What appeals to individual gamers is, of course, subjective but I’ve long felt that Elder Scrolls Online is the best MMORPG on consoles thanks to its world-building, lore, quests, story, and ability to reward both solo and group experiences equally. The recent introduction of companions made a solo-friendly game even more inviting. With the Enhanced Version, Elder Scrolls Online definitely steps up as the best looking and smoothest running MMORPG you can find on the PS5, and no longer feels in any way inferior to the PC version.
I can’t imagine anyone so desperate for content that they would find value in this only marginally improved ten-year-old game. Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is and has always been, awful and no HD remaster will fix its terrible story, lackluster combat, primitive graphics, and creepy tone. Some games are broken or bad in a kind of fun way, but Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed isn’t broken, it’s just bad and decidedly, aggressively not fun at all.
For anyone who has even the slightest interest in Formula 1 racing – and thanks to the Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive there may be many with their curiosity piqued – F1 2021 will become their new sports gaming pastime. Catering to both casual newcomers and the most exacting simulation-seekers, F1 2021 offers a mind-blowing amount of polished and entertaining content, whether your preference is to race alone or with others. With the new Braking Point single-player story and improvements and expansions to just about everything else, F1 2021 is that rare instance of an annual sports game that has managed to continue to get better with every release.
Old World clearly shows its origins, coming from a small team of developers intimately connected with 4x strategy games. It adds several new mechanics to an established genre, some of which are clearly brilliant and others that seem less significant. Old World succeeds in giving genre fans a clear alternative to their favorite games, but it seems unconcerned with welcoming the uninitiated, thanks to a fussy interface, lack of patient tutorials, and a focus on a fairly narrow slice of history and culture. Fundamentally, Old World both honors a tradition and gently pushes it forward.
To dismiss Boomerang X as little more than a tech demo would be unfair, but it is also hard to ignore that the game skimps on a lot of elements that would give it depth and replayability or really make the player engage with something more than throwing a weapon to kill waves of enemies, no matter how initially satisfying that can be. Not everyone is going to love the attention-getting and specific art style and level of abstraction, or the bare minimum story or lack of interesting characters. That said, a game that knows how to balance its strengths with just enough story, gameplay, and challenge is worth playing, and Boomerang X definitely knows its strength.
With so little effort put into making Space Wolf feel like it actually belongs anywhere near the new systems, it’s hard not to be anything but disappointed and cynical about this release.
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights has been in early access on Steam for quite some time, where it has garnered significant praise, and rightly so. Now coming to consoles and in full release on PC, any fan of games like Hollow Knight, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night or the Dark Souls franchise will enjoy Ender Lilies for its incredible art, mysterious story and action combat. Although it can be a little frustrating, Ender Lilies combat-by-proxy is an interesting and generally successful twist on familiar action mechanics, and the game hits the sweet spot between challenge and accessibility most of the time.
Players of the first Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts game will find this second game an all-around improvement, especially in mission design and pacing. The story is a bland concoction of cultural and military stereotypes but it does a proper job of setting the stage for the action, which can be very satisfying, at least at sniping distance. The less open-world nature of the campaign keeps things moving and the large toybox of gadgets and weapons is there for players to use, or not. I wish Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 had a more engaging set of characters and better action combat outside the sniping mechanics, but the game is a well-made step in the right direction for the franchise.
Dear Dark Alliance: those of us that were fans of the original PS2 game and the Dungeons and Dragons franchise came ready to enjoy you. You waved your fancy pedigree and showed us your impressive environments, only to disappoint us once we paid the price of admission. So, fix the AI. Balance the single player game or ditch it entirely. Let the players create real characters that express themselves. Above all, kill the bugs. Do those things, and maybe we’ll come back, because it could be a nice little house to live in for a while.
Although not the deepest diving pool, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is still entertaining enough to splash around in for a while. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is considerably better than just a cash grab game tied to a singular cultural event, but it’s not the gold medal winner of sports sims either. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with going home wearing a bronze medal.
Genre mashups like Red Solstice 2: Survivors can be refreshing and revelatory, or they can feel like a poorly seamed patchwork of ideas. Red Solstice 2 has some fun elements, occasionally engaging combat and systems, and a take on the Red Planet that is familiar but not entirely unoriginal. Poorly explained mechanics, lack of personality and ultimately repetitive mission design all push back against a more thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Unfortunately, there’s some repetition in both the enemies and the combat arenas, and the pacing stutters here and there when it pauses for the story a little too long. On the whole, though, Scarlet Nexus’ refreshing action, story, and trippy brain punk visual style are the game’s superpowers that make it worth playing.
It was clear from the start that Dying Light had a different zombie apocalypse story to tell, or at least tried to tell a familiar story with new mechanics. With an impressive amount of DLC to its name, Dying Light has continued to grow and evolve, becoming a much more than a rote zombie shooter. In particular, for anyone who has not played Dying Light at all, the Platinum Edition is easy to recommend as the version to pick up as it includes literally everything the game has to offer. Owners of the Enhanced Edition or new consoles looking for a bleeding-edge showcase should be aware that Dying Light Platinum Edition doesn’t bring huge visual or mechanical improvements to the game, but instead curates everything Dying Light into one immense collection.
I think that playing through Minute of Islands is worth your time if you enjoy dark themed stories and distinctive art, but don’t come with high expectations for the puzzles or platforming.
The Elder Scrolls Online cannot be faulted for lack of content, and while each new expansion opens up new, unexplored regions or folds older Elder Scrolls lore and landscapes into the game, the DLC is starting to feel pretty formulaic. The new Companions are definitely a welcome addition to those of us who prefer to play solo, and Blackwood has a main quest, cities, and characters that are worth exploring. Blackwood — the region and the DLC — might be an odd and confusing place for new players to start their journey with the game, but for long time players the Companions and nostalgia factor baked into the expansion might be enough to give them a bit of fresh energy.
Although it drove under the radar on PS4, Wreckfest deserves the attention of racing fans, especially those with a destructive streak and a love of vehicular mayhem. With its vastly improved framerates and bumped-up resolution, Wreckfest on PS5 is the definitive way to play the game, whether against humans or the game’s more-than-decent AI drivers. Wreckfest might not be the new console generation’s ultimate racing sim, but it has some depth, a unique set of chops, and is a lot of fun.
Chivalry 2 marries ridiculously violent melee combat to a tone that completely undercuts any notion that the mayhem should be taken seriously. With that out of the way, it provides accessible but ultimately challenging swordplay and the promise of nearly endless multiplayer fun. It doesn’t try to do everything, but instead picks a lane and absolutely owns it.
For many, Conan Exiles’ flaws and quirks are what makes the game fun, and without a doubt, Isle of Siptah gives new and returning players many hours of quality content. The new areas, armor, weapons, monsters and quests are engaging for players past the beginning stages, and although there are no significant changes in the game’s mechanics, getting started on the Isle’s new areas is still fun. For better or worse (mostly the former), Isle of Siptah is a lot more Conan Exiles.
Like so much of the Warhammer 40K universe, Necromunda is a richly imagined world filled with the potential for conflict and storytelling. Using it as the setting for an action-filled shooter makes total sense. Although its mechanics are essentially a greatest-hits collection of ideas from other shooters, Necromunda: Hired Gun is a competent introduction to this particular slice of the Warhammer 40K-verse.
If you’re a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast that demands slavish adherence to licensed and familiar content, then Solasta: Crown of the Magister may disappoint you. If, on the other hand, your concept of D&D is more defined by the mechanics of character and party creation and the flow of exploration and combat defined by rolls of the dice, then Solasta will deliver a very authentic experience. It often doesn’t look pretty and it still has a few ugly bugs to iron out, but the inclusion of an excellent level creator and a superlative UI put Solasta: Crown of the Magister in the must-play column for both fans of the Fifth Edition rules and CRPGs in general.