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I sort of have to criticise, you know? It's the job. Truth is, though, I've really enjoyed every minute I've spent with Dirt Rally 2.0, just as I did with 1.0 before it. The handling is gorgeous, the routes are truly beautiful to look at, and the management is ...manageable. The cars all have tons of individual character, the rallycross feels scrappy and frenetic and everything just comes together wonderfully. Codemasters, eh? They really have the hang of this thing.
As a sequel, Metro Exodus pulls ahead of the rest of the franchise in a big way by leaving the very metro itself behind. Aesthetically, the place is a joy to explore from beginning to end, and there's enough variation to keep things feeling fresh. Dig down deep and it's another Metro with a new skin, but it's a damned good one of those all the same.
All told, Resident Evil 2 is an utterly fantastic remake, reimagining a 90's classic for a modern audience with modern sensibilities.
I'm really struggling to find anything good to say about Jagged Alliance: Rage, other than that its name is appropriate. I suppose the stealth mechanic sort of works, although even there occasionally your sneaky work can be ruined by a patrolling soldier somehow glitching and eternally clambering on and off a rock instead of completing his route. Each playable character has a background trait that is supposed to play out as a weakness but that you rarely notice in play. The characters you choose to play seem irritated by one another, and by everything going on around them all the time. I've got to say, I think it's pretty understandable.
But there's something about Darksiders 3 that still sort of works though. It's a B-tier production, without a shadow of a doubt, but it's the sort of thing that doesn't actually come along all that often these days. Fans of the series will no doubt get a kick out of the continuing story and there's just enough here to help Darksiders 3 stand out and make for an entertaining playthrough. It's no God of War, but it's not the harbinger of the apocalypse either.
Hardcore fans of turn-based tactics may be slightly put off by Mutant Year Zero's obvious missteps but that aside, The Bearded Ladies have cooked up a special game here that's got great potential for the future. Road to Eden isn't perfect but it's definitely stood out from the crowd for me in what's been an excellent year.
Overall, SCS Software has outdone themselves with this DLC expansion for ETS, as they have with all of their map addition DLCs.
Pathfinder Kingmaker on PC is incredibly fun and rightfully nominated in our Global Game Awards 2018 for Best RPG. Today Owlcat have already made Pathfinder Kingmaker into a beautiful looking, rich CRPG, that delivers a great place to adventure, an interesting land to rule and the tools to carve out a realm that you can call home.
All told, Hitman 2 is a heck of a treat for Hitman fans, offering the most refined mechanics, craziest antics, and most complex levels yet seen in the franchise. Each of the five core levels can be played for potentially a dozen or more hours, offering fantastic replayability for those who like to mess around with the Hitman formula. There's an argument to be had that Hitman 2 plays it a little self, but when it's so damned good, and unique, at what it does, you'll hear little argument from me.
I've been underwhelmed by inXile's previous nod to nostalgia, Wasteland 2, and everyone else in the universe seemed to adore it, so maybe it's me. Your mileage, as always, may vary. But if you're looking for a rock-solid, incredibly challenging nuts-and-bolts RPG with all of the quirky flair of the original trilogy, this isn't quite it.
Even though Farming Simulator 19 is much better then previous versions, I can't help but wonder how much better it could have been if they had taken a few additional steps. Perhaps Giants is waiting to use a new graphics engine to give it a complete overhaul? Who knows, I'm just glad the mods will flesh outthe game as they have with Farming Simulator 2017.
Hopefully more professional games will start to fill this gaming niche and the overall gaming bar will be raised, but for now, I am pleased that Paw Patrol presents parents of younger ones with an option that lets their children learn and enjoy gaming in a safe space.
But when all's said and done, there's a clunkiness to the pacing, plot and gameplay that relegates Call of Cthulhu to the second division.
Overall Bandai Namco did a fantastic job resurrecting the Soulcalibur franchise with the 6th version.
Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't just a great game. It's a game that sets an impossibly high new bar for how open-worlds can be handled. Its depiction of late 19th-century America feels both historically accurate yet abundantly open-ended, slow-paced and yet alive, grim and yet majestic. It makes the original Red Dead Redemption feel like a warm-up, the doodles on the page before the real thing has come to life.
Usually, I let my past experiences inform the present, but with Assassin's Creed Odyssey I'm attempting desperately delink my own fatigue with the quality of the end product. At the end of the day, not everyone will feel overwhelming by another AC less than a year after Origins. Or indeed there may be plenty picking up Odyssey that have never played Origins at all. For those players, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a feature-packed, incredibly lengthy belter, but a colossal time sink in the same breath.
Pillars of Eternity, for me, is the best D&D series there never was.
Overall, if you play American Truck Simulator quite a lot then the Oregon DLC is absolutely worth buying. It's also a bit cheaper than the Euro Truck Simulator DLCs so it makes it worth purchasing, especially since the ETS and ATS DLCs are often on sale on Steam.
This doesn't come easily, but Forza Horizon 4 is quite possibly one of, if not the, greatest racing games in existence. It's beautiful, it's varied, it's practically endless. it's Playground at the top of its game.
Ultimately, V-Rally 4 is a solid if comprehensively unremarkable rally racing game. It offers neither the simulation depth of Dirt Rally nor the arcade racing hijinks of Dirt, straddling the line somewhere between the two. It can be moderately entertaining despite its dry personality, but up against stiff competition, it's an all too forgettable entry. Perhaps V-Rally was best left in its nostalgia-fuelled haze.