DayOne's Reviews
Overall, despite some control issues and uneven pacing, Woodo is still a title I can largely recommend to players who want a few hours of calming escapism with some stunning visuals, a gentle plot, and meditative gameplay. While perhaps the result is very much style over substance, that style is so warm and inviting it’s easy to overlook a few flaws and simplistic gameplay, at least for its short runtime.
EA SPORTS FC 27 is a solid entry, and one that is surprisingly bug-free. The gameplay changes are welcome, but it is ultimately a very iterative edition to Electronic Arts’ long-running football series. It’s still plenty fun and plenty rage-inducing, but you can’t go wrong with this year’s entry. ∎
it’s a convoluted, frustrating journey to get there, and it’s not one I’m entirely sure was even worth it come the end. Every time the power cut out, or I ran into a dead end, or needed to back track, I started to really dislike that arcade machine. Come the end, I began to hate it. Like I said – a brave choice for the developer to make.
SILENT HILL Townfall tries something new, shifting perspectives and de-emphasizing combat. Despite looking and sounding great, with a story that features multiple satisfying endings, the gameplay lets it down.
CONTROL Resonant had a frustratingly obtuse start and an incredible ending. It is a worthy successor to a similarly flawed but great game.
Marvel’s Wolverine, despite my grievances, is a pretty easy game to like. It’s slick, spectacular and often quite satisfying, in a bloody, gloriously violent sort of way, supported by excellent performances throughout. Sadly, the experience around it is often too familiar to games we’ve played many times before and wears out its welcome with an overly long campaign. I wish Logan could lend a claw or two and cut this down to a leaner, meaner adventure.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter’s highs are nothing short of incredible. Once Estelle and company got going, the game never stopped giving and it never stopped letting up. This “part two” has become one of my favourite JRPGs of all time, it blew me away—and both games are fantastic, for newcomers and veterans of the genre alike.
In today’s far faster moving market it feels a lot harder to have those moments, and playing through MONOWAVE ended up being genuinely nostalgic for a very different time. While not perfect, it is a beautifully creative debut full of fresh ideas and gorgeous visuals, and it is a fantastic package for any puzzle platformer fan out there.
As a budget title of just £15.99 I have to give WheelMates some credit. It comes with a Friend’s Pass, and while it didn’t blow either myself or my co-op partner away, we did have fun. While it’s got a few issues, there were plenty of collectibles to go back and find, so it’s certainly a decent amount of bang for your buck and a reasonably entertaining time with a friend. It’s just a shame there wasn’t more done to take advantage of WheelMates unique, twitchy RC-Car setup, because on that front, the developers have done a great job. Fingers crossed they take the concept and have another stab at it.
For those with the patience to overlook some rather dated gameplay moments, The Blood of Dawnwalker offers glimpses of a masterpiece, and I am very excited to see what Rebel Wolves have in store for us in the future.
So, as of today, Bus Simulator 27 has all the goods on paper, and if developer Simteract manage to iterate on it via regular updates and tweaks, it has all the chances of becoming another hit, just like Bus Simulator 21 before it. Few games feature the depth and variety of the latest entry in the series, now it’s a matter of fixing a series of issues that currently limit its potential. I plan to revisit the game in the future, and hopefully it will live up to its incredible potential with time.
The excellent foundations of the Hot Wheels Unleashed games have been carried over into a very fun open world racer experience, one that manages to shine during its chill exploration moments and in the midst of high-octane races on plastic tracks suspended above the cities you can explore.
If this review reads a little negatively, it is more down to setting a fair expectation to the sacrifices made to get Elden Ring onto the Nintendo Switch 2 to start with. Whether those ends justify the means is, ultimately, down to the buyer. What I can say is this; Elden Ring is intact on Switch 2, perhaps closer to the older days of FromSoftware releases than the new on the technical side, but the best way to play on a handheld and still an excellent videogame for those who haven’t dived in yet on other consoles. A tarnished epic, but an epic nonetheless.
For all our early reservations, by the time the credits rolled, we were very glad we’d stuck with it. Orbitals is a charming, visually striking co-op adventure. It takes a while to get off the ground, but when it does, it really sticks the landing.
It’s a tough one to answer, especially in a genre where a pattern of dead match queues after short-term success is the common narrative. I can’t speak on that future, but what I can say is right now Halloween needs work: on its match pacing, its learning curve, its gameplay mechanics, and crucially…its bevy of technical issues. There remains potential for a solid multiplayer horror title here, and the IP and visuals might be enough to convince some, but as of right now, Halloween is not an easy title to recommend to all but die-hard fans of the genre.
If you’re a fan of killing demons and the like as an angelic force of destruction, then Crimson Moon is easily worth the $19.99 USD asking price. And hell, even if you’re not, it might still be worth it just to have another fun co-op game to play with friends.
Ultimately, Speedrunners 2: King of Speed is more excellent gameplay buried beneath a collection of unnecessary additions. The classic competitive platforming is still fantastic, and if all you want is more Speedrunners but prettier, then there is absolutely fun to be had here. It’s just a shame that so much of the new content feels like it distracts from, rather than improves upon, what made the original such a brilliant little multiplayer game in the first place.
Blood Dungeon asks the player for a little more patience then I expected. Its biggest weakness is the slow speed at which runs can build towards that wonderful bullet-heaven feeling of becoming hilariously overpowered. With some genuinely great platforming, and a decent number of unlocks, it eventually delivers a decent amount of fun. I just wish it got there a little quicker.
Marsupilami 2 is a solid, packed little platformer that’s fast-paced just enough for everyone to get in on the fun. An easy recommendation for the 2D platforming enthusiast and family looking to do more than just the odd obby. ∎
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a brilliant reboot of the long-running franchise, with only a lack of enemy/boss variety holding it back from greatness.