Demon Slayer is true to its source material, closely following the initial story arc and Mugen Train. The single-player story is short and never really taxes the player. The areas in between fights aren't inviting to explore as movement is slow and tasks obligatory. The roster of characters for online fights is small and partly locked behind the single-player storyline. In multiplayer, the fighting system blossoms, but it would have been great if the range of abilities was better used throughout the game.
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After a great start where the setting of the Ronan Twins and the tragedy at home is depicted, Episode two isn't able to live up to the expectations. gameplay consists mostly of doing some chores and even a scene at a police station that should have been thrilling comes down to doing more chores. If you hopedTell Me Why would pick up speed, you'll be disappointed. All in all, not a very good follow-up episode.
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The Journey to Batuu expansion for The Sims 4 is basically a holiday trip to Disney Park's Galaxy's Edge area. It boasts a good selection of clothing, building blocks, and accessories, and the Star Wars-themed Batuu area to visit. The expansion is quite limited. Not many buildings can be entered, and any action outside the Batuu area is provided 'choose your adventure style. Most importantly, it proves The Sims is not suitable for story-driven gameplay.
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Counting down to D-Day, you guide a group of Special Forces and French Resistance through Northwest France in an attempt to derail Nazi-Germany. The turn-based tactical squad missions are familiar all the way back to X-Com, but several new tactics have been added. Thanks to a new morale system, every shot counts, even when missed, taking away one of the biggest frustrations of the genre. Classified: France '44 isn't without fault, but will please fans of the genre with fresh ideas.
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Armored Core 6 is a nice diversion from the Souls games for From Games. The return to modular mechs allows players to experiment with wildly different builds. Sadly, the game feels very unbalanced. It throws very hard bosses at you when you're unprepared and underpowered, while not challenging you enough when you finally reach enough freedom to build an AC to suit your style.
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A platformer that's hampered by it's focus on telling a tale of an ecological drama. The enormous environments are widely different, but are all dark an gloomy, while protagonist Gaia can temporarily bring brightness. Gameplay is diverse, even though Gaia could really benefit from the ability to shy away from edges, making the platforming more difficult than neccessary. There is a great game here, but it isn't allowed to shine due to the unrelenting desire to get the ecological story across.
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A decent story based on a strong background, which lingers too long explaining and then rushing too fast to a satisfactory end. There are some minor technical issues but nothing too serious. It's relatively short story offers enough choices and side stories to allow several replays.
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With a distinct and interesting artstyle, which mixes a realistic car and city with streetart cartoon drawings for special effects, NFS Unbound definitely sets itself apart from the rest. The game sports a Souls-like mechanism of risk vs reward and a day-night cycle that work, but also hinders progress through the storyline. the races are fun and the many collectibles are well integrated. The near-mandatory police chases quickly become a nuisance and we wouldn't mind if those didn't make a return.
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This game is very ambitious and to some extent is able to fulfill that. The environment is gorgeous and driving through the different areas each have their own challenges. The game doesn't fully feel finished. Technical issues ranging from superficial to gamebreaking and some key functions are simply missing. The AI really isn't very good, and the game really needs the promised photo mode and free roam. The game really has potential, and if the promised additions are there, it might be able to deliver.
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Pentiment plays like a living storybook. You walk, talk and act in a medieval style book that is written as you progress. The game leans heavily on storytelling and its historical background. The game is special in a good way. It's not for everyone, but if you're remotely interested in this turbulent times or a good murder mystery, you should really try this one out.
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Bannerlord doesn't excel graphically or in storyline, but makes that up in flexibility and scale. The vibrant world evolves even without the gamer and offers both opportunities and threads that can be exploited. This is a true mediieval sandbox where the player can act as he wishes, but always has to face the consequences. While much great effort is put into making this game playable on consoles, the sheer number of options, menus and controls make this better suited for PC.
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This game tries to do a lot. It re-tells the story of the very first Final Fantasy, but is also an Origin story. It tries to pay homage to 35 years of FF games, but also provide a new experience. It wants to be a Souls game, but without the Souls difficulty, a hacker-slasher and a loot game. Against a backdrop of sub-par graphics, some choices work, some don't. The combat is pretty good, while the graphics, level design and story let down. This entry to the Final Fantasy multiverse won't be for the ages.
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Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is somewhere between reenacting historically accurate events and pure fiction. The characters seem to have run straight out of legends but, according to tradition, really existed. The different scenarios that you can re-enact also have their basis in Chinese history. It is amazing how well the strategy and action work together and influence each other.
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GRID Legends positions itself firmly between the pure arcade racers and the real racing SIMS and feels very comfortable there. The races are largely no-nonsense, but do not require in-depth knowledge under the hood. The racing itself is very satisfying and offers quite a few cars to race on a diverse number of tracks and locations. If expansion is desired anywhere, it is mainly there, in the number of locations.
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Two of the latest Uncharted games were brought to the PS5 (and later PC) with graphical improvements and DualSense support. Playing these games in 4K with HDR is a marvel. Sony has also finally figured out how to easily incorporate progress from the PS4 versions. However, the price structure is a mess and Sony really should sort that out, especially when the competition has made that so easy.
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A Remaster to the letter, Diablo 2 Resurrected introduces a new graphic layer on top of the original Diablo game, which is still available at the touch of a button. The inclusion of the Legacy mode shows both the progression in graphics and the truthfulness to the original in gameplay. While there are some quality-of-life improvements, we would have preferred quite a few more. Resurrected is especially suited for the hardcore fans of the original, provided they can wait for online to be included.
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The Minecraft atmosphere is good in it, although the game actually has nothing to do with Minecraft at all in terms of gameplay. You can't tear down the environment and build anything. This is just a hack-and-slash RPG in the Diablo sphere. That the difficulty level is not high, although of course it can be set higher yourself. Mojang has done everything in his effort to make the game as accessible and forgiving as possible for younger gamers as well with various health-restoring options and fun upgrades.
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A clever RPG that combines traditional turn-based gameplay with time manipulation to present an interesting story through many different locations. The story features some time-based puzzling and side-quests that make subtle (or less subtle) changes to the world around you. The random encounters and save points don't add to the fun of the game but in all, a quality, fun RPG.
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The newest edition in the Let's Sing series brings 30 new songs to sing along to. The songs consist of several current stars and golden oldies. With the use of either a microphone or mobile phone, the setup is a breeze, and access to the songs and game modes is easy. All in all an accessible party game that could have benefitted from having access to the content of the previous editions.
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Fitness Boxing 2 is a decent fitness game that will get you to sweat, provided you can muster up the discipline. The game provides a good variety of exercises and incentives to come back each day. The best and worst part of Fitness Boxing is that it doesn't need any additional hardware but instead relies on joy-con movement, which isn't always very accurate. Fitness Boxing 2 is a good alternative to Ring Fit Adventure if you don't want any additional equipment
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