Fury Unleashed
Despite the roguelike genre’s tendency to recycle many of the same elements, I rarely tire of its structure. There’s an eagerness to dive back into a randomly generated cloud of levels, equipped with the knowledge of past deaths and the determination of a few invested upgrade points. In the time since playing Rogue Legacy–a title I didn’t initially grasp or appreciate–...[Read More]
Kingdom Two Crowns
Build, explore, defend. The tenets of Kingdom Two Crowns should be familiar to any player who has spent a handful of minutes in a game where success is based on the ability to harvest resources and expand your influence. A small base of operations will soon becoming teeming with life as tendrils of economy allow the player to stretch farther into the given map. You may recognize the pattern in any...[Read More]
XCOM: Chimera Squad
XCOM: Chimera Squad is a bold move on the part of developer Firaxis Games. After the franchise laid dormant, I dabbled in XCOM: Enemy Unknown and was impressed with how brutally difficult the game was, especially as it was widely released on console. I think a generation raised on Dark Souls was ready for the kind of challenge that was commonplace in the early days of PC and console gaming. I felt...[Read More]
DOOM Eternal
Few games can compare to the raw splendor of DOOM‘s violence. The series flourishes in its homages to hellish gore and brutal violence. For decades, DOOM has reveled in pitting players against hordes of demons, watching their pixelated, polygonal corpses dissolve into bloody mush as a result of a sole aggressor’s relentless assault. For PC players in the 90s, DOOM was a revolution of m...[Read More]
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint: Episode 2 Early Impressions
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint needed Episode 2. Since release the game has suffered a kind of identity crisis for many players. At release, I was was one of the few reviewers who enjoyed the game for what it was attempting to accomplish, including merging several ideas implemented across Ubisoft’s stable of games. Regardless, I understood why many did not enjoy it. Breakpoint att...[Read More]
The Division 2 Warlords of New York
Before the announcement of The Division 2 Warlords of New York, it had been several months since I had set down and played a hearty amount of my favorite “living world” “games as a service” open-world looter shooter. Unfortunately, my large group of friends who bought the game at launch and played semi-religiously had dwindled away. We all did. Time and the allure of countl...[Read More]
The Division 2 Warlords of New York
If you were to boot up The Division today, you would be treated to one of the most polished live games currently available. As both labor of love and sheer act of persistence, Massive Entertainment rose their looter shooter from the ashes of a hobbled launch. Content issues that stifled the endgame brought The Division to its knees far too early but after several updates and thoughtful additions, ...[Read More]
EarthNight
EarthNight captures the raw feeling of impactful adventure in the first quick, effortless moments of its introduction. The opening theme, an emotionally punctual bit of retro synths, crescendos through a brief expository cutscene. The title screen appears in beauty and flash. You press start and watch your chosen character fall through a fantastical sky and land on the back of a dragon and dash to...[Read More]
The Terminator Adds New Flair to Ghost Recon Breakpoint
One of the most entertaining things I did in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands was fight the titular alien Predator in a jungle with three of my friends. It was wacky, out of place, difficult, and perfectly executed. In one of Ubisoft’s biggest games that was packed with hundreds of things to do, that small handful of quests related to tracking down Arnold’s best CHOPPA mate, di...[Read More]
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Ultimate Edition
It took me nearly two hours to create my character in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Ultimate Edition. A sliver of that time was devoted towards determining whether or not I should fine-tune my character’s history from the first Pillars of Eternity. I could choose a handful of broad estimations, all of which I barely understood. I was able decide what fate I chose for those who were born w...[Read More]
Scuf Vantage 2 Modern Warfare Edition
Since the launch of the PlayStation 4, I’ve owned over five DualShock 4 controllers. One evening after playing Assassin’s Creed Unity, I noticed that my nimble assassin was not crouching properly during a co-op mission, which is kind of important to maintain stealth. After switching over to Destiny, I soon realized my R2 button had broken when whatever light-infused gun wouldn’t ...[Read More]
The Outer Worlds
The Outer Worlds takes no time in forcing players to love it. From the onset, Obsidian Entertainment’s first-person RPG is a deluge of charm and humor, instantly warming itself up to players like a much needed balm. Mentioning the legacy of Bethesda and its Fallout series feels like a necessary evil when speaking of The Outer Worlds in the context of a review. After all, Obsidian momentarily...[Read More]