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Forspoken is a good open world action adventure game overall. While I would have loved if the team at Luminous had nailed every aspect of the game, it seems this time around at least it fell a little short when it comes to the main story, character writing and some design decisions. It does take place in a world I would love to see more from if the series is given the chance as there are seeds of greatness here.
The Dead Space Remake is a superb recreation of a survival horror classic. It enhances the original game, while also being faithful to it’s story and setting, implementing a slew of new features and visual upgrades to make the game feel incredibly modern. It’s undoubtedly the best way to experience Dead Space, whether you’re jumping in for the first time or wanting to relive the story. The original still holds up pretty well to this day, and some say it didn’t require a remake, but the series certainly deserved some new love, and this is just the way to get the ball rolling again for the Dead Space franchise. I’m excited to see EA placing more faith in their single player offerings and I hope this spawns a new entry in the franchise or remakes of sequel Dead Space titles.
Overall, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a fun 3D platformer that will appeal primarily to a younger audience or those that are fans of the SpongeBob franchise. It doesn’t do anything too groundbreaking when it comes to the platforming genre but does provide some visually diverse environments to explore and plenty of references to the series that lead to a great deal of laugh out loud moments. It’s great that it’s fully voiced and that the original voice actors are reprising their roles. It feels like a real celebration of the SpongeBob franchise as a whole and I’m still very much onboard to play the next video game the series spawns.
Persona 3 Portable offers a dark yet engaging story you’ll get lost in for many hours. It has a great cast of characters and is backed by an amazing set of music tracks. I would have loved if the game did manage to include some of the additional content that was found within the FES release of the game and traversing through some of the Tartarus sections does become repetitive, which is a shame because it’s the primary section of hand’s on gameplay the game offers. But those things aside, you’re still in for a very fun and rewarding experience that offers a lot of player choice. It’s great to see Persona 3 getting some love again, and hopefully it’s just the start of things to come again celebrating the Persona series from ATLUS.
Persona 4 Golden continues to be one of the greatest and well loved JRPGs almost 15 years since it’s original release and is now available on more platforms than ever. The Golden version of the game is by far the definitive version to play and you’ll have plenty of hours ahead of you to get lost in with an incredible cast of characters as you try to get to the bottom of an engaging murder mystery. The Persona series is consistently good, they’ve nailed what makes JRPG games so fun to play, and if you only have the ability to play one of the newly released 2023 remasters coming out this week, Persona 4 Golden is my recommendation for which one to pick up.
It’s clear a lot of effort was taken to get this game just right, it instantly feels higher in quality compared to other One Piece games and does act as a true celebration of One Piece’s 25th anniversary. Odyssey doesn’t just feel like a generic game that’s been created with a licensed anime skin thrown on top like we’ve seen many times in the past with other anime titles. It’s apparent a lot of care was taken across it’s 5 year development time to make sure the game was fun to play, filled with great characters and is enjoyable for players whether they’re existing fans of One Piece or if they’re jumping into the game because they love JRPGs that take players on grand adventures.
Whether you’ve played Crisis Core in the past or planning to jump in for the first time, there’s really no better way to experience it than with the Reunion Remaster. It does so much to bring a title that released 15 years ago into the modern era, and succeeds on most of it. And with numerous quality of life improvements implemented and the addition of full voice acting, it’s an incredible way to experience this part of the wider Final Fantasy 7 universe.
Overall there’s a lot to like about The Callisto Protocol. It’s a tight and well paced 10 hour experience and looks and runs great on the PS5 and It’s art direction and sound design help portray some really unsettling and horrific moments. It’s held back by some frustrating scare choices, repetitive combat and boss encounters and it’s push towards focussing on action in it’s later half. If the team at Striking Distance decide to flesh out the world they’ve established with a sequel, I’d love to see where they could take these characters and build out the setting next while having the benefit of having this first game to look back on.
Firaxis have another hit on their hands with Marvel’s Midnight Suns. They’ve shown once again that they’re the masters of tactical, strategic combat mechanics and have blended an addictive and deep combat system with the Marvel Universe to create a game that feels rewarding to players of any skill level. While it does have some pacing issues getting going and some inconsistent character models I did really enjoy the card based combat system and that the game highlighted a number of Marvel characters that don’t get enough focus these days. I’m looking forward to jumping back into the game in the months to come as further additional characters get added.
The Devil In Me is another solid entry and a fitting season finale to The Dark Pictures Anthology. It’s focus on real world inspirations helps it feel more twisted and scary and it’s supported well by a small but diverse cast of characters. It does take a little while to get going and does contain a few technical bugs, but once you hit the peak of the drama, the game offers a near non-stop horror experience to the end. Due to the nature of it’s design you can jump back in and replay it to experience different choices and outcomes in the wait for season 2 to kick off, hopefully next year.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers is a great return to form for 3D Sonic adventures. It features a slightly more mature story, an easy to grasp core gameplay loop and multiple islands filled with fun and replayable stages that really make you feel like the blue blur himself. While certainly not a perfect game, it’s the type of game Sonic fans have been waiting many years to get to enjoy and there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Tactics Ogre Reborn delivers a really solid strategy RPG, containing an engaging story and a large and varied cast of characters. If you’ve never played the game before, there’s never been a better time to check it out. It’s now available on more platforms than ever and contains quite a number of balance adjustments and quality of life improvements have been implemented that weren’t part of the original release to provide a more streamlined and rewarding experience for the player. If you like grid based strategy games and don’t mind a bit of a challenge, you’re in for a great time.
The new content that the Winters’ Expansion provides to Resident Evil Village makes it certainly worth the price of entry, especially if you happen to be a fan of the Mercenaries mode. I really liked the new gameplay concepts introduced within the Shadows of Rose expansion, but ultimately was left a little unsatisfied with it feeling more like a teaser for something bigger, rather than a substantial story with a fulfilling beginning, middle and end. Hopefully these seeds that have been planted get the chance to bloom more when the next main Resident Evil game releases.
New Tales From The Borderlands does a great job of capturing the look, feel and humour of the Borderlands franchise. It is far closer to a traditional Telltale game than a game from the mainline Borderlands franchise but does provide a mostly great story and characters to enjoy across it’s 10-12 hour experience. It didn’t quite stick the landing for me but I did appreciate how much the new cast was able to develop over the course of the game and how much better the performance was compared to the previous Telltale entry in the Tales From the Borderlands series. If you’re an existing fan of the Borderlands series, you’re likely going to have a pretty good time with New Tales From The Borderlands.
The team at Santa Monica Studios have caught lightning in a bottle twice in a row now. God of War Ragnarok is an incredible masterpiece, and an experience I have no issue recommending to anyone looking for a great video game. It’s story is driven by a stunning cast of characters and elevated by industry leading art, music and character writing. The game itself bleeds quality. I can only imagine the pressure the team had to follow up the legacy of the last game, but they’ve managed to improve on God of War (2018) in every way, while maintaining true to everything that made the game great. Ragnarok is certainly going to be in the mix when the next ‘game of the generation’ discussions happen again in the coming years.
If you’re a fan of open world superhero games or a fan of the Batman franchise there are certainly a number of individual aspects of Gotham Knights you’ll be able to enjoy. The combat feels nice, the world is there to explore and there are some great character moments and writing throughout the whole game. Unfortunately it falls short as an overall great package due to an RPG loot system that feels like it was forced in and largely unnecessary, and pacing issues with the mission design and boss encounters. When the game focuses on the world and story it’s great, I just wish the game overall was closer to what we got with Arkham Origins rather than the push towards bloated modern grinds that have been injected into far too many games these days.
I had the feeling going in that I would really like Nier: Automata, but I wasn’t ready for just how much. It’s packed with great character moments, an interesting world and mysteries to uncover that will keep you pushing on. The game itself is designed to be played through multiple times to uncover everything that it has to offer, it’s FAR from over when you hit the credits screen for the first time, so do as the game suggests and jump back in again, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It features 26 different endings, some far more rewarding and significant than others but all providing another perspective or something new on the story overall. If you’re interested in playing, just jump in and do it, it’s well worth your time.
Return to Monkey Island feels like a real celebration of the series so far by including characters, locations such as Melee and Monkey Islands and plenty of callbacks, but expanding on all of those things with plenty of brand new components to act as a worthwhile celebration and sendoff for Guybrush and his adventures. Guybrush continues to be an engaging, hilarious and believable character that really helps immerse you into the story of himself and his fellow adventurers. The ending may be hit or miss with some fans but will certainly promote discussion and it’s just great to see a new Monkey Island game in 2022. Whether you’re new or existing fan, Guybrush’s latest adventure is well worth experiencing.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a solid remaster of the original game, packed with brand new features and characters and is a real love letter to fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The overall art style is very reminiscent of Hirohiko Araki’s original manga and has plenty of nods to the original manga and anime thrown in that fans of the series will really appreciate.
Whether it’s the first time you’re experiencing this incredible survival story for the first time or the 20th, there really isn’t a better looking or performing version of the game. Whether you believe the game needed to be remade or not is beside the point, when so much has been done to make the game visually impressive while also more accessible, it’s opened up the game to be experienced by a whole range of new players. While I do wish the incredibly fun factions mode of the original had been included, The Last Of Us Part 1 perfectly blends incredible visuals and cinematic story telling in a way that only the technical wizards at Naughty Dog are able to do.