Washington Post
HomepageWashington Post's Reviews
I can hear the murmurous, gently swelling music of Rotview Balcony, a place of crimson skies and arid landscape, playing from the other room where the game is idling as I type this sentence. “Elden Ring’s” score is a glorious counterpoint to the occasional jankiness of texture clipping and frame-rate fluctuations. And while I suspect the latter part of “Elden Ring” may exasperate my patience — I hear that a gauntlet of bosses picks up where the notoriously difficult “Dark Souls III: The Ringed City” DLC left off — right now, I can’t wait to get back to it.
“Triangle Strategy” is a fun title that has an engaging story with fantastic characters and worldbuilding. Better English voice acting would have been icing on the cake, but the half-baked vocal delivery left me feeling a bit deflated. In any case, fans of strategy and tactics-based RPG games should definitely check “Triangle Strategy” out.
“Elden Ring” is a game about discovering and pushing the limits of possibility. It dares you, over and over, to keep pushing, making this unlike any other adventure I’ve experienced. It would be understatement to say “Elden Ring” has exceeded my expectations. After 40 hours — and with so much more to go — I don’t even know what I expect from it anymore. Its sheer scale is humbling. In terms of square footage, “Elden Ring” may not be the largest game ever made, but no other experience has made me feel quite as small.
After playing for more than 40 hours, I’m still mesmerized by the core gameplay loop of building up my tool kit and adjusting my approach to take on new, more powerful machines. More than that, though, I’m mesmerized by the world.
The overriding question “Horizon Forbidden West” left me with is ‘when will its prospective audience grow tired of the tired conventions that underwrite so many go-and-save-the-world adventure games?’ As much as I appreciated the fun that came from smashing up robots, “Horizon Forbidden West” won’t earn a spot in my long-term memory.
“Sifu” is a no-nonsense arcade brawler that can be played in short bursts or long sprints, depending on the commitment to perfect each level run. Despite its high skill ceiling, it offers a rare treat in video game martial arts: a brutal balletic presentation — if played well enough. If anything, it’s worth playing just for the first level.
Restoring power to different places, searching for people and clearing out areas of zombies are pretty much the types of activities I’d expected. But I was utterly enthralled by Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s mechanical panache, entrancing soundtrack, and charismatic NPCs.
Unfortunately, though, the narrative is a black hole of missed opportunities, surfacing time and again to remind players of what’s missing from the experience even as they try to forget and just enjoy what does work. If only “Stay Human” could navigate its story of post-apocalyptic morality with the same deftness as its assured, acrobatic protagonist.
There’s no need for hyperbole. “Extraction” isn’t an early game of the year contender. There’s virtually no story, and the bare-bones cutscenes that are present aren’t really worth taking seriously. I doubt I’ll be playing it in a month. But I don’t need “Extraction” to go on forever, and so, I’ll be rooting for it. Like other recent titles in Ubisoft’s catalogue, it sets up one core gameplay loop and executes compellingly on that vision. When the time comes, I’ll call in the helicopter to airlift me out, and I’ll be more than satisfied with my time spent in “Extraction’s” ugly world.
Don’t discount “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” for its looks. It’s an experience unlike any other in the series.
If you happen to already own copies of “A Thief’s End” or “The Lost Legacy” on PS4, you’ll be able to upgrade your game to the PS5 versions for $10 — which is markedly cheaper than the $50 sticker price Naughty Dog will charge for the “Legacy of Thieves” collection starting on Thursday. It’s a good deal. You just might not feel the same rush of movie magic the second, or third, go-around. I know I didn’t.
In addition to the workouts, there is a meditation mode and also a “moment” mode, in which you just spend time alone looking around your virtual environment (though you can’t move around in it). I’ve gotten less use out of these, but the guided meditation revolves around some of the same themes espoused by the trainers: You’re worth investing in, and you should delight in the journey of self-improvement. With Supernatural, I have.
A turn-based RPG like “Ruined King” is the exact type of game I’d want to try out. Despite all of the headaches, I have a better understanding of Runeterra and the champions in it thanks to “Ruined King.” I like Braum’s buoyant optimism and Pyke’s deadpan demeanor. The next time I’m scrolling through the roster of champions on “League of Legends” or “Wild Rift,” I’ll give them a try.
For all the neat freaks out there, this one’s for you.
The ‘Halo Infinite’ campaign is the closest to perfection in 20 years
If all you’re looking for from Call of Duty is an incremental change to the multiplayer along with a slate of new maps, “Vanguard” will do right by you. I can’t deny that the multiplayer is engaging, just as it was in the game before, and the game before that one, and so on. It is evident, also, that a lot of effort went into making the game look and feel good. But as a whole package, the game is a tremendous disappointment. Untold amounts of money, technology and talent were drained into “Vanguard,” a boring, joyless and pointless game. And for what? A profit, maybe. Beyond that, nothing.
If you’re not moved to play it, consider watching an online playthrough of Moncage. It deserves to be seen.
Rather than developing new content and iterating on a finished product with the upcoming live service portion of the game, it feels like DICE will instead be playing catch-up. Hopefully when the game gets patched, the developers — and Battlefield players — will get to realize the ambitious initial vision for “Battlefield 2042.”
Forza Horizon 5 [is] the first killer, can’t-miss game for the current generation Xbox Series X and S consoles as well as Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service. It’s a game that I think anyone can immediately find appealing.
For lack of a better way of phrasing this, “Riders Republic” is extremely breadlike. You can enjoy bread on its own merits. But more often than not, just eating bread is a very sad experience. Good eating means toppings: olive oil with some pepper, butter, cold cuts, a bagel with a thick schmear — you get the idea. Likewise, “Riders Republic” is a game that cries out for some kind of second thing — music, a podcast, a phone conversation, whatever — while also completely avoiding the now-common language of tasks and chores that usually comes with “maintenance” or “podcast games.”