindless, enjoyable combat is here in spades, but it's not enough to make Valkyrie Elysium a reboot that I'd strongly recommend to anybody.
The Chant storms out of the gates with a kooky but intriguing concept of cosmic-horror, but simply isn't able to live up to its own ambitions. It has some good ideas if you look hard enough, but the clunky combat, milquetoast puzzle solving and forgettable story firmly plant this one in the category of B-Grade horror, which, to be fair, is definitely the vibe the developers seem to have gone for. Even with a few good foundational ideas with the use of prisms and a couple of cool boss fights helping The Chant slightly redeem itself, the biggest misfire is that it's just not that scary, and without that, this cosmic-horror is just a cosmic-snooze.
When it’s all said and done, I can’t shake the feeling that WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a quick pivot after last years disastrous WWE 2K20, a way to simply distract wrestling fans with a new shiny object while they work on what will hopefully be a stronger WWE 2K22. So much of this wrestling experience is copy and paste, from the animations, to the move-sets, to the painfully slow method of unlocking the roster and even the lack of polish that sometimes brings frame-rates down to a grinding halt. There’s a fun arcade fighting experience to be had, especially when it comes to local multiplayer where the shallow nature of the gameplay is less obvious. But while this may be accessible and “fun for the whole family”, it’s ultimately about as successful as a Sasha Banks title reign. Satisfying at first, but inevitably short and disappointing. We deserve better.
It might at least be a fun one to pick up on sale in a few months when the launch hype has died down – by then, they’ll have hopefully mixed in some more variety to make it worthwhile.
AEW had the right idea in wanting to focus on the nostalgia of the wrestling games we played when we were kids, but at the end of the day, the seemingly low budget and lack of polish is something that should be left in the past. AEW: Fight Forever has some fine ideas and its execution of moment-to-moment gameplay and animations isn't terrible, but matches can be won with minimal effort or drama, presentation is missing key things that make wrestling special, and the story mode is repetitive, boring and self-masturbatory. Fight forever? In this game? No, thank you.
Survivor: Castaway Island takes one of the most popular TV shows in history and turns it into a boring, repetitive video game with very little in the way of redeeming qualities. Trying to strategise with tribe members sucks, challenges are lame, the production values are subpar and the game even goes as far as to make changes from the TV show that make the experience even worse. I've kept hoping and praying that one day somebody would capture the feeling of Survivor in a video game. Today is not that day.
Across the board, Gears 5 really is the whole bloody package… and it’s bloody excellent.
A solid collection of a beloved series of games, with nothing new added into the mix.