There are still dozens of hours left in getting my Rogue to where I’d like them to be, and many more demons to slay, new classes to try out, Dungeons to tackle, and Ancestral Items to find and equip. Diablo IV is massive, but it’s also something to savor.
And so this once sleepy locale has been turned into a gothic hellscape, where citizens are hiding, and cultists are working with their vampire overlords to appease the more powerful vampire gods.
Although simple to the point where it feels more like classic arcade games Final Fight or Gauntlet Legends than Dark Souls, the interplay between strategic (or blind) melee swings and the physical damage, physics, and gore is as impressive as it is over-the-top.
It sits alongside other titles in the franchise while falling short and topping previous games, depending on the situation. There’s just nothing quite like that feeling of being in the world that VR delivers, and even though there’s a lot of repetition across the multiple climbing sections, it still trumps doing the same thing as Aloy. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s all so real (virtually speaking) that makes these traditional videogame things feel more repetitive in VR. Looking back at Horizon Forbidden West footage - that game was chock full of climbing too.
Things go horribly wrong and fall apart.
Although this might have been (or hoped to have been) the expected outcome by fans, it does bring to light the idea that the horror genre is the ideal candidate for the remake treatment.
All of this, for lack of a better term, content, is found in-between video interviews, mini-documentaries, concept art, advertisements, photos, and more.
It’s still a relatively short game, about three hours or so if you’ve got your Portal brain switched on - but still a remarkable experience. The puzzle rooms and pacing toward the big GLaDOS reveal, and iconic end and credits sequence is still spot on. Portal is as finely tuned, deep, and fun as ever.
Marvel's Midnight Suns is huge, not only in terms of the apocalyptic demons and Elder Gods story it tells over the course of several cinematic story missions but in how the relationships between all the superheroes and The Hunter develop over the course of dozens of hours. In Midnight Suns you take on the role of The Hunter, a superhero and partial blank canvas that you can define the look of, choose all of the various outfits they'll wear, and even decide how best to decorate their room at The Abbey.
Another average, but ambitious, outing for the blue hedgehog.
Even if you've never played a Call of Duty, or dipped in and out of the franchise every so often, you'll probably be okay with not knowing who Task Force 141 and Soap MacTavish, Ghost, and Captain Price are before jumping into the campaign.
Take your pick of the four aforementioned proteges listed above, team up with another player, and take-down syndicates and streetcorner thugs using combat inspired by the popular Batman Arkham series of games.
This is the best the franchise has looked from a purely cinematic level. In the end, New Tales From The Borderlands succeeds because it lives up to its namesake and presents the best Borderlands storytelling since the original Tales.
Hardspace Shipbreaker is a sci-fi-inspired sim that puts you in the role of someone that spends their time working in low orbit pulling apart and salvaging old spaceships. And with all great sims, the premise is only a part of the appeal with the end result delivering pure low-orbit job immersion.
It's fantastical, cartoonish, and realistic in equal measure, with a sense of fun and even dread, expressed through impressive art direction and a moody synth-driven soundtrack.
A joyous adventure game that, if you've ever been a fan, should be savoured like a tall glass of aged grape juice.
Ultimately the new Saints Row is a disappointment, especially if you’re a fan of the series.
In the end, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered presents the most visually impressive version of a brilliant comic book adaptation to date. And a game that feels every bit as big now as it did back in 2018. Insomniac nails the swinging mechanics to the point where it kind of feels like a magic trick, and the cinematic spectacle is just about always next-level.
The characters too feel real, down-to-earth, and the sort of archetypes you'd expect to see in a branching crime drama.
Outside of a handful of action sequences, the pacing here is slow and measured. And without any real difficulty or challenge, there’s a meditative quality to Stray.