Jasper Pickering
The Turing Test is a short but ultimately memorable experience.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare makes some bold choices in its overarching narrative but they're not always for the best. It's a game at its best when it's doing the least.
If you are a diehard Mortal Kombat fan and you must own this game just for the story and local competitive play then this review isn’t going to stop you from purchasing it. But until NetherRealm fixes its issues with connectivity and offers an experience that is friendly for consumers you are better off waiting for it to lower in price.
Despite all its flaws (and there are more than a few), Saints Row is undoubtedly fun and explosive in its over-the-top presentation. While its punctuated with memorable moments, they are often diminished by the repetitive nature of its side content, which makes up a significant portion of what Saints Row has to offer. If you’ve been a longtime fan of the series’s previous entries, you will find plenty to enjoy with this latest installment – just don’t expect much in the way of innovation.
Nintendo Switch Sports is a strong continuation of a tried and tested formula that will find near-universal appeal with anybody who remembers the glory days of the Nintendo Wii, or even younger audiences who will wonder what all the fuss was about 15 years ago. Playing the tennis and bowling game modes don’t exactly bring anything particularly new to the table, but it’s hard not to let muscle memory kick in after an extended period away. Volleyball and badminton also make for a grand entrance that are suitable additions to a bag filled with varied game modes. With the promise of even more gameplay being added at a later date, such as leg-strap support for standard football matches and golf coming later in the year, it’s certainly worth investing the time to work on your backhand and dust off the old skills.
When Extraction plays well, it plays excellently. That’s no doubt that, in part due to the strong foundations that helped to define Siege as an incredibly detailed first-person shooter, and by scaling back to focus on a co-operative experience, Extraction has done well to retain the look and, more importantly, the feel of its competitive counterpart while carving out its own niche. When its sights are aligned it hits more often than it misses, and fans of the Rainbow Six series will find plenty to like about this spin-off.
Knockout City is a fresh take in the sphere of competitive gaming that takes a simple idea and runs with it leaving for some incredibly memorable online encounters though not necessarily for all the right reasons.
Players who are just looking to experience the same single player action from Resident Evil 2 should wait until the game is released as a standalone title or after it has significantly dropped in price.
Crash is back (again) in this marvelous tribute to one of the PS1 era’s most memorable games and more. It goes beyond what could be expected from a remaster and fans are sure to be coming back for more content when it is released.
This is one of the strongest releases on the Nintendo Switch in 2019 so far and is certainly worth playing, even for newcomers of the veteran series.
New Dawn doesn’t ask complicated questions about what it all means for the fate of its world, it just asks you to enjoy it while it lasts.
An impressive reimagining of one of the series' most well loved games
If you're a fan of Formula 1 or even if you've given it a cursory glance when it's on at the pub then there's a lot to enjoy here.
While some may complain that this retelling has brought with it some tired modern tropes such as skill trees and crafting, the core game still retains what has made and will continue to make Lara Croft the original Tomb Raider.
For the price of a cup of coffee it’s hard to deny that Downwell is a great addition to the Switch’s ever growing library of popular indie titles. Downwell has been around since 2015 but this version on Nintendo’s console feels like a fresh addition to the roster.
Both in scale and execution, A Plague Tale Requiem is an ambitious follow-up to Innocence that retools its core puzzle-and-stealth gameplay for a broader and more satisfying historical narrative adventure with fantasy elements. While puzzles are immediately intuitive and its action elements are much more rewarding, they rarely stretch the player’s brain enough to give much pause, making for a breezy, yet memorable adventure.
The Last of Us is (and always was) a masterpiece and Part I is unquestionably the best version of it yet, but that may not be enough for anyone hoping for a complete reinvention of the formula from the ground up. Part I adds just enough to warrant its remake for the latest hardware, which elevates it to the same level of The Last of Us Part II in smart design choices, flexibility and technical prowess even if it’s still the third time we’ve made this journey before. If Naughty Dog’s original PS3 version was the critically acclaimed theatrical release, then Part I is the Criterion 4K remaster complete with commentary and behind-the-scenes footage.
While it never takes itself too seriously, Two Point Campus is an exceedingly complex game that gradually reveals itself through later scenarios – and, by the time the player gets there, is intuitive enough to never feel overwhelming in the amount of options available. The game does well to play the class clown, but its deceptive enough to hide plenty of A-grade material under its desk.
Live a Live feels like a natural fit within Square Enix’s focus on bringing older titles to newer audiences. As the blueprint for other potential titles to come, it’s clear why the 1994 SNES title was chosen as the first remaster to receive the “HD-2D” treatment. Even with a shallow learning curve, there’s plenty to enjoy in this unique omnibus. Fans of classic JRPGs won’t want to miss this reimagining with plenty to enjoy for newcomers to role-playing games.