The Crew Motorfest is an acceptable reproduction of the Forza Horizon concept. If you focus on the thematic playlists and roam the colorful open world listening to the radio, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of the game. There’s enough content here to last you well over 20 hours between events and exploration. However, apart from the ability to change vehicle types on the fly, the game is unfortunately short on original ideas. The limited multiplayer, lack of compelling side activities, and restricted crossplay also hold The Crew Motorfest back from passing the finish line ahead of the curve.
Fae Farm is still an enjoyable farming sim where you can easily lose track of time, spending hours crafting items, petting animals, and spelunking in dungeons. The kid-friendly tone of the game makes it easy to recommend for all audiences, though the NPCs and thereby the town of Azoria lack depth. The main quests are more interested in having you explore dungeons than actual farming, and the game has more than several areas that need improvement. Still, despite its flaws, Fae Farm fits cozily among the rest of its farming brethren.
Blasphemous 2 is a solid sequel that improves upon its predecessor by being truer to its Metroidvania inspirations. It refines the concept of the original game by mixing classic platforming with more modern Soulslike themes. The combat and platforming aren’t ground-breaking, relying a lot on backtracking and collectibles, but the difficulty level generally strikes a fine balance between being challenging and fair. Along with a wonderful art style and spirited music, the game makes blaspheming a reason worth fighting for.
Aliens: Dark Descent does a decent job of creating an interesting mashup of tactical action and strategy that suitably translates the tension and aesthetics of the popular movie franchise. Needing to stealth around the xenomorphs is a nerve-wracking experience, and the firefights against the aliens can be intense when they work. However, the plot and dialogue are lackluster, the enemies aren't as terrifying as they could be, and the flow between stealth and boss fights is abrupt. There's just one too many ideas in Aliens: Dark Descent, but it's still nonetheless a worthwhile adventure.
Street Fighter 6 simply lives up to the hype. From its smooth graphics and fresh presentation to its approachable controls and intricate fighting system, pretty much everything is on point. Not only is the Battle Hub a fantastic multiplayer venue for online play, but World Tour is a revelation. It’s clear Capcom has learned many lessons from Street Fighter 5 and has poured everything it could into this sequel. And in today’s age of modern, live-service gaming, it’s rare to see a game like this come out of the gate swinging with tons of content. In what marks a triumphant comeback for the series, Street Fighter 6 sets a new standard for all future fighting games to come.
If you're a Star Trek fan looking for a game that respects the series enough to get the details right, then as a Vulcan might say, Resurgence is the most logical choice. It has an intriguing narrative that takes the risk of having two protagonists and plenty of difficult choices for you to make. However, some of the overcomplicated mini-games and melodramatic cutscenes mar the last third of the game. While Resurgence isn’t a technical marvel by any means, you don't need a lot of bells and whistles to tell a decent story. And I'm willing to settle for that.
I haven’t felt as challenged or as impressed by a puzzle game like Humanity since Portal 2 and The Talos Principle. Sony likely saw something special about it too (and this time at least, I agree), as it is one of the few games that will be available with a PS Extra or Premium subscription on day one. While Humanity does become less of a puzzler near the endgame, that’s a minor quibble in light of the risks it takes, its inventive range of content, its thought-provoking story, and its curiously peculiar presentation. (The dog is cute too.)
Strayed Lights is ultimately frustrating because there’s a brilliant game lurking somewhere here. Upon finishing the game, I understood the story to be about conquering corruptive behavior and going on a spiritual journey inward, but it’s let down by subpar platforming and gameplay. I would even argue that the game might not have needed combat at all and could have worked better as an explorative adventure instead. Perhaps Embers might consider this for its next project.
As a comeback, EA Sports PGA Tour performs well enough to compete with PGA 2K23 on fairly even footing. The inclusion of all four majors, the solid ball physics, the wider arsenal of shots, and the long list of official courses are impressive, though the presentation can be flat, laggy, and rough. If EA decides to turn this into an annualized sports franchise, the next installment will need to revamp the character creator and rework the user interfaces. Despite the game's flaws, though, I can still see myself casually playing it throughout the year alongside other sports games like MLB The Show 23. It’s been a while since we’ve seen two established developers battle each other within the same sport, and I’m all for it. At the very least, golf games will be made all the better from the competition.
WWE 2K23 is like watching a follow-up to a spectacular match between two wrestlers the week before — it crackles with the same energy, but you’ve seen this fight before. Fortunately, the game stands as a solid sequel that offers an intriguing 2K Showcase retrospective on John Cena, an intuitive timed kick-out mechanic, and two separate stories in MyRISE. While it still struggles with several flaws carried over from past games in the series, the game has plenty of ways to send you hurling toward one of its numerous modes and then holding your attention there for days on end. WWE 2K23 doesn’t risk going for a high-flying splash from the top rope, but it still packs a mighty haymaker.
Though Like a Dragon Ishin! is rough around the corners, its complex story and rich world with an abundance of side adventures are well worth the cost of admission. The game’s reinterpretation of Japan’s Bakumatsu period is a transporting experience that explores a moment in history that is not often available to Western audiences. Ishin has some trouble upgrading the combat system and camera controls to today’s standards, and it’s not a graphical powerhouse despite some visual upgrades. But anyone who is a fan of the Yakuza Kiwami series will likely forgive these faults to a degree. Like a Dragon Ishin! may be just a remake of a spin-off, but its blades are sharp enough to ignite your inner samurai.
One Piece Odyssey is a wonderful trip down memory lane for fans of the series. The game’s original story is earnest and the endearing bond between the Straw Hat Pirates comes through loud and clear. The engaging combat system and a decent number of side quests don’t hurt either. Sure, new players might get overwhelmed by some of the rushed chapters in the midgame and the flow between chapters could be better, but it’s hard not to notice the amount of heart and soul that was poured into the game. More than just a fantastic anime-based video game, One Piece Odyssey is an impressive JRPG and already one of the best surprises this year.
Originality is a rare quality in games, and Blacktail has this in spades – the Slavic folklore, the surrealist narrative, the unusual plot structure, the craggy yet dreamlike artstyle, the archery-based gameplay. Sure, some of the systems could be simplified and streamlined, but at least they aim to test the boundaries and seek a different point of view. Blacktail may not be a graphical marvel or a masterstroke in action gameplay, but this indie title has a fascinating magic all its own that’s difficult to define and even harder to find in games today.
Despite the growing pains, Darktide is a solid co-operative action game that’s great for a group of friends to play in spurts. At launch, the experience is limited in progression and variety, but the gameplay is challenging and viscerally satisfying enough to keep your attention. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack slaps and, performance issues aside, the graphics pack a punch. Since Fatshark is known for updating the Vermintide series over time with frequent content updates, Darktide is expected to improve as well. It may even deserve a higher score within the next six months, but I can only review what’s available now. So if you’re considering a purchase of the game, think of it as an investment that will likely pay off in a few years. It’s more than understandable, though, if you would rather wait for Darktide to meet your standards for a full release.
Evil West is a straight shooter. It doesn’t pretend to be something more than it is — a game about cowboys slaying vampires without mercy. Despite being a tad unvaried, the combat is viscerally gratifying and confidently uncomplicated. And for that alone, the game is largely able to overcome the hiccups with the limited multiplayer, graphics crashes, and awkwardly edited story. Though the campaign is fairly short given the asking price, it has a permadeath mode and new game plus for replayability. Evil West may be rough around the corners, but it’s worth a shot of whiskey down at the nearest saloon.
A game like Pentiment doesn’t come around often. Top developers like Obsidian Entertainment usually leave smaller productions like this on the editing floor. The vast majority of games with fantastic stories usually ask players to kill something, solve puzzles, or have some other gimmick to it so that they remain engaged. Pentiment dares instead to rely on its craftsmanship, authenticity, and choice-based dialogue, trusting that the murder mystery is enough of a draw to pull players in. And despite some minor quibbles, Pentiment succeeds in its pursuit, creating a fantastic generational period drama with a wonderfully original vision.
Like the three protagonists it features, New Tales From the Borderlands is a hot mess. If you don't take the game too seriously, there's a fun, heartfelt adventure buried somewhere beneath the layers of erratic writing and misplaced humor. It's an oddball romp with a bumbling cast of characters who deserve more substance than they were given. If the original Tales From the Borderlands is ice cream, New Tales From the Borderlands is frozen yogurt. And at the end of the day, even Fran admits that frozen yogurt just isn’t as good.
Valkyrie Elysium is a disappointing, befuddled, and mistimed return for the Valkyrie series. Its Einherjar-supported combat system only takes the game so far when it’s saddled by an underwhelming story and artificially extended by crude level design. It falls into the trap of chasing trends, turning classic JRPGs into action games and copying other successful titles like Dark Souls without adding much new to the genre, when many fans would have been more than satisfied with an updated version of a standard Valkyrie game.
Priced at under $20, Dome Keeper will keep you on your toes for several mining sessions. Its cyclical design is simple and executed fairly well, keeping the tension consistent throughout a run. However, upgrades quickly become restrictive in terms of effective builds, and both mining and defense become predictable in subsequent playthroughs. That said, the game has plenty of room for future updates that could help balance things out. Dome Keeper, without taking too many risks, fits simply and innocuously inside the world of the iterative survival genre.
Ooblets is a peculiarly enjoyable jack-of-all-trades adventure that stumbles near the finish line. The slice-of-life farming sim and town interaction are more developed than the card battling, and the leveling system feels unfinished. That said, the game may expand with additional content or balance patches as the developer continues to update it. Priced at half the cost of a typical full-fledged game, Ooblets is still worth playing for a few hours or so every once in a while, but there are better farming sims, monster battlers, and card-based games out there.