PCWorld's Reviews
Tetris Effect is gorgeous, and I only wish it cost less so that people wouldn't see $40 for a Tetris game and scoff. It's not that it doesn't deserve $40. Quite the contrary. It's merely difficult to convince people.
Full of emotion and high adventure, Final Fantasy XIV's Shadowbringers expansion brings MMORPG storytelling out of the shadows. Two great new combat classes, two cool new races, and a nifty system for running dungeons solo round out the experience of FFXIV's best expansion to date.
Layers of Fear 2 doesn't have many scares to offer, but visual panache and a multitude of classic film homages make for an extraordinary journey—for the right person.
Observation is grander than Stories Untold, more ambitious by half, but equally fascinating and inventive.
A Plague Tale: Innocence would benefit from less busywork, but the grisly scenery and the sibling relationship at its core help make up for any shortcomings.
Forager simply does away with any pretense. It’s incredibly successful at what it does, and by that judgment I’d recommend it. That said, I was relieved when I finally hit max level and the bonds broke. I Alt-F4ed and uninstalled it.
Yakuza Kiwami 2's soap opera story doesn't have quite the same impact as its predecessors, but a much-needed engine upgrade catapults the series into the modern era and makes for a much smoother experience.
Suffice it to say, Mortal Kombat 11 is excellent if you’re in it for the story, and a solid fighting game underneath as well, but the experience is marred by rough edges. Given the state of NetherRealm’s last few games on PC, I’m not sure we could’ve expected much more. If anything, this is an improvement.
Heaven's Vault is rough around the edges, but its sense of discovery and self-fulfillment are unparalleled thanks to its commitment to player agency and its unique language-translation mechanic.
Anno 1800 brings its hybrid of city-building, trade, and diplomacy to the Industrial Revolution with a show of technical brilliance, but it's hindered by a cumbersome interface and other quality-of-life issues.
Devil May Cry 5 is a game that delights in setting the bar high up front and then continually one-upping itself with ever-more-ludicrous cutscenes and some of the most stylish combat in the business.
Only a Metro game could get away with wiping two hours of progress and still score this high
Resident Evil 2 ($60 on Humble) is more than just a remake. It’s proof there’s room for Resident Evil in the modern horror landscape—and without compromising the core of the series the way Resident Evil VII did
I love when something like Return of the Obra Dinn comes along and reminds me, even briefly, how many ideas are still unexplored.
I plan to chip away at Just Cause 4 over the next week or two and hopefully write a definitive review at some point. Between the technical issues, the drab story, and the baffling mission structure though I’m feeling pretty disappointed so far.
Call of Cthulhu should be a great horror-detective game, but lackluster mechanics and a heavy-handed story undermine its stronger points.
Murkmire may look bland in comparison to a wonderland like Summerset, but that's only when you're drinking in the big picture.
Overall it's a pretty great year for Call of Duty, even if it feels like the once-dominant shooter series is now playing catch-up to an industry that left it behind. That may be the case, but Treyarch did a damn fine job catching up at least.
As the millions of people still streaming into the game show, if Blizzard sees Battle for Azeroth as a struggle to keep our hearts and interest, it's clearly already won.
The Final Season managed to surprise me multiple times already, and if anyone deserves a satisfying finale it's Clementine. Six years of build-up desperately need some sort of catharsis, even if it's a tearjerker.