IGN's Reviews
When it's all said and done Warmind left me feeling mixed.
Baranor's new toys and helpful mercenaries give Middle-earth: Shadow of War - The Desolation of Mordor a fresh take that does its best to shine despite the lack of a complete Nemesis system. Without a gripping story or interesting protagonist, it settles on being a fun but short challenge mode.
I've never been terrorized, stalked, or fascinated by enemy AI quite like I was in The Forest. It's a harrowing survival ordeal that knows how to play with tension and create the sense of a real world with complex inner workings and mysteries I was eager to discover. It's I Am Legend told in the depths of the hinterlands, with a meaningful story progression that doesn't overstay its welcome. Disregard the warnings on the walls and hidden between the trees at your own peril – and if you want a unique and memorable survival horror experience, then you should absolutely dare to do so.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire improves upon the Pillars of Eternity formula in nearly every way, creating an RPG loaded with both strong combat and important, character-defining choices that frequently have an impact on your numerous and deep side-story adventures.
There's no doubt that City of Brass is meant to be punishing. But between its ungainly controls, its inability to stave off a sense of tedious repetition, and spirit-breaking lack of progression, it feels far less fair and more painful than its rogue-lite brethren. Its superficial use of the Arabian Nights folklore, combined with its monotonous design and reliance on exotic cliche, make it as uninteresting to experience as it is excruciating to endure.
Intuitive, authentic, and surprisingly realistic, Killing Floor: Incursion emphasizes the physical dimension of its virtual world, delighting in the tactile qualities of VR and making the most every little object. Whether you're staring down the scope of a remarkably believable sniper rifle or clobbering enemies with the dismembered arm of one of their own fallen comrades, you never fail to have a clear, satisfying sense of how every item, weapon or body part feels.
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze's addition of Funky Mode makes it more accessible without reducing the formidable platforming difficulty to a walk in the park. There's still a lot of challenge, even with the extra help Donkey's Funky uncle affords. But the Switch version manages to take just enough of an edge off a punishing game to let the fun platforming outshine its difficulty.
The first Total War Saga game tries a lot of new things, succeeding at about half of them. It improves on a few areas historical Total War games have struggled with, but at the same time falls back into some bad, old habits that other games in the series were able to rise above. The overall tapestry reads as more than competent, and I could watch hardened huskarls with their massive axes crash into a Saxon shield wall all day. But there are too many blemishes for me to place it alongside some of its truly great peers like Attila and Warhammer.
Super Mega Baseball 2 is a grounded baseball simulation wrapped in an arcade-style look and feel. An accurate physics engine generates realistic hits, and it keeps stats and models fatigue and morale in interesting ways. This realism is betrayed by a few control issues that affect the timing when batting and an AI that doesn't always behave as you'd expect. However, the unique Ego system allows you to tweak the difficulty of batting and fielding individually until you find the perfect challenge. And while it lacks the MLB license, you could use the accessible customization tools to recreate the entire MLB if you wanted to.
Frostpunk deftly mixes a variety of thematic ideas and gameplay elements into an engaging and unique, if occasionally unintuitive, strategy game.
BattleTech provides exciting strategic decisions and a compelling story, plus the slow-paced and meticulous fun of building up and customizing a mercenary company but suffers from the frustrating unpredictability of its weapons and procedural missions, and losing a favorite mechwarrior to a random head hit feels like it somewhat undermines the choices I've made along the way. Those frustrating moments didn't ruin my many hours with BattleTech by any means, but they did mean I wasn't rushing back for more after I beat the campaign.
The War Machine is an uneven DLC with a great new multiplayer map and Zombies chapter but unfortunate issues elsewhere.
God of War's outstanding characters, world, and combat come together to form an unforgettable adventure.
Clumsy, superficial, and in many ways fundamentally broken, Crisis On the Planet of the Apes is an often infuriating VR game that plays like a bad arcade rail shooter from the early ‘90s. Far from reaching the artistic heights of the rebooted film series in whose world it takes place, it takes a silly, action-heavy approach to the material that doesn't respect your intelligence. It's perhaps the worst thing to happen to the Apes franchise since Mark Wahlberg saw the monkeyfied Lincoln Memorial.
Extinction is a sword-slinging, monster-decapitating action game that does a decent job of getting the blood pumping and reflexes twitching. The eye-catching, anime-inspired art will even give you some nice scenery to do it all in. It just never rises to be much more than that, and all the while it's inviting comparisons to other games that do. Extinction lands in that awkward position where, yeah, it's usually fun - but you're not really missing anything incredible by giving it a pass.
Far Cry 5 is another wide-open playground with all the necessary ingredients for causing a real ruckus: loads of enemies and allies, temperamental wildlife, and plenty of explosions.
The strength of the MLB The Show series has always been its authentic gameplay, which traditionally does a fantastic job capturing the essence of baseball. The 2018 version of The Show continues that trend, creating the most realistic baseball game to date. However, the nuanced gameplay and visual changes don't quite make up for the lack of innovation – or removal – of MLB The Show's core modes.
Thanks to the freedom of its outstanding building mechanic, Fortnite Battle Royale isn't just a great battle royale game – it's one of the best multiplayer games in recent history.
If you go into A Way Out thinking its mandatory two-player co-op is a gimmick, you'll likely come out of it realizing that it couldn't have been done any other way. Vincent and Leo's journey will have you and a friend performing tasks together both mundane and dramatic, and the result is a memorable, variety-packed cinematic adventure that feels like what Telltale's games might've evolved into if they'd leaned into game mechanics instead of phasing them out.
Detective Pikachu offers a bold take on the iconic Pokemon, which succeeds thanks to Pika Prompts that build Pikachu beyond detective stereotypes. Even though I figured out cases far before their end, each one utilized the world of Pokemon to its fullest, and ultimately offered a unique Pokemon experience that I hope we see done again soon.