I came in expecting a very serviceable Kirby adventure and got a lot more, but with those same straightforward and effortless virtues that past games have commanded.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is more Borderlands, and the lighter fantasy fare might actually get people to dive in for the first time. With that in mind, it’s still more Borderlands, so the same basic formula isn’t going to magically change your stance if you’re a lapsed fan.
Solid and definitely have an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
An Exercise in apathy, neither solid nor liquid. Not exactly bad, but not very good either. Just a bit 'meh,' really.
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
Gran Turismo 7 isn’t the second coming of racing games, and it doesn’t need to be. It still captures that feeling of spending hours and hours admiring your garage and flipping through car facts from a few of the best entries in the series, and still feels like a big-budget racer.
10s aren't perfect, since nothing is, but they come as close as you could get in a given genre. The new leader to beat in its sector, we're talking pure ecstasy.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
Dying Light 2 is safe in some respects, and bold in others; like its propensity to lean into some arcadey notions. The sandbox is the true heart of Dying Light 2. Not the characters, or the story, but the mere act of running around like an idiot, whether you’re doing errands or not.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.
While it doesn’t execute fully with its foundation, it does take more risks than I expected, to the point where it’s going to be worth a look for some folks — but only just so.
I was a bit skeptical about Nobody Saves the World pulling off everything it tried to do, but it won me over very quickly. While the main questline lacks some meat on the bones at times, a lot of people will barely notice it as they unlock new transformations and start to mix and match old ones.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon might turn some people off with its roguelite framework and randomization, but there’s a deep puzzle game at work here; one that’s worth exploring if you’ve grown up on the action-puzzle genre. This is something I can see myself playing again in the years to come, especially with versus mode augmenting some of the leaner elements.
As usual, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is worth playing through in full if you’re into the story. I still hope that one day — I’m talking a decade-plus from now — Square Enix preserves this tale by any means necessary, even with a single-player rework. It’s timeless, and exceeds the quality of many other mainline games in the series. Whether you stick around for the theme park rides afterward is entirely up to you. The rides I’m going on still have some life left in them.
If I had one piece of advice for people on the fence with Halo Infinite, it would be to not worry about the open world and embrace how it’s handled here. I was incredibly worried at first that 343 wouldn’t be able to resist the siren’s song of other major publishers, but the restraint here is appreciated. This is an extremely 2021 Halo, and I think it’s going to win over both lapsed players and diehards.
For 10 bucks, you’re getting a personality-driven rhythm romp with the hindsight of a decade-plus of genre experience. That’s pretty good! I mostly just wish it was bigger; because if it was, it would be able to expand its firm foundation and take things to the next level. That said, the ease of access of Hextech Mayhem ensures that if you’re coming off of Arcane, you can immerse yourself in the League world with a lot less strife than the MOBA.
If you haven’t experienced Pokemon Diamond or Pearl yet and don’t have access to Platinum, then the Gen 4 remakes on Switch might be worth exploring. Sinnoh has its own charm to it, and completionists will likely enjoy the endgame that is Grand Underground collecting. I just hope that when the time comes to remake Black and White, whatever team handles it is a lot less conservative.