Resident Evil 4, the remake, exists, and thanks to the improvements that have been made, most importantly presentational ones, for as needless as it feels it is in the end, it can, in fact, be thought of as the ultimate way to enjoy RE4. Then again, it doesn’t completely replace the original, which remains a very playable and enjoyable timeless classic. If you have yet to bask in and pop an army’s worth of Ganado heads, you won’t go wrong with the remake, but if the chance presents itself, try playing both.
Users with varying configurations are reporting serious hardware issues running the game, and even though the worst of my problems happened to be tied to shaders and resources in lieu of crashes and whatnot, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. The Last of Us Part 1 is Sony’s big chance to capture an entirely new audience, and its success will serve as a measure to whether or not there’s a chance its sequel will even come out on PC. Now, if that is to happen, the responsibility now rests on Sony’s shoulders in getting this port up and running well before its disastrous reception ruins what otherwise should be a momentous occasion for PC players. Such an arrival on the platform deserves much better.
Unresponsive controls get in the way of an otherwise enjoyable callback to 16-bit platformers in Curse of the Sea Rats.
For those that have finished Trails from Zero and are looking to continue with its overarching story, Trails to Azure is a must-play. For those just coming into the series, I’d recommend playing the previous one first before embarking into this one since you’d miss a lot of the passing references to previous events and character development. And of course, Trails from Zero is a fantastic game in its own right, you should damn well play it.
Return to Castlevania fits in perfectly with the rest of Dead Cells, and it’s easily the best crossover you’ll get to experience this year. You can stake your bet at that!
I’m ecstatic for the chance of playing Returnal further after the five or so hours I spend with the PlayStation 5 version. It’s a great port, and it didn’t take me long at all to get back to exactly the same spot I was when I stopped playing it before, proving that the muscle memory and skill built in by the game’s difficulty is indeed there. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me further on and for the journey to get there.
EA Motive's remake of Dead Space is a fantastic update to a bonafide horror classic.
If you haven’t experienced Metroid Prime before, my friend, do yourself a favor and get started with this at your earliest convenience. You’re in for a treat. It’s a cliché because it’s true: there’s no better way to get into it than now, with the remaster. Metroid Prime Remastered makes one of the best games ever, which was previously somewhat expensive to obtain, readily available on the Switch for a fraction of the price that’s very much worth it regardless of the level of experience you might have with the original game.
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider certainly isn’t the most unique or downright original game that ever was. But it’s just so well conceived and fun to play that it would be a crime for you not to give it a go. It’s readily available on just about every single modern platform, so I would urge you to give it a shot. It’s also not terribly long – if you know what you’re doing, you can finish it in a couple of hours leisurely, so it’s a fantastic pick up and play in short bursts. I had my eye on this game ever since it was announced and I’m overjoyed it turned out so well.
River City Girls 2 is an awesome way to close out 2022, which has been a very good year for beat ’em up games. Alongside June’s brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, this is proof that the genre still has plenty of punch left when dedicated and passionate developers such as DotEmu and WayForward have any say in regards to the matter. If you have even an inkling of enjoying brawlers, you’ll definitely won’t want to miss River City Girls 2.
Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song Remastered is a lost niche JRPG from the past that makes a most welcome return to modern platforms.
If The Devil in Me is any indication of the quality of the other entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology, it seems I have my work cut out for me. Those are bound to be enough to keep busy until the new season begins sometime next year. There’s already been a teaser to the new entry in the franchise, Directive 8020, which is set to take a sci-fi approach to scaring the ever-living bejesus out of us. Count me in for that, sirs, yup.
I wanted so much to bask in the intended horror that The Calisto Protocol promised in the months leading up to release, but that wasn’t the case when the time came to play it. While it’s surely not an awful game by any means, with flawed but in the end very crunchy feeling combat, it’s simply not in the same league as its inspiration when it comes to providing a scary or even tense experience. It’s still a very graphically impressive and positively disgusting game for sure, and for some that might be enough as it is.
In sum, God of War Ragnarok is the perfect case of a game that’s impeccably designed in all aspects of its presentation and writing, that still fails to have the necessary focus and drive to keep me engaged. It’s unnecessarily long and drags too much to hold my attention like the original game did. And it’s a shame, because there’s surely plenty to be enjoyed all throughout it, and I’m positively ecstatic to get more of the excellent setting that started four years ago. But having to wade through so much to get to that is driving me absolutely nuts!
Rogue Legacy 2 is a thoroughly recommended pick-up for just about anyone, and now that it’s on the Switch, that’s even more the case since it becomes a portable “just one more run affair” alongside other modern classics like Hades and Loop Hero. You should waste no time in adding this game to your game library, it’s well worth it!
Even die-hard fans of the comic books should look elsewhere if they’re in the market for an Asterix game as Asterix & Obelix XXXL: The Ram From Hibernia just isn’t worth it. If you were to pick one of those up, I would probably point you to an earlier entry in the series, Asterix & Obelix XXL2: Mission Las Vegum, which was recently re-released on Switch and is all-around a much more well put together and fun game.
I’m curious to see what more there is to McPixel 3. There’s a lot of it I’ve still got to try out and witness the chaotic results of. The slice that I saw so far has been positively silly, borderline crazy… pretty much what Devolver’s so great at fishing up.
Side-by-side with the first one, NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 2 has a more varied list of games and is as easy to recommend to anyone keen on experiencing one of the lesser known portables around. The games look good on the Switch screen and you sure can’t beat having them all packed up in one package to take on the go!
For how it turned out, The Chant isn’t necessarily a bad game. It just misses the mark where it counts, failing to provide any real scares or tension whatsoever. It delivers a serviceable action adventure horror romp that should take you a couple of sittings to get through. One with not enough reasons to come back to it once you’re done hearing what it has to say.
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition introduces a new chapter to the story in the form of Shadows of Rose, a twisting trip through a few of the main game’s most iconic locations in a new adventure starring a new character with special powers and a whole lot of questions.