Nexus Hub's Reviews
Bluepoint Games have once again proven to be masters of their craft with the Demon's Souls remake. The visuals are jaw-dropping, making it feel like the most next-gen game out on the market. However, it does nothing to jeopardize the novelty of From Software's classic; instead, it simply enhances and improves the experience.
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered can proudly stand on the podium with some of the best remasters in video games. Thanks to all that the PS5 offers, it vastly improves and upgrades the experience to make it the most next-gen feeling it's ever been.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales arguably does a lot of things better than its predecessor. The gameplay and combat have been refined, the swinging is the most fun you could ever have in a modern Spider-Man game, and the story is focused without feeling padded out or prolonged that it overstays its welcome.
Astro's Playroom isn't just a wonderful little platformer, but a celebration of PlayStation in general. It's short length may only be good for a lovely night or weekend, but there's enough here for die-hard PlayStation fans to embrace.
If you’re a fan of the new Assassin’s Creed formula or just big action games in general, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is probably something you’ll want to add to your wishlist right now. Despite a few hiccups here and there, the game has made some needed improvements and sets itself apart enough to make it worth journeying through.
DIRT 5 delivers Codemasters' most refined and downright entertaining arcade rally racer yet. It boasts gorgeous visuals, solid gameplay with tight controls, a terrific dynamic weather system, and some lively commentary from Baker and North.
Watch Dogs: Legion is more of the same Watch Dogs formula fans of the franchise have come to expect. There are additional gimmicks and features that round off the product and it’s a great game to spend time in. The mystery plot and the intrigue around finding out just who exactly Zero Day is and putting a stop to him is great and will easily keep you entertained for 50 hours or more as you explore London.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is a wonderfully crafted game. The love developer Toys for Bob has poured into the title is evident and makes the game all the more appealing. It's accessible enough to pick up and play by anyone, but also provides a hardcore enough challenge for those diehard fans of platformers and the series.
I was rather looking forward to seeing what NBA had to offer – especially with all the buzz of next-generation – hoping for some fresh ideas and a bit more life injected into NBA 2K21. However, this was not to be, as we simply got a familiar refresh of years past – and not that it’s a bad thing, its just a little underwhelming. NBA 2K21 still offers an immensely fun, and impressive, basketball title, with a ton of modes to play through, but its time for NBA 2K to start switching up their plays a little bit.
Kirby Fighters 2 is flooded with charm and potential with some well thought out level designs. The different abilities of the characters while different seem to fade into each other and the various Kirby’s all become the same character. Simply put, it all feels very watered down and mundane.
Star Wars: Squadrons doesn't bring anything particularly new or inventive to the table that we haven't seen before in dogfighters, but it nails almost everything it embraces. The first-person perspective greatly benefits the immersive nature of the space battles, the sound design and music is about as perfect as they could ever be, and the story flips between the Imperials and Rebels to show us the ugly and beautiful sides of war.
The only redeeming quality WWE 2K Battlegrounds has at present is the simplicity of its gameplay. Even that can become frustrating after a while. There are no combos or sequences to remember or even master here. Throw a controller at a friend, mash a few buttons, and move on to another title altogether when the system inevitably grows stale.
Mafia: Definitive Edition, despite some technical hiccups, is still one of the best and most faithful remakes I had the pleasure of playing this generation. The story is engaging and thoroughly entertaining, the voice acting is terrific, the writing and characters are phenomenal, and the visuals are spectacular for modern hardware.
Overall, if you are a fan of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine or Super Mario Galaxy, or haven’t played any of these titles, this compilation package will definitely appeal to you.
Minecraft Dungeons: Hero Edition isn't going to take your breath away, but it does provide a charming spin on the dungeon crawler/hack-and-slash formula that warrants some attention for fans of the genre. The core Minecraft experience is kept well in tact while re-balancing most of its mechanics to be better suited to its genre shift.
Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars is a decent game that suffers from repetition and poor AI making the game a tad too easy. It is a fun distraction and with 3 campaigns following different vampire clans, it is a long game. Unfortunately, you may get bored by the ease of winning long before you make it through the story and the different campaigns, but it does show promise and it is great to see strategy games make a comeback of sorts to PC and console.
A little extra time in development and more inventive ideas would've done this disappointing third installment in a beloved racing series well, but all it did was rehash previous ideas, significantly dumb down many aspects that made its predecessors so exciting, and mash together an incoherent mess of a sim racer that was clearly out for money above a good time.
Marvel’s Avengers suffers from an identity crisis. It tries to do too many things at once and that leaves you with an experience that's torn between two points. It has a single-player campaign that does a fantastic job of harnessing the Marvel universe into an exciting and action-packed set of events.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning still plays much the way it did in 2012 – ambitious in scope but lacking in depth. You may not be compelled to see it through to the end, but you’ll enjoy most of the time spent with it.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is easily one of the best remakes in gaming, and does the legacy of the series and Tony Hawk's name proud after a few stumbles. The graphics are great and the stellar visual upgrades to classic locations makes it feel so much more than just a skateboarder's playground now.