Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God
Immortals Fenyx Rising is undoubtedly an underrated piece of 2020 gaming. It plucked just enough from Breath of the Wild and the greater pool of Ubisoft ideas to become not a carbon copy but an expansive world packed with action, varying levels of humor, and a celestial labyrinth of Olympian puzzles. Poring over the deep corners of the game, I found myself constantly surprised by the effort the As...[Read More]
Olija
After I wrapped credits on Olija I was a touch saddened that there was no option to continue, merely start a new game. It wasn’t that I felt robbed by the game’s eight or so hours of length or that I couldn’t dive right back in and hunt for more secrets. Rather, Olija thrusts itself upon players in a remarkable way, an amalgamation of concepts fused together in a tight package. W...[Read More]
Skul: The Hero Slayer
After a few dozen runs through Skul: The Hero Slayer I was surprised that the game kept managing to dole out new items and powers for my minuscule skeleton to use in his fight against the forces of good. Like many roguelikes, Skul needs a deep pool of variety to incentivize players to keep pushing through familiar fights and repetitive content. The game pushes a unique power-swapping mechanic that...[Read More]
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Complete Edition
Ten years ago Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comics were at the top of the nerdy game. Though Scott’s run on the page had come to a close, the Edgar Wright-directed movie was out and a Ubisoft-helmed game adapting the fight for love and against Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes proved to be a bite-sized hit. After only a few years, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game wa...[Read More]
Watch Dogs Legion
Watch Dogs‘ identity crisis ended when the series decided to stop taking itself so seriously. The jump from Aiden Pearce’s revenge-fueled techno war to Marcus Holloway’s hacker rebellion was stark. Watch Dogs 2 is an infinitely more enjoyable game because it took the brilliant ideas of the original, stripped them of pretense, and used them for entertaining scenarios. Sure, I enjo...[Read More]
Chronos: Before the Ashes
Despite being a remake of the VR game Chronos and a prequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, Chronos: Before the Ashes is surprisingly accessible. Having never played the original game on VR and only making it partway through Remnant, I never felt truly lost. Chronos is a game that pieces together ideas from a variety of sources, attempting to mold itself into something more. Most will look at the game...[Read More]
Immortals Fenyx Rising
Immortals Fenyx Rising is fortunate in that it does not suffer from an identity crisis. During the process of covering and reviewing this game, “Breath of the Wild” will dance across the page of many writers’ work. It’s unavoidable, in the vein of comparing third-person difficulty with Dark Souls. Even having only played a few hours of 2017’s critically acclaimed game...[Read More]
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]
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review (PS4 Version)
A single thought stuck with me throughout my entire playthrough of Spider-Man: Miles Morales: it’s familiar yet new. Miles Morales walks a spiderweb tightrope between being an ambitious sequel to the PS4’s best selling game and sticking to what made the original so special. While most people will gravitate towards the enhanced PS5 version of Miles Morales, the core gameplay loop and story Insomnia...[Read More]
Star Wars: Squadrons Review
There are a few fantasies that Star Wars fans dream of living out: to feel the force as a lightsaber-wielding Jedi, capture the galaxy’s most wanted as a cold and calculating bounty hunter, and, most of all, dogfight in the cockpit of an X-Wing . Star Wars: Squadrons fully embraces the latter, with some minor caveats. Offering a generous amount of content for its price, along with several differen...[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]
Tennis World Tour 2 Review
Tennis has had an interesting foray in the video game world. While not as prolific as football and basketball games, tennis games have been a staple since the very inception of video games. While trending more towards the arcadey and easy access type of game, there is a healthy gap for good tennis simulation games. Enter Tennis World Tour 2. Tennis World Tour 2 takes the delicate balance of fun vs...[Read More]