Phantom Liberty adds a thrilling story and the new area Dogtown to Cyberpunk 2077. The add-on and the 2.0 update really justify hopping back into night city. Although, there's still potential within CP2077 that can be unraveled, Phantom Liberty is definitely worth a try.
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Park Beyond from Limbic Entertainment offers a fun, easily accessible theme park simulator experience that has its strengths mostly in its sandbox mode and in building wacky rollercoasters. The short campaign offers a good learning curve but delivers only a very thin story. Sadly technical issues on PC and sometimes a lack of variation (e.g. only three coaster types!) tarnish the otherwise solid game. We hope that these issues will be adressed in the near future.
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Street Fighter 6 does many things right that V didn't. World Tour delivers on many small details for fans, especially in the overall creation of your own character. Sadly though, the quest design isn't really engaging and there aren't that many story interactions. The open world potential clearly isn't used and leaves much to be desired. Luckily the gameplay itself when it comes to fighting as well as the character's (re)designs are on point. Thanks to the rollback netcode the online multiplayer works like a charm
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Storywise Arkane Austin nails their presentation about the vampire infested small village Redfall. Graphic and audio design are very fitting with B-Movie flair. Sadly the game doesn't deliver that many highlights besides very basic open-world co-op shooter gameplay. Even though, four different classes, a small skilltree and several weaponoptions are provided the gameplay loop doesn't get much more than shooting at everything that moves. Using gamepass or waiting for a sale is recommended.
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Platinum Games delivered a beautiful fairy tale for both Bayonetta fans and non-fans. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon's presentation is graphically and acoustically a treat. The Twin Stick puzzle gimmick and the implicit couch co-op combined with great story pacing makes for a good game outside of Platinum Games realm of all-out action games.
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The Settlers - New Allies tried to make a city building and RTS hybrid. Sadly it doesn't deliver on both ends. The clunky RTS Parts and the low complexity of the building parts don't fulfill the high expectations of the big name "The Settlers". The great graphical presentation with fitting sound design are not enough to outshine the very slow gameplay and the monotonous campaign/story. Only sometimes old virtues shine through which is sadly not enough to satisfy fans that longed for a new "real" Settlers game.
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The remake Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe shines as an easy accessible couch co-op multiplayer title. As a singleplayer game it sadly lacks challenging parts and gameplay diversity. The technical improvements to the Wii title and the new epilogue are nice to have but don't justify the price tag of 59.99€ at release. Kirby Fans who already own the original game should think twice beforce buying.
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If you like hack 'n' slay games like DMC or Bayonetta in the slightest and are not appalled by the artstyle and the music you have to get Hi-Fi Rush. The game oozes fun, has a great presentation and follows it's central design ideas throughout the game. All in all Tango Gameworks convinces with its first non horror game and delivers the first surprise hit in 2023. Also petting Robo-cats never gets old.
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Black Sea Games had the self-proclaimed goal of making an accessible grand strategy game. And they did succeed. Knights of Honor II - Sovereign does many things right by leaving out complexity that makes games from e.g. Paradox Games very hard to start. Besides this obvious strength the game stays very close to its 2004 predecessor and doesn't change much. This isn't a bad thing but a bit more bravery wouldn't have hurt. Juggling diplomacy, economics, military and the clergy makes for an immersive and fun experience. Besides the real-time battles that leave much desired Knights of Honor II doesn't make any big mistakes and is a very solid bridge between Medieval: Total War and Games like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings.
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