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Pixel Ripped 1995 hits the PSVR2, a nostalgic and brief all-ages adventure through classic gaming that leverages 3D interactivity in inventive ways.
The class choices, combat, and gameplay of Minecraft x Dungeons & Dragons are all solid but do feel a bit limited at times because of this being DLC. However, it makes a great case for a fully-fledged Minecraft DnD game. What's here is a ton of fun and feels impressively like DnD. Fans of the tabletop RPG, or even fans of old-school dungeon crawlers, should find something to love about Minecraft x Dungeons & Dragons.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage marks a concerted effort for the series to return to its roots, but that doesn’t make it immune to longstanding issues.
Still, Endless Dungeon’s strong presentation, characterful sci-fi culture, and unique cooperative approach remains intact. It’s a game of on-the-fly decisions and intimidating combat encounters, with success often separated from failure by a hair. Those qualities should draw in the more patient and masochistic roguelite aficionados, and better still if they have a like-minded, agreeable team in tow, the players committed to see the treacherous paths to the reactor all the way through and come back for more. Ultimately, Endless Dungeon offers a smart and strategic co-op challenge with minimal hand-holding, but its structure feels all a little too delicate to deliver up the next real roguelite obsession.
Taking all of this into account, it's still safe to recommend Lords of the Fallen to anyone remotely interested in this genre, be it veterans or those looking for an entry point. When it comes to Soulslikes, this release is very accessible to new players to the genre and offers more than a good challenge to those with more experience. While it still has plenty of fine-tuning ahead, Lords of the Fallen is a worthy reboot of its predecessor that offers something new and lays a strong foundation for future adventures in Mournstead and beyond.
Overall, EA Sports FC 24 on Switch still feels behind the game on other platforms. For players who have another platform available, the Switch version is definitely to be avoided, but for those who specifically want to play this soccer sim on the go, it's still likely the best option available right now. As such, it might be just escaping relegation in comparison to its predecessors, but EA Sports still owes more to Switch players than what this delivers.
Ultimately, Station to Station is a very relaxing experience and wonderful for anyone who likes solving puzzles. The style and feel of it all is calming despite sometimes suffering failure and having to restart or reset from a checkpoint. It is a short game, being completed in around 8–10 hours, but then the custom mode helps to add more for anyone who wants to keep going.
Overall, Forza Motorsport is a triumph of virtual motor racing. Turn 10 Studios has brought the Forza franchise to a new generation with aplomb, and although not quite all the updates entirely land, it's a tremendous racing game that could be nearly perfect with just a handful of tweaks.
Detective Pikachu Returns is a fine game that knows its niche and plays into it well. It operates more like an excuse to see Pokémon in a different setting than anything else, but for players interested in that sort of thing, it's fascinating. I wouldn't really recommend the game for adults looking for anything challenging or particularly nuanced, but it's an okay story wrapped in a wonderful world that's reasonably quick to complete. Detective Pikachu Returns doesn't quite make good on the promise the film adaptation gave the series, but it's a solid follow-up and anyone who liked the first will double down on having a good time with the second.
EA Sports FC 24 is a fine - even good - soccer simulation that just doesn't change anything in a meaningful way, making it forgettable.
There are a series of hidden packages to find and slice open, some funny new forums content in the pause menu and, again, that terrific Cheers bit. For fans of the original, High on Knife will hardly disappoint, but granting this short DLC an extended credits gag feels like a bit much. Preceding it is a few good hours of jokes, meta silliness, and gore, prodded along with more excellently odd voice acting, the equivalent of some extra surprise buds discovered at the bottom of the bag. Still, if High on Knife is a taste of more sizable High on Life DLC bounties to come, all the better.
Overall, Cocoon is a fantastic puzzle game. Its core gimmick of world-jumping is implemented expertly, building a cohesive in-game logic that will keep players hooked to the end. It's a world full of secrets, many of then unknown, and it's all the better for it.
The Lamplighters League has enough meat on its bones to make it a comfortable crowd-pleaser for tactics fans, and the careful integration of its many systems couples with a smooth learning curve to make it accessible to genre newcomers. The game taps into some of the best elements of customization and management while neatly avoiding crunchiness, and the only thing that's likely to become overwhelming is the occasional drawn-out battle. Simple to pick up and satisfying to master, The Lamplighters League is a polished tactical adventure that carves out a niche with swashbuckling swagger.
Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways is just as fun to play as Resident Evil 4 Remake was, although it's much shorter. There are some great set-pieces and moments of camp that you won't find in any other series, and it is nice that Capcom is at least giving Ada and Wesker to the base game's Mercenaries mode for free. But. This whole part of the game used to be free. This was an add-on, a bonus, something Capcom initially packaged in with Resident Evil 4 on the PlayStation 2. All you had to do was beat the game once - there was no extra money involved.
If Infinity Strash had leaned more heavily into the action combat, it would have been an excellent spin-off from the Dragon Quest series and could've been an enjoyable game in its own right. All the right pieces are here - there's just not enough of them. Unfortunately, that means Infinity Strash: DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai isn't so much an action RPG as an anime rewatch.
Silent Hope seems like a simple premise, but it is executed beautifully. The level of challenge is just right, the loot that is picked up with each run gives a very satisfying feeling, and the story is a journey, not only in what happened within this kingdom but also an exploration of mental health and pride. It truly becomes a dungeon crawler with hidden depths as the philosophy behind the story comes into play and the need to know more of what happened drives players to want to keep going and try to get a little further. Silent Hope is truly a well-crafted experience that offers much more than meets the eye.
Paleo Pines is by no means a bad game - it presents creative new mechanics and is a clear winner for any players who are big fans of dinosaurs. The experience just feels like it could've used a bit more time in the oven to perfect things like its graphics, direction, and the depth of its characters. It may not be perfect, but Paleo Pines offers a laid back and lighthearted adventure across a dinosaur-covered world that's well-suited for any player looking for a relaxing Jurassic adventure.
This title's gorgeous visuals, great sense of humor, and creative crafting make it much easier to overlook the areas in which it falls short. The game weaves a delightful tale full of feline-centric magical realism that's truly delightful, and it's possibly one of the best releases for cat lovers since Stray. Despite its flaws, Mineko's Night Market is perfect for any player looking for a creative and relaxing world to get lost in.
Ultimately there is nothing mind-blowing about Horizon Chase 2, but there also really isn't anything negative either. The only drawback is that there isn't more of it, as the game is pretty quick to complete at roughly eight hours for the entire World Tour unless played on high difficulties that make it harder to progress. Horizon Chase 2 simply feels like a fun game that is perfect at giving a nostalgic feel of a 90s arcade racer, but with much better graphics to smooth it out.
Overall, Payday 3 is another fantastic entry in a series of well received games. It may fall short in its storytelling and player onboarding, but it excels in providing an interesting plot, satisfying gameplay, well-designed levels, smart enemy A.I., and refined gameplay systems. While it's easy to recommend this for players that have access to a team to play with, the same cannot be said about those that don't; an issue that can hopefully be addressed with the changes and updates outlined in Payday 3's roadmap. Payday 3 is smart, fun, and chaotic in every way and is sure to rope in even more members into the Payday Gang.