We didn't need a new Call of Duty game in 2020. Modern Warfare and Warzone could have sustained the franchise for another year until the next-gen systems are more widely available, but that was never going to happen. Fortunately, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War isn't the rushed placeholder that many feared it would be, and it might just turn out to be one of the more enjoyable Black Ops games when all is said and done.
Sadly, for all of those great challenges in Ghost Recon Breakpoint that are aimed directly at your skills and abilities, there are 14 more targeting your patience. The experience is only made more frustrating when you think about Wildlands, because the formula felt like it had been figured out. Everything was done right. A sequel to that game should've been an easy home run, but Breakpoint is more of an incredible misfire.
For every enjoyable new thing in Madden NFL 22, there's something else that's equally as frustrating. The real saving grace that makes the game a solid experience is the upgraded gameplay and graphics for next-gen. If you like Madden, you'll have fun, even if you get annoyed from time to time, but the franchise still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with the other sports games on the market.
These graphics don't interfere with the actual gameplay, though, so that issue isn't a massive one. In fact, most of the game can be explained with that same mindset. There are little changes and issues to be found throughout the game, but none of them really feel like too big of a deal. 2K21 is still a very playable game that fans of the franchise will be happy to purchase. Without that shooting patch, however, it would have been a much different story.
It'll take years for Madden to truly become a standout sports game again, as the mediocrity has gone on for too long for massive change to happen overnight, but Madden 21 is a promising step in the right direction.
It really all comes down to your love of baseball. Even as a fan who watches the game regularly, I've had a hard time finding my footing in The Show 21. It's a hard game and that's OK. Challenges should always be welcomed. But there needs to be a way to bridge the gap, especially with The Show 21 now being made available to a much wider audience. If it can happen with other sports games, it's time it happens for baseball's biggest title.
Once reinforcements do come for Zombies, it will be hard to argue against Vanguard as one of the best and most complete Call of Duty titles in the last decade, potentially of the franchise's entire history. This is one of the rare times Call of Duty has seriously dug into its past, learned from it, and delivered a new and improved experience. Vanguard sets a high bar for Call of Duty as the franchise moves into the next generation.
NHL 22 didn't do a whole lot to improve on its predecessor, but it didn't have to. The important part is that the development team didn't do anything to change the game for the worse. The franchise was already a ship sailing smoothly, all anyone needed to do was keep it steady.
If you're playing on current-gen systems, FIFA 22 may be a bit of a harder sell. The game itself is largely the same as last year, It's the next-gen graphics and gameplay that really make the game stand out. On next-gen, it's a must for longtime FIFA players. For everyone else, it's more of a personal choice. You certainly won't be missing out on much if you wait a little while.
This is about as realistic as you can get for a console racing game, but don't let that intimidate you. F1 2021 is the total package, a Day 1 purchase for racing fans that is sure to win over newcomers with ease.
For many NHL franchise players, the career mode has never been the reason to pick up the game, so it's easy to live with this lackluster story. The other game modes in NHL 21 are as good as ever. You may not be a big hockey fan, but if you enjoy sports games, it's hard to do better than this.
Journey to the Savage Planet is a layered and searing portrait of colonialism that will make you laugh throughout, and it plays so much more like an off-the-wall N64 RPG with updated graphics than any of the adventurous space epics on the shelf today. That's to say it's confident in its absurdity and knows that "groundbreaking" and "fun" don't have to go hand-in-hand. It's hard not to enjoy the time you'll spend on AR-Y 26.
There is a silver lining to all of this: the online issues can probably be fixed. There have already been patches to the game to help eliminate the glitches and smooth everything out. If 2K20 can work these things out early on, it'll cement itself as one of the most enjoyable installments in the entire franchise.
If you've got a little bit of patience, and a lot of love for Stranger Things, it's hard to go wrong with this game. It'll bring that '80s game nostalgia you're hoping for while staying as true as possible to the hit Netflix series we all adore.
The challenges and style make the latest installment in the Crash Bandicoot series instantly feel like one of the classics, but there are so many new features and abilities that the game is several steps ahead of its predecessors. It's both a throwback to the past and an innovative glimpse into the future, striking a balance that so few reboots and sequels are able to find. If you love Crash, It's About Time is as close to perfect as you can get, even if it makes you break a controller now and then.
If you love Overwatch and have $40 to spare, there's really no reason not to check this port out. It's just as fun as ever and you can actually take it on the go, something people have been asking for with Overwatch for years. Overwatch on Switch may sound too good to be true, but that's not the case. The truth is, this port is very good.
No matter how familiar you are with hockey, even if you've never played a single second of the NHL game franchise, you will have fun with NHL 20. It's an impossibly irresistible sports adventure that you'll have trouble putting down with the phrase "just one more game" becoming part of your regular vocabulary.