Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is one of those games that oozes fun, no matter how you play it. It lends itself perfectly to all playstyles, and has this natural way of immersing the player in its world. That might be from the unique RPG system, the insanely detailed environments that make you feel like you're really walking through this huge hellscape, or maybe it's just the gratuitous violence. Whatever the cause, it's doing a great job of keeping me hooked. Of course, the game isn't without its cons, and these do detract from an otherwise solid experience. Regardless, it's a game that I will absolutely be coming back to time and time again.
Although Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time has the occasional frame rate drop, and it doesn't pose that high a challenge, Soleil's game direction has proved worthwhile. Having all the tools to shape your experience provides a thoroughly enjoyable experience for the player, and it'll keep long-time fans of the series happy seeing Jack's old allies in action once more. However, with such a short time-to-complete and weak story, it will have you yearn for more.
Skully is a simple platformer that boasts fun characters, a great soundtrack, and creative gameplay; all of which provide a rewarding experience by the end of it. However, good things only last for a while, since the quality of the story drops off significantly by the end, and the poor music looping quickly becomes boring. And yet, it's an underrated gem that you'll likely want to platinum as soon as it's done.
Microsoft has finally brought Age of Empires 3 out of the dark ages and fans are able to return to the game that they know and love. There's a lot of quality of life changes to be found with the Definitive Edition, but at the same time there's essentially the same amount of content to be experienced. Returning players may find that they're effectively paying for a 15 year old game, but are now able to view it in 4K.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 for the PS5 is a great PlayStation game, but not necessarily a great PS5 game. It's still a ton of fun to play, with no noticeable bugs or glitches. However, the only utilized PS5 feature is improved loading times. Adaptic triggers and haptic feedback felt largely unused, so much so it felt more like I was playing with a PS4 controller. Nonetheless, that doesn't stop this remake from being amazing --- it's still a ton of fun to play, and for new players there's plenty of content to chew through that you won't necessarily be missing those missed DualSense features.
The story is lackluster, the microtransactions are everywhere, but everything else is amazing; it's like being on a rollercoaster ride every single second you play. Ubisoft put its heart and soul into developing every location just so that each race and each moment feels immensely different from the next. It's an absolutely thrilling, immersive experience that does well to keep you entertained for hours and hours on end. If only you could spend more time racing people instead of bots, then it'd really feel like you're working to become the amazing triathlete Riders Republic wants you to be.
Winter Ember is good, but could be better. The voice acting and script made me extremely disinteresting in the story, and combat is just so extremely dull. It doesn't help either when the soundtrack overheard in all areas of the game is equally as basic. These three things made the game lose a bit of its charm, but that's all mended together thankfully by the enjoyable stealth mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay. As a pure stealth experience, this game fast became a highly enjoyable experience overall, and one that I'd recommend if you can get past its big issues.
Homebody is unnerving. The puzzles are difficult, and it's extremely rewarding when you slowly chip away at them as you uncover the secrets of the house. Equally, it's immersive - you'll slowly morph into the player character's shoes and feel her fear of isolation. The only trouble with Homebody is it eventually feels less and less like a horror game, as you'll eventually realize that it's not all that scary - and quite forgiving.
Burnout Paradise Remastered for the Nintendo Switch comes with its fair share of issues. You'll experience a lot of blurriness playing it handheld, and might struggle making out what's what at high speeds even when playing it docked. Plus, there's that big $50 price tag for a 2008 game. Yet, included in the remaster is eight of the nine premium DLC, which comes with nearly all the vehicles unlocked, as well as one of the best racing soundtracks to ever exist.
Into The Radius is a great VR survival game with an amazing atmosphere, rewarding experience, and a very interesting set of enemies. It's especially suited to VR veterans, who may think they've experienced all that's to see and do with the platform. Do beware however, as this game has recently come out of Early Access and has some hallmarks of it.
Maskmaker feels like it's going to give you full control over the game, then it takes it away from you and does it for you. The parts it gives you full control over, however, tend to be exceptionally tedious. The crafting system is great when the game wants it to be, and I loved exploring every nook and cranny that the game had to off, but in short, while the game feels like a bedtime story, ultimately it's just that --- there's not much lucidity that you'd expect from a VR game, and it feels more like an on-rails experience.
World War Z GOTY edition doesn't provide a whole lot to players that the standard edition already has done in way of free post-release content. In essence, you're paying for character skins, and weapon skins and variants. While the variants help new players jump start their adventure, the upgrade for returning players isn't all that worthwhile. The Marseille episode, while fantastic, can also be purchased as a separate DLC. In reality, the GOTY edition doesn't have too many legs to stand on to suggest it's completely worth the money.
Hellbound is a fun shooter that's got all the hallmarks of what made the 90s FPS genre so great. Unfortunately, just like the 90s games before it, it's pretty dated in both optimization and graphics. There's a large number of bugs and game-breaking glitches to be experienced, all of which tarnish what is otherwise an incredible experience.
We Were Here Forever is a step back from the rest of the series. It's hard to find the motivation to keep playing when you're completing the same puzzle three, sometimes four times. Quantity doesn't mean quality, and when you're in control of a unique genre like coop puzzlers you don't want to step on the quality of what made this series great. Plus, the lack of a compelling story is disappointing when it's the only thing that's meant to encourage you to keep playing.
While Dread Hunger aims to freshen up a rather burnt-out genre due to the likes of TTT and Among us, there isn't enough reason to keep playing over and over again. Roleplaying is moreso encouraged than required, causing games to get repetitive quickly. Not only that, but the lack of story leaves this game ending on a disappointing note, especially since it immediately promises that it will play a key role throughout the experience.
Teardown tears down the fabric of what a demolition physics game can be, yet replaces that with too many restrictions. All your fun will come from the creativity of your imagination, but that satisfaction falls apart when you're limited by the tools the game has to offer. It's such a shame when this game can offer so much more.
Liberated wants to be so much, but it trips on its own feet within the first comic issue. The idea to read a comic book on your Nintendo Switch, and also play within those same panels, was a fantastic creative decision. However, the developers seem to have put more effort into that idea than filling out the rest of the gameplay, which is nothing short of lacklustre. If, at times, the cliche story didn't read like a low quality YA novel, then I'd have appreciated it more.
Relicta is a puzzle game that tries to be like The Talos Principle and Portal, but falls flat. The gameplay mechanics, as well as the physics, are a solid and fun experience. However, it falls short due to a weak story, terribly written dialogue, repetitive puzzle design, and various technical issues. If you're looking for a puzzler that you can easily find exploits in for a speedrun, check this out. But, if you're looking for a puzzler with replayability, where you have to utilize creative thinking, and the puzzles are all uniquely designed, then look far, far elsewhere.
PositronX starts off as an amazing FPS game that's marketed as a rogue-lite, but players will quickly realize that it's more attuned to being a roguelike. Progressing through the four levels and it's quickly evident that a high level of artificial difficulty is added, with enemies getting more health and damage, while you're stuck with abilities and bonuses that don't scale accurately against the rest of the gameplay. The game ends up becoming a grindy mess with its only salvation being the music design and the occasional new weapon or ability for the player to experience.
Thief Simulator VR is just Thief Simulator as a VR port. There have been no improvements made over the original PC version to justify getting it in VR. Even if the gameplay is fun, and the sense of realism has been carried over from the PC game, there are numerous VR-specific problems that will quickly break the immersion. It's a largely uncomfortable experience that has a lot of technical issues.