Forbes's Reviews
And yet, if you’re coming to Embr thinking it’s the latest in a long line of multiplayer-oriented classics, your hopes may be snuffed out by how it performs right now. Luckily, plans are in place for updates in the coming months–the fires of passion may burn brighter in the near future.
By ironing out its UI, making career mode more accessible, and generally stripping back those unnecessary complexities surrounding an otherwise brilliant experience, KT Racing has every chance of making next year’s WRC 11 one of the very best racing games in the last ten years–a show-stopping swansong for a studio that’s clearly dedicated to constant improvement.
Nonetheless, for all its minor annoyances, Hot Wheels Unleashed gives you a remarkable bang for your buck. Alongside a big career mode, livery editor, two-player local and 12-player online multiplayer, and licensed vehicles, there’s a tightly controlled, great-looking arcade racer that’s perfect for players of all ages and skills–and thanks to its track builder, it’s only going to get bigger and better by the day.
Yes, its AI is slow and a bit stupid. Its driving and flying mechanics are dated. Those all-new ideas just don’t quite land. Its UI seems getting more confusing with every new game. But Far Cry 6 is definitely the most fun I’ve had from the series since the delightful Far Cry 3–even if everything seems to hinge on extremes, and rely on old tricks.
For all its incredible characters and acting, Vanguard has somewhat confirmed that Call of Duty campaign modes are going in two very different directions: the stagecraft is getting better with each release, but the wider experience is going downhill.
Even if you don’t decide to go back, and you only decide to clear its initial level in three or four hours before tapping out, one thing’s for sure: it’s a much more memorable experience than Far Cry 6 was.
I am incredibly impressed with the size and scope of Lost Ark. Even some of the later storylines started to resonate with me a bit, albeit there’s a ton of throwaway sidequest content that exists just to fill space. I am less impressed with the game’s loot system so far, but I know I have not fully mastered all its finer details at this point. But in a game like this I wanted to get excited about new drops, but other than things looking cool, that never really happened in the first 40 hours here. Another complaint is that because this is such a well established game that already got a number of updates over the years, dumping everything here all at once can feel overwhelming. It’s just a whole lot of stuff and systems and things to sort through, and it’s easy to feel lost.
I'm in no hurry to be done with the world of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It's the best game I've played since Bloodborne.
Skyrim is a great game, but one where I finally might have reached my limit, as I discovered in this latest playthrough. If you’ve never played it, this is definitely the version to get, and if you’re a superfan, you’ve probably already bought it before reading this review.
I would love for DFMF 2020 to be a good game. I would love for it to be a football game “that isn’t Madden,” and that gives consumers a real alternative. Unfortunately, this isn’t Madden. It’s much, much worse.
It’s great to see a small team of gamers attempting to fill a massive void in the sports gaming universe, but at the end of the day, the game still has to be fun to be considered a success.
Knack does have that one good idea — the character gets bigger, the character gets smaller — which is enhanced by the idea of making him big with other materials like wood and ice. But it's never really explored. You're constantly being forced to shed all of your collected relics to activate an elevator, or something, or receive a large cache of relics before a big fight. Size is controlled by the situation, not the other way around, and so this system never feels as fluid as it could.
This is simply not a very good baseball game and the higher price point makes it even easier to accept this year. The improved graphics don't do enough to save this from another sub-standard effort.
All things considered, it's difficult to recommend RBI 17 to any demographic. No matter what box you have the game in, there's a superior version to be found elsewhere in each concept.
Some of the scares in Daylight are genuinely chilling, but their shock value fades quickly. And after the opening hour or so, the hospital itself seems to become a character, which adds a needed layer of interactivity and suspense to the mix. But between dull writing, last-gen graphics, and limited game mechanics, Daylight devolves into nothing more than a glorified maze simulator with mood lighting.
Overall, Custom Mech Wars is a mediocre mecha game that gets the customization somewhat right but fails on dealing with how the combat should work. While the Earth Defense Force games have their low budget infused charm, they are at least fun to play. Custom Mech Wars sadly lacks this redeeming feature and is just an arduous chore.
I cannot recommend this game at full price. Again, as part of a free subscription it might be worth checking out and getting a few hours of slashy combat in. But I wouldn’t touch it unless the $70 asking price comes down by at least half, and even then, there are a half dozen other better games out this fall alone. I wanted to like Godfall. I never want to see games in this genre fail. But fail it does, and in a worse way than anything I have seen in a long while.
TWT2 feels unfinished, underdeveloped and somewhat soulless in some aspects. The swing mechanic might be a good idea conceptually, but it falls short of supplying that satisfaction that is transferred from simply hitting the ball in a tennis video game. Couple that with the malnourished feature set and you have one of the most disappointing tennis video games in a long while.
This is a huge, rare, total miss by Bethesda, and even if it’s improved in time, I can only judge it by the hours I’ve lost to it so far.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the prequel trilogy: overwrought and complicated, with none of the heart that drew us here in the first place.