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Despite a long hiatus, the Alone in the Dark remake is a solid offering in a long-dormant franchise. It does borrow heavily from modern survival horror titles but still manages to create its own distinctive experience. It’s clear that a lot of attention went into rendering both David Harbour and Jodie Comer into their characters. Fortunately, that gambit paid off well in a concise package with decent gameplay and story beats to match.
Going into this charming indie game, I was excited by the strong visual identity and musical score. But I came away feeling flat. The strong presentation, great audio design, and unique mechanics do not make up for unfair challenges and needlessly punishing players for playing on lesser difficulties. If you are willing to give Popslinger a chance and fight back against the foam, you might enjoy the otherwise sweet soda beneath.
Persona 3 Reload more than exceeded my expectations. Its original emotionally charged story, themes, and setting were followed to a T with new moments throughout that fleshed out its villains and various members of SEES was a welcomed surprise. Its renewed combat system was refreshing and Tartarus felt more alive and enjoyable to explore. There is a ton of replay value with its new game plus and an emotional ending I can never forget. There is not a single thing I would change about this game in the slightest and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Sonic Frontiers takes lessons from games across the industry and puts its own spin on them. For the first time in many, many years Sonic Team united varied elements into a cohesive package. Breathtaking soundtrack, bold steps forward on a core formula, and spectacular boss fights dash past pop-in and difficulty issues to create the best Sonic game in many years.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth feels like the culmination of developer Ryu Ga Gotoku’s efforts over the past decade to create a bombastic franchise that is rich in personality and action. The game’s engaging combat, stunning locales, and a dense assortment of side content and mini-games, all help to ensure Infinite Wealth is a good time from start to finish. Some issues with the story’s pacing are quickly forgotten when players begin to immerse themselves in the game’s world, and not a minute of time spent feels wasted. It’s not easy for a franchise to continuously reinvent itself while keeping things fresh and modern, but Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth does exactly that. The series is going from strength to strength, and Ryu Ga Gotoku’s biggest problem right now is likely trying to figure out how exactly it will raise the bar even further next time.
Banishers Ghosts of New Eden adheres to a scope that DON’T NOD is comfortable with and sticks to it well. The game has decent combat with cryptic haunting cases to solve. Despite a lot of attention placed on the post-mortem love story, don’t expect it to be the next Romeo and Juliet any time soon.
It’s clear a lot of love and attention to detail that went into creating Suicide Squad. Despite some narrative shortcomings, the game has that tried-and-true world-building and characters that Rocksteady is known for. The moment-to-moment gameplay is phenomenal and feels great with a performance to match. The end game seems promising and has a solid foundation. Though some technical issues persist, mission/enemy variety and interesting loot and designs will only propel the game further. With a clear year-one roadmap already established, Suicide Squad is undoubtedly Rocksteady’s most ambitious and deepest game to date.
Make no mistake, Tekken 8 is one of the finest offerings in the long-running series. It offers plenty of modes to keep you busy while making it welcoming to both newcomers and vets alike. Dare I say, Tekken 8 is the best iteration since the ground-breaking Tekken 3.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an exercise to not judge a book by its cover. Many, including me, assumed it would be Far Cry, except with Na’vi. But in reality, the game is a meticulously crafted game that stands on its own from its source material. It doesn’t bring many new features to the table, but it does provide a solid experience that brings Pandora to life in ways well beyond what movies are capable of.
The original Turok 3 was released during an awkward time. Sandwiched between the tail end of the Nintendo 64 life cycle and right before the release of the PlayStation 2, it likely passed many players’ radar. However, like their previous offerings, Nightdive Studio did a tremendous job bringing back a forgotten gem to modern audiences. If you slept on Turok 3 in 2000, make sure to not pass up it again in 2023.
Persona 5 Tactica is an excellent strategy game. The combat feels fast and fluid despite its turn-based nature in varied and interesting stages throughout. There’s also plenty of variety in the character roster and customization via the personas and skill trees. The story felt like its own thing while never overstaying its welcome with awesome new characters. As well as having condensed and easy-to-navigate menus to not bog down the game. It is a very easy recommendation to those who have completed Persona 5 Royal and want a very streamlined introduction to the strategy genre. Considering the game even on normal or hard feels manageable, due to mastery of its amazing combat system that is just as enjoyable as the rest of the game
Lost Eidolons has many great things going for it. However, it isn’t perfect by any means. Despite its issues, its positive aspects triumph overall. The story always kept pulling me in and evoking emotions that not many games can do for me these days. Lost Eidolons is a game that might take some time to get attached to. But once you get in the swing of things, it hooks you, and you’re in for the ride. Lost Eidolons is available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC platforms. The game has an MSRP of $34.99 which is a great price for how much I enjoyed the game.
Originally conceived as a spin-off, and spending just 6 months in development, Like a Dragon Gaiden could well have found itself sitting among the series’ more forgettable entries. To the contrary, though, Ryu Ga Gotoku seemed determined not to let this happen. Instead filling Gaiden to the brim with things to see and do, mini-games large and small, a meaningful narrative, and even a brand-new combat style. While it doesn’t tear up the playbook of what to expect from a Like a Dragon game, it does everything you’d expect it to do extremely well. It even finds room for a couple of welcome new additions in the Agent gadgets and engaging Castle setting. It is clearly meant to serve as a stop-gap before the imminent arrival of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in January 2024. But Gaiden does more than enough to appease fans old and new, filling in some crucial blanks for the series’ often convoluted narrative, and serving as a great swansong for Kazuma Kiryu. The Like a Dragon series continues to ride the crest of a wave at the moment, and all eyes will now be on Infinite Wealth as it looks to continue this trend.
All things considered, Achilles: Legends Untold is by no means a bad game. It ticks a lot of the boxes you’d look for in a soulslike, with robust combat, a cool world to explore, and challenging bosses. The issue is the repetitive nature of the game. After a while, each dungeon will look the same. Each combat encounter will feel slow and methodical. While the handful of enemy types on offer will wear extremely thin. The game also suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. It isn’t quite sure if it wants to be a Diablo-style looter/ dungeon crawler, or an isometric soulslike. The result is it ends up being a little of both, without doing either particularly well. That being said, developer Darkpoint Games deserves praise for showing an impressive amount of affection for the source material. Fans of Ancient Greek mythology, as well as Diablo or soulslikes, could do a lot worse than checking this game out. Just don’t expect much innovation.
The Invincible plays much like I would imagine the book feels. Its heady exploration of evolution, adaptation, and the nature of life wraps around the video game shell. The game drags on just a little too long. Ultimately, the game part of the equation just doesn’t do enough to make the experience fun to play. The ideas presented while compelling, fall apart in multiple of the game’s endings leaving me feeling baffled at some of the design decisions made. The Invincible feels like a palette cleanser of a game. It attempts to be literature in a marketplace surrounded by bombast. Somewhere along the line though, Starward Industries lost sight of the fact that interacting with the world has to be engaging and not just a canvas upon which to paint a story.
“Be Greater, Together” perfectly captures what this game is about. Miles is instrumental in Peter’s arc with the suit, and Peter guides Miles’ development as Spider-Man. Spider-Man 2 shows how it needs both characters to succeed where it wants to. Venom ranks high in Spider-Man’s villain gallery, but there’s no Venom without the Black Suit story. Insomniac delivers on that story with great gameplay to match. Even though there are some issues with narrative and open-world execution, anyone who enjoyed Insomniac’s other Spider-Man games will feel right at home. Above all else, Spider-Man 2’s technical advancement warrants its Game of the Year consideration. Sony moved on from the PS4 and now fully harnesses the PS5’s power.
Jusant shows its best when it shows the past. As you climb through a ghost civilization, you see and hear what was left behind and why. Don’t Nod’s biggest accomplishment revolves around water, or lack thereof. They show that water is life’s most important resource. When the water disappears, or when a jusant comes, life leaves too. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s still a pleasant, cozy, afternoon experience.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is an experience tailored to those who remember the early days of the franchise fondly. Yet, it relies on the coattails of its founding games without evolving what made them great. Furthermore, this lack of innovation harms your time exploring beautiful parts of its scenery. Your time could be well spent when completing its story if Basim carried more weight and did not fall prey to a haphazard ending. Overall, the game is nothing more than a mediocre trip down memory lane while Ubisoft prepares for its next big entry.
It’s been a while since we had an entry in the Forza Motorsport series. However, that time was well spent revamping the game’s pristine driving mechanics and physics for the current generation. All the while incorporating a modern leveling system and live-service features that keep the dopamine rush intact. Truly, the king is back.
Phantom Liberty delivers a top-ten experience for 2023. You can pick many facets from a stacked cast to incredible writing to break-neck fast combat upgrades to much more. Dogtown hides many nooks, crannies, and stories once you get past its security checkpoint. CD Projekt Red delivered an excellent experience that all players, regardless of their stacked gaming schedules, must check out.