S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has made Roadside Picnic famous, but it harshly mangled the book: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s Zone was a zone of armed conflict between various factions and mutants, instead of being a place of mystery and supernatural. Pacific Drive, on the other hand, pays an unexpected tribute to the “feel” of the original book, despite nominally being “a car-driving game”. [Issue#263, p.62]

In this co-op stint, Outlast lost most of its story content, ramped up its difficulty and became repetitive. The game has only a few maps and very little variety in tasks. [Issue#263, p.70]

A quality remake of a 2004 game that will keep you entertained for many evenings. [Issue#263, p.53]

Infinite Wealth is a kaleidoscopic parade of everything that made original Like a Dragon great. Except there’s more of everything, and everything is more interesting than before. [Issue#263, p.66]

“Modest” is the first word that comes to mind. Modest graphics, modest story about EEEEVIL, Diablo-esque gameplay... Except it’s not – the amount of skill customization is staggering, and unlike Path of Exile, you can change your build on the fly. [Issue#263, p.48]

It perfectly captures the essence of “Starship Troopers” movie without quoting it directly. Good gunplay doesn’t hurt either, and a healthy dose of friendly fire chaos brings some spice into the mix. [Issue#263, p.42]

If you think that Expeditions is just Snowrunner without emphasis on trucks – you are correct, more or less. It also has pretty much the same problems, including collision physics. But considering the perpetual drought in the genre, we’re going to play it nevertheless. [Issue#263, p.58]

Even if you’re a Silent Hunter veteran, it will take a dozen attempts before you sink your first u-boat. And it may take another dozen to learn how to trap your opponent, how to use your bomb to deafen enemy acoustic, and other tricks of the trade. But then – then you’ll be having a one-of-a-kind type of fun. [Issue#263, p.54]

Level design is overly convoluted. No matter where you’re going, the road will take so long you’re likely to forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to mention that the path is so rugged, no ordinary person would ever get there. So how do normal people live here (and they do, ostensibly)?[Issue#263, p.46]

A true milestone not only for Legend of Zelda series, but for the industry as a whole. [Issue#262, p.61]

Daedalic knew how to make the adventure part work – and it does work, more or less – but everything else screams “amateur hour” so hard, it borders on naïve art. [Issue#262, p.64]

The world isn’t big, but it’s well lived-in, you can feel for its inhabitants, and it’s nice to see how Delta gives them a bit of hope and warmth. All in all, it’s another good Daedalic adventure game. [Issue#262, p.85]

Respawn Entertainment still looks up to Dark Souls, but at the same time they try to make a hardcore game with the most softcore experience. For example, there’s always plenty of shortcuts, so Cal never loses much progress after his inevitable demise. [Issue#262, p.58]

Let’s face it: Jagged Alliance had always been a game about superheroes with guns. New installment simply cranks that concept up to eleven. [Issue#262, p.54]

Type-O used to be the darkest and most mature game in the franchise, but now this title is usurped by Final Fantasy XVI. At times, the amount of blood, swearing and sex rivals even The Witcher’s. [Issue#262, p.48]

It’s definitely a step forward compared to basic 1-2-Switch!, but that step isn’t big enough to help the game come out of its (very narrow) niche.[Issue#262, p.76]

A paradise for gamers that leave no stone unturned. There’s no procedural generation involved, so every nook and cranny were hand-made, and there’s a generous amount of loot to be found. [Issue#262, p.68]

It’s almost like Diablo 4 developers are consciously fighting against everything that made classic Diablo fun. [Issue#262, p.80]

If you want to live out a larger than life sea story, Barotrauma is your game. Here, you’ll have your arrogant captains, jaded engineers, malpracticing doctors, epic adventures and a myriad dumb ways to die horribly. [Issue#262, p.66]

This installment is a lot closer to modern Civilization games than to classic Age of Wonders. The differences between factions are so few and far between, everyone might as well be humans under various banners. [Issue#262, p.72]

The name of the game is “parry”. Whatever the problem is, a well-timed parry will save the day. But if you can’t handle parrying mechanic, you’ll lose, no matter what tactics you use and what your equipment is. [page 52]

It’s easy to rip into Wanted: Dead. Basically, everything about this game is bad, except for the bloody finishing moves. Which, incidentally, were the main thing touted by the trailers. [page 58]

It’s hard to call Conquest of Eo a sequel, because it’s so different from its predecessors. But at the very least, it’s a great spiritual successor, and it knows how to keep player’s interest. [page 60]

As far as remakes go, Resident Evil 4 is very solid, but very safe, to the point of losing some of the original’s spark. Early RE games used to be unashamedly goofy, and RE4R seems to be afraid of that legacy. [page 64]

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is by no means a perfect game, but it’s refreshingly original. Some of its concepts deserve to be adopted even by renowned studios like Creative Assembly. [page 48]

Beautiful, cozy and incredibly detailed, Hogwarts Legacy suffers from overabundance of side activities that offer no story, substance or good gameplay. [page 42]

High on Life works better as a sitcom about weird aliens than it does as an FPS. [page 46]

If you want to replay first Dead Space – the remake will scratch that itch. But don’t expect any meaningful improvements over the original. [page 54]