Sönke Siemens
Seen as a whole, however, we would have liked - precisely because the brand is so well known - a little more love for the license, especially in the level of detail and the variety of animations as well as the lip sync of the German voice acting. Kids from the age of 7 or with more game experience will also complain about the overall hardly challenging level of difficulty as well as the main missions, which are a bit too repetitive in terms of structure. However, 4- to 6-year-olds should be less bothered by this. They have a lot of fun with "Paw Patrol World". Or as one of our testers would say: "Dad, this game is really great!"
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We were really looking forward to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III campaign. Above all, the concept of open combat zones sounded promising. After our almost 6-hour first playthrough, however, we unfortunately have to admit that we had set our expectations far too high. If you exclude a few highlights such as the London and the missile bunker infiltration mission, then the "MW III" campaign turns out to be a clear step backwards compared to the two previous spin-offs and also the original "Modern Warfare" trilogy.
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"Chronicles" can at least partially compensate for these chin hooks with the nicely done and completely autoplay-free dungeons, the extensive companion upgrade system and the fact that the story campaign can be handled quite well without microtransactions. However, it is questionable whether "Summoners War: Chronicles" will succeed in developing such a long-term pull as its competitor "Genshin Impact". There are simply too many construction sites and a PvP component that currently seems to be dominated by whales.
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The canon-conform story mode is a brief but stirring VR experience - especially for everyone new to VR. On top of that the dojo mode offers a fair amount of content, which gets more challenging with every round. Sadly the PS VR port suffers from some tracking issues that will pull you out of the illusion once in a while.
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The result is an always fairly balanced, well-structured and charmingly narrated VR shooting gallery with numerous comfort functions, which represents a nice springboard into virtual reality due to its not too high playful complexity. In order to overcome the threshold to the must-have title in a possible sequel, however, you need even more sophistication in level design, significantly more puzzle inserts, smarter enemies and an even larger game world.
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With "Aliens: Dark Descent", Tindalos Interactive mixes one of the coolest sci-fi horror licenses of the last decades with an amazingly sophisticated tactical gameplay foundation that ensures high tension even after hours. Seemingly harmless situations can escalate dramatically within seconds, the permadeath and shelter mechanics make you proceed much more carefully than in many comparable genre representatives, the developers have balanced the resource availability surprisingly well and the AI keeps even experienced tacticians on their toes on medium difficulty. The fact that I can withdraw at any time - but have to accept other disadvantages - is also cleverly done and prevents possible moments of frustration in a meaningful way.
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Narrative-wise Deadly Premonition 2 confronts you with a plot that starts slow, but then develops it's very own fascination and stands out with strong characters. Everyone who loves video games with typical B-movie flair should give the title a chance. All others wait until the developers patch the severe performance issues.
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Admittedly, in the first one or two hours of play, "Inkulinati" still feels quite unwieldy. However, once you have worked your way through the numerous tutorial lessons and internalized the basic principles, what is offered ignites a consenting pull effect that turn-based strategy lovers will find difficult to resist. Not least because the balance has reached a nice, fairly even level after the Early Access phase on PC on all difficulties. The Monty Phython-inspired humor also knows how to please and graphically "Inkulinati" is something very special anyway due to its grandiose medieval style.
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In order to survive in the hotly contested multiplayer shark tank in the long term, DICE now has to optimize and expand the core pillars of "Battlefield 2042" step by step, eliminate bugs, further increase performance and server stability, and set a higher pace than was the case with "Battlefield V". If this succeeds, "Battlefield 2042" has a rosy future ahead of it. If, on the other hand, DICE loses sight of the concerns of the community, the tide could turn in a completely different direction.
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However, it is also a fact that not all the gears of "Park Beyond" are running smoothly yet. The road construction system sometimes leads to quite strange results, which can often only be ironed out by demolition and terraforming measures. Some challenges that have already been met are not correctly recognized, in some places the balancing seems half-baked, and if the Ferris wheel occasionally stands still for no reason despite high maintenance values, it is quite necessary to shake your head. However, if you overlook these hopefully soon patched teething troubles, what remains is a motivating construction simulation with damn cool rides, a terrific roller coaster editor and the graphically as well as playfully creatively implemented impossification mechanics.
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It's just a pity that Farah is not available as a playable figure, trial & error passages get out of hand at times (especially in the vehicle convoy level), the plot was constructed a bit too predictably, the variety of enemies is quite low, there is no jungle level despite numerous Mexico detours and the campaign can not be tackled in co-op mode. If you can put up with all these quirks, you will still experience seven to eight hours of leaded video game escapism.
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Although Tales of Kenzera: Zau cannot shine with outstanding gameplay innovations, it does offer rock-solid, well-balanced and very fluid Metroidvania gameplay. The two masks in particular fit perfectly into the beautifully staged African setting and considerably expand the agile Zau's range of abilities. It's also nice how fluidly and responsively everything can be controlled and how much passion went into the soundtrack, the voice acting and the story. There's also little to complain about in terms of level design, although the bottom line is that we would have liked even more variation in the enemy types.
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There's clearly room for improvement in the multiplayer mode. Anyone hoping to tackle the story together with their online friends will be disappointed. However, given the steadily growing number of players, it can't be ruled out that Level-5 will improve this in the future. Nevertheless, anyone who enjoyed the predecessor and generally appreciates RPG life sims will have a lot of fun with this one.
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In terms of presentation, "Emio" also does well thanks to lovingly designed backgrounds, numerous animated cutscenes and the beautiful soundtrack. Nevertheless, we would have liked to see a little more dynamics, i.e. animated background objects, in some scenes - such as the train station of Kofuku. If you can overlook this shortcoming, the genre-typical rather shallow gameplay challenges and the lack of English voice acting, you will still get your money's worth.
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Both the campaign and the multiplayer mode of Star Wars: Squadrons are a whole lot of fun and both feature full VR support on PS4 and PC. Another thumbs up goes to the great cross play functionality on all systems. Sadly, the multiplayer of this otherwise great experience only offers two game modes, eight ships and half a dozen maps. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the developers with expand this offering in the near future.
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What remains is a "Yakuza" spin-off that was made with a lot of heart and soul and, despite its small weaknesses, can already be counted among the coolest pirate games of recent years.
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Mixture is not quite as well-rounded as Moss. The story is also less exciting and spectacularly staged than the competition. But once you've got the hang of it, perfected the handling of the sometimes stubborn potion auto-aim function, Mixture will draw you in more and more. Not only because the level design and skill progression are right, but also because the fights challenge genre fans, but never overwhelm them. Added to that is the scope of 8 to 9 hours, which is good for a VR game.
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Despite some rather annoying trial-&-error sections and puzzles which feel a bit too easy, Little Nightmares 2 managed to excite us from start to finish. Visuals are great, sound design is awesome, gameplay offers a fair amount of variety and the environmental story-telling again works excellent. Sadly this scary adventure is already over after roughly seven hours.
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As great as "Spider-Man 2" may be in terms of content, Sony and Nixxes unfortunately initially botched the game's launch on PC from a technical point of view. It is all the more pleasing that the developers - accompanied by good and regular communication - are currently tackling the problems in an assembly line and many of them have already disappeared. In our case, for example, the first two hotfixes have already meant that the annoying crashes in particular are now a thing of the past.
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"Age of Mythology: Retold" not only makes an already highly fun game shine in a largely contemporary look, but also adds many useful improvements, first and foremost the reusable god powers, the villager priority system, significantly more accessibility options and a really well thought-out controller control.
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