Baz Macdonald's Reviews
Call of Duty is undeniably a piece of propaganda fiction that glamorises and bolsters the image of war, as well as the perspective and ‘righteousness’ of western forces
Control is a mesmerising dive into the warped world of the supernatural that sets a new high bar for world design alongside its bizarre, yet compelling story, and power fantasy combat.
As much as we love remasters, it is not often they are as justified as Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled has proven itself to be. The well-balanced difficulty of this games map and AI fills a niche in the Kart Racing genre that is sure to delight multiplayer parties and provide a healthy challenge for both nostalgia-filled millennials and newcomers alike.
Rage 2 is an incredibly well-executed combat loop that has been utterly buried by a terrible story, boring and repetitive tasks such as driving and infuriating time sinks such as collectible hunting.
Anthem is a game with unmet potential at every turn. The gameplay is fantastic and recreates the '30 seconds of fun' that has made its competitor Destiny such a success. But in its current state of bugs, server issues and poor design decisions, it is planted firmly in the 'play it in six months' category.
Beat Saber is possible the best VR experience ever made. It is an incredibly satisfying rhythm game which uses the immersion of VR to evoke a sense of scale, power and energy that hugely enhances the underlying gameplay loop. The mechanics, music and VR environment tap into something deep in your psyche that creates an irresistibly fun and empowering experience.
Despite a growing industry-wide acceptance that open-world games developed for the screen do not adapt well to VR – Gearbox bowled on ahead with their, years too late, adaptation of Borderlands 2. A port with unsurprisingly fails to fix the inherent problems with this transition – with gammy controls and gameplay not well adjusted for the VR medium.
With Super Smash. Bros Ultimate, the development team set themselves the lofty goal of bringing together an incredible amount of the franchises back catalogue of characters, stages and other miscellanea. With this much fan service-focused content, there was always the danger that the game would get buried beneath it. But thankfully, the game sits proudly on top of it, in this game that simultaneously celebrates the very history of gaming while presenting a deep, incredibly fun fighting game for everyone and everyone, no matter how you choose to play.
The multiplayer integration of Fallout 76 opposes the core tenets of the Fallout games at every turn – utterly undermining the core formula. What's worse, it then fails to justify the multiplayer in any way. Buried beneath the bugs, network issues and multiplayer allowances, it is possible to see what could have been a wonderful single player experience in a fascinating time and location – but one that we will never experience.
Pokémon: Let's Go is a fun, light nostalgia trip for long time players, and an easy on-ramp into the Pokémon console games for new players. Its greatest feat is presenting a stunning graphical style and approach which wonderfully blends players desire for 3D Pokémon games with the core tenets of the franchise – setting high expectations for the Generation Eight debut on the Switch next year.