Gaming Nexus
HomepageGaming Nexus's Reviews
Double Cross is a pretty good platformer with an interesting story and stage mechanics, but the game itself feels a tad too easy and short.
Aside from a few technical issues, Subnautica is one of the best survival games out there. Not only is the world to explore beautiful but the narrative will keep pulling you along,
If you haven't already, go get this game, and then tell your friends to get this game, and then go have some fun.
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is an accessible turn-based strategy title on the PS4, but it lacks the polish, depth and variety needed to have real staying power.
It felt shorter than the past episodes, but also satisfying to see this story arc come to an end. The surprise cameo was much appreciated, but I think we all knew that character wasn't really dead.
Taking more of a narrative approach while not really offering all that much narrative but definitely adding a little more marvel in the form of cataclysmic weather events as the major antagonist, Just Cause 4 is a shade more than just another Just Cause game. The major gameplay loop of orchestrating chaos remains true to the series but it is meted out just a bit more slowly while unlocking the goodies to perform your opus just a bit more freely. The real shine of the game comes from just whipping about the game world transitioning between grappling, wing suiting, parachuting, carjacking, plane-jacking, and inviting the player to turn the entire island into their own X-games playground on steroids.
As a singular purchase, Flashpoint appears rather modest on the surface. But taken as a whole, it would be impossible for me to go back to a pre-Flashpoint campaign.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden packs interesting combat, open world exploration and lore, and numerous systems that have the player invested in what their characters, but it ends on too early a note to really have any impact.
Beautiful 2D platformers are practically a meme when it comes to indie game development, but Gris still rises above its contemporaries. Artful in both its watercolor design and broad-strokes storytelling, Gris is a gentle reminder that good puzzle platformers can make you feel smart without smarting, and that being succinct is not a bad thing, especially in the current culture of exhausted replayability.
Playing Valiant Hearts now feels like a crime, but being on the Switch is a boon for this wartime marvel.
Everspace took me a while to warm up to, but once I changed my control layout and started getting better at the dogfighting aspects, the game became a lot more fun. Between finding resources to survive and picking my fights with nearby outlaws or running away so I could live to fight another sector, Everspace never really feels like the same run twice, and that's definitely a good thing.
Crashlands smooths the desperate edge off of open world survival crafting, and turns it into a laid-back experience that works best in short, pick-up-and-play sessions. That said I personally found the game's persistent random humor to be pretty irritating.
It's dated, it's camp, it's occasionally annoying, but it still has a core mechanic that very few are still trying to do, and Earth Defense Force 5 does do it well. Take on the waves of monsters and tear into them with every last weapon in your arsenal for a great bit of mindless fun. The story and your progress will crawl through the 100+ levels but the types of enemies and the difficulty will ramp up alongside you.
The Spyro Reignited Trilogy is an absolute pleasure and a strong continuation of Activision's commitment to remastering classic games. For those who grew up with or loved the old Spyro games, I can't imagine you won't find yourself engrossed in the collective quality of these remasters. For those new to the world of Spyro, this game is a winner even without its history. Plus, a very attainable set of achievements (or trophies) means you can earn yourself some rewards along the way.
The bottom line is that Fallout 76 was an experiment that was created on an outdated engine incapable of implementing the vision Bethesda has for it. This has led the game into a full blown identity crisis, as it doesn't really play well as a single-player game, sucks at PvP, with its only saving grace being its multiplayer experience, specifically with friends. Sometimes it's better to be great at one thing than good (or not so good) at many things. Promised updates in the future may eventually get the game where it needs to be, but as of today, it's not what fans wanted or expected.
Tetris Effect is the most optimistic game of the year. Plus, nobody saw it coming. It shouldn't be possible to say this, but this is the best Tetris has been in decades.
This is a Battlefield experience through and through. However, I find myself staring more at the gaps in the menus than the accessible parts that are there. The promise of future content is a great thing, but not when you are constantly reminded of the voids it will fill. Fans will love this entry, and rightfully so, but in its current form Battlefield V won't be recruiting any new soldiers to this battle.
The cars respond realistically in VRC PRO, so don't make the mistake of thinking it will be easy, especially if you aren't willing to invest the time to practice and the funds to get a suitable controller. If you do choose to do so, VRC PRO will reward you with the opportunity to use them to prove your mettle against either AI drivers or in online multiplayer races.
It's actually really hard to pick between the two which might be a better game, but for me, that Last Surprise remix in Dancing in Starlight really steals the show.
This DLC content comes off feeling a little 'more of same.' It doesn't introduce anything terribly new, and feels like it has less content and depth than the first chapter. I'm holding out hope that the third chapter can wrap this up neatly.