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Judging The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition on its entertainment value is easy – it’s perfect. It has an unbelievable story, compelling characters, solid gameplay, and a properly thought-through backend that shows the developers are all-in on delivering an unforgettable experience. On the next-generation upgrade side of this release, it’s just not complete. While the performance mode takes the experience up a notch with visuals and frame rate, the Ray Tracing mode is unplayable and incomplete. It hurts the experience more than it helps it.
Sky: Children of the Light is a welcome addition to the PlayStation ecosystem, especially in a post-COVID world where happiness and cooperation are fleeting. As an MMO, Sky's approach to player retention, exploration, and connection are uplifting, positive, and indeed show the brighter side of humanity. I wish that a PS5-upgrade could better integrate my DualSense into the gameplay, but in the grand scheme of cooperation and connection, Sky hits the sweet spot of an incredibly chill gameplay experience.
The Meta Quest 2 release of Iron Man VR shows that Camouflaj is expanding and enhancing the VR experience as the hardware capabilities improve. The game feels like what you would expect from an Iron Man experience and without all the wires to gum up the perceived reality it’s trying to deliver. The game works better, feels better, and looks better than its previous release. You shouldn’t pass it up.
Hindsight is still an experience that feels real, brings out the best and worst emotions, and provides an accurate portrayal of the grieving process. The longevity of the experience is a blessing due to the emotional strain it puts on the gamer, and also a curse as it isn’t replayable for any reason other than personal choice. It’s a great tale and one that everyone should experience.
The majority of games featured in the NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol. 2 are fun, while some fall flat. Overall, I think SNK released a solid selection of titles for volume 2 of this series with some added extra to boot, but they really do need to rethink that price point.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me uses a piece of real history to deliver a B-movie-level horror show experience. The H.H. Holmes backdrop makes for a devilishly uncomfortable story experience, while the gameplay design falls in line with the DPA game series. The game does have some technical hiccups here and there, but it should satisfy those who enjoy the previous iterations of the series.
'Need for Speed Unbound' is what we all needed. Like a throwback to the older NFS games. Unbound says, 'Hey, I'm really just here to have a damn good time,' and hands you the keys.
Sifu remains an excellent third-person roguelike that taps into classic kung fu combat. With its multiple free updates thus far in 2022, patient gamers should be assured that now is the best time to try one of the most accessible but still challenging roguelikes of the year. Sure, the Switch's port is probably a suboptimal experience compared to the PS5's hardware. But, it runs pretty well on the Switch, and it's quite fun despite the graphical quibbles one may expect from the Switch's hardware. SLOCLAP has done a pretty good job with this port and free updates, making Sifu a shoe-in for those wanting a souls-like experience on their Switches.
The best version of Spider-Man: Miles Morales resides on the PC. With a powerful story, compelling gameplay, DualSense compatibility, and a load of customizable options to get the best visuals, you’re going to be happy that this game came to this platform. It’s an absolute gem.
Astro Bot from developer Team Asobi and Sony Interactive Entertainment is a wonderful entry into Astro’s bigger adventure possibilities. The game features creative levels, plenty of personality and positivity, and several reasons to replay it once the main adventure has concluded. While it could have a bit more variety with its common enemies, the bosses, and uniquely built levels deliver more entertainment and joyful meta than should legally be allowed. This is a great big beginning for what should be a long-lasting Sony mascot.
Atari 50 from developer Digital Eclipse provides a proper path down memory lane with video interviews, old commercials, and a cornucopia of information to dig into about Atari’s history, the good and the bad. The inclusion of early Atari games, arcade experiences, the Atari computing systems, Lynx, and Jaguar are just icing on a well-baked, delicious cake.
Sonic Frontiers from Sonic Team has all the right moves with controls, level design, looks, feel, and structure. What it needs to work on is making the game more pointed in its narrative and flowing without interruption. This game has a great skeleton, now all it requires is some solid content to fill some of that narrative disconnect. It contains some great elements, but it’s far from perfect.
Terrible Toybox and Devolver Digital’s Return to Monkey Island hit all the right notes that proper homage to the original. It brought classic humor, a great story, and a new way to play the game to make it faster. It’s one of the brighter spots of a skimpy game release year.
Old Moon’s Ghost Song has all the markings of a good metroidvania game, literally giving a tip-of-the-hat to the Metroid series, and works to make the experience deeper than a replicated version of a Nintendo classic.
In many ways, Rogue Legacy 2 aligns with the gold standard of the roguelite category by creating a highly engaging, dare I say addicting, gameplay loop that rewards multiple types of players. Newer players will find enjoyment in its accessibility levers and bite-sized progression while roguelite veterans will enjoy its deeper-than-expected class-based variance. Sure, you probably will die a lot, and you'll wish to have a greater connection with its world and the characters within; at the end of the day, its flaws are outweighed by the amount of fun that is to be had by experimentation and repetition. My nearly twenty hour experience felt like two hours, and I still itch to return for one more run. Regardless if you're a PS+ subscriber or not, Rogue Legacy 2 is more than deserving of your time.
iLLOGIKA Studios’ Atari Mania tugs at the heartstrings of old gamers in a good attempt to reignite interest in Atari 2600 games. The way that the game uses older titles to create mini-games is genius, if not straight from the pages of Wario World. The only caveat is that you get some of that 1980s unforgiving difficulty with it, which at times can make the game a bit unfun. It’s still a solid attempt at creating something new with the Atari brand, and certainly one you should check out.
There's a reason (err, several) why It Takes Two earned its Game of the Year accolades in 2021, and Switch owners now have the opportunity to play one of the best co-op games of late. The story remains meaningful, the puzzles innovative. The title continues to succeed in navigating interpersonal strife long after its release and the title's ending being freely available to find online. Even though I knew of some of the events that occurred before reviewing, I was often surprised by its powerful storytelling. It runs incredibly well on the Switch, to boot. Some of the typical Switch-based quirks may be coming with, but it still delivers on a compelling and emotional experience without the compromises that usually accompany a Switch port. With Friend Pass baked into the game, Switch owners are able to play with those in the same room as well as afar. I would personally recommend using a voice comms platform should you play remotely, though.
SIGNALIS from Humble Games is a horror fan’s dream. It’s simple and deep, contains a hefty amount of horror in its atmosphere, narrative, and design, and will keep you entertained from beginning to end.
Century: Age of Ashes from Playwing is a good free-to-play game. It is gorgeous, easy to pick up and go, and has some competitive charm to it. The microtransactions and the thin amount of variety in the game might detour some from extending their time with dragon battling, but I think it’s certainly worth a look.
Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope from Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris is a fantastic and better follow-up to its original 2017 experiment. The characters are better, the addition of Sparks changes how the gameplay works, and the overall tactical strategy options the game provides the player in a huge world make for a consistently fun adventure. Beware of the difficulty, though, as it can get infuriating at times.