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OpinionImpressionsKate Bishop Makes Avengers Exciting Again, At Least For A Few Hours
The Kate Bishop version of Hawkeye has arrived as a new playable character for Marvel’s Avengers, bringing with her three or four hours of fresh single-player content to Square Enix’s stale co-op superhero game. To be fair, any new playable character would have had the same effect, but Kate is pretty damn great. Following the…
By Mike Fahey Published December 8, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Original Fire Emblem Is A Weird Game For The Switch To End Its Year On
I’ve spent the last week, in odd moments here and there, helping Fire Emblem’s Prince Marth search for a legendary sword and defeat the forces of darkness to rescue his kingdom from an evil wizard. Throughout all of it, in good times and bad, one question kept bubbling up to the surface: why? Why did…
By Ethan Gach Published December 7, 2020 -
OpinionImpressions30 Hours With Cyberpunk 2077 Brings Mixed Feelings
Cyberpunk 2077, the most recent game from Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, was first announced in 2012. In the last couple years, it’s had an onslaught of hype and dripfed information, most of which I’ve ignored. The developers have promised unlimited freedom, unparalleled graphics, and cameos from celebrities like Grimes and Keanu Reeves. Much of…
By Riley MacLeod Published December 7, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsCake Bash Is A Deliciously Sweet Take On Mario Party
Everyone loves a good sugar rush. It’s why, no matter how big the backlog, we gravitate to games that could generously be qualified as comfort food. But the sweetest sugar-rush I’ve run into lately isn’t some paint-by-numbers first-person shooter you’ve played a hundred times or some formulaic open-world adventure you won’t even need a tutorial…
By Ari Notis Published December 4, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsNew Mars Game Isn’t A City-Builder, It’s A Planet-Builder
Per Aspera is a new PC game out this week that has you playing as an AI responsible for terraforming Mars. You’re tasked transforming it from a big cold rock into somewhere humans can walk their dogs outside in a grassy green park. It’s a city-builder in spirit, in so far as you build buildings…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsWorld Of Warcraft Shadowlands’ Alt-Leveling System Is A Refreshing Change
Unlike World of Warcraft’s Legion and Battle For Azeroth expansions, which gave players a choice on which zones to level up their characters, Shadowlands’ story campaign is very linear. Fortunately you only have to play through it once. With the new Threads of Fate mode, players who’ve reached max level can skip the story with…
By Mike Fahey Published December 3, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsImmortal‘s Version Of Assassin’s Creed‘s Leap Of Faith Is More Of A Panicked Plummet
There’s a moment at the beginning of Immortals Fenyx Rising, the new open-world adventure from the developers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where it feels like newly-forged hero Fenyx is going to go full-on assassin. She climbs a massive stature, surveys the land, and then prepares to leap gracefully to the ground. She would have done…
By Mike Fahey Published December 2, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsFallout 76‘s Steel Dawn Update Feels More Like An Old-School Fallout Adventure
Fallout 76’s latest free expansion brings the series’ fan-favorite fascists back to Appalachia with a new mini-campaign that made me briefly forget I was playing an MMO. Steel Dawn, which came out a week ahead of schedule after a patch accidentally went out early on Xbox, adds new building areas called Shelters, some more cosmetics…
By Ethan Gach Published December 1, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsRed Dead Online’s Latest, Disappointing Update Shows GTA Online Is Still Rockstar’s Favorite
Red Dead Online’s latest update isn’t much. While Rockstar plans on adding a big new island to GTA Online later this month, complete with a new heist and more, Red Dead Online’s end of the year update is far smaller. And while some small amount of this new update is good, including some new bounty…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 1, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsEmpire Of Sin Is Not Great
Ahhh, I really wanted to like this game. But as hard as it tries, and as much fun as it has with the source material, Empire of Sin is a mess of ideas that just isn’t much fun to be around. Set in 1930s Chicago, it’s a game that tries to marry management, turn-based combat…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 30, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Switch Version Of Immortals: Fenyx Rising Tries Real Hard
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is not on the Switch. Neither is Watch Dogs Legion. The only one of this fall’s three vast, open-world Ubisoft games to grace the Switch is Immortals: Fenyx Rising. It doesn’t look as good or run as well as it does on Xboxes and PlayStations, of course, but for a Switch game…
By Mike Fahey Published November 30, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThat Night, Steeped By Blood River Looks Like Nothing Else You’ve Played
That Night, Steeped By Blood River is one of the most interesting-looking games I can remember This surrealist exploration game has an aesthetic so unique that I’m convinced I’ll dream like it tonight, and as such am somewhat put off going to sleep. Created by Taylor Swietanski, TNSBBR is on one level a fairly standard first-person…
By John Walker Published November 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSuper Cable Boy Is A Precision Platform Game For Normal People
Imagine for a moment a precision platformer that is not only amazing-looking and smartly designed, but also accessible to regular human beings. Dizzy? It’s possible! I found it! It’s Super Cable Boy I understand the purpose of precision platform games. They’re for a select group of people whose gaming skills far exceed my own. They…
By John Walker Published November 26, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBakugan For Switch Has The Most Boring Battles
Remember back in July when Nintendo teased a new third-party game for the Switch and it turned out to be Wayforward’s Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia? The actual game is nearly as disappointing as the announcement turned out to be. Not only does it have the most tedious Bakugan battles ever, we don’t even get to…
By Mike Fahey Published November 25, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBorderlands 3 On PS5 Is What The Original Should Have Been
Consider the slate of cross-platform games coming out on both new consoles. It’s a modest list, featuring Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Watch Dogs: Legion, some requisite sports and driving games, and… Borderlands 3? Yes, of all games, Gearbox’s performatively raunchy looter-shooter received a makeover for the Xbox Series X (and…
By Ari Notis Published November 18, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsDestiny 2‘s Season Of The Hunt Looks Promising So Far
Follow the trail of glowing green vapors, kill the monster at the end, and collect some new loot—that’s the basic structure of Destiny 2‘s new Wraithborn hunts. So far it’s a nice change of pace from the game’s past seasons. How deep and rewarding it will be after a few weeks, let alone months, remains…
By Ethan Gach Published November 17, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsFuser Is A Good Game, But An Amazing Music Creation Tool
Fuser isn’t Rock Band Blitz 2 or a new Amplitude. Instead, it’s a rhythm game about creating new music using classic and modern hits. It’s a joy to play, even when you make some truly awful stuff. Released last week, Fuser is developed by Harmonix, the studio behind popular music games like Rock Band, Guitar…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 16, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsOnly One Of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Bonus Quests Is Good
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a big game, filled with things to do, places to go, and gear to collect. To add to this huge pile of stuff, if you pre-ordered the game or purchased the season pass, you get a bit of extra content in the form of extra quests. One of these bonus quests…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 16, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMy Hands Don’t Like PS5 Call Of Duty’s Adaptive Trigger Feature
Black Ops: Cold War has arrived. There are several platforms to play Call of Duty on this year, but only the PlayStation 5 can literally give the game a next-gen feel with its controller. But is this novel sense of realism the best option for a multiplayer shooter? My hands aren’t convinced. All the next-gen…
By S.E. Doster Published November 13, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsTwo Weeks With My PS5
I’ve had a PS5 for a couple of weeks and my feelings about it keep changing. On the most basic level, hey, it’s a means to play the next generation of PlayStation games. On another, there isn’t yet a next generation of PlayStation games, and the console’s interface doesn’t feel quite ready. I’m not worried…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 13, 2020