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The Forbidden Lands are an enticing new playground for the series, and I look forward to spending dozens more hours uncovering the rest of its secrets.
irate Yakuza may not be the best entry to get players on board with the ongoing Like a Dragon narrative. I was more entranced by the loop of upgrading Majima and his ship and recruiting new crewmates than I was by the story, but it delivers on everything the series has become renowned for. An absurd tone with surprising pockets of earnest pathos, fun characters, and bombastic action are all present and accounted for here.
CD2, for all the ways it impressed, challenged, engaged, and enraged me, is an RPG whose adventure will likely forever be etched in my mind.
Ender Magnolia is a solid sophomore effort for this series, and while the exploration is protracted and occasionally confusing, the combat steps up its game in a big way. While not a gigantic leap forward, chalk up another good outing in this hidden gem of a Metroidvania series.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a fantastic reminder that the franchise that began on the Super Nintendo in 1994 is a real competitor for Nintendo’s best 2D platforming series, an extremely competitive landscape.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle doesn’t reinvent the action-adventure wheel. In a weird backward way, it’s more or less a first-person version of an Uncharted or Tomb Raider game – franchises that probably wouldn’t exist without Indiana Jones in the first place.
Ultimately, Marvel Rivals is not a revolution in game design, but a culmination of the successful shooters that came before it. Its gameplay is tight and balanced, its characters are satisfying to use, and I'm coming back to play more every night. I have gripes with the distribution of hero roles, but it doesn't spoil the game as a whole. Marvel Rivals isn't finding success because it's a cash grab, it's finding success because it's earned it.
As it stands now, Rita’s Rewind doesn’t shatter the genre’s mold. The action is a step above many contemporaries, but still falls prey to the genre’s inherent monotony and the Zord segments can be irritating at worst. But if you’re a ‘90s kid itching to pull out your Morpher one more time, Rita’s Rewind is the Rangers’ best cooperative outing to date.
Ultimately, Veilguard delivers on the promise of every Dragon Age with its strong characters, engaging combat, and a classic BioWare role-playing experience.
The potent combination of Sonic and Shadow Generations makes a strong case for being the best package of 3D Sonic content we’ve ever seen. It’s simultaneously a celebration of the series’ past while hinting at the exciting future on the horizon.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a great Batman: Arkham game without any qualifiers needed for its virtual reality platform. Narratively it fits in well with the rest of the series, and mechanically Camouflaj somehow simply figured it out.
Neva’s immaculate presentation, enjoyable action, and moving narrative prop it up among 2024’s best indies. Despite boasting thrilling cinematic sequences and jaw-dropping visuals, Neva’s best moments are often its smallest: watching a relieved Alba call her furry friend after a brutal fight to share an affectionate and appreciative embrace.
Despite the overly drawn-out final act and the poorly tuned final boss, Metaphor: ReFantazio’s journey is well worth embarking upon.
Despite the difficult revelations Silent Hill 2 unveils along the way and how uncomfortable the experience made me (by design) I was eager to immediately start the journey again after seeing the credits.
... In the end, I finally got to experience a full, proper, no-asterisk Zelda adventure without having to explain, “Actually, you play as Link,” and I am grateful for the experience.
At multiple points in the game, text flashes on the screen saying, "I hope this hurts," an ambiguous message from one character to another. We never learn who says it to who, but it's a particularly dark line: an explicit desire for suffering in a story where everyone is suffering in their own ways already.
Although The Plucky Squire has become better at trusting players to figure things out, it remains a disappointingly simple trek wrapped in a killer presentational wrapper. It’s one of the coolest-looking games of 2024 and has inventive ideas I wish were more substantially fleshed out. Jot’s big adventure is presented as a children’s story, and it’s hard not to feel like a kid playing it in the best and worst ways.
It’s an admirable shooter in a genre often tied down by live-service elements, and unlike its contemporaries, it asks one simple question: Can you please mow down hordes of enemies with big guns?
Despite the persistent pressure to spend on microtransactions, NBA 2K25 shows the long-reigning dynasty might still have some gas left in the tank. Each mode delivers a different experience, truly delivering a targeted mode for nearly every basketball fan. Though some modes are bogged down and bloated, once the team steps on the court, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that does it better.
Astro Bot is such a wonderful experience, it makes me question if I’ve ever felt this much pure joy playing other games I’m fond of. From its tight design to its incredible visuals to mechanics that feel carefully tested to generate as much pleasure as possible, Sony has its new standard bearer for platformers.