Issues aside, though, Call of the Sea is pretty good. It was nice to play through a new story with new characters, even if the story design was somewhat familiar and the outcome (essentially the same despite which ending you choose) was fairly predictable. Solid voice-acting, good writing, and pretty graphics (nothing show-stopping, but they’re good) make for a nice presentation package on top of an alright game. If you’re looking for a more casual, story and character driven game to play this holiday, Call of the Sea is worth considering.
Though the characters, locales, and general lore of Warhammer were lost on me not having ever played any Warhammer before (tabletop or otherwise), this didn’t stop me from getting into the game and enjoying it. The story, characters, quest and dungeon design, and general gameplay are all pretty straight-forward and familiar, and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. This is a good case of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’ If you’re looking for an expansive and fun co-op loot-gathering, combat-heavy dungeon crawler, this is a good choice, and your only choice right now for the new consoles.
This is in spite of how great the game looks, runs, and also how it sounds. The presentation package of The Falconeer is quite good, especially on XSX, but that alone couldn’t overcome the struggles I was having with the experience otherwise. I appreciate the effort that went into making this, especially seeing as it was practically done by a one-man studio — but neither the lore or the gameplay really grabbed me and held my interest for long. I could see where more adept and/or forgiving players in this genre would have a better time than I did, though, so if the game sounds interesting to you, it’s worth keeping an eye on, especially given it costs less than half of some of the other launch games.
Overall, a ticket to Plant Coaster: Console Edition is a great buy if you’re at all into theme park management. Frontier did a superb job bringing their excellent 2016 PC game to next-gen with console-friendly UI, controls, and everything you could need to get a big jump on your theme park building and management gameplay.
So there’s any awful lot going on in Bright Memory in a very short period. I can say that I had fun and I am looking forward to the complete game, but with some caution: I do hope and anticipate that FYQD will do a lot more to tighten up the experience on console as the cursor-driven menus are no fun, and this feels like a rushed port from its original platform (PC). Gameplay has got get more focused as well; I’m all for such an unusual mixture of enemies and cross-genre gameplay blends and inspirations, but it’s got to tie together somehow to make some sense and matter to the player. I don’t need a grand story, but I am hoping that the full game makes a lot more sense than this current offering which seems like someone brainstorming out loud, so to speak. All that to say, for $8, and with very limited new game+ options, you could do worse — but it might be just as well to wait until Bright Memory: Infinite launches in full next year.
In sum, Cyber Shadow does a great job of doing what it set out to do. It’s a modern take on genre elders Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, and it provides all the ninja lore, atmosphere, challenge, and aura that those games do. Furthermore, it gives players plenty of reason to keep playing thanks to evolving gameplay elements that keeps things fresh, interesting, and challenging. For anyone who enjoys the genre or ninja games in general, Cyber Shadow is a must-have.
In sum, Samurai Shodown is back and the release for the Xbox Series X does very well for itself. Though a little scant on content compared to some others in the genre, this is still a great game for fans of the franchise or the genre.
Observer was a fine game three-plus years ago, but this re-make is head and shoulders above the original thanks to an awesome presentation, three new side missions, and a price that’s hard to pass up when compared to many games being more than twice as expensive. While we all look forward to Bloober Team’s next one, The Medium, you can’t go wrong with Observer: System Redux if you’re looking for a captivating cyberpunk mystery thriller.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a rousing success. The timing is excellent, too. It’s the dawn of a new console generation and it’s an exciting time for this storied franchise to turn a new page. As far as launch games go, this is one of the best, for several reasons. It offers some presentation ‘wows,’ but even more importantly it offers a deep, long, compelling story with memorable moments and characters, with strong gameplay and lots to do. It’s built off of the success of the previous fifteen years of Yakuza, but Like A Dragon blazes its own path, too — you need not have played any of the previous games to fully enjoy this one, yet I appreciate that this game honors the past while forging its own future. PS5 owners have something great to look forward to in March, but if you’re lucky enough to have the new Xbox, this is a great game that is also very well priced right now at just $50.
Tesla Force is one of the few rogue-lite games I have ever played, and I also rarely play twin stick shooters. I found the experience a little chaffing at times, in how I had to restart a chapter of random stages after dying, but there is a lot of satisfaction derived from unlocking better and better weapons, abilities, and perks and laying waste to the monsters. Best played with a friend or three, Tesla Force is pretty cool and reasonably priced for the experience it offers overall.
I have had some friends lament some frustration over how monetized MK11 is, and I absolutely see where they’re coming from. It’s not a business practice I like to see because we’re used to games having a final, all inclusive edition released and we just don’t have that with MK11. Maybe we’ll see a Komplete Edition like there was with MK9. Regardless, you can’t really go wrong with MK11U if you’re looking for a superb fighting game on current or next-gen.
At $20, Fatesworn offers a strong enough great to bland ratio for me to recommend. I thought the DLC felt a little formulaic, with a lot of boxes checked and not a lot of fresh creativity and inspiration, but, I adore Kingdoms of Amalur and was happy to dive into a new area with new content. Fatesworn will provide a solid ten hours, if not more, depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, your skill, and just how thorough you want to be. Given that you have to have completed the original (long) game to access this new content, Fatesworn is clearly for fans who enjoyed the original gameplay loop and want more of the same. If that’s you, like it was me, Fatesworn was worth the wait. Here’s hoping THQ Nordic keeps Amalur in their future plans.
Anyhow, outside of my own struggles with the controls that happens in every Japanese fighting game, I liked what KOF XV had to offer in terms of special moves and mechanics.
I would have liked to have seen shorter load times and a revised inventory management system so that players can more easily avoid spending so much time in their inventory, but these are things that could very well be addressed with patching. Those two gripes aside, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is an awesome game and a wonderful experience to sink into.
All that said, Alan Wake Remastered is fine remaster of a great game. Alan Wake has aged well and still offers a compelling thriller story with some fun gameplay to keep you entertained for a dozen or fifteen hours. Whether you missed the game way back when it first came out, or just haven’t played it in a decade, it’s a worthy addition to any collection.
Bottomline, all things considered, if you’re looking for a fun, fast, short-lived, throwback FPS game, Hellbound is definitely worth considering. Just don’t expect too much out of it and you’ll find your time and money well spent.
Quote Typically, remasters are also synonymous with the ‘ultimate’ version of a game, and I thought Crysis Remastered was going to be just that — the most complete, best-looking, modernized-as-needed version of the thirteen year old gem. Instead, what is available currently is a half-baked remaster based on the 2011 console version, with no multiplayer, no Warhead expansion, and is an overall mixed-leaning-rough package that should give players pause if they have the option to get the game on PCnot yet available
Sonic Colors Ultimate takes one of the best 3D Sonic games from the past and brings it to platforms it has never reached before, all in a fairly-priced, nicely done Ultimate package. It’s easy to recommend to any fan of Sonic games, including those like myself that never got around to playing the original in the last decade.
In sum, it’s clear to see that Nightdive Studios poured their hearts into this effort and the result is another outstanding product. The original game by Lobotomy and Playmates was a real gem that deserved a lot more recognition than it ever got. Thankfully, with the power of the KEX engine and the passionate crew at Nightdive, PowerSlave gets its time in the spotlight that it well deserves, and priced at just $20, too. PowerSlave Exhumed is well worth adding to your library.
I really enjoyed playing through Strangeland, and having left a few puzzles unturned and wanting to hear the rest of the commentary, I might circle back one more time. And while I can’t put this game in the upper echelon of adventure games I have had the pleasure to play through over the years, it nevertheless is great, and I’m happy to recommend it.