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OpinionImpressionsHardspace: Shipbreaker Would Be More Relaxing If Not For The Bone-Crushing Space Capitalism
A growing number of games focus on turning monotonous work, like running a border checkpoint or renovating a home, into compelling gameplay. Hardspace: Shipbreaker, the new simulation game from Homeworld 3 developer Blackbird Interactive, fits that description perfectly. It tasks you with stripping spaceships under the constant gaze of a megacorporation that sees the main…
By Ian Walker Published June 17, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsDesperados 3 Is A Modern Stealth Masterpiece
It has been a weird and quiet year for video games this year, both because we’re in a pre-next-gen lull and, you know, everything else. Out of this downtime though has come a pleasant surprise: a genuine game of the year contender emerging out of the long-dormant Desperados franchise. Despite this being the third game…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 17, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsI’m Loving Pokémon Sword And Shield’s First Expansion So Far
Just a few hours in, I’m already enjoying Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Isle of Armor DLC more than the base game. While much smaller in size, it feels more free flowing and open ended. There’s a lot to explore, and plenty more Pokémon to catch, including a bunch of my favorites that didn’t make the…
By Ethan Gach Published June 17, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsLittle Orpheus Is A Fantastic Cold War Era Journey To The Center Of The Earth
In Little Orpheus, the latest game from Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture developer The Chinese Room, Soviet cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich is debriefed on the 1962 mission that saw him exploring the secret world beneath the planet’s crust in a massive atomic-powered drilling machine. It’s got dinosaurs, lost civilizations, and all the excitement and adventure of…
By Mike Fahey Published June 15, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsPersona 4 Golden PC Is The Definitive Edition Of A Damn Good Game
Trapped on a dead Sony handheld no longer: The ultimate version of Persona 4, the once Vita-exclusive Persona 4 Golden, launched today for PC via Steam I’ve been playing it for a couple weeks now, and I have no new complaints. Old complaints, sure. The fourth game in the storied series, originally released in 2008…
By Mike Fahey Published June 13, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Excellent Ys: Memories of Celceta Just Jumped From Vita To PS4
If you want to know why I love Nihon Falcom’s long-running Ys series of fantasy action role-playing games so much, look no further than Ys: Memories of Celceta, which is easier than ever now that a PlayStation 4 port has been released. Though released for the PlayStation Vita in 2012, three years after Ys Seven…
By Mike Fahey Published June 10, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Good And The Bad Of Destiny 2’s Season Of Arrivals
I’m enjoying the little things in Destiny 2’s latest season. A giant bow that looks like you could windsurf on it. An ominous black pyramid hogging the horizon on Io. Another overpowered exotic whose exploding projectiles bathe enemies in a pool of fluorescent liquid. I’m not sure they can redeem the game’s extremely uneven third…
By Ethan Gach Published June 10, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsDisintegration Tries Mixing RTS With FPS, Succeeds At Neither
Disintegration has a weird setup. You are a hotshot pilot who is also a robot with a human brain. You ride a hoverbike and command a squad of similar robots with human brains. The idea is to mix real-time strategy mechanics and first-person shooting. After playing a few hours of the game’s campaign I’m not…
By Zack Zwiezen Published June 10, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsIf You’ve Never Played Xenoblade, The Switch Version Is A Great Starting Place
Kotaku’s Mike Fahey put it best when he said that Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition “makes an excellent third impression.” As a newcomer to the series, I’d like to add to that: It makes an excellent first impression, as well. Nintendo’s latest Switch game isn’t exactly full of surprises. Monolith Soft’s venerable role-playing game, spiritual successor…
By Ari Notis Published June 4, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Outer Worlds Looks Terrible On Switch
The Outer Worlds looks so bad on Switch I’m tempted to tell even people who have no other means of playing it to stay away. The Switch port of Obsidian’s sci-fi role-playing game by Virtuos Games comes out June 5, and it’s clear the journey to Nintendo’s handheld home-console hybrid has been anything but smooth.…
By Ethan Gach Published June 4, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsBorderlands Legendary Collection Is The Handheld Port I Always Wanted
I love Borderlands. I bought a PlayStation Vita in 2014 just because it came bundled with Borderlands 2. Unfortunately, that version was terrible. But now that the first three games are available on the Switch via the Borderlands Legendary Collection, I finally have a chance to loot and shoot on the go that won’t leave…
By Ian Walker Published June 1, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThere’s Always A Lighthouse. There’s Always BioShock Switch Impressions
BioShock: The Collection, which contains all three games in the series and their DLC in one neat package, came out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2016. This week, it’s on Switch. As it turns out, both Rapture and Columbia are well worth the return voyage. All three BioShock games have actually been…
By Ari Notis Published May 29, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition‘s New Chapter Is Light-Hearted Fun
Included in this week’s definitive edition of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Switch is Future Connected, a short playable epilogue. It ties up a dangling plotline and has a lot of fun doing it. Future Connected is not simply more Xenoblade Chronicles, which is good. I just finished playing a couple dozen hours of Xenoblade Chronicles,…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsAtomicrops Mixes Farming And Roguelike Elements But Does Neither Very Well
After almost 10 months in early access, the full version of Atomicrops is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This post-apocalyptic farming simulator slash roguelike from developer Bird Bath Games tries to do a lot but often falls short of excelling in any one area, making for a balanced but…
By Ian Walker Published May 28, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Makes An Excellent Third Impression
It’s hard not to focus on Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition’s upgraded graphics. The Switch version’s crisp characters and updated textures are far removed from the washed-out, muddy visuals of the Wii original. But it’s the little quality-of-life adjustments to this enhanced version of Monolith Soft’s open world action RPG that are making my third playthrough…
By Mike Fahey Published May 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMortal Kombat 11: Aftermath’s Story Goes Pretty Much As Expected
The new single-player story content in Mortal Kombat 11’s Aftermath expansion stars the treacherous sorcerer Shang Tsung. Having that backstabby, soul-stealing bastard front-and-center is a good sign that betrayal is going down at some point. It’s just a matter of when and how much. Eventually and bunches. Out today for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and…
By Mike Fahey Published May 26, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsHorrific Tech Demo Lets You Create Fleshy Greeting Cards
Some artists sculpt with clay, others create beautiful landscapes with watercolors. Misshapen, the upcoming body-horror game from Argentine developer BRUTO, gives players the ability to craft terrifying sights using the flesh of their enemies. The full game still lacks a release date, but a new demo provides a sneak peek of the “draw-with-lumps” technology that…
By Ian Walker Published May 22, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsMinecraft Dungeons Is A Fun But Stripped-Down Dungeon Brawler
I’ve spent a few hours clicking through Minecraft Dungeons’ isometric world and, despite how shallow it feels, I’d be content to click through it for several more. Mojang’s attempt to spin its massively popular crafting game into a small Diablo-like is successful, limited only by the narrow ambitions underlying it. Minecraft Dungeons, out May 26…
By Ethan Gach Published May 22, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSaints Row: The Third Remastered Looks Nice But Feels Old In 2020
Saints Row: The Third Remastered brings the apex of the franchise to PS4 and Xbox One for the first time, warts and all. Originally released in 2011, the third game in the Saints Row franchise was a turning point for the series and the most successful effort to distinguish it as something more than a…
By Zack Zwiezen Published May 22, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsWhat The Golf Turns Everything Into Golf, And It’s Great
I knew What The Golf? was brilliant just a few minutes after it began. An early hole was structured such that I could bank a shot off a mound and a get a hole in one, as opposed to sloppily shooting around an obstacle—in this case, some cats chilling out nearby. Setting up this shot…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 21, 2020