Phil Hornshaw
Phil Hornshaw's Reviews
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Although some specialists can feel a bit useless at times, tweaks to the formula with Battlefield 2042 add a lot of interesting gameplay variety.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With an expanded endgame, new difficulty tiers, and new story content, Worldslayer adds a lot to Outriders, even if none of the additions are mind-blowing.
Void Riders is mostly more OlliOlli World, and while its new challenges won't blow you away, more of a good thing is a good thing.
Developer Roll7 excellently mixes high-scoring skating gameplay with shooter ideas to make a hybrid game that's tough to put down.
Drawing from Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Thymesia creates a Souls-like experience that iterates on what's most important about From's beloved titles.
While Lords of the Fallen has all the right Souls-like elements, its disjointed pacing and painful checkpoint system make much of the game a slow and frustrating march.
Skull Island: Rise of Kong is a boring, buggy, totally unambitious game that isn't even interesting in its failures.
Expanding and improving on the original in every way, The Talos Principle 2 is a brilliant puzzler that's most compelling during conversations with its characters.
Operation Deadlock mixes Zombies with Warzone's DMZ mode, and while the combination can create some heart-stopping battles, you have to be willing to grind to see them.
Though it includes a lot of familiar open-world elements, a minimalistic user interface, fun movement mechanics, and a gorgeous setting make it a blast to explore Pandora.