Ricky Frech
FIFA 20 excellent Volta mode, engaging changes to Ultimate Team, and potentially cool features to Career Mode don't make up for subpar soccer gameplay.
Two friends and their goose are on an adventure to save the quirky citizens of Penfurzy Island.
River City Girls is a throwback beat 'em up with RPG elements, eye-catching visuals, and a thumping soundtrack.
Bartlow's Dread Machine is a solid bullet-hell shooter with an excellent look that's held back by a few curious design decisions.
NBA 2K22 has the best offensive flow in years, matched by improvements to defense. Still, technical problems persist and microtransactions are hard to ignore in some modes.
When everything goes smoothly, Madden 20 is one of the best-playing football games of the generation. Things don't always go smoothly.
Become the Batman of taxi cab drivers as you try to solve a neo-noir murder mystery.
Choose your favorite Bergson to take down into the dungeons in a roguelike that tells the story of the tight-knit family that form the Children of Morta.
Designer Keita Takahashi is back at it again with the incredibly odd, yet charming, Wattam, a game about friendship, explosions, and lots of poop.
Super Mega Baseball 3 is not a total home run, but the franchise and its brand of wacky baseball continue to trend in the right direction.
As a longtime fan of the series, Paper Mario: The Origami King has its trademark humor and charm, but misses its appealing RPG gameplay.
UFC 4 brings some great new ideas to created fighters, online play, and clinch gameplay, but can't live up to its full potential with the end product.
Empire of Sin brings X-COM-style combat and in-depth strategy to 1920s Chicago in a package with tons of great ideas, but a lack of real focus.
My time with Rollerdrome was filled with ups and downs. The core idea is great, but it took a while for me to warm up to an extreme sports game that puts pressure on you to juggle multiple things at once.
Saints Row: The Third Remastered is a mediocre port of one of the best games from the last generation.
FIFA 21 continues the recent trend of mediocre gameplay being held up by shiny features, new modes, and an overreliance on the Ultimate Team cash cow.
Hard West 2 takes the familiar tactical strategy genre and gives it just enough twists to keep things interesting. It also boasts some great artwork and a better story than many of its genre compatriots. Unfortunately, several technical issues take off the shine of what could be a phenomenal game.
To some degree, this feels like an early access game in everything but the release schedule and pricing. It has its core down. It knows exactly what it wants to be. However, everything around that needs more polish before it’s ready for primetime. So, even though I didn’t really like my time with the game, I guess I believe in Dying Light 2? I truly think I’ll look back in a year or two — when memories have faded — and think past me was dead wrong for giving it such a low score.
If you look at WWE 2K22 as a foundational game for the future of the WWE franchise, then this is undoubtedly a step forward. The greatly improved in-ring action is not nearly enough to make up for ho-hum to poor modes that give you little reason to return to the actual wrestling.
For every vomit-inducing scene of body horror, you’ll also lose your lunch at the game’s technical and design issues. Like the creature and the protagonist, it just feels as if Scorn is fighting against itself at every step along the way.