Requiem's two-pronged experience could have ended up feeling repetitive; it could have been a jarring mishmash of incongruent parts. Instead, Capcom has sewn a connective tissue between fear and thrill. And Resident Evil Requiem finds everything else in the middle of those exhilarating extremes.
In a way, this indie survival-adventure rock-climbing sim is a reminder of an era of games that posed themselves as problems and tasked you to find the solutions on your own. No guides or hints or markers. No button input that lights up the environment, pointing a finger at what you must do next. Cairn instead trusts you to find your way around. And when you do, you feel on top of the world.
The multiplayer formula is largely fine and as long as Activision can check the series' slide towards Fortnite-style crossovers, millions will flock to play online every year. The Call of Duty single-player campaign, however, needs a fresh approach. Activision only needs to look at the series' past to find the winning formula.
There has never been a better time to play Stalker 2. And with new features, improved performance, and a full suite of fixes and enhancements, the inherent, irrefutable quality of the game finally shines through.
There are more narrative-based adventure games today than there were during Telltale Games' heyday, but Dispatch manages to distinguish itself from the crowd. That's the sign of a true hero.
EA has invested a lot to put Battlefield back on the map, and it might be a while before we know if the big bets pay off. But for now, Battlefield 6 feels like the series has found its identity again.
The relative linearity of previous titles kept the helter-skelter madness of Borderlands in a container to the series' benefit; Borderlands 4 drives an axe through that container with glee.
And it opens the door to further feedback and improvements to aspects that have gone unaddressed for years. There are certainly two ways to play these football games. And by recognising that fact, EA Sports FC 26 becomes a football game for the players — even if it is a little bit more for one kind of player.
From the studio's perspective, Rematch is certainly a bold gambit. The multiplayer space is a crowded one and players are already entrenched in their preferred titles. Many would have expected Sloclap to follow-up Sifu with a sequel or yet another martial arts game. But with Rematch, the developer has tried to infuse its expertise with games involving physical combat into a football pitch. The result is a crunchingly satisfying experience that combines action and arcade sports convincingly. Afterall, a football match is a fight, too.
But there's a genuine creative argument driving every aspect of the game, that might not convince everyone, but it's enough to make you curious. It's enough to make you look and engage with ridiculous ideas. They're far less ridiculous than our reality.
But what stands out most, especially in times where games built on grind start feeling like a chore, is how fun and fluid the Doom: The Dark Ages is. Wasn't that that the whole point?
The decision to play it safe is understandable — Assassin's Creed is Ubisoft's biggest franchise, and the company needs it to work. But a string of risk-free games has seen a series known for bold leaps of faith lose the essence of innovation. And while Shadows impresses in many ways, it fails to innovate on any one of them.
Which begs the question, who is Lego Horizon Adventures for, especially at its full $60 price tag? It's obviously tailored for younger players and for devoted fans of the Horizon franchise. Heck, I own the Lego version of a Tallneck from the games, too, but I wouldn't count myself among the core audience for this one. Lego video games tend to parody the mythos of their parent franchises, even if it's done in tame ways. They play as both a love letter and a limerick to the source material. But Lego Horizon Adventures feels like it only exists as an embellishment.
Nixxes' latest effort is undeniably stunning in its own right, even when it stands on the shoulders of the excellent original. A $10 upgrade cost is a fair ask from existing owners of the game, considering the breadth of improvements present in the game and the very apparent labour it must have required from the developers.
The remake, however, is easier to recommend on PC, where it can take advantage of high-end hardware and find players who have never experienced the game before. Despite its questionable value, the Until Dawn remake is undeniably fun. Its modernised retelling of a scary story I enjoyed long ago remains just as engaging and visceral as it was the first time around. As an interactive horror movie, Ballistic Moon's Until Dawn takes meaningful strides towards storytelling excellence. But as a remake that shies away from mechanical improvements, it stops short of transforming its parts that are all video game.
The on-pitch gameplay takes a few steps forward in the right direction, empowering the defensive side of the game, but FC 25 stops short of taking necessary strides towards meaningful upgrades that could change the game for good. The continued apathy towards career mode, however, remains the biggest complaint. Gaping cracks in the quintessential mode have repeatedly been ignored for surface-level improvements — as if a new coat of paint would change the fact that the underlying wall is rotting. EA Sports FC 25, disappointingly, opts to do the same, even though a foundational change is long overdue. Over the past few years, EA's long-running football franchise has essentially embraced a live service strategy, with minor seasonal upgrades rolled out annually to an audience hooked to its unethical commercial model. The only difference is that EA asks you to pay full price every year for a “new” game.
Big-budget triple-A titles, with eye-watering visuals and interminable development cycles aren't the only way forward. And smaller games aren't just an option, they are a necessity. With Astro Bot, Team Asobi has crafted one of the best 3D platformers since Super Mario Odyssey. It's a game that is committed to being a game, to being fun and joyous and playful. It's hard to find a more vibrant title in PlayStation's stable, and Sony must invest in similar smaller games going forward. Because right now, it seems PS5 owners are stuck playing remakes and remasters while waiting for the next God of War and the next Spider-Man. Sony is sitting on multiple beloved IPs of yore, and the PlayStation parent surely must realise that people like all kinds of games, not just triple-A open-world, action-adventures. And Astro Bot is living proof of that.
The game does make an effort to strip away borrowed limbs, but then it's left with hollowed-out interiors of Ubisoft gameplay we've come to expect and bemoan over the last few years. It's as if Star Wars Outlaws occupies the negative space of other Ubisoft games. And while Outlaws sheds some of the flaws of its kin with that approach, it also brings issues that are entirely its own. It is marred by inconsistency, saved by its authenticity, and ultimately defeated by its mediocrity. Is Star Wars Outlaws a good Star Wars game? At times, absolutely yes. There are moments where it inarguably soars. But is it a good game? Outlaws inevitably stumbles on that question.
Concord is fun and serviceable and a far cry from broken, cash-grab titles like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and The Day Before. But it's asking for an upfront payment for an experience most people paid for, played and enjoyed eight years ago when Overwatch launched. Heck, even Overwatch 2 launched as a free-to-play title last year and still found itself standing on the stage in front of a tough crowd. It's then baffling that Sony thought a hero-shooter in 2024 could be released with upfront pricing. Concord should have been free-to-play, launched on PS Plus — I hope it does make a comeback in that form at some point. Its release should have been pushed back after the dismal open beta. Instead, Sony let it walk out to its grave.
DMC and Bayonetta games have always had a distinct personality, and Final Fantasy, despite leaning towards real-time action combat in recent titles, has always placed its strong characters, meaningful RPG systems and sprawling stories front and centre. Stellar Blade doesn't do that. Shift Up has also clearly tried to appeal to a certain sensibility with its lead character design. However, a protagonist provocative on the surface, but completely unremarkable in every other layer beneath can only carry the allure so far. Eventually, Stellar Blade is held up by its fun combat and slick presentation, but it's consistently held back by almost everything else.