The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle lets players better interact with their neighborhood and environment, offering a unique gaming and story experience.
The Academy: The First Riddle is a mystery puzzle adventure game that takes players to boarding school, but it fails to make top marks.
There is so much to like about Into A Dream, and the overall experience is a compelling, heart-wrenching look at interpersonal relationships, mental illness and connection. At a time when so many in the world are feeling understandably out of control, isolated and disconnected, Into A Dream is a welcome reminder of the beauty of compassion and empathy.
Godfall is an ambitious action RPG with gorgeous graphics and great combat mechanics that jump off the screen. Unfortunately, its repetitive locations and missions, lack of strong narrative, and uncompelling characters may fail to impress players and those factors prevent Godfall from living up to its potential.
Bugs might frustrate players.
Visage is terrifying, but lacks good guidance at times.
Everything a Sims DLC should be.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is still essentially what a remaster ought to be. It remains faithful to the original, emphasizing everything fans loved or loved to poke fun at while making necessary improvements that make gameplay far more enjoyable on contemporary systems. The inclusion of all three games, the new import system in the unified launcher, and the unified character creation options allows the series to feel like a single, cohesive story experience. Though not without bugs, and though Mass Effect 1 still suffers from its age, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a great way for veterans to revisit the series and new fans to dive in for the first time - and it seems almost a certainty that Mass Effect Legendary Edition will renew interest in the franchise as work begins on Mass Effect 4.
A challenging puzzle game that lacks autonomy.
A beautiful adventure awaits in the Deep Woods.
A short but wildly enjoyable puzzle game.
Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life is by far one of the best additions to Sea of Thieves in recent memory. The crossover with Pirates of the Caribbean is a natural fit, and it feels like the two IPs work together rather than vie for supremacy. The new enemies also feel appropriate, bringing much-needed variety to the lineup of foes players may face both in and outside Tall Tales. The beginning homage to the Disney Parks ride is a subtle and effective touch fans are sure to appreciate, and Jack Sparrow himself is exceptionally crafted. Rare has created something special with Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life, and it will be exciting to see how these new mechanics lead to future growth for the pirate-themed co-op.
Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood is a solid expansion to ZeniMax's popular MMORPG, explaining the rise of Mehrunes Dagon and introducing new mechanics that can be expanded upon in future chapters. Fans of Elder Scrolls Online are likely to find something they really enjoy about the Blackwood zone and story despite some of the drawbacks, and new and solo players can have a much better experience diving in and facing challenges if they start with Blackwood, thanks to the new features.
The Sims 4 Cottage Living has the potential to become one of The Sims 4's essential Expansion Packs in the eyes of the community, forever altering gameplay like Seasons and Parenthood did. There is a lot to like about The Sims 4 Cottage Living, and with luck, Sims 4 fans will see more like it in the near future.
For players who enjoyed the base game, Barn Finders Amerykan Dream offers more of the same. There are new opportunities to explore abandoned buildings and bid on valuable storage units, more ways to earn quick money, and a few new puzzles to solve. Like the base game, however, this DLC lacks the challenges, length, and variety needed to maintain player momentum and increase replayability. It feels like developer Duality Games missed an opportunity to introduce more new mechanics and deeper, varied challenges to Barn Finders, and without much extra content in this DLC, it's difficult to justify the price.
While there is a lot of content in this update to bring players back to the game, it may not be quite extensive enough to satiate fans long-term. Hopefully, the time between content patches will shorten as Valheim continues its Early Access period, and players can look forward to further updates as solid as this one.
Overall, however, New World shows a lot of promise and has plenty of room to continue introducing unique and genre-defining ideas to the MMO space.
The terror and hindrance effects make each run feel uniquely challenging, and the story events and Disciple traits are where Rogue Lords really shines. Unfortunately, as it stands, Rogue Lords suffers significantly from its lack of balance and the repetitive nature of both runs and combat. It can be difficult to strategize when RNG constantly feels stacked against the player, and being forced to restart a book after a surprise, impossible boss fight is demoralizing. With some retuning, however, Rogue Lords could better capitalize on its great ideas and innovate for the roguelike genre.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy delivers fun.
Age of Empires 4 is a modern, faithful addition.