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As a whole and in a vacuum, I heartily give this game a thumbs up. To Final Fantasy 7 fans, specifically, I have to say that Reunion is an absolute must play, especially given that nobody knows where this is all heading.
If you’re looking for a game to kick back and play race after race with a sizable campaign and other options including an online mode, Need for Speed Unbound has plenty to keep you busy and entertained.
Despite the growing pains, Darktide is a solid co-operative action game that’s great for a group of friends to play in spurts. At launch, the experience is limited in progression and variety, but the gameplay is challenging and viscerally satisfying enough to keep your attention. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack slaps and, performance issues aside, the graphics pack a punch. Since Fatshark is known for updating the Vermintide series over time with frequent content updates, Darktide is expected to improve as well. It may even deserve a higher score within the next six months, but I can only review what’s available now. So if you’re considering a purchase of the game, think of it as an investment that will likely pay off in a few years. It’s more than understandable, though, if you would rather wait for Darktide to meet your standards for a full release.
The Callisto Protocol is a deeply immersive sci-fi horror experience that firmly grabs you at the start and doesn’t let go. While this immersion shows its cracks during the transition into new areas, it’s not enough to ruin the overall experience.
Evil West is a straight shooter. It doesn’t pretend to be something more than it is — a game about cowboys slaying vampires without mercy. Despite being a tad unvaried, the combat is viscerally gratifying and confidently uncomplicated. And for that alone, the game is largely able to overcome the hiccups with the limited multiplayer, graphics crashes, and awkwardly edited story. Though the campaign is fairly short given the asking price, it has a permadeath mode and new game plus for replayability. Evil West may be rough around the corners, but it’s worth a shot of whiskey down at the nearest saloon.
The Devil in Me often subverts your expectations in such a way that diminishes player agency and makes your own choices feel arbitrary. Although its added gameplay features make for a more interactive experience, they hardly break the mold and were poorly executed. Technical issues tarnished the experience overall. The game still relies heavily on QTE-based survival mechanics and does little to set itself apart from its predecessors. What had the potential to be a truly horrific conclusion to The Dark Pictures Anthology amounts to little more than a lackluster thriller with a predictable narrative that opts for shock value and jumpscares over quality.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are ambitious new entries in the franchise that are held back by abysmal performance issues.
Despite issues with the game's engine, Goat Simulator 3 is going to go down as a guilty pleasure. It's relaxing in all the ways the original game was and a fun reminder that gaming doesn't always have to take itself so seriously.
A game like Pentiment doesn’t come around often. Top developers like Obsidian Entertainment usually leave smaller productions like this on the editing floor. The vast majority of games with fantastic stories usually ask players to kill something, solve puzzles, or have some other gimmick to it so that they remain engaged. Pentiment dares instead to rely on its craftsmanship, authenticity, and choice-based dialogue, trusting that the murder mystery is enough of a draw to pull players in. And despite some minor quibbles, Pentiment succeeds in its pursuit, creating a fantastic generational period drama with a wonderfully original vision.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a treasure of both classic tactical RPG design and modern sensibilities. I really like the quality-of-life features that make it so much easier to play and stay on the path of the story without much padding. I can also appreciate that this game also contains some tough-as-nails challenges that take an incredible amount of dedication to overcome. In between all that, it’s also just a great story and I really appreciate the Chariot Tarot system allowing you to see the paths untaken at any point you desire. If you want a great tactical RPG, this is not only the forerunner to many favorites, it’s also well-polished for a new generation.
Even if you’ve set high expectations for Sonic Frontiers, I feel like the game should have no trouble meeting them. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that Sonic Frontiers serves as one of the most refreshing entries the franchise has seen in years. If you’re on the fence, let this serve as an encouragement to check out the game. It’s well worth it, and then some.
Santa Monica Studio has captured lightning in a bottle for a second time. God of War Ragnarok left me speechless; it’s such a beautiful game both visually and narratively. The team has somehow managed to take what made the original such a wonder and expand upon it, delivering to players a masterpiece, an experience that sits atop the God of War pantheon.
While there are some new game modes and maps for players to master in multiplayer, there isn’t anything truly groundbreaking there, either. However, there are still a few new multiplayer features on the horizon, such as Tier 1 Hardcore playlists, that may amp up the multiplayer experience in the future.
Meanwhile, each of the game’s characters come with an interesting, yet heavy backstory attached that’ll pique your curiosity and inspire you to dig deeper. At times, the narrative can get lost in the chaos of trying not to get all four characters killed, but when it’s present, such as in items and clues, it’s gripping and will haunt you long after you’ve beaten the game.
Developer ClockStone gave this a good effort, but there wasn't enough in LEGO Bricktales to keep me feeling interested. Even the story, which is typically a franchise strong suit felt underwhelming with half-hearted humor and nothing really memorable. That's not to say there isn't a foundation for something better in the future. The concept of using LEGO building to progress and doing it in your own way is a strong one, but without better tools, like blueprints and the like, the novelty wears off quickly. For now, LEGO Bricktales is a fun curiosity and little more than that.
In spite of some growing pains, Marvel Snap is fantastic and a marvelous first effort from the folks at Second Dinner. Like Marvel itself, it should be fun to see how it grows going forward.
The third entry in the series is not only the best Bayonetta game, but also one of the best offerings from PlatinumGames thus far.
Like the three protagonists it features, New Tales From the Borderlands is a hot mess. If you don't take the game too seriously, there's a fun, heartfelt adventure buried somewhere beneath the layers of erratic writing and misplaced humor. It's an oddball romp with a bumbling cast of characters who deserve more substance than they were given. If the original Tales From the Borderlands is ice cream, New Tales From the Borderlands is frozen yogurt. And at the end of the day, even Fran admits that frozen yogurt just isn’t as good.
Batman has trained these heroes for this moment, but they aren't ready to rise to the occasion just yet with Gotham Knights.
The Jackbox Party Pack 9 has more hits than misses and the hits came in some unexpected spots. Even the games that were expected to be good wound up being far better than I could have anticipated. Add this to some noteworthy quality-of-life improvements, like the ability to log into a room using a QR code, and Jackbox Games continues to bring the goods. As long as the team keeps things simple, there's no reason to stop adding The Jackbox Party Pack to your regular game night rotation. It remains as reliable as it gets.