Phil Hornshaw's Reviews
There's a lot of meme potential in Stranger of Paradise thanks to its willingness to be aggressively confusing, but fun, varied combat carries its most WTF moments forward.
Bungie continues to improve its shooter MMO with the best story campaign it has yet produced and a whole lot of great additional content to keep players engaged.
Horizon Forbidden West sometimes packs in so much that it gets in its own way, but the many well-drawn characters populating its quests keep it compelling.
Developer Roll7 has improved on every aspect of the OlliOlli franchise to create a huge, fun arcade skating game that's easy-going, but just as challenging as its predecessors.
God of War isn't drastically different on PC when compared to the PS4 version that launched back in 2018, but its little improvements are definitely nice ones, making this a solid PC port overall. There isn't reason enough here to buy a second copy of the game if you've already played, necessarily, but the PC version is a great reason to check out God of War for the first time for anybody who hasn't had a chance to experience it. God of War remains an excellent, gorgeous, affecting action game, and with the port to PC, it gets a handful of nice, if somewhat minor, improvements.
Although some specialists can feel a bit useless at times, tweaks to the formula with Battlefield 2042 add a lot of interesting gameplay variety.
Tweaks in multiplayer and Zombies advance the Call of Duty franchise overall, and an emphasis on distinct characters makes Vanguard's story fun, but it doesn't always mix well with the series' gameplay.
Though it can be really fun, especially when it descends into absolute chaos, Far Cry 6 is overstuffed and disjointed, with so many ideas that it's tough to focus.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits uses a different perspective on familiar gameplay ideas to create tons of exciting combat and a deep emotional connection with its world.
The new chapter of Ghost of Tsushima adds to Jin's backstory in a way that makes it feel essential, while adding even more of the best stuff from the vanilla game.
The Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in content for Sea of Thieves offers a whole lot to do, and while it can be buggy and a bit frustrating, it's still pretty fun.
The new episode in Final Fantasy 7 Remake has a few fun character beats, but ultimately feels like a thin, unnecessary stopgap for the next real installment.
The sequel to Resident Evil 7 leans heavily on Resident Evil 4's brand of action, but adds its own sensibilities to the mix.
People Can Fly's Outriders mixes a lot of well-worn shooter and RPG elements to create something that feels fresh, if you can get used to its balance.
Developer Cold Symmetry's budget action-RPG is a love letter to From Software's work, but Mortal Shell's take on similar ideas feels aimed at those who struggle to get through Soulsborne games.
What's good about Hitman--its level design and the creativity, experimentation, and exploration that affords--is great in Hitman 3. It closes out the trilogy by brilliantly playing off everything that came before it
With Beyond Light, Destiny 2 can still get cyclical and repetitious, but its new abilities and improved storytelling make it feel much more alive.
Control in the cloud is a solid way to experience one of 2019's best games, even if it's not the prettiest.
The follow-up to Frictional Games' seminal 2010 horror game tightly hones the developer's approach to story, frights, and frustration.
Avengers feels like two separate games smashed together, and while they don't always sync up, both parts are linked by deep, intelligent combat spread across varied heroes.