Impressions Archives - Page 46 of 72

Iron Harvest Has Some Problems

Iron Harvest should, by all accounts, be just the game for me. It’s set in a universe I dig, and has a lot in common with Company of Heroes—a game I’m on record as saying is “the perfect RTS” And yet every time I force myself to sit down and play it, something just feels…

By Luke Plunkett Published September 3, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Avengers’ Story Campaign Is Bigger And Better Than I Expected

When you start Marvel’s Avengers, the in-game menu suggests you complete the single-player campaign before diving into online multiplayer. Now I’m over six hours into the campaign and only just unlocked Black Widow, my fourth of the game’s six playable launch characters. This might take a while, but I’m not irritated. I’m having a great…

By Mike Fahey Published September 1, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Windbound Nails The Terrifying, Calming Peace Of Being In Open Waters

Six minutes into Windbound, I died. Shortly after the game started, I found myself stranded on an island with nothing but my wits and a knife. I saw a boar-like creature. It wasn’t bothering me, but it had something I needed. So I did what video games have taught me to do and struck it…

By Ari Notis Published August 31, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Here’s The Prettiest Purple Gaming Headset I Ever Did See

Normally I turn to pink hues when I am looking for new gaming accessories, but the lilac Logitech G’s G733 Lightspeed wireless gaming headset, part of the company’s new Color Collection, is pushing me in a purple direction. Logitech G makes good gaming gear. Now it makes good gear in fancy colors. The new $130…

By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Doesn’t Fix What Needed Fixing

I’ve been waiting 16 years to finally enjoy playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. But after sinking five hours into the remaster, the fun still eludes me. I’ve wanted to play a Final Fantasy party game that combines arcade co-op with RPG customization ever since I first read about Crystal Chronicles in a 2003 SquareSoft brochure,…

By Ethan Gach Published August 28, 2020

OpinionImpressions

The Last Campfire Is A Totally Chill Puzzle Adventure

The Last Campfire, the latest from No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games, is a perfect game for unwinding. There’s no urgency to hero Ember’s journey through the mysterious world they’re trapped in at the beginning of the story. It’s about wandering lush fantasy environments and solving puzzles as lovely music plays. Push some blocks, light…

By Mike Fahey Published August 28, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Tell Me Why‘s First Episode Is Too Real

In a way, the first episode of Tell Me Why wants to convince you that people aren’t as bad as you think. It’s a weird message for me, a trans man playing a video game, to hear—both video games and the people who surround them can be worse than I think, and I’m constantly braced…

By Riley MacLeod Published August 27, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Control’s AWE Expansion Leans Into Horror, And It’s Rad

Horror has always seemed right around the corner in Control. There’s a refrigerator that always needs to be looked at or it’ll kill you. A rubber duck teleports around maliciously. Your double is plotting your demise in a mirror world. Even so, horror was always the game’s selective spice, used sparingly to break up the…

By Cameron Kunzelman Published August 27, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Warframe‘s New Flesh Planet Is A Wild But Disjointed Ride

Warframe’s greatest strength is also its most intangible: It commits. Whether it’s the core idea of outer space ninjas who front flip down hallways at a million miles per hour or a full-on Hadestown-style musical intro for a planet focused on labor issues, Warframe is 100 percent all-in on everything it does. So when developer…

By Nathan Grayson Published August 26, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Finally, A Video Game Worthy Of Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack, Genndy Tartakovsky’s excellent animated martial arts drama, debuted on Cartoon Network in December of 2001. It ran until 2004, returning for a fifth and final season on Adult Swim in 2017. In all that time only two games were made based on the series, and they weren’t great. Now, three years after the…

By Mike Fahey Published August 21, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Raji: An Ancient Epic Is A Beautiful Exploration Of Love And Gods

Raji: An Ancient Epic plays like an epic poem. Shadow puppet cutscenes help tell the story of main character Raji and there are murals all over the world displaying stories from Hindu mythology. The music aids the grandness of the storytelling, with a sitar frantically strumming in time with Raji’s spear swipes or the wail…

By Ash Parrish Published August 21, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Chill Out, Battletoads

I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to call Battletoads 2020. A long-awaited sequel? A spiritual reboot? A love letter to an old classic whose most memorable quality was that hardly anybody could beat it? In any event, it feels good to play in short bursts, but its humor and chaos overshadow it. I wanted…

By Ethan Gach Published August 20, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Spiritfarer Is A Chill, Touching Take On A Stressful Genre

Spiritfarer, which is described by developer Thunder Lotus Games as a “cozy management game about dying,” came out yesterday for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. I’m only a few hours into this massive, striking game—it’s reportedly 30 to 40 hours long—but those words seem remarkably accurate so far. To play Spiritfarer is…

By Ari Notis Published August 19, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Rogue Legacy 2 Is Definitely More Rogue Legacy So Far

Rogue Legacy 2, now available in early access on Steam, leans heavily on the first two nouns in its title. It’s a roguelike in which the player guides generations of adventurers through a grand castle in search of fame and fortune, leaving behind a legacy for the next family member to take up the cause.…

By Ian Walker Published August 19, 2020

OpinionImpressions

The New Total War Is Not A Complete Mess

Total War is a series whose games can swing wildly between “all-time classics” and “oh no”. So a few years back, developers Creative Assembly had a very good idea: in between major releases, they’d work on smaller, more experimental games, where they could test new ideas and features before rolling them out into the bigger,…

By Luke Plunkett Published August 18, 2020

OpinionImpressions

EA UFC 4 Has Some Clever Surprises, But It’s Mostly More Of The Same

Sometimes, when an MMA fighter takes a couple years off, they come back transformed, throwing out so many new looks and techniques that it’s like they spent their entire time away in an extended training montage. Other times, they’re pretty much the same as before, but a little creakier, a little rustier, and a lot…

By Nathan Grayson Published August 18, 2020

OpinionImpressions

So Glad I Finally Discovered The Sci-Fi Puzzle Adventure Observation

“I am here.” You’ll hear that line often over the course of Observation, a puzzle-adventure game that came out last year for PC and PlayStation 4 and earlier this summer for Xbox One. (It’s also included in the Xbox Game Pass library.) If you’re looking for a short, satisfying adventure to help you weather the…

By Ari Notis Published August 18, 2020

OpinionImpressions

EVE Online On Your Phone Is Enjoyable, If You Squint Enough

Officially launching this week on iOS and Android, EVE Echoes is all of the mining, exploring, transporting, pirate-fighting, fleet-battling action of CCP’s venerable science-fiction MMO in convenient portable form. See all of that tiny text? I might need a bigger phone. EVE Echoes wastes no time getting into the swing of things. Within the first…

By Mike Fahey Published August 14, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Final Fantasy XIV‘s Latest Patch is Surprisingly Full of Hope

After waiting through COVID-related delays, the newest patch of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is finally available. Reflections of Crystal has had heavy expectations placed on it, with the patch’s trailer teasing the post-Shadowbringers storyline hurtling towards a well-earned conclusion, backed by the consistently excellent writing we’ve seen since the expansion’s release last year. But patch…

By Elizabeth Henges Published August 12, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2‘s Two-Minute Warehouse Demo Is Damn Good

The warehouse level demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is pretty bare bones. It’s just one skater, Tony Hawk, running two minute sessions through the remake’s version of the very first level from the original THPS. It immediately and without fanfare answers the question “Is this a good Tony Hawk game?” Yes…

By Mike Fahey Published August 12, 2020