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Driven by nostalgia, historic reverence, and a caution to avoid repeating past mistakes, Borderlands 4 is born from many lessons learned. It comes in confidently, understanding what makes this series lovable and matching expectations. A huge and nearly seamless open world is certainly commendable, especially when it still feels densely packed with objectives. This isn’t without its shortcomings, though, as bloated content and performance issues can impact the engaging gameplay loop. However, with friends by your side, Borderlands 4 is a satisfying, if imperfect, lootin’ shootin’ good time.
Dead Reset is a confined, blood-stained, interactive movie with some appealing practical effects and a unique atmosphere. What's there is a very solid FMV game carried by a story that greatly benefits from its leading characters, as well as its superb sound design. But it suffers from frequent freezes and crashes that drastically ruin its pacing, a lack of weight in player decisions and variations in the story responding to them, and an ensemble cast where half the characters are forgettable, and even worse, forgotten within their own narrative.
Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion isn't the improvement on its predecessor that fans were hoping for. What's found within is a scrap heap of a game, featuring poor optimisation, a drab story, tropes and pacing that override and overrule the mostly fun loop and deep mech customisation. It'll technically fly and get the job done, sure, but you won't be truly soaring or seeing great heights here. Mission failed, we'll get 'em next time.
Cronos: The New Dawn is a strong new scary entry from Bloober Team, mixing well-worn tropes of the genre with some interesting sci-fi twists and a captivating, if somewhat confusing, narrative tying it all together. Balancing a restricted inventory while tackling waves of disgusting creatures makes for an intense time, and exploring the infected district in Poland is a memorable setting. Cronos: The New Dawn is confident in delivering what it set out to do; it's a new survival horror IP that has legs – and lots of other limbs – carrying it to spooky success.
Metal Eden is short, sweet and fundamentally quite enjoyable. The plot isn't much to write home about, and it's mostly a grey experience as far as the visuals are concerned, but the fun mobility options, innovative Core-ripping gameplay and varied arsenal of weapons make Metal Eden worth checking out for sci-fi shooter fans.
Hell is Us is an impressive milestone for a small team of developers, with the player-plattering design resulting in a strong vision. Whilst simple combat and mechanically shallow traversal hold the title back, there's an undeniable clarity of vision that creates an overall cohesive package. Each of the game's many elements feeds into one another to elevate the true star of Hell is Us, Hadea. The way themes are handled with such care should also be applauded. Few places in all of video games feel so present and fully realised, especially in a debut entry. So despite Hadea's ongoing problems, I would highly recommend you consider crossing the border and staying a while.
Overall, Shuten Order's real selling point is its sense of style. Each screen of the game is a feast for the eyes full of colour and interesting designs. While its main story is solid, the individual routes vary in quality and their gameplay often feels a little lacklustre. Even still, there is a lot to love in this strange world and it's hard not to enjoy the time spent there. Praised be the Shuten Order!
With Quartet, Something Classic Games LLC has excellently captured what made the golden age of 16-bit turn-based JRPGs great and produced something that feels both authentic to that era but also comfortably modern. With its large, well-developed cast, captivating narrative and fun combat system, I found myself strongly invested in its world and its gameplay. Quartet does enough to establish its own identity and avoids being merely a simple homage to the likes of the old Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games. If you're a turn-based RPG fan, Quartet shouldn't be missed.
Gears of War: Reloaded is the definitive version of Gears 1, but only by default. A faithful remaster of a remaster that keeps the series alive and opens the door to PlayStation players, but doesn't do enough to feel essential. It's both dated and timeless, clunky and exhilarating, simple and unforgettable. A solid nostalgia trip, but a missed opportunity to make the original shine for modern audiences.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition sits on the edge of what defines a remake. The audio, UI improvements, and inclusion of all its DLC make it an appealing entry point for newcomers and a nostalgic return for longtime fans. Yet, its dated animations, controls, and art style struggle to hold up against today's standards. Still, with its sheer amount of content and strategic gameplay, it remains a worthy experience for anyone ready to dive into this gigantic universe.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a thoroughly enjoyable and action-packed time that'll satiate both series veterans who've long been awaiting a return and newcomers who've always wanted to check the franchise out. With Lizardcube utilising the best parts of their game design DNA while truly understanding what it means to be a Shinobi game, they have crafted this retro-infused adventure that celebrates the old and embraces the new. With kickass challenging platforming, combat, boss fights and setpieces that'll take some mastering, meaningful progression that fits right into the series, and gorgeous, gorgeous sights that run the gamut on this shinobi-starring journey, Art of Vengeance is simply artful. It's a pinpoint precision strike to the gut of those after some good old-fashioned ninja action chaos.
Marvelous Inc.'s recent streak of Story of Seasons remakes has so far resulted in serviceable but not amazing experiences, but Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar manages to be a step in the right direction. It takes an already solid farming game with surprisingly complex layers and elevates it with more content and quality-of-life improvements. With its focus on stockpiling produce to sell directly to customers, it's something different in an era where we are otherwise up to our ears in would-be Stardew Valleys. That said, a restrictive production method and a messy storage system still hold it back.
Inventive, exciting, and addictive, Fresh Tracks delivers a unique take on the rhythm genre that will have you diving into its story-songs over and over. With fantastic music, thrilling boss battles, and tonnes of replayability, this is a must-play for fans of rhythm games.
Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World brings a decent amount of new content to the table. The new Mouthful Mode abilities are great and work well in the new Starry Stages. While the lack of new Copy Abilities and a large number of reskinned familiar enemies might be a bit disappointing, the new content overall is certainly worth the cost of an upgrade pack for existing owners of the base game. For those who missed the original, the new content and performance improvements make it the best version of a fantastic platformer by far, and easily worth recommending to Switch 2 owners looking for a memorable experience.
Hirogami is a fantastic little platformer with surprising depth. Its origami world, from every folded tree and piece of wildlife, is a joy to behold, brought further to life with a vibrant soundscape inspired by traditional Japanese instruments. While the combat could perhaps have been a bit more enjoyable, Hirogami's narrative, layered with subtext about the place of traditional art forms in the modern era and overall fun platforming kept me engaged for its 8-ish hour playtime. If you're seeking a platforming adventure with a remarkable artistic vision, Hirogami is a great time and an adventure worth unfolding.
Being perhaps what you might expect, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a remake that is far from an out-there reinvigoration, instead opting to refine and fine-tune elements of its past rather than offering much new. That can take away from the grandeur and excitement of the experience a little, and it's undoubtedly not helped by the choice to favour fidelity of environments and character models rather than the stylistic filtering and other artistic decisions we know and love the original for. With Delta, there's now ironically a bit of an oroborous situation for Snake Eater, where the cycle continues, bringing a wonderful and memorable tale to audiences old and new, but also harming itself and its image in the process. Still, a bloody good game is a bloody good game. You're in safe hands, wading through the dense forestry with Snake, and to many, the journey to a 1960s USSR setting will feel like coming home.
The Rogue Prince of Persia is both a fantastic Prince of Persia game and a brilliant roguelite. Evil Empire draws on the DNA of Dead Cells to make a game that offers a compelling combination of platforming and combat, robust roguelite systems, and an understanding of the underlying rhythms of action games. It's as enthralling to watch and listen to as it is to play.
Despite the passage of time, OFF still holds up incredibly well. The newer translation lets the utterly hilarious dialogue shine, the updates to the combat make it far more intuitive to use, but the part that really holds it together, the story, hasn't changed at all, and honestly didn't need to. It's still a well-written, bite-sized experience that deserves the attention of anyone who loves newer RPG maker games or games inspired by that genre. You owe it to yourself to finally get around to beating OFF.
While its spoofing of the management sim lacks bite and its cast of characters is a tad thin, Discounty is otherwise an interesting debut title. Rearranging and optimising the layout of its titular supermarket is simple but unnervingly satisfying, and its daily loop makes for an addictive trip down the pixelated produce aisle, even if I can't help but be disappointed by the ambition its story lost along the way.
With Drag x Drive, Nintendo's latest multiplayer jaunt is both the things we hoped for and the things we feared. It feels immersive and thrilling in the middle of matches to be giving it your all as you speed across a court and try to sink shots as best you can, being one with the chaos. Similarly, it's a concept and control scheme that we haven't seen before in games, one that deserves credit. In the same breath, though, this hyper-specific control scheme and skill ceiling will leave a lot of players, both casual and lesser-abled, behind with how demanding it can be. It doesn't help that the Nintendo charm isn't quite there, nor is there enough substantial side content. Fun in controlled doses, Drag x Drive remains a game I will eagerly keep an eye on, hoping and praying it gets the post-launch support, quality of life and updates it needs to be the hallmark of quirky and accessible multiplayer game design it is so clearly desperately trying to be.