Stevivor's Reviews
Though it liberally borrows from Breath of the Wild, Immortals Fenyx Rising is fresh and fun, offering up an exciting new IP I hope to see more of. That said, its endgame pacing issues certainly don’t do it any favours, nor does the timing of its release.
Demon’s Souls gives players a look back at what kicked off FromSoftware’s dominance in being one of the most exciting developers to watch over this last decade. While you’ll get a lot of enjoyment from your time with this title, FromSoftware has definitely refined and improved on the design and mechanics in the more recent released Souls games. Without a doubt Bluepoint Games has delivered a brilliant remaster of a niche game that not a lot of people had the chance to play originally. Demon’s Souls is worth checking out on the PS5. But if you’re looking to see what makes FromSoftware so amazing at what they do, you’re going to find a better overall experience in one of their newer titles like Dark Souls III, Bloodborne, or Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice.
The Zelda devout have already decided to to buy this game and I hope they love it. Everyone else might want to spend some time with the demo first.
If it didn’t carry the COD name, it could very well have been labeled as an entirely different game marketed as “from the creators of Black Ops”. Raven and Treyarch have tried something new here, and delivered a refreshing Call of Duty single-player experience — just be aware it’s a smaller scale spy thriller, not an epic open warfare game.
The same feeling of repetition is present throughout Devil May Cry 5's story, basically becoming background noise as you move from encounter to encounter.
Like Origins, Valhalla benefits from a year off with a fresh audience. It doesn’t reboot this time, but instead improves upon the duo it’s following, introducing proven elements from some of the best in the business.
Spider-Man Miles Morales is a tight little package that provides a thrilling Spider-Man experience, trimmed of nonessential fat and full of emotion and excitement.
After the culture shock of such a total change to the Yakuza recipe, I’m extremely glad the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio team took such a big leap when Kiryu’s tale came to an end. Like A Dragon is a revitalised game full of fresh ideas and proves that the series won’t be re-treading the same ground with Ichiban in the driver’s seat. If this is the first step into the new age of Yakuza, I can’t wait to see how bonkers the next game will be.
At the end of the day and despite its flaws, DiRT 5 is fun; a lot of fun, in fact. Even after churning through hours of races, enduring near constant game crashes and even being deprived of that rocking soundtrack, I still had a blast. If you’re after a fun little splash around in the mud while listening to some excellent pop punk and rock, then you’ll love what’s on offer here. If the Forza Horizon games are the festival of speed, then surely DiRT 5 is the festival of fun.
While still creating horror games with fairly visible flaws, Little Hope is a vast improvement of Man of Medan. With another — and perhaps the last — in The Dark Pictures anthology seemingly teased by the mysterious Curator in this one, I’m rather excited to see what Supermassive learns for next time around.
Griz said how amazing Tetris Effect can be in VR, but I’m happy enough just playing with the sights and sounds emanating from my TV. If Xbox isn’t your bag, you’ll be pleased to know that Connected will eventually be coming to your platform — and that includes your VR platform — of choice soon, and for free at that. Everybody wins.
While the gameplay remains strong, and is improved in this Deluxe repackaging, Pikmin 3 is visually a dated game, and it’s a shame Nintendo refuses to remaster last-gen games, whilst still charging full price. Nevertheless, the cracks are covered up to a degree in handheld mode, as Pikmin 3 almost rounds out the full Wii U collection on Switch.
There’s some fun to be had in Watch Dogs Legion, but it becomes so repetitive that by the end of the game everything feels like a chore — one I was desperately wanting to be over hours before its credits rolled.
After a couple different track designs and laps, we’d had our fun with the tech, but I’d imagine children wouldn’t tire (pun intended) of Mario Kart Live Home Circuit‘s novelty quite as quickly. It’s largely targeted for that demographic, we’d say, a creative and novel way to spend time in whatever level of lockdown you’re currently engaged in.
There’s no denying NHL 21 is a tight little package — in fact, it’s been years in the making (click that and thank me later) — but that’s because EA Vancouver is doing everything it can to refine a polished hockey game year-on-year. NHL 20 introduced or improved most of the items that feature inside this, so unless you’re super into single-player modes like Be a Pro, you could get away with buying it instead of this. If you’re into multiplayer, well, you have to upgrade; I don’t need to convince you. I’m ultimately rather pleased with NHL 21, but still have to throw some shade at EA for choosing not to support this on next-gen consoles in any way. Boo.
Any new ideas have clearly been held back for when the new consoles are actually obtainable by the masses, but FIFA leaves the Xbox One and PS4 in a pretty good place — and with some extra pace — in 2020/21, still with plenty of scope to go from good to great next-generation.
Simply put, It’s About Time manages to capture the feeling of old school, challenging Crash games of old while adding a modern spin to increase enjoyability for those of us who don’t enjoy bashing our heads against a brick wall when difficulty skyrockets. It’s full of quirkiness, humour, and is a worthy sequel in comparison to Naughty Dog’s previous outings. Kudos to Toys for Bob.
It presents as a modern game but retains the essence of an old one, and it’s that combination that well and truly entrenches the original Mafia, now reborn, as the best in the series.
When it comes to annual releases like these, everything is essentially a build-up of the formula before it, but WRC 9 to me feels like the most fun I’ve had in a rally game since Colin McRae DiRT over 13 years ago, and that says something.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a decent bundle of games, though Super Mario 64 has aged poorly with clumsy controls, muddy visuals and no real effort by Nintendo to remaster or re-energise the game for the umpteenth platform you’ve just bought it on. Again. Super Mario Sunshine is a vast improvement upon that (and it should be, published five years later), though Super Mario Galaxy is truly the pick of the bunch, a game as great now as it was back then. Rosalina for life.