Gamepur's Reviews
Ironically, despite trying to plow a very different furrow to the base game, that same rule applies to the Vaas: Insanity DLC that many folks use for Far Cry games in general. If you enjoy the combat then you will enjoy this. While it is interesting to see Far Cry explored through the lens of a roguelike, it all adds up to little more than a few hours of reasonably repetitive entertainment which is unlikely to bring any new players into the Far Cry fold.
Gollum isn’t protagonist material, at least not for a video game. He is a wretched creature who only survived the events of The Hobbit because Bilbo took pity on him. If The Lord of the Rings: Gollum can be said to have one achievement, it perfectly emulates the painful experience of being Gollum, as it makes you feel just as sad and wretched as Sméagol himself. This story didn’t need to be told, as the exciting parts of Gollum’s life were displayed in Tolkien’s works, and this game only sullies the characters created by the great author with its terrible… everything.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix is an anachronism of a video game, looking like it came from the 2000s while including characters from recent television shows. The first Nickelodeon Kart Racers, from 2018, was soulless and cynical, but I can say that the sequel is twice the game its predecessor was. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much, as the first game set the bar so low that it’s below even Rock Bottom.
The question that Redfall leaves me with is why? Why put out such a middling game before it’s ready, especially as any buzz it would have accrued will be swallowed by other game releases? Why not save it for later in the year, after the launch of Starfield, and end the Xbox brand’s year on a high note? Why botch the vampire concept and fill the game with gun-toting soldiers? Why include a loot and skill point system only to make them so boring that leveling up and finding equipment becomes a chore? Why launch a game focusing on multiplayer and not have match-making? Why, Redfall, why?
A year after a respectable release in NHL 22, 23 seems to have way more bugs than its predecessor and a gameplay meta that is just too much of a slog to enjoy.
The multiplayer offering is equally broken, with the same gameplay mechanics married to a lack of variety and strategy. Its maps are varied, strategic, or fun enough to be replayed and its take on existing or new game modes for the genre are half-baked. Every fun moment CrossfireX offers is squandered by a couple of cons.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a game that will quickly lose your attention over a weekend unless you are a diehard fan of the franchise and have a group of friends that are the same. It’s another example of how hard it can be to make an equally fun and engaging asymmetrical multiplayer game.
Bright Memory: Infinite is serviceable entertainment if you go in with low expectations. The environments are very impressively made, but the characters, not so much. Don’t even try to understand the story because it’s very much not worth it.
Regardless, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl serves as an example of how surgical marketing can be, feeding competitive players with specific bullet points while trying to cast a wide net with its popular IP. Playing it may certainly make you smile, and moments of hype can follow. But in the end, it’s an extended meme at best and a monument to capitalistic cynicism at worst.
Pixel Café is very cute, if not revolutionary, and enjoyable when it decides to work. It’s got charm, a hearty dose of nostalgia, and simple hypnotic gameplay that really sucks you in. Its low-fi soundtrack sets the mood perfectly, and I genuinely enjoyed playing the game. However, Pixel Cafe— like Pixel’s bushel of bosses— also has some very apparent flaws. The poorly edited script was a distraction, and it lacks one of the bare minimum requirements of a game: the ability to play it fully. The game derailing on the train level is not something that can just be glossed over.
In the third year of the franchise on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, one would think that Madden would really round into form and solidify itself for a renaissance. Yet, it still looks and feels like a game that is missing quite a bit.
Tower of Fantasy has a vast world that you are free to explore when you aren’t being prevented from doing so.
Surprising no one, Babylon’s Fall’s live service trappings are its biggest failing. The way it handles loot, crafting, and customization could just as well exist in a self-contained single player experience with appropriate tweaks.
Monark constantly strains within the confines of expectation, unable to push its ambitions through.
Supermassive Games fails to understand that they can’t direct their art with such indignation. Rather than letting consumers enjoy their titles in sometimes unintended ways, they’ve come to limit the gameplay experience as a means of controlling the community. In the process, they have damned the conversations that could have risen, with House of Ashes acting as yet another middling product, free of the soul that leaves a lasting impression.
If EA Sports UFC came out every year, I wouldn’t feel as pessimistic about UFC 5, but after a three-year wait, this is only a serviceable attempt at best; you will only have as much fun as the people you match up with want to. Too many legacy issues are glued onto this game, and it’s such a shame that EA Vancouver doesn’t have any desire to do anything other than this odd half-live service deal with outfits.
Overall, Detective Pikachu Returns is a unique entry to the Pokemon universe that offers an engaging story but falls short in gameplay. The storytelling and humor are enough to keep you interested in learning what will happen next to Pikachu and his friends. Still, if you’re looking for an interactive and engaging video game experience, this one doesn’t quite deliver. If you’re interested in an entertaining story that doesn’t require heavy gaming chops or hours of free time to play through, Detective Pikachu Returns may have something to offer. The world has some interesting detail that pulls you in, and you can play through the full story in a relatively short time.
There can still be fun gained from playing Marvel’s Avengers, but it may give you a headache — existential or otherwise — long before you reach that point.
Touhou: New World is fun at its core. If you ignore the overdone “universal devastation” storyline and are okay with sifting through waves of trash mobs, there are some challenging bits that rival boss fights from some of the highest-praised indie titles. These fights are fun and chaotic and often make me wish this game was just a boss rush.
Although I might seem down on Aliens: Dark Descent, there is a great game here under the inconvenience that is the main systems constantly getting in your way of trying to have fun. Balancing this out so scenarios aren’t piling on top of one another at the same time would definitely alleviate some of the frustrations I had being gated into outlandish fights. With a game where permadeath for characters is such a vital component, having bugs and technical issues that cause you to lose progress can be gut-wrenching, and it’s something I experienced far too often. Aliens: Dark Descent isn’t exactly what I had hoped for, but there’s plenty of room where improvements can be made.