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Bright Memory Infinite is still at best a visual tech demo. It's lack of quality of life updates and extremely short play time still makes me wonder if this was the full game to begin with. Still, the gun blasting and blade swinging action is bombastically fun. After all, this game was developed by one person alone. So kudos to Zeng Xian Cheng.
It's easy to look back with rose tinted glasses when it comes to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. But after spending a week back in this world I can easily say there are no tinted glasses here. It's as good as I recalled it back in the day. If you've never played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic this is a great way to jump in. I couldn't believe a game that came out in 2003 could still hold my attention, even on the fifth or sixth playthrough that I had while reviewing the game. The atmosphere created by the game is second to none when it comes to Star Wars games. Playing on the Nintendo Switch might be the best way to experience, load screens were fast, and the game looks great in handheld mode. The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic story is one every Star Wars fan should experience.
Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a fun and clever puzzle game, but the story falls quite a bit flat with a pretty dark ending. The puzzles themselves are enjoyable with needing to switch between Emma's and Fenton's perspectives a nice mechanic. The story though is just there and while puzzle games don't need stories to be enjoyable, if you're going to have one at least flesh things out a bit. If you don't mind a story that covers just the bare essentials needed to have a story, Tandem's puzzles are pretty enjoyable and I'd recommend checking the game out at some point.
Forza Horizon 5 is built to deliver hour after hour of glossy, beautiful fun. Hit the race mechanics as deeply as you like. Zip around the amazingly beautiful map in a Corvette for no reason at all. Find secrets. Build out your car collection. Get rich. Have a good time the way you want. Go anywhere, do anything, just don't skip this stellar game.
The beauty of Away: The Survival Series isn't the gameplay but the journey itself. While it has it's problems with bugs, the environment itself is lovely and the narration and musical score at least give the short expedition a quiet elegance.
Bloodshore continues Wales Interactive's streak of entertaining interactive genre films, this time in the exploitation late-night action arena. With a fun battle royale plot, a few twists and turns, and some gnarly violence, Bloodshore provides several runs worth of solid entertainment. Cleaner in editing than some recent efforts, Bloodshore is a step in the right direction for interactive films.
Riders Republic can be a ton of colorful fun, with go-anywhere do-anything extreme sports gameplay that is instantly accessible and appealing, all wrapped up in a tortilla of weird goofiness. Engage with the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you don't, and get penalized for absolutely nothing. Riders Republic is most concerned with letting the good times roll-and for the most part, it succeeds admirably.
Corpse Party 2021 is the definitive way to play the first entry in the Corpse Party series that made its rounds over 20 years ago. This game is a must have for horror fans, especially now that Halloween is coming up around the corner. Just keep in mind that there are some frustrating design elements that accompany what is otherwise an impeccable, immersive and frightening story.
Amazon has done a decent job with New World with its exquisite visuals and overall environment. They just need to smooth out those rough edges and implement some mounts!
When your only motivation to continue is to see just how far down a tiled dungeon you can get, I became exhausted. I Love the combat system. The amount of weapons and armor you can equip your party members is great. But by not providing any story or character motivation, I became weary of the game. The repetitive music fit perfectly with the same look and feel on floor one as it did on floor 24. While I enjoyed the mechanics and searching, the somber feel of Dungeon Encounters made me realize why they don't quite make them like they used to.
Guardians of the Galaxy sets a new high bar for interactive storytelling and jaw-dropping visuals. With an unparalleled attention to detail, Guardians tells a rollicking sci-fi story rooted in true human emotion. But the gameplay sections of this narrative masterpiece sometimes bog down the proceedings with merely okay combat and exploration. Definitely play this game, but with the understanding that Peter Quill just isn't that exciting in a firefight.
Voxel-rich graphics. A high-spirited Stranger Things vibe. Clever turn-based quick-time-event combat. But also dopey dialogue, endless fetch-questing, and weirdly placed grind. Echo Generation looks great, tastes half-baked.
The art and story of Darksiders III is engaging and beautiful to look at, even in this remastered take on the game. Adding a new game option to make the game more like its predecessors was very welcome, but not enough to save the game. Controls that don't respond when you want them to make the game frustrating in times of peril. Expecting players to understand what direction to go, or how to solve a puzzle without teaching them mechanics before hand made my time with Darksiders III unpleasant.
While House of Ashes takes a minor departure from pure survival horror, it manages to maintain its roots and tells a somewhat compelling narrative with a solid cast of characters. It's ultimately held back by a few technical issues and story loopholes that don't quite make sense.
Crysis Remastered released last year to mostly disappointing reviews. While the game itself isn't that much better in this trilogy, what does come to life is the evolution of the game space across iterations. What was missing from Crysis Remastered is corrected in the Crysis Remastered Trilogy, and it's not gameplay or glitches, it's context. Context to understand that no matter how you re-texture an outdated game, it might look modern on a screenshot but it will still feel outdated with your hands at the controls. It does, however deserve its place in history, and this is an opportunity to both experience that history, and move beyond into a trilogy that improves with each iteration. The end result is an average overall package by today's standards, but three games plucked from a decade or more ago should be proud to land safely average in the middle of today's pack and standards.
Back 4 Blood is a worthy successor to the Left 4 Dead franchise. It maintains the fundamentals of what made the original so addictive and satisfying while adding its own little flair with the rogue-like deck building system. What holds Back 4 Blood from getting a better score is its high price tag and lack of solo play progression.
Go into Inscryption as unspoiled as possible, and trust in the game. You will find a deeply enjoyable card game, wrapped in a series of dark mysteries, wrapped in…well…other stuff. Part CCG game, part escape room puzzle game, and part bonkers gonzo whirlybird lunacy, Inscryption is one of the best games of the year. They should charge more for a game this good.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl offers surprisingly competent Smash-like brawler gameplay, but is severely lacking in the bells-and-whistles department. Brawling fans will likely have a great time with this one, but those looking to ease into the genre should look elsewhere.
Song in the Smoke excels with fantastic controls and VR mechanics, accomplishing some things that veteran VR developers still struggle with. A full-sized, immersive experience, Song in the Smoke is not easy, but it is engaging and fun.
Overall, FIFA 22 is the best new entry in recent years. But the nefarious gutting of play-to-win rewards in its most popular mode means that the shadow of pay-to-win microtransactions looms ever more over FIFA's latest entry.