Phil Hornshaw
Phil Hornshaw's Reviews
Republique is a relatively simple stealth game with a lot of love dumped into its presentation and its world, but Episode 4's attempt to shake things up in both gameplay and plot is weak.
Until Dawn struggles with clunky video game elements and rough pacing, but mitigates it with B-movie slasher mainstays and a willingness to embrace player failure.
AWE is full of fun lore tidbits linking Control to Alan Wake, but it underwhelms as an addition to both the latter's universe and the former's weird game world.
Playing a medieval church cop hunting a vampire is a great concept, but blurry choices, weak combat, and a ton of handholding keep The Inquisitor from leading a compelling inquisition.
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.
'Rime' doesn't always perfectly combine gameplay with the intended emotional journey, but it succeeds more than it fails.
The good outweighs the bad, with Watch Dogs 2 providing lots of stellar opportunities for players to hack the planet.
Taming bears is a blast, but sometimes playing beast master is still a day job.
Rainbow Six: Siege blasts through conventions with a fresh take on tactical shooters.
Dark Souls III is tough as nails, and the most rewarding Dark Souls game yet.
The ambitious scope of Star Wars: Battlefront creates both its most fun and most frustrating moments.
Though it has a somewhat steep combat learning curve and some dated open-world ideas, Rise of the Ronin does a great job of rewarding your time in its world.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Control in the cloud is a solid way to experience one of 2019's best games, even if it's not the prettiest.