Washington Post
HomepageWashington Post's Reviews
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.”
Throughout my playthrough I was surprised by the manner in which I had to position Emma, or move objects around, precisely to cast just the right shadow for Fenton. In keeping with the theme of a story based around a missing magician, the compact, finely-detailed stages unfold like a series of sleight-of-hand tricks that ably draw your focus in one direction so that you are particularly struck when you stumble on a solution that was more or less hiding in plain sight. If the measure of a good puzzle game is how many “oh wow, this is crazy” moments are packed in it, then Tandem is up there with the best of them. I’d recommend “Tandem: A Tale of Shadows” to anyone who enjoys having their perceptions toyed with.
But does it sound like the next great “Call of Duty” title? That question is a lot like asking about the latest version of the iPhone. The early signs are promising, but the answer to that question really depends on whether the carnival rides that the game offers continue to be entertaining weeks or months from now. However, if you’re looking for what “Call of Duty” offers at its core — big explosions and endless hours of multiplayer — this first experience shows “Vanguard” is off to a strong start.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a competent, if not especially electrifying, action game that sails along on the back of strong voice acting and the sheer momentum with which it introduces new scenes and charismatic characters.
“Age of Empires IV” is a simple, pleasurable game that rewards developing high skill but does not require it to push and learn your way through. It gives you troops and their upgrades and some buildings and lets you decide what you want to do with them. It gave me a lot of freedom to make my own choices within a narrative that constantly told me how cool I was for playing in a historical playground with some of the coolest people who ever lived. These pleasures are few and far between in life, and I savored this one.
“Mario Party Superstars” is the return to form the franchise sorely needed. It refocuses on what fans loved about the series in the first place, and most importantly, nails its most important mode, Party Mode. If you can look past the rotating control stick games, and if developer NDcube can offer new content and refine the game over time, you’re likely to enjoy this party for years to come.
All told, “House of Ashes” is a notable step in the right direction for The Dark Anthology series. Technical issues aside, it crafts a compelling story that’s fun, campy and terrifying in equal measures. Every installment is inevitably compared to the benchmark set by “Until Dawn,” and it’s clear Supermassive Games has learned from the lukewarm reception and criticisms of “Man of Medan” and “Little Hope.” “House of Ashes” comes close to “Until Dawn”-level quality, and for the first time after finishing a game in this series, it has me genuinely excited to see the next entry.
Even if Quill sounds like a surfer bro, surfer bros can sometimes be among the most earnest people you’ve ever met once you actually get to know them. The same goes for Quill and co. Their personalities may seem like the stereotypes you’ve always heard, but spend a bit more time with them, and you’ll be glad you did.
In design terms, what most impressed me about “Metroid Dread” was how the developers guide you through the game’s sprawling areas. Although there is ample incentive to backtrack after Samus acquires a new powerup, the game never wasted my time. At no point was I needlessly sent crisscrossing over environments to determine where to go next. Usually, when Samus acquires a new powerup, there is a place nearby where she can use it to open a previously-unexplored suite of rooms. The game does not lack internal momentum.
“Jackbox Party Pack 8” is a bundle of mostly entertaining games. Two of them — “The Wheel of Enormous Proportions” and “Weapons Drawn” — don’t always work. “Poll Mine” is exceedingly good. Taken together, “Party Pack 8” is a solid addition to a franchise that keeps attracting more players while they largely stay home during the pandemic.
As the game industry has proven throughout the years, the Metroid formula is worth iterating and reiterating upon. Now that the formula is back home in the original series that created it, here’s hoping Nintendo remembers this too.