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Perhaps, ultimately, you have to accept with “The Centennial Case” that you’re not so much Sherlock Holmes as Dr. Watson, offering up ideas that might be taken on board by the real star, or given short shrift. If you don’t mind playing second fiddle to its fine cast and weaving plotlines, there’s plenty here to keep you gripped. As with any good TV murder mystery, the intent is to keep audiences guessing. “The Centennial Case” should keep you guessing throughout.
“Eternal Threads” almost seems aware that it’s not building a strong case for your emotional investment in whether these six people live or die. Throughout the game, mission control chimes in to remind you that these people’s lives definitely matter, that the average person has such and such number of descendants, so the fate of these six people and, more importantly, whoever comes after them could ultimately decide the fate of the world. And while that’s all technically true, I suppose, I can’t help but feel that “Eternal Threads” would have found infinitely more success laying the foundation for players to care about its existing characters instead of hinging your investment on theoretical stakes.
Available on Xbox Game Pass, “Trek to Yomi” is a no-brainer download for anyone wanting a simple yet cinematic action game that harks back to classic PC adventures and 2D blade-action titles. At a $20 asking price, it’s a more debatable purchase, especially considering the short clear time. But at the end of the trek, I didn’t regret a minute of it, once I got over the fact that the combat was never going to be the real hook. It’s a gorgeous visual feast, and once I started it, I found it hard to look away.
This pairing of humans and the natural world up against a common antagonist, not necessarily as allies but as common victims, makes it clear how intimately Norco is tied to the swamps, valleys and fields that surround it. This interconnection between individuals with little in common on the surface but a shared place and history is where “Norco” locates the possibility for hope, a provocation that might offer those of us playing a model for our own local responses to corporate encroachment and environmental devastation. Through these mutually affecting connections between humans, nature and technology, “Norco” creates its own robotic story, disturbing, personal and fresh, an experience that should not be missed.
At the highest level, the AI puts up a genuine fight; I’ve lost more than I’ve won in that difficulty tier. But because the game’s rules are so simple, every win feels earned (I’m was in control, there’s one thing I had to do and I did it right) and every loss can be traced back to the source (I was in control, there was one thing I had to do but I did it wrong). Tennis is probably the best mode to start playing — and the one I know I’ll stick with the longest.
For the most part, though, newcomers will find plenty to embrace about the series and players of past iterations of “MLB The Show” will find a whole lot of what they know and love. The biggest problem, in fact, is they’ll likely find a little too much of it.
The Star Wars fandom has already realized that more does not always mean better. “The Skywalker Saga” has a lot of heart, but I could have done without the superfluous leveling system or paper thin open-worlds. Part of me will always enjoy watching Qui-Gon Jinn slice up droids on the streets of Naboo. “The Skywalker Saga” is a beautiful nod to that nostalgia. Beyond that, I’m still stuck on a final question. You have to wonder whether, for those managing the game, the end product equates to time well spent during development.
There’s no escaping, however, that “Weird West” is crowded by its own ambition. No doubt, some glitches will be fixed — like mission objectives failing to update correctly — and some control issues are surely more applicable to the PlayStation 4 version rather than the PC. But other problems are more fundamental. It says something that by the end of the game, I’d killed 599 people, and as much as (almost) all of them had it coming, I had no such intention when I set out. The systems felt too brittle to warrant a more considered approach. In this Western, it doesn’t pay to be a master of the quick draw so much as the quick save, stopping to back up every inch of progress, in case your next move pulls the chair from under you.
The story of Jack begins with him forgetting about himself. “Stranger of Paradise” is a drunken, belligerent game in both concept and design, and would’ve been better served if it was less adherent to its Final Fantasy origins, and, well, did things its own way, like Ol’ Blue Eyes sang. Despite its level design flaws and a crowded gear system that adds little to the experience, it was hard not to find Jack’s testosterone-fueled journey charming and full of surprises. Just don’t be surprised if it also farts in your face every once in a while.
“FAR: Changing Tides” ably evokes the blissful passion of travel. It is the perfect antidote to overly stuffed, bloated video games.
The predictable formula of Kirby games accounts for part of their appeal. Think of it as comfort food. Case in point: My first Kirby game was 2000’s “Kirby and the Crystal Shards” for the Nintendo 64. Now, 22 years later, I’m fighting the same enemies with many of the same abilities I did back then. “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” throws in some new elements to keep things fresh, and it executes them well for the most part. But it still feels like coming back to a familiar place and feeling like you never left, which is exactly what I, like many others, find endearing about the series.
When you’re playing “Wonderlands,” you’re playing a “Borderlands 3” spinoff with fantasy elements. But, crucially, you’re also experiencing what it’s like to be part of a D&D group — and the many twists and turns that come with it.
Still, there are some truly gorgeous dynamic action sequences that were welcome surprises, and a pleasantly playful sense of art direction that kept the more tedious times spent with Akito and KK from sagging. Even if the idea of a modern satire disguised as a horror-style mystery isn’t quite your bag, “Ghostwire” is a creative delight as a sort of alt-universe Tokyo sim, especially if you crave the feeling of hanging out in a FamilyMart (“FujiyaMart”) again.
Now, the bloat of “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” and its DLC releases make plain that developers need to seriously consider the value of making games longer — if anything, just to save gamers from dying on the inside.
But don’t expect an open-world worth devoting countless hours to exploring. Because once you look away, once you break free of the frame CD Projekt Red forces you into, the world of “Cyberpunk 2077” can feel totally empty. City blocks whiz on by as you drive aimlessly through Night City. In those moments, with nothing to do, I wasn’t really sure why I was still playing.
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.