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OpinionImpressionsMario Maker 2‘s Final Update Would Be Better If It Weren’t The Last One
Super Mario Maker 2 received its big version 3.0 update today, adding a bunch of new items, characters, and a whole new mode for building entire worlds. There’s a ton of great stuff to play around with in it. But as a final update, it leaves a lot on the table. First the big stuff:…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsDestiny 2’s Guardian Games Is Another Boring Bounty Fest So Far
Destiny 2’s latest event is a generous but all-too-familiar bounty grind, and I’m not sure I have it in me to stick with it. Revealed last week, Guardian Games is Destiny 2’s spin on the Olympics. Instead of individual players competing to see who’s the best, players of a particular class—Warlock, Titan, or Hunter—pool their…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsI Need Much More Of Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s Dancing Mini-Game
Don’t leave a rhythm game fan hanging here, Square Enix. The Final Fantasy VII Remake dancing mini-game is too good to be limited to a practice round and one spectacular sequence. Cloud needs to move his body right. As I played through Final Fantasy VII Remake, former (sniff) co-worker Jason Schreier kept asking me where…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Animated Mortal Kombat Movie Is Just As Brutal As The Games
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, the new film from Warner Bros. Animation, begins with dozens of ninja being torn limb from limb. Hanzo “Scorpion” Hasashi’s young son is viciously slayed while the titular ninja helplessly watches. Fans of the fighting game’s over-the-top violence will be… pleased? This might get a little gross, folks. The first…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsFallout 76‘s Wastelanders Expansion Is Underwhelming So Far
Running down the hill from Vault 76 where I emerged a year and a half ago, I spot a couple hiking up a stone path. They are the first people I’ve ever seen in Fallout 76 in my over 100 hours with it. They ask me if the vault’s still open and if I’ve heard…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsCloud Can’t Close Doors
Final Fantasy VII Remake looks so damn good, and it’s full of tiny graphical flourishes. You can even see which color materia Cloud has equipped in his sword. That might be why it’s so much more noticeable to me that Cloud can’t close doors. I’m only eight hours into playing the game, so maybe Cloud…
By Maddy Myers -
OpinionImpressionsThe Difference Between Final Fantasy VII’s Easy And Normal Modes Is Too Drastic
Combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake, especially when facing powerful boss battles, involves juggling normal and special attacks, destructive and healing magics, and strategically exploiting enemy weaknesses. Unless you’re playing in easy mode. Then it’s just button-mashing bullshit. I spent 40 hours playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake, mostly on normal mode, the highest difficulty…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsMinecraft Dungeons Is Like Family-Friendly Diablo
Minecraft’s transformation from an open-world crafting game into a linear dungeon crawler is an odd one, but Minecraft Dungeons is still shaping up to be a serenely welcoming loot-based hack n’ slash. Mojang demoed the game for me remotely last week due to the new work-from-home constraints imposed by the ongoing covid-19 crisis. These constraints…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsThe Division 2‘s First Season Is Pretty Good, So Far
With the release of Warlords of New York last month, The Division 2 added a big new playable area to the game. But this large update also added seasons, complete with special events and battle passes. We are now a few weeks into the first season and so far, so good. For the most part.…
By Zack Zwiezen -
OpinionImpressionsAnimal Crossing‘s Bunny Day Mascot Is A Lot To Deal With Right Now
The passage of time is a big deal in the Animal Crossing series. New Horizons players were today treated to a ton of changes as their islands transition into spring, which brought with it new critters to catch and cherry blossom trees to diversify the landscape. But with the game’s first holiday right around the…
By Ian Walker -
OpinionImpressionsMount & Blade II: Bannerlord Is Blowing Up On Steam And I Can’t Stop Playing It
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is an open world third-person strategy game that overwhelms you with options and choices and helps calm you back down by letting you rampage across giant medieval battlefields. Even though it’s a janky early access game, all I want to do right now is keep playing it. Clearly I’m not…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsIn Moons Of Madness, Outer Space Is Just As Scary As Alien Monsters
I’ve never had any grand aspirations of being an astronaut, even as a kid. But in playing Moons of Madness, the latest first-person adventure from Norwegian studio Rock Pocket Games, I was given definitive proof that I just couldn’t hack it in outer space, long before the eldritch abominations started showing up. Moons of Madness…
By Ian Walker -
OpinionImpressionsI Spent An Afternoon Playing The New Xbox Game Bleeding Edge And Have Already Forgotten Everything About It
Last week Ninja Theory and Xbox Game Studios launched Bleeding Edge, an Overwatch-style online hero brawler for PC and Xbox One. It has 11 unique playable characters and two competitive game modes. It’s going to take more than that to hold my interest. In a world where Overwatch and Paladins exist and Battleborn has come…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsIron Danger Is A Fantasy Role-Playing Game With Superhot-Style Time Dilation
In Iron Danger you can rewind time whenever you need to in order to save your life and land the killing blow. It’s a cool idea and works well enough in practice, but that fun premise doesn’t stop the rest of Iron Danger from being an otherwise pretty middling isometric role-playing game experience. Out on…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsBorderlands 3’s Latest Expansion Gives The Series Its First Good Boss Fight
Guns, Love, and Tentacles, yesterday’s major update to Borderlands 3, revolves around a gay wedding on an alien planet. While that’s fantastic in its own right, the rest of the expansion is pretty great too, combining fresh aesthetics with a bevy of cool new guns and what is arguably the series’ only good boss fight…
By Ian Walker -
OpinionImpressionsGood Job! Turns Office Nepotism Into Something More Fun
I haven’t been into the office in weeks. If your job can be done from home, and your employer isn’t a heartless monster, you probably haven’t either. Good Job!’s workplace carnage is a perfect substitute. I only wish every office was this much fun. Developed by Dutch game studio Paladin and published by Nintendo, Good…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsUltimate Alliance 3’s Fantastic Four DLC Is An Epic Epilogue
The first two installments of downloadable content for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 added new multiplayer game modes and challenges. Fantastic Four: Shadow of Doom, the third and final bit of paid DLC, adds a playable epilogue to the game’s story starring Doctor Doom and his four best pals. After two helpings of relatively narrative-free additional…
By Mike Fahey
