What would happen if you take a mobile game concept and scale it up to a PC release? Well, Fishlabs tried it with Chorus, and the results are rather mediocre. [Issue#258, p.62]

Big Brain Academy is sometimes advertised as a “gym for brains”, but with Brain vs. Brain, Nintendo tried to cut down on tediousness and steer it towards “party game” genre. [Issue#258, p.55]

Great parkour, gory combat, improved story and beautifully detailed open world make Dying Light 2 the best game of the last few months and a very strong contender in game of the year race. [Issue#258, p.38]

If you have a Switch and at least 50 hours of free time, if you can handle the stress of losing progress due to manual saves, if you like complex story, nuanced mechanics and turn-based combat – you definitely have to play Shin Megami Tensei V. [Issue#257, p.72]

Kudos to Ubisoft for being brave enough to release a full-scale game focused on extreme sports – we definitely need more of these. Now for the bad news: like most Ubisoft games, at least half of the content is either superfluous, or underdeveloped. Only skiing and snowboarding are actually good, bikes are tolerable at best, and skydiving is just meh. [Issue#257, p.68]

Peter’s flashbacks deserve a special mention. Eidos Montreal went all-out on them, so instead of a cutscene, we get to explore a lovingly detailed place from Star-Lord’s past. [Issue#257, p.48]

Superstars could be bigger and better than it is. But it’s still the ultimate version of Mario Party. Though I wonder how the next game could possibly surpass it – there’s basically no room for polish, and another volume of “Greatest hits” won’t have the same impact. [Issue#257, p.70]

A faithful remaster of a game two decades old, with all its ups and downs. Poor controls, bad UI and pixelated characters will definitely take some time getting used to, but in return you’ll get a true old-school experience with some very interesting puzzles. [Issue#257, p.62]

In the first few hours, you get to know and love Inscryption. Then, it genre-shifts to the point of total unrecognizability. [Issue#257, p.78]

Forza Horizon 5 still is a great racing game, but there’s no denying that the series is in a torpor-like state. It’s obvious that Playground is afraid not only to innovate, but to make any sort of significant change to a successful formula. [Issue#257, p.64]

It’s like Diablo, except you mostly fight dressers, fridges and street lights. [Issue#257, p.76]

It’s hard to name a single thing about this game that’s worth your time. [Issue#257, p.54]

Basically, it’s an Age of Empires II remake. Why would Microsoft remake a game that was re-released as recently as 2019? That’s beyond us. [Issue#257, p.58]

It’s one of those cases where it’s really hard to rate a game. It has a great concept and good plot delivery, but actual gameplay is incredibly frustrating. You’re stuck in the loop along with your character, with no way to fast-forward the events, and you have to meticulously try every possible combination, until find the trigger that will open up a new option. And then you re-check it all over again. [Issue#256, p.44]

Resident Evil 2 Remake shows how to properly blend old-school horror ideas with modern action to create a great game. Tormented Souls ignored all that and tried to copy the original one-to-one, with predictable result: it’s a bland clone of a game two decades old. [Issue#256, p.38]

Don’t come in expecting a suspenseful horror or a psychological thriller. This time around, Supermassive Games treats us to an action-horror with adrenaline-filled scenes and great camera work. [Issue#256, p.28]

If you don’t mind the cliché story, you’ll probably enjoy Tales of Arise – it has good graphics, good pacing and fluid (if a bit too easy) combat. [Issue#256, p.64]

The basic gameplay loop is really simple and relies a lot on the mindless busywork, like building the same buildings in exactly the same order in every mission, or manually picking up trash. [Issue#256, p.49]

The game looks like a Yakuza reskin, but that’s not quite true. Lost Judgement is more refined, so to speak: there’s more emphasis on the detective work, and Yagami isn’t so keen to get into fights. Although there’s still plenty of random street thugs for you to beat up. [Issue#256, p.36]

Back in the 90’s, a lot of games were made by small teams or even a single person who did what felt right, creating entirely new genres in the process. It’s hard to imagine something like that happening today. But with Highfleet,it did happen: it’s a truly unique blend of arcade, strategy and fleet management. [Issue#256, p.46]

One does not simply make a 1 to 1 clone of a game that’s 22 years old! So the studio duct-taped hacking mechanics on top of GTA 2 gameplay, but frankly, it didn’t change much in terms of gameplay. [Issue#256, p.43]

Gamedec’s modest skill tree not only feels tacked on – it actively hampers the role-playing aspect, because certain dialogue options reward you with leveling points, and others don’t. So there’s a strong incentive to just sift through dialogue looking for those special options, instead of doing what feels natural for the character. [Issue#256, p.52]

Far Cry is now officially a Just Cause knock-off. There’s a grappling hook, a wingsuit, plenty of vehicles with universally poor handling, a huge open world and a dumb story with one-dimensional dictator. It wouldn’t be too bad by itself, but the gameplay is also a lot slower than in JC, turning every potentially fun activity into a chore. [Issue#256, p.32]

There are some minor improvements here and there, but there’s no new big feature that screams – that’s where 3 years of development went. The only one reason to get CMS2021 for the full price is if you somehow missed the 2018 version. [Issue#256, p.56]

One step forward, two steps back, couple steps to the side with some awkward shuffling thrown in-between – that’s how Back 4 Blood feels compared to Left 4 Dead. Card-based power-up system is the only interesting thing about it. [Issue#256, p.40]

It’s like TV series: during the first season, actors are still getting to know their character, so the show really kicks into gear only from season 2. Same thing here: original Atom RPG was still searching for its identity, but Trudograd shows that it was finally found, and now Atom is a franchise of its own. [Issue#256, p.60]

There’s no denying that Aliens franchise was (and still is) a great source of inspiration for game designers. But its premise and lore are way too simple for a full-length game, and Fireteam Elite is yet another proof of that. [Issue#256, p.50]

Nice remaster of an unusual game that successfully blends together platformer, strategy and god-sim genres. Playing as an omnipotent deity is a rare treat these days, and the great soundtrack makes it even better. [Issue#256, p.59]