Digital Chumps
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Metal Wolf Chaos XD is a time capsule from 2004 that allows its recipient to survey the United States' enthusiasm for boisterous violence and blind patriotism. The President stomping around in an eight-gun mech suit and delivering outrageous dialogue while suppressing a coup is nakedly hyperbolic, but it's also a lens to an outsider's interpretation of mid-aughts American culture. Metal Wolf Chaos, in addition to presenting a clumsy but capable action caper, has only improved with age.
Even with the reduction in graphical fidelity and the controller shortcomings, I still found LoFVR compelling to replay after five years from having played the original. The story is pretty good, but moreover I really liked the ever-changing mansion and Twilight Zone weirdness of it all. That kind of atmosphere and design lend themselves well to VR play, and to that end the game is interesting on PSVR, despite its shortcomings. Plus, at only $20, LoFVR is relatively light on the wallet for a few hours of spooky VR.
All that to say that this surprise re-release of Virtua Fighter 5 is a welcome one, especially for PS+ members who get it for free. The series still has a special place amongst all of the other fighting franchises out there, so hopefully enough interest is generated with this re-release to warrant a full blown sequel in the future. In the meantime, AM2 and Ryu ga Gotoku Studios have done a fine job with Ultimate Showdown, such that any fan of the series or fighting games in general should check it out.
Tetris Effect is a euphoric balance of intensity and serenity. Rarely do games manage either with stability, let alone perform both in concert. Tetris Effect's audio and visual assault is as powerful as its score-chasing quest for order and perfection, leaving the player overwhelmed with raw optimism and kaleidoscopic emotion. Tetris never required a sequel, but it now feels inseparable from Tetris Effect's compliment.
Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! is a bright and cheery arcade drumming classic digitally packaged without the physical equipment normally used to play it, conceding a DualShock 4 as the solitary drum to bang across dozens of energetic pop anthems. It's a fun, albeit plain, rhythm game that you can imagine being even more fun with the hilarious drum controller that isn't included or available in North America.
Football Manager 2019 takes the series to a whole new level and finally brings in some long needed refreshment. What we have is easily the most accessible Football Manager in recent memory but one that can still many moons to master.
If you’re a newcomer or someone who has been engulfed into the franchise for a while you’re going to enjoy it.
GRIP: Combat Racing is a contemporary adaptation of Rollcage and its sequel Rollcage Stage II. This is a tremendous achievement for fans of Rollcage and a charming but narrow curiosity for everyone else. By splitting the difference between monument and movement, GRIP remains confident in its limitations.
The Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle is a quirky, cool, unique release that gives players a big dose of retro gaming including several titles that have never been published stateside.
Call of Cthulhu is an emphatic character sheet fed to a game deficient of opportunities for self-expression. Imagine if, instead of a dramatic exploration behind the power and poison of enlightenment, Lovecraft only wrote a flat outline. Call of Cthulhu is eldritch horror without emotion or agency, and its madness is entirely mundane.
While there is some fun to be had, especially in local multiplayer, the overall experience is more underwhelming than not. That makes this game very difficult to recommend to all but the most rdent kart racing or Nickelodeon fans. Even within those camps, who are more apt to overlook flaws with NKR, the experience leaves a lot to be desired.
Operation Nightfall is a welcomed addition to the Firewall Zero Hour family. It does bring more pros than cons but still needs a bit more love to truly get this on track to a perfect VR experience. It's getting there, especially if more updates like this are released.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the perfect gaming experience, and what you were hoping for in the next iteration of the series. It has a rich story, deep gameplay, unrivaled visuals, and plenty of plains to explore.
The more important question, as always, remains if the the story and gameplay are to your liking or not. To that end, I’m more on the reserved side of the equation, finding some value in both elements, but not enough to give this remaster a strong recommendation.
Left Alive was not a fun game to play. It lacked personality, even though it wanted to be an MGS clone so bad. It lacked complication for a stealth game, as well as comfortable character movement and slow ramp-up of difficulty. I think if the devs could have had more time to smooth out these rough areas, then the game would have been decent, if not good.
Compared to the first DLC, Turf Wars is much more combat focused. Overall, I didn’t like it as much as the first DLC, not because combat isn’t fun, but it’s gotten quite repetitive and tedious. Still, I suspect part three, arriving next month, will strike a better balance overall, as it completes the City That Never Sleeps story arc.
Overall, Shadow Warrior 3 was fun to play through, but I’m glad it ended relatively quickly because the gameplay loop is very repetitive. Flying Wild Hog has some great ideas here, but the lazy arena battle design and some (not all) lackluster level design needed to be more robust and creative. As it plays now, the gameplay is just paper thin like an arcade game — and I love arcades games, but those are short by design because they don’t have enough substance and breadth to hold the player’s interest for very long. All that said, I still enjoyed playing through Shadow Warrior 3 mostly, though I won’t be coming back for seconds. With due caution, I recommend it to anyone that enjoys the franchise or likes a raw run and gun FPS experience, and especially if you can play it on PSNow or GamePass.
One Piece fans will love this game.
Every old school franchise should be so lucky to get such a great sequel that obviously had a lot of thought and care put in by the teams involved. Clearly, if you enjoy Streets of Rage or the side scrolling brawler, especially when playing with up to three other people, Streets of Rage 4 should be on your list of titles to get.
This Missing is a heartfelt affirmation of identity expressed through emotional turbulence and macabre staging. Its performance as a puzzle-platformer—suspiciously slapdash and presumably exploitative—revels in instability, but finds resolution through a singular and concordant message. The Missing's pieces fit its puzzle, even if the player (and The Missing's protagonist) believe they won't.