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In sum, Necromunda: Hired Gun is a very mixed offering. It seems that for every pro the game brings, there is a con to match it. I still had fun with Necromunda, but the experience is tainted significantly by the various issues — technical and otherwise — that the game has at the time of this writing.
Both the Infant Update and the Growing Together expansion pack adds more life to The Sims 4 experience. You can now play with infants, watch them grow, watch your Sims have milestones, and have the Sims recognize their family as family. While I enjoyed my time with the new expansion and update, I wish more was added to the overall experience. I felt it was missing some key elements such as more interaction options between family. Now, having said that, this is still a step forward, especially if you love creating families and want infants, this is the expansion to get and play with.
I got to a point where I was not enjoying playing Death Stranding, but I was enjoying watching Death Stranding to see what happened. For me, it would have been better, probably, if the game were much shorter, because I got to where I wanted to experience the story without having to deal with the gameplay. I rarely find myself in that situation! Even still, I recognize the sheer quality and accomplishment Death Stranding is, and the value the Director’s Cut offers, so I find myself still recommending this game. If you are at all curious, you owe it to yourself to try it out, and odds are, you’re going to enjoy it more than not.
Chorus is a gorgeous space flight fight simulator that harkens back to the days of Wing Commander with eventually smooth controls and intense battles. It does have some visible flaws to the narrative and some onscreen issues during battle, but for the most part, it’s darn good.
Taking cues from Zelda and Stardew Valley, Garden Story is a charming adventure packed with action and crafting that can often be oddly paced, dampening the fun of an otherwise delightful time.
The Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is a stellar example of how a classic series can and should be remastered for superfans and new players alike. For Battle Network superfans, this game hits the spot in the nostalgia department and gives us North American players access to once-exclusive content we weren't able to access in the early 2000s. For new players, having all of the Battle Network games in one place is great for continuity and opportunity for younger folks to play an incredibly fun set of titles. Even more, offering multiplayer right from the jump gives me hope that the Battle Network series will live on into the next-gen of gaming. Regardless of your familiarity with this series, the Collection's graphical updates and gameplay additions, like the Buster MAX Mode, breathe much needed new life into some of the older titles. I am thrilled to see the Mega Man Battle Network series return with more content than ever, and the Collection makes an incredibly easy recommendation for something to play this Spring: If you're looking to get your hands on a collection of classic titles remastered in all the right ways, look no further than Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection.
Isolationist, existential, and compelling, The Alters molds the struggle of one's self into an often bleak, obtusely hopeful exercise of survival. By bending the genre to its whims, 11 bit studios have crafted a futuristic study on purpose and time.
For Neowiz’s first big AAA-caliber game, they have done a bang-up job with Lies of P. The story, characters, combat and RPG systems, controls, enemy design, level design — there’s a lot here that is done with excellence and the summation of these is a great game that I’d happily recommend to anyone that enjoys the tough-but-rewarding Soulslike genre.
Star Ocean The Second Story R may well serve as the blueprint going forward if Square Enix or any other developer wishes to remake games from this classic era of RPGs. An unquestionably gorgeous art style uplifts all modern touches, breathing life into a 25-year-old game.
Papa's Quiz is a game that tries different ways to spruce up the party game/quiz game genre, and it does a good job in most of its execution. It stumbles in the quiz question balance but excels in its creativity to personalize the experience for its players.
In sum, for anyone looking for a good sniping experience in VR, this is an easy one to recommend.
Wayward Strand revels in its ability to funnel players' curiosity down multiple avenues of branching intrigue. Though light on actual "game" there is little excuse not to become easily transfixed by its whimsical, touching nature.
The Crew Motorfest is a wildly engaging arcade racer that excels through its diverse Hawaiian setting and unique vehicle playlists. Players who enjoy Ubisoft's dense open worlds will find plenty of activities to keep them satiated.
Fatum Betula finds virtue in the 32-bit generation. It is impossible to return to the ethos that powered games from a quarter century ago, but Fatum Betula captures their spirit and respects their integrity. The wild sense of experimentation, the natural invitation to curiosity, and the harsh beauty imposed by technical limitations shine through every austere texture and restrained polygon.
Genesis Noir is genre fiction that slow burns from a hard-boiled detective mystery to a cosmic exploration of potential and possibility. It showcases a form of storytelling exclusive to an interactive medium, not only immersing the player in rhapsodic visual landscapes, but expecting them to find tactile interpretations from its collection of curiosities. Genesis Noir doesn't position chaos as a subject for control, only an objective to be experienced and appreciated.
Overall, Lacuna is an interesting adaptation on the traditional point-and-click gameplay design. Though my interest in the characters and story plateaued around the halfway point of the game, they are both pretty well thought out and your mileage/interest in them may fair better than mine. At $20, it’s worth a look for fans of sci-fi noir adventure games.
RoboCop: Rogue City is a gritty and fascinatingly faithful rendition of the 1987 Verhoeven film. It shirks trends of most modern-day shooters to deliver weighty combat in an imperfect, yet wholly entertaining, package.
Subnautica: Below Zero is not as large as 2014's Subnautica but it is as deep. Between its fantastically mysterious story to its compelling biome, Below Zero builds upon what made the first game strong while being unique all on its own. The on-land segments of the game were pretty lackluster overall, which was slightly disappointing; but for a game that is all about discovering what lies beneath, Subnautica: Below Zero is a breath of fresh air.
MotoGP 2021 is an impressive game that features the right balance of complication and a lukewarm welcome to new players trying to get into it for the first time. It's a polished experience that sets the bar for the motorcycle racing scene.
In conclusion, Neo: The World Ends With You was a wonderful experience to play, and while it has a lot going on within the game, it teaches these different mechanics slowly and expertly. With the combination of a good story, great dialogue, complex puzzles, and flashy combat, Neo was a welcomed surprise and is a truly unique game. Comparisons would not be worthwhile for the most part. The closest comparison that could be made would be to Kingdom Hearts, but that might be an insult to Neo. It is an action RPG with many complex mechanics going on, but it won’t leave players confused and the combat isn’t as finicky. There are a lot of things that are packed into this long game, but they are done very well and are able to work in tandem with one another smoothly. This game is truly unique and would be worthwhile to buy to experience how this sticker bomb of a game manages to keep its punk aesthetic and be a game that is difficult to describe but not hard to recommend in any capacity.