Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is at a crossroads. Bursting at the seams with content and technical prowess, it may remind players of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, released at this same time seven years ago. A cheery, cavalier game, Black Flag butted heads with the coming end of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era and the introduction of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Valhalla, as you may ha...[Read More]
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Mafia: Definitive Edition is plucked from time. In ways, it is a time capsule, preserving a vision that first came to be in 2002. Yet as a remake, it acts as a more digestible, refined way to fall back into a classic or allow newcomers to experience it for the first time. Tommy Angelo, Mafia‘s anti-hero, is the typical scrappy rogue that graced a number of games around the Grand Theft Auto 3...[Read More]
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
When losing myself in the intricate narrative web Vanillaware spins in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, I couldn’t help but be reminded of playing Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward on my PlayStation Vita. Like a good book, I would clutch my Vita in hand, poring over hours of seemingly convoluted text involving murder, time travel, end-of-the-world cults, and escape rooms. One thing kept me fro...[Read More]
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Episode 3: Red Patriot
A year ago, it may have been hard to anticipate how stuffed with content Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint would be. Whether players grew attached to the game or not, its hard to deny that at launch, there was a lot to do. In addition to the previous episodic content drops, Breakpoint‘s expected and unexpected updates have rounded out Ubisoft’s initial promise of the Wildlands ...[Read More]
Iron Harvest
Let’s not beat around the bush. Iron Harvest‘s mechanized battles across a war-torn alternative history are awesome. Who needs tanks or spaceships or weird aliens when you can have steam-powered mechs clanking over infantry? This fascinating and approachable aesthetic will easily drawn any curious RTS player into Iron Harvest‘s world. What’s better is that tucked under this...[Read More]
Marvel’s Avengers
Among the flurry of fists, muon beams, and godly thunder of Marvel’s Avengers, I wonder how many people at Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal spent their youthful weekends furiously mashing controller buttons to the droves of atrocious and amazing licensed games available during their childhood. Who was tarnished by The Uncanny X-Men? That barely competent brawler was one of the first insta...[Read More]
Spiritfarer
We all need someone to ferry us through the journey of life. Whether a loved one, a mentor, family, friends, or some other divined presence, guidance can help us through countless perils. From birth we are held, carried. Hopefully throughout the years, we won’t have to carry ourselves for the whole exhausting voyage of existence. But what happens after death? Do we have souls? Do our spirits...[Read More]
Othercide
Bathed in grey tones, stark blacks and whites, and pungent splashes of red, Othercide is a remarkable feast for the eyes. Its visual palette will burrow into the memory for years to come, a game that looks so distinct. I was afraid that, unlike its Gothic appeal, Othercide‘s gameplay would flounder under the weight of an unmatched aesthetic promise. Surely something this stylish couldn’...[Read More]
Neon Abyss
Neon Abyss works exceptionally well, despite a number of important flaws that would otherwise dull similar games in its vein. When crafting a roguelike, developers must rely on that careful balance of frustration and joy doled out by the Random Number Generator Gods. At any point, a run through a cave or laboratory or dungeon dance club can go flawlessly. Through sheer force of luck a player might...[Read More]
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
Increasingly I have become convinced that the massive stable of games set in the daunting Warhammer 40,000 universe are meant as entry points for people to begin scooping up any other media the name appears on. After playing Warhammer: Chaosbane I felt no more knowledgeable about the world than I really did before. After all, how are demons and priests stomping around in the same universe and time...[Read More]
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Update Brings AI Teammates and New Live Event
Each time I write about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a strangely protective feeling washes over me. As flawed as the release may have been for some, Breakpoint has received that special Ubisoft treatment where minor and major improvements have only served to make the game even better than its initial promise. The Terminator came to Breakpoint earlier this year, bringing a fun event t...[Read More]
Disintegration
Disintegration succeeds where it counts. Developer V1 Interactive set out to make an FPS/RTS hybrid and does so with surprising efficiency. But further and further into the game, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the rough edges that weaken what could have been a fairly exceptional package. Players fulfill their first-person shooter dreams by taking on the role of Romer Shoal, a former c...[Read More]