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Fans of the One Piece anime and manga will probably find more to enjoy in the World Seeker experience than most gamers. Once you get past the pretty surface, you’ll find that there isn’t much below it. The story is middling, lacking the excitement and action you would expect from a property like One Piece.
For now, Rage 2 feels like the final shrill beep on the ECG before the flatline hits. The last flutter of life the series had to offer, squandered away.
Technical issues, strange gameplay decisions, and an overall lackluster series of features make Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes an unworthy placeholder for the next entry in the series.
Right now, Anthem is not good. And given what's come out of BioWare in the past and the kinds of lasting, impactful experiences that the gaming world knows BioWare is capable of delivering, that's truly sad.
As it stands, it's really only good for mindless entertainment. I guess the same can be said of most YouTube channels, too.
In the end, Deracine accomplishes little that a point-and-click adventure couldn't do. It's capable of beautiful and engaging moments, but hamfisted dialogue, awkward voice acting, and frustrating VR behaviors ruin it, for the most part.
New Gundam Breaker definitely has some great nuanced aspects to its core concept of mix-and-match mech model making, but what it needed was more variety to spice up the gameplay.
Fallout 76 is a bit of a disaster, which is a shame because there are good ideas and good bits of content here. There wasn’t a single play session where I didn’t have a lot of fun, but there also wasn’t a session where something ridiculous didn’t cause frustration. It feels like it should have been released into early access as a work in progress for the next several months, thus alleviating some of the frustration from poor performance, bugs, and balancing issues. However, Bethesda opted to release Fallout 76 in a broken state, and this time I’m not laughing along about the bugs simply because we’ve come to accept them as a part of the Fallout franchise. How does Fallout 4 look infinitely better than Fallout 76, with the former coming out in 2015, more than three years ago? Fallout 76 is a decent game, but all the good is being crushed by the plethora of problems that just shouldn’t be problems.
Strange Brigade is an odd bag. It tries to capture a 1930s charm but instead of being charming, it becomes unbearable. It attempts to wrap a story around a horde mode experience but the narrative is unoriginal and the threat of being overrun with enemies is rarely present. Strange Brigade is a disappointing and repetitive experience that offers mildly enjoyable combat but is otherwise entirely forgettable.
While I found the larger experience to be underwhelming, the game does offer some high points. Moving around the game map and fast traveling is instantaneous and seamless. While I didn't find the game's menus to be as functional as I'd like, they all look really sharp and fit within the game's aesthetic. While music tastes are subjective, I found the included soundtrack to be very well done (as it was in the first Crew game) and it made some of the less exciting races more tolerable. Swapping between vehicles works very well and is probably the coolest part of the game.
There just needs to be more below the surface to keep a game like Guns of Icarus Alliance engaging. For now, though, it's another example of a game with a great idea that flew too close to the sun.
Monster Prom had so much potential and so much to offer that I couldn't wait to tear into it. And on a superficial level, it's an interesting experiment that I thought I would love. Unfortunately, just like the monsters you're courting, once you get to know it it's only a great-looking shell with some fairly rotten insides.
For WWE fans, there is a lot to like with the package, but ultimately, bad design cripples what could be a real winner. While I was not the biggest fan of them, the removal of the showcase events is a huge loss for longtime wrestling fans. The game still lacks any kind of decent general manager mode and offers players no way to set up and book their own fantasy wrestling shows. This mode was included in the series many years ago, so it shouldn't be that tough to get it working on this generation of consoles/PC. On the gameplay side of things, 2K is still falling way short of the fun and simulation aspects of much simpler WWE games from the 1990s. Only the most hardcore WWE fans should apply. On a scale of 10, the PC version is probably two full points better than the console versions. I wish it wasn't true, but it's damn true. 5/10 Phenomenal Forearms
Call of Duty: WW2 is competently made by a skilled team. I just wish some of that talent and skill could be put towards anything other than this yearly pile of linear shooting rehash. The game runs well and is very playable, so things aren't all that bad, they just feel soulless. All I could think of while playing is how I would rather be killing Nazis in Wolfenstein 2. 5/10 sad violin interludes
Ultra Street Fighter II tries to add a robust package around its tried-and-true Arcade mode, but much of that package doesn't pan out. All that leaves is the Arcade and Versus modes and for as great as Street Fighter II is, it's a game that also shows its age after a while.
2064: Read Only Memories is a great game for anyone who agrees 100% with what its heavy-handed, politically-charged plot forces down your throat without question. However, like a political conversation on social media, 2064 is long-winded, overly aggressive in its message, ill-presented, and accomplishes nothing.
For one of the earliest Nintendo Switch experiences I’ve had with the console, Just Dance 2017 was a disappointing departure. Though its slick and easy to use interface combined with the Switch-centric Tabletop Mode are boons for those looking to dance, there’s little substance here, certainly not enough to recommend shelling out cash for Just Dance Unlimited or even playing this game instead of just turning on the radio and dancing to your own routines. It will likely please casual fans who don’t know any better, but if you really want to learn how to dance wait for the inevitable full-body VR trainer or just roll it on back to Dance Central, the undisputed dance trainer of the last decade. You’ll surely learn a lot more, and it’s still great at parties.
Mario Party: Island Tour never seems a natural fit on the 3DS. It feels more like the game has been hammered into shape to fit as well as it can on the platform. Yet, with no online support and inconsistent mini-game quality, those concessions just aren't enough to warrant the franchise's move to handheld.
The Yoshi's Island series is one of my favorite gaming series ever, which is why it's so painful to see Yoshi's New Island fall short in so many ways. It's not a bad game and certainly a serviceable one for younger audiences and new players. Unfortunately, for those that have followed Yoshi since his first starring role nearly 20 years ago, this game is a tremendous disappointment.
Is a beautiful Norse fantasy world enough to save Tangrin Entertainment's indie-RPG from a lackluster story and bland characters?