Ars Technica's Reviews
Aliens fans with friends should buy, as should anyone hungry for a more focused take on online co-op combat (read: less sprawling than The Division). Solo, offline players should tread extremely cautiously. Destiny and Borderlands fans may be unmoved.
Perhaps the most important thing about F1 2021 is that Codemasters has not messed with the actual mechanics of driving the car much, beyond tweaks necessary for the 2021-spec cars. With a good force-feedback wheel, the cars are engaging to drive, and you can feel subtleties in cars from different teams—a McLaren handles differently to an Alpine to a Red Bull to a Mercedes, as you'd hope they would. If you're a fan of the sport, you'll probably enjoy playing F1 2021.
If you loved RE7, you might like RE Village
Returnal clearly heralds a new era for Housemarque, in terms of turning the focused arcade-blasting likes of Super Stardust HD into quest-worthy 3D action. Keep it coming, Sony and Housemarque.
Buy, unless you have responsibilities. This game could very well threaten them.
But any Valheim wishlist betrays the truth of the game's current, "unfinished" state: there's already so much adventuring, crafting, building, and discovery available-and in ways that can easily be shared amongst friends for only $20. (And if the screenshots I've chosen haven't made clear, this game can be very pretty, as its engine smothers its blocky characters with handsome effects and gorgeous vistas). We've put games in our year-end lists for less potential than what I've already enjoyed in Valheim thus far, and I don't see us getting out of 2021 without repeating praise for this killer multiplayer adventure option on PC.
Bowser’s Fury works just fine as an added bonus packaged with an under-appreciated platforming gem from the Wii U era. If you’ve never played 3D World before, this is a great chance to catch up on a fresh take on 3D Mario design. If you’re mainly interested in Bowser’s Fury, though, maybe wait until the strong ideas get expanded into a full, standalone game.
The good outweighs the bad. Get a PlayStation Plus trial and give this imperfect car-combat gem a spin.
A solid if unambitious expansion pack—and that should tell you whether to buy this one or catch up on Hitman 2 instead.
A must-buy for PlayStation 5, should you have the stomach for the original gameplay formula.
A great choice for next-gen consoles or high-end PCs, should you have the bandwidth for dozens of hours of Viking adventure.
Buy it if you want an "expansion pack" sequel with an interesting story and solid, familiar gameplay.
In the end, the London of Watch Dogs: Legion feels a mile wide but only a few feet deep. What promises to be endless variety in character choice and hack-driven gameplay options quickly boils down to the repetition of the same old gameplay and plot tropes.
Like last time, your craziest failures in Spelunky 2 play out like lessons. Unlike last time, the number of crisscrossing variables has skyrocketed, so there's a lot more to learn and, hence, a lot more fun to have while dying in the name of treasure-hunting success.
Buy it if you missed out on any of these classic games the first time around or if you want to relive them again in a more convenient form.
Dlala has implemented just enough obnoxious stuff between Battletoads' good bits to stop me, a pretty freakish Battletoads fan, from recommending that anyone buy it outright.
A must-play if you already subscribe to PlayStation Plus. A hearty party-game recommendation if you can convince online friends to join in. A tough sell for loners or couch co-op players.
Buy (or claim on Xbox Game Pass for either console or PC).
If you need to get lost in over 30 hours of heroic gameplay right now, in a single-player adventure with no online connectivity gimmicks or content locked away as DLC, Sucker Punch has you covered with an instant contender for 2020's game of the year.
I've not driven an F1 car in real life, but I do get to play a fair few different racing games each year, and I'm happy to report that F1 2020 is up there with the best of them in terms of fun. It's incredible engaging with a wheel and pedals, and you can customize the game to match the difficulty level you're looking for. It looks good and sounds as good as you can hope a turbocharged hybrid F1 car to sound.