A disappointing mix of ideas that ends as an exhausting Temple Run clone, Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo gets less fun the longer it goes goes on.
A shallow, on-rails experience that really can't make much of a case for itself in 2014.
Fortnite Festival’s limited, isolating gameplay and overpriced tracks may turn Fortnite players into rhythm game fans, but it won’t turn rhythm game fans into Fortnite players.
Bluey: The Videogame may look the part but, with shonky controls and barely two hours of gameplay, everywhere else it’s a dog’s breakfast.
Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board. Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state.
Crime Boss: Rockay City is an overly ambitious air ball on all fronts, from its sloppy moment-to-moment gameplay to its largely abysmal voice acting – the worst of which sound like single takes spliced in with mistakes intact. There’s an earnestness with which Crime Boss has been put together that I do admire – as a kind of direct-to-VHS knockoff of Payday on a promising ’90s backdrop – and there is an inescapable novelty in seeing these de-aged Hollywood stars steering the story here. Unfortunately, the hokey charm on display is nowhere near strong enough to offset the repetitive and regularly frustrating mission design, its roguelike single-player rapidly becomes a total chore, and its co-op juice just isn’t worth the squeeze. Sadly, Crime Boss: Rockay City’s coked-up ego has been writing cheques its budget-priced body couldn’t cash.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is easy to pick up and play but it simply doesn't have the content or the atmosphere to truly go the distance.
Short, shallow, and surprisingly simple, Fast & Furious Crossroads is a disappointment in almost every department.
Disney Speedstorm is a fundamentally good kart racer currently buried beneath so much gacha garbage and so many currencies that it almost seems like a parody of the entire free-to-play genre.
Dakar Desert Rally has a fabulous sense of scale and is capable of some great, unique racing, but it's undercut dramatically by frustrating handling, uneven performance, and some progression-killing bugs.
Skatebird is a cute and original arcade skating game supported by great music, but the skating itself is crude, the objectives are boring, and the camera is a regular hassle.
Rainbow Studios has been behind some great racers over the years, but Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 isn't one of them.
Skater XL has promise as a platform but on console it still feels a bit too much like a prototype
Gravel is a game displaced. It's a competent and occasionally pretty pick-up-and-play arcade racing game at its core, but it has the whiff of a game released in the wrong era – a scent it just can't shake. A 2018 rendition of '90s ambition. Gravel certainly channels the spirit and straightforward simplicity of Milestone's own 1997 arcade off-roader Screamer Rally but it has no unique hook for today's audience; no over-the-top arcade pizazz that folks will still be discussing 10 or 15 years down the track. It's functional and fun enough in small bursts, but arcade racers have come a long way over the past two decades and Gravel doesn't bring any new ideas to the paddock.
Need for Speed Payback is a big, competent, and confident arcade racer but it's really let down by its linear cop chases, its overwrought and insidious upgrade system, its dreadful dialogue, and its superficial action sequences. It feels fine and it looks flashy, but Payback really went all-in on its direct-to-DVD revenge tale and it was a bust for me.
Driveclub VR is Sony’s VR racing welcome wagon and, in small doses, I think it does its job of demonstrating the potential of VR racing. The racing genre is perfect for seated VR, and Driveclub VR delivers a functional example of that experience. Unfortunately, that’s really about all it delivers. Beyond that it’s just a pre-existing game with fewer features and graphics that make me feel like I have the vision of a 95-year-old man.
EA Sports WRC feels like a great racing game trying to fight its way out of an unfinished one.
Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct still looks the goods, but its linear approach and weirdly limited arsenal is a step down from where we left off.
The Valiant is a serviceable, squad-based RTS with a sturdy story, but it’s bogged down by backtrack-heavy battles and a bad final boss fight.
An unapologetically tricky ode to street skating, Session is packed with a palpable love for the sport, but bugs and unsympathetic tutorial and mission design decisions undermine its approachability.