Star Wars: Galactic Racer, at the very core of its experience, has a solid racing game. Driving the limited vehicle selection is fun, and most of the tracks are well designed with enough personality to get you through. Then you put this roguelike loop on top of the experience, and everything goes haywire. A run can be perfect for 3 hours, then you veer into a wall on one course, and all that progress is undone. This also makes the technical gripes I have all the more pronounced because there are moments you crash for, like, no reason, or one bad attempt to slipstream ends in a forfeit. It’s an interesting idea, but to quote Game Dev Tycoon, Racing and Roguelike are not a good combo, and it hurts the whole thing overall.
Bandai Namco, you beautiful, beautiful people, you did it. You nailed Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, creating one of the most compelling war games that I have played through. This is coming from somebody who wasn’t a big fan of the last one either. The narrative is engaging and compelling, even when playing out with six different players in the middle of explosions and absolute chaos. And that gameplay? Engaging, whether you have been playing these games your entire life or are looking to try one for the first time. This is a big, bold Mission Accomplished.
I’m not really sure what I was expecting or hoping for in Lawn Mowing Simulator 2, if I am being honest. Was I looking for something to take my mind off of life? If so, yeah, the game works for that. Jump in, power up my mower, and trim some grass to 3.50″. It is an easy sim to jump into, with a lot to learn that doesn’t feel punishing in the long run. If you are not familiar with the subject of the game, you can pick this up, get in, and get started without much to hold you back. Some tasks can be frustrating and time-consuming, so buckle in. I do think the best aspects of the experience outweigh anything else, though, so this is a business worth building.
Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered (that really is a mouthful of a title) is the best version of a remaster. It barely needed the update, but the improved graphics and framerate are welcome touches. Even without those, though, I’m on board; this is one of the best Dynasty Warriors experiences out there. This is the one that helps you understand how such a simple premise can demand one more stage, over and over again, until you look at the clock and you realize it’s been three days. Yeah, it’s seriously that freaking good.
When Silent Hill: Townfall was being showcased, my biggest fear was that it might be a passive horror game where the player has no autonomy to defend themselves. After playing it, I have done almost a 180 on that. I loved the atmospheric horror moments, sneaking and avoiding, attempting to distract them, and moving around them. The combat could have bolstered this and made you feel that stagnation in an unchanging experience, but it was almost entirely underwhelming. Any moment where it became clear I would need to was met with a long, exasperated sigh. Why that hurt is that the game built such an inviting world of horror that I was ready to embrace wholeheartedly.
Marvel’s Wolverine had these moments that I absolutely loved, and these others that frustrated the hell out of me. There are design choices in here; I would point straight at the QTEs when saying this, which felt pointless. The game evokes a period in gaming that I at least fondly remember, but for a modern game, it just doesn’t completely work. Throughout my entire playthrough, I kept thinking of another Insomniac game, Sunset Overdrive. I love that game. Is it perfect? No. Is it even them at their best? No? What it is, though, is Insomniac’s unique brand of crazy. There is nothing genuinely special or memorable here. There are moments where the game justifies itself, but even then, it lacks that spark you expect, and it’s a shame.
Nighthawks has some pretty noticeable stumbles. The story hits dead ends way too often and can often feel like you are solving another case to figure out how to move on to the next portion. Similarly, progressing states is a mystery unto itself that can take a pretty hefty amount of time to start pushing forward. Where the game succeeds, it does so with enough force to propel past its faults. The RPG, while not necessarily deep, is very rewarding, and the open-ended structure leaves loads of room to explore. The narrative is phenomenal, with an engaging cast of characters that never fails to delight. More than anything else, though, this is the closest to a creature of the night I have truly felt in a long time, living out my VTM and True Blood dreams, and that is really saying something.
Do you want me as the driver on the next train you get on? No, you most certainly do not! Am I a better driver than I was when I started Train Sim World 7? Yes, but in a formal debate you would have a hard time grounding that claim. None of that matters, though. Turn the knob to forward, put the brake in release, crank the throttle for speed, then sit back and watch the world that drifts by your window, beautiful, majestic, and calming. I’m still not fully sure how many issues I encountered were technical or me just not playing very well, but I put up with them because it was worth it. For that feeling of freedom you are afforded, I would do anything.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword upgrades the franchise from the previous era, making for a much more technically challenging game. Instead of fighting fixed camera angles, you are fighting fast enemies with move sets that require precision to overcome. This could easily feel like anything or everything else on the market, but instead, thanks to a clever skill tree of robust abilities, you get a vast amount of tools that require timing to master. It is enough that you can choose which ones to emphasize practicing if others aren’t working out the way you need them to. This elevates the title’s combat from simple hack-and-slash to something creative and enjoyable.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is more of the same, on a base level, but that’s not a bad thing. The cycle of dungeons and sales, with minor reflection on capitalism, worked then and continues to work well. The improvements to this, as evidenced by the jump from the Pixelsprite of the first game to the 3D animation, also feel meaningful. A good early access campaign can mean all the difference for a roguelike as it grows with its audience, and clearly the time was not squandered. If you want a game all about making money, this is well worth your money.
The painful part is I really wanted to love The Blood of Dawnwalker, not have this lukewarm emotion towards it. The best aspects of the game are so unique compared to everything else out there and, with enough commitment, are very fun to play. It’s the other side of that coin that muddies the water. That great combat has to contend with technical hiccups, and those are the only things where maybe I would feel differently. Progression is the best example of how great Ideas just keep having minor directional choices hold them back profusely. There is a series here; developer Rebel Wolves has a great concept here that works when it works but doesn’t when it doesn’t.
Tell you what, I loved my time in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, even when I was running for my life from instakill. This is everything an adventure should be; it pays homage to games I grew up on to craft an experience that felt shiny and new. More than any of that, it opens up the universe for more experiences than just keeping rats at bay and throwing rocks at people’s heads.
I wanted so badly to enjoy Starsand Island. I have been waiting for this release for a while. It’s just hard to recommend the game in the state it is in now. I feel worse, given it’s a small team taking big swings. Potentially you will have a different experience; clearly, people have progressed past where my game came to an end. Even before that, though, Starsand Island was underbaked and not ready for primetime in the slightest.
I often hear that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a good game, but it isn’t Nioh. I understand that sentiment and have even said it. As a Kasurigami main, one of the only weapons that freaking dropped between the two, I feel like I never really gave it the chance. There are some things, sure, that I feel don’t rise to the gold standards Team Ninja has set for themselves; upon reflection, though, they were so much closer than I remember. The game is fun, and you can genuinely get lost in it. Sure, I can list off some points that are lacking, but that combat? Chef’s kiss. Some of the absolute best, and that’s enough, is a reason to play.
1000xResist is a narrative game first and foremost. It can be challenging to look at a visual novel game and review it; I mean, storytelling is subjective, but this isn’t strictly that. From that perspective, the story is meaningful, beautiful, and painful. The story isn’t straightforward, but once it all fits together, it has something important to say.
The Sinking City 2 was, for better or worse, everything I expected it to be. That was to say, an enjoyable trip through a land of horror and action. Even with the open areas that you get, you have a mostly linear experience that offers just enough freedom to find your own way and enjoy getting lost along the way. The narrative never hits the high I would have wanted but never sinks so low that I am let down. The combat is the element that should hold your attention more than anything, which is fun even at its worst.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a competent fighting game, and given Arc System Works’ pedigree, I would expect nothing less. The flashy and over-the-top moveset genuinely makes you feel like you are a superhero smashing up the city in a life-and-death fight for justice. The combat system is robust with plenty of variety once you start exploring off the game’s standard combo paths, but given the structure, this might not be the most friendly fighting game to cut your teeth on.
While I played GoldenEye 007 on my purple, see-through Nintendo 64 back in my youth, I will admit I don’t really have an attachment to it. You know what else came out that same year? Final Fantasy VII, and that changed my life forever. Agent 64: Spies Never Die, however, did successfully manage to remind me why I subjected myself to every kid on my block for as long as I did. It’s an addictive loop, even at its most frustrating. There are places I feel this game could have evolved the formula or resolved the issues, but I get the direction, and I respect it. My biggest issue, and maybe this is unfair, is that the game tries too hard to feel like the classic game and not enough to set itself apart. It is fun, though, and in the end, who could ask for more?
There are points in the experience that frustrated the hell out of me. Then, there were other points where I was loving every minute of it, celebrating every win. I think there is something special buried under the muck, and that’s a shame to think about. What a fully realized adventure might have looked like, but I did enjoy what we got. I liked it; sometimes I liked it a lot, even if I never came to love it.
This is a cozy sim your friends have probably recommended at least once or twice while it was in early access. Now in 1.0, the developers have shown that they made the most of that time to create something great. There are no more excuses to be sleeping on Fields of Mistria, not anymore.