Patient gamers waiting for a new installment of MechWarrior will be pleased to find a graphically modern version of a classic franchise, but also a game that struggles to compete with the story, pacing and characters of recent action games that have learned to balance complexity and momentum with a little more panache.
In the case of Everreach: Project Eden, some mechanical issues with AI or balance can be patched, which other problems are more in the realm of aesthetics and direction and are probably doomed to never go away.
Games are often escapist entertainment, but not everyone enjoys games that are full of tension, conflict or violence - at least all of the time. Lost Ember is a different form of escapism, an emotional and soothing journey into the natural world and its nonhuman inhabitants.
Although it doesn’t include all the PC game’s extra content, Civ VI comes to the PS4 and Xbox with both the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions and the latter in particular is a literal game changer. I can certainly imagine using Civ VI as an engaging educational tool to consider the many competing forces around climate change.
The Sims 4: Discover University is definitely weighted towards the real-world experiences and lessons of college life and in addition to being highly entertaining, might just possibly have some educational value of its own.
At a near-premium price of $40, Last Labyrinth suggests a polished product, crafted by experienced designers and generous of content. In truth, almost nothing about Last Labyrinth is fun or rewarding.
There’s something to be said for a stripped down to basics game experience, without too many complications or intricacies that get in the way of the fun. Pistol Whip is entertaining and another of the growing list of successful arguments for VR as a near-staple for gamers.
Crossroads Inn might not be the first medieval sim (that honor probably goes to 2011’s The Sims Medieval) and there are quite a few castle builders out there as well, but as a narrowly focused genre blend of builder and sim, Crossroads Inn stakes out some specific territory.
It’s clear that earlier Frontier games like Kinectimals, Zoo Tycoon and Planet Coaster have been stage-setters for this ultimate zoo sim. Whether you enjoy theme park builders, economic sims or most importantly, creating the zoo of your dreams, Planet Zoo will satisfy you, but be prepared for an order of complexity that the previous games managed to avoid, or at least hid a little better.
Humor in any narrative is highly subjective. Afterparty starts out strong, with a clear and vibrant sense of style that is unlike many other games. The game can be funny, clever and smart but it can also seem random, indulgent and perplexing and thin on the amount of interesting stuff for the player to actually do, other than experience the story, dialog and a few mini-games.
There’s no denying that The Outer Worlds bears the imprint of earlier Obsidian games and a number of other timeless RPGs as well, but those influences do little to diminish the accomplishment of some amazing worldbuilding, entertaining storytelling and brilliantly realized characters.
Disco Elysium deserves applause for having a singular vision and generally bringing it to fruition through its art, writing, setting, characters and gameplay mechanics which suggest the heyday of classic isometric RPGs.
While it lacks the processing punch of a PC-tethered headset, the mobility and no-strings-attached freedom of the Oculus Quest has allowed me to dive deep into the headset as a fitness product, and Beat Saber, Box VR and a few other titles are in regular rotation.
The problem with all puzzle games is that they are almost always a single-play through experience, so that initial run has to be the memorable one. Moons of Madness has some jump scares and other surprises, but its biggest draw might be that it takes Lovecraftian elements into a wholly new environment and replaces combat with exploration, puzzles and a slow-growing sense of confusion and dread.
Aside from some minor visual glitches and pop-in and some finnicky platforming, A Knight’s Quest is not at a bad time but it’s not an experience that will stick with you, either. Its focus on humor instead of drama or pathos will be a selling point for players weary of self-important heroes and dark themes but on the flip side, humor is very subjective. From its title to its overall mechanics, A Knight’s Tale seems like a safely familiar variation on a popular but over-played theme, appealing for its recognizable form but less satisfying for its lack of creative ambition.
Although it has an intriguing story that feels like a Greek mythology greatest hits collection, Argonus and the Gods of Stone impresses with a fresh setting and the transposition of the puzzle-adventure genre into the world of ancient gods and heroic characters.
Deliver Us the Moon is a good-looking game with a solid story premise that doesn’t quite stick the final landing.
As an allegory, bringing light to personal or cultural darkness through art isn’t terribly original but it’s still relatively surprising for any game to have a wider subtext, and besides, Concrete Genie’s deepest pleasures are aesthetic.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a masterpiece of design that balances tradition and subtle innovation and is very bit as entertaining on the Switch as it was on PC or PS4.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with complexity and challenge in a game but Warsaw adds to the mix some capricious unpredicatability in its AI mechanics and design that can be frustrating, resulting in gameplay that is simply not on the winning side of the challenge/reward equation.