Giant Bomb's Scores

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For 1,045 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 28% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 69% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Dragon Age: Origins
Lowest review score: 20 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 594 out of 1045
  2. Mixed: 307 out of 1045
  3. Negative: 144 out of 1045
1080 game reviews
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per page
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    TiQal
    It’s thoroughly unexciting and visually uninspired, but that’s more the fault of TiQal’s place in history. If it had been one of the first puzzle games on the service, it might stand out a bit more. But now, despite its passable gameplay, it’s hard to not just say “wow, they made another one of these?” and move on.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Qix++
    While it doesn't carry the weight of a Pac-Man or a Donkey Kong, the core gameplay works well enough that it's easy to see how it could be remade in a flashy new way that appeals to the digital download crowd. But QIX++ is a short, dull take on the Qix formula that won't rope in new players or satisfy aficionados.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    NBA Ballers: Chosen One
    NBA Ballers: Chosen One feels like a relic, like an old arcade game that’s been given a fresh coat of paint, but no additional gameplay depth. Like an old arcade game, it’s fun for awhile, but unless you have nostalgic feelings for, well, the other two Ballers games, you’ll probably get fed up fast.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    ReCore
    ReCore offers a lighthearted, fun first few hours, but all that promise is quickly buried in a torrent of bugs and oversights, poor storytelling, and disjointed pacing that all make the game a pale shadow of what it could have been.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    ReCore
    The combat, platforming, crafting and customization, even the parts of the story that work were clearly built with care and seem like they'll amount to a really engaging game with a lovable cast of characters and an intriguing world, but the game's rampant problems are just impossible to look past. This game deserved to be so much more.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dante's Inferno
    Imitation is an open invitation for comparison, and while it's mostly competent from a technical perspective, it's all very rote.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Assassin's Creed Unity
    Assassin's Creed: Unity is at once an object of exquisite beauty and exhausting boredom.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lost Planet 2
    With faster and more responsive controls, a better multiplayer framework, and a smoother character progression system, this one could have been surprisingly competitive in its category. But with so many problems holding it back, Lost Planet 2 is hard to recommend against all the other great shooters already out there.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    SoulCalibur
    Soul Calibur gets the fighting right, but without online play or the single-player mission mode that made it fun to play alone, this XBLA re-release is a flimsy package.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Saints Row: The Third - Genki Bowl VII
    THQ wants you to pay $7.00 for eight missions and a handful of mostly meaningless unlockables. That's just crazy.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Zombie Apocalypse
    A boring dual-joystick shooter that lacks the speed and intensity that the best games in the genre all share. Throw in a generic zombie theme and you're left with something that feels like it'd be a neat free Left 4 Dead mod. As a standalone commercial product, though, it's lacking at every turn.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Crackdown 3
    Crackdown 3 shows very little in the way of learning from the past or learning from the other open-world games that have graced consoles over the last nine years. Instead it feels slight, mindless, and dull. It feels like a gussied-up first-generation Xbox One game. Like the sort of game you might have expected to hear about back in 2014. In the here and now, though, there's... way less room for this sort of game on store shelves.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Kinect Star Wars
    There are a few glimmers of what could have been in here, but this is not the game that legitimizes Kinect as a game-playing device, nor does it do a single thing to restore any vibrancy or value to the Star Wars license. Fans of Star Wars, Kinect hopefuls, and little kids all deserve better.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Crackdown 3
    I don't think I'd call Crackdown 3 an awful game, but I would call it dated.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE 2K15
    Yes, 2K has imbued 2K15 with impressive graphical prowess, but those hot visuals don't mean a whole hell of a lot when the rest of the game feels so undercooked.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009
    The entire game feels lifeless and old. The presentation fails to capture the excitement of the real thing. The gameplay doesn't match the product it's attempting to emulate. And the layers upon layers of plain-looking menus feel like they were ripped out of a PlayStation 2 launch game.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
    Even if you are a hardcore Aerosmith fan, this game's short and spotty track list makes it hard to recommend.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
    The campaign has aged pretty poorly and the graphical updates to the campaign side of Gears of War feel half-baked, so unless you're really excited for the competitive part of Gears of War, there's nothing for you here.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
    Everything in the Underdome is a total hassle, and that gets old fast. That you don't gain any experience points or build up more weapon proficiency while in the arenas only makes a bad situation worse, and it makes the entire experience feel pretty pointless.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Aliens vs. Predator
    You're left with the impression that the single-player was an afterthought and that multiplayer was the focus. But even the multiplayer is saddled with enough flaws to make this game missable.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dead Nation
    But it doesn't matter how slick a game like this looks if the action isn't on point. Housemarque has proven in the past it clearly has the chops to make great shooters, but it doesn't feel like that skill was fully brought to bear on this one.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
    Though it has two campaigns and a healthy array of maps for skirmish and multiplayer, Command & Conquer 4 feels like it's missing about half-a-game's worth of content. There are some neat ideas in play, but the action itself isn't strong enough to make it all work, and the cutscenes aren't good enough to make you forget that the game isn't all that hot.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
    Humor is entirely subjective, and maybe some of the stuff I found to be a little easy and dull will get you going. However, I'm a lot more certain about the quality of Matt Hazard's gameplay, which almost feels like it's going out of its way to be mediocre at best. Hey, maybe that's part of the joke!
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Star Trek: D-A-C
    It's another bad top-down multiplayer shooter on a system that already has more than enough of the same.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Agents of Mayhem
    It may share a genre and universe with Saints Row, but Agents of Mayhem is a lifeless husk of Volition's prior work.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Conduit
    If you're just comparing it to other action games released on the Wii, The Conduit does some interesting things with its control and with its multiplayer modes. But other aspects, like the poor story, bland design, and awful voice acting, would be just as bad on any platform. It's that stuff that drags The Conduit down into an area where it's tough to recommend without providing a boatload of caveats.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Zombie Apocalypse
    A boring dual-joystick shooter that lacks the speed and intensity that the best games in the genre all share. Throw in a generic zombie theme and you're left with something that feels like it'd be a neat free Left 4 Dead mod. As a standalone commercial product, though, it's lacking at every turn.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fracture
    While the game itself is technically proficient, nothing about the gameplay pushes it above and beyond that base level of proficiency. Its biggest problem comes from a clever premise with poor implementation. There's some replay value here in the multiplayer and the collection of data cells, which unlock the weapons from the campaign in a weapons testing area, but even those can get old very quickly. Once you get past the limited use of the terrain deformation you'll find yourself searching for anything new or exciting in Fracture's take on the sci-fi third-person shooter.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE 2K16
    WWE 2K16 improves on the many things wrong with last year's game, but not nearly enough.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Expendables 2 Videogame
    This is most definitely a lazy, slapped together, overly expensive waste of time that nobody need bother play. And yet, for some bizarre reason, all I could think about while playing The Expendables 2 was that it didn't have to be this way.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
    The game itself isn’t much fun, regardless of the number of players. With its plodding, monotonous pace and scattered presentation, Rocketmen doesn’t do enough to separate itself from the seemingly infinite number of other dual joystick shooters available via Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009
    The entire game feels lifeless and old. The presentation fails to capture the excitement of the real thing. The gameplay doesn't match the product it's attempting to emulate. And the layers upon layers of plain-looking menus feel like they were ripped out of a PlayStation 2 launch game.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Spider-Man: Edge of Time
    Save for some occasionally witty banter, this generally generic brawler is too concerned with the window-dressing of time-travel to capitalize on Spider-Man's character, abilities, or mythology.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
    Nothing about the gameplay feels broken, it just feels soulless this time around.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Evil Within
    For every brilliant moment, there's a handful only worthy of exasperated annoyance.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    DC Universe Online
    The game's combat feels limp, the quest design is immediately monotonous, and the whole package manages to make being a superhero or villain feel like the most mundane thing in the world. Considering the game's "everyone's a hero/villain" plot, I suppose that makes perfect sense.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
    The game itself isn’t much fun, regardless of the number of players. With its plodding, monotonous pace and scattered presentation, Rocketmen doesn’t do enough to separate itself from the seemingly infinite number of other dual joystick shooters available via Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lost: Via Domus
    Instead of making excuses for Lost: Via Domus, I would just recommend that everyone but the most die-hard of Lost fans take a pass on this one.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Brink
    The structure of the game is decent, but it's brought down by issues both large and small. The largest one is a simple lack of content. With eight maps, a lackluster arsenal, and a campaign mode that is, by default, populated with terrible AI-controlled bots, Brink just doesn't have enough going for it to justify a full-price purchase.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Paper Mario: Color Splash
    A dreadful combat system brings down an otherwise beautiful and funny Mario adventure.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dead Block
    It's as if it was plucked from the earliest days of downloadable gaming, back when digital games often relied more on single-minded gimmicks than the fully fleshed-out concepts of late, and $10 seemed like such a great deal for any game you could play with buttons on a console. That era has long since passed us by, and we're better for it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Thief
    Moments of true thievery are frequently left to side missions, which leaves roughly 10 hours of story in which you navigate bland mazes of narrow corridors, dull traps, and dimwitted A.I. foes, all for an end result that does nothing but underscore what a colossal waste of time the whole endeavor ultimately was.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
    Humor is entirely subjective, and maybe some of the stuff I found to be a little easy and dull will get you going. However, I'm a lot more certain about the quality of Matt Hazard's gameplay, which almost feels like it's going out of its way to be mediocre at best. Hey, maybe that's part of the joke!
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Need for Speed Undercover
    I'll admit that my fondness for Need for Speed Most Wanted colored my expectations for Need for Speed Undercover, but this game's general failure as a racing game ends up being so significant that its inability to recapture the fun of Most Wanted in particular is kind of a moot point. There's no shortage of street racing games on the market right now, and there's simply no room for a game that can't nail down some of the basics.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Just Dance 3
    The Just Dance series feels like it's headed in the right direction with Just Dance 3, but it still has a long way to go. If you were satisfied with the Just Dance experience on the Wii, and you find the soundtrack to Just Dance 3 appealing, you probably won't be disappointed. But you should know that you can do better.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Homefront: The Revolution
    It is a dull game that fails to offer more than passing enjoyment, hitching and glitching all along the way. It offers a middling co-operative mode in a field filled with games trying to innovate in that space. It struggles to say anything--even something bombastic and cartoonish--about crisis, nationality, or revolution. It tries to roar America, but instead coughs out a few, unintelligible grunts.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dark Sector
    Between the dreary action, the sluggish movement speed, and the seemingly tacked-on multiplayer, you’ll probably want to pass on the whole thing.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Skate It
    As with the original Skate, Skate It manages to feel authentic and it comes with some sharp ideas. But the game's presentation and control just don't pan out, and it seems like a game that'll frustrate players more often than not. If you're a Skate fan looking for what's next, do yourself a solid and wait for Skate 2.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Homefront: The Revolution
    It is a dull game that fails to offer more than passing enjoyment, hitching and glitching all along the way. It offers a middling co-operative mode in a field filled with games trying to innovate in that space. It struggles to say anything--even something bombastic and cartoonish--about crisis, nationality, or revolution. It tries to roar America, but instead coughs out a few, unintelligible grunts.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Homefront: The Revolution
    Homefront may look pretty, but it's a monotonous and confused slog.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Castlevania: Harmony of Despair
    Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has some neat ideas, but a lot of it's hidden behind a bevy of poorly explained menus and user-unfriendly mechanics. The expectation that you'll grind your way through the six chapters over and over again, only to do it all over again in hard mode is kind of ridiculous, and there just isn't enough of a reward there to make all of that grinding feel like anything other than, well, a grind.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    NBA Live 15
    An improvement. It's a better looking game than NBA Live 14, and a better playing one, but "better," in this case, does not directly translate to "good." Live 15 is still too shallow to hang with 2K's game, but it represents a glimmer of hope that this series could eventually provide some legitimate competition to 2K Sports somewhere down the road.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ninja Gaiden 3
    Killing the combat system that made this franchise so enticing, and robbing it of any modicum of challenge was so far beyond what was necessary that it leaves Ninja Gaiden 3 feeling like little more than a stripped-down husk of its former glory. If the previous Ninja Gaiden games were like carefully built, brutally fast hot rods, Ninja Gaiden 3 feels like it should be up on bricks on somebody's lawn.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
    Re-Shelled is stuck in this weird in-between place where it does no nostalgic service to the original game but also fails to bring anything new whatsoever to this simplistic genre.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Star Fox Zero
    All of this would have been welcome in the early 2000s, but the years of disappointing follow-ups and the overall progression of industry standards leads to Star Fox Zero having the impact of an HD rerelease rather than a full sequel. Being able to beat the game in 2-3 hours doesn't help, no matter how many branching paths or lackluster challenge missions are included. Even the moment-to-moment action doesn't have anywhere near the impact that it had almost two decades ago, as this limited style of gameplay feels dated in 2016.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
    The fundamental flaw with Insect Armageddon is that is simply doesn't capture the sheer scale and explosive chaos that made its Japanese predecessor so memorable. Couple that with a shooter backbone that's too simple and too repetitive to rope in fans of the genre and you're left with Insect Armageddon, a game that will fail to entice either fans of the genre or the series.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
    The fundamental flaw with Insect Armageddon is that is simply doesn't capture the sheer scale and explosive chaos that made its Japanese predecessor so memorable. Couple that with a shooter backbone that's too simple and too repetitive to rope in fans of the genre and you're left with Insect Armageddon, a game that will fail to entice either fans of the genre or the series.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bodycount
    A twitchy, mindless experience filled with weak firearms, poor enemy behavior, bland environments, and multiplayer combat that you wouldn't find acceptable in a $15 downloadable shooter.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Brain Age Express: Math
    In the end, it's the price that serves as Brain Age Express: Math's biggest enemy. At 800 points, this slice of Brain Age is nearly half of the retail price of Brain Age or Brain Age 2, both of which would be a more valuable purchase than this downloadable edition.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bodycount
    A twitchy, mindless experience filled with weak firearms, poor enemy behavior, bland environments, and multiplayer combat that you wouldn't find acceptable in a $15 downloadable shooter.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Star Trek The Video Game
    There are glitches and other unfortunate quirks to talk about, but those problems barely register over the din of utter mediocrity that pervades so much of Star Trek: The Video Game's campaign. Outside of a horrid, poorly-explained turret sequence in which you (barely) pilot the Enterprise in battle, there is scarcely an acknowledgment anywhere in this game that Star Trek fans might want to do something other than just run around and shoot aliens. Such a concept ultimately belies the very point of Star Trek in practically all of its many incarnations.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
    There’s a real lack of enemy variety, as well.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
    Fancy whiz-bang 3D effects wouldn't do much to rescue the clunky, mundane action here anyway.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
    Warriors of Rock offers a minor facelift but ignores the sagging infrastructure, and it's not a direction that holds much of a future for Guitar Hero.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ninja Blade
    The focus on occasionally tough boss fight patterns and cutscenes goes a long way in making Ninja Blade feel old.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mr. Driller Online
    Unfortunately, Mr. Driller Online is plagued by a meager selection of gameplay modes and bug-ridden online play that keep it from being worth the $10 price tag.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
    Given how loveably other classic arcade fighters have been treated recently, the problems and omissions make Arcade Kollection nothing but depressing. These games deserve better.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Resident Evil 6
    Resident Evil 6 is a big-budget disaster on the order of the Star Wars prequels, a sprawling production that clearly required so many individual talents to bring it into being, you can't help but wonder how the end result could have turned out so bad.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
    Given how loveably other classic arcade fighters have been treated recently, the problems and omissions make Arcade Kollection nothing but depressing. These games deserve better.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Catherine
    Catherine's limited character interaction, shallow characters, and monotonous puzzles combine to form a unique experience that feels frustratingly limited in every respect.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Catherine
    Catherine's limited character interaction, shallow characters, and monotonous puzzles combine to form a unique experience that feels frustratingly limited in every respect.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Haze
    Though it was announced just over two years ago, the end result plays like something that was slapped together and shipped after a year or so, rather than something that was painstakingly developed and refined.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rocky and Bullwinkle
    A game with no originality and not much excitement, either.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    X-Men: Destiny
    Top to bottom, this game feels rushed, a supposition backed up by Silicon Knights' history of protracted development cycles, from which X-Men: Destiny did not benefit. While politics of why that's the case, as well as speculation on the impact more time and money would've had on the game, are ultimately irrelevant to the game's failures as they are, it's not that hard to see how it could've been something great.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Quantum Break
    There are a lot of sound ideas in the middle of Quantum Break and, hey, if you're a sucker for goofy time travel hijinks this game has that going for it, too. But those ideas are the only things holding this project together. The moment you look past that heady connective tissue, every single one of Quantum Break's individual elements fall flat.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Game of Thrones
    That's pretty much the whole of Game of Thrones. Sad dialogue, combat, sad dialogue, combat, sad dialogue, more sad dialogue, something outright horrifying happening, sad combat, and so on repeated in varying orders for a bit more than 20 hours.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Need for Speed
    The quality feel of the driving and nice-looking environment are buried under heaps of technical issues and bland objectives.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    007 Legends
    The idea of an anthology-like tribute to Bond films of the past isn't a bad one, but 007 Legends wastes whatever potential for fun there might have been. Instead, all Bond fans are left with is a heavily rewritten, Cliff's Notes version of some great (and not-so-great) films with a bunch of forgettable shooting and stealth sequences shoved into the mix. Ultimately, nothing 007 Legends offers is worth the effort of trudging through it.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Target: Terror
    Here in our dimension, though, Target: Terror came out to today’s arcades: empty, lifeless places full of the damned and people who just don’t know any better.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
    There’s a real lack of enemy variety, as well.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dead Island: Riptide
    If I'd come out of Dead Island with a burning desire for more Dead Island, Riptide would go down a lot easier, but since that original game started out strong and just got weaker as it wore on, playing through another 15 hours of almost exactly the same thing, when the first one already felt like more than enough, instead just becomes a tiresome exercise.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Duke Nukem Forever
    If you're not willing to play a sloppy, cobbled together first-person shooter just because it has some kind of weird historical meaning, though, just forget this ever happened and move on. It's great, in some ways, that Duke Nukem Forever was released at all. But don't be confused into thinking that it's a great game.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Duke Nukem Forever
    If you're not willing to play a sloppy, cobbled together first-person shooter just because it has some kind of weird historical meaning, though, just forget this ever happened and move on. It's great, in some ways, that Duke Nukem Forever was released at all. But don't be confused into thinking that it's a great game.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Duke Nukem Forever
    If you're not willing to play a sloppy, cobbled together first-person shooter just because it has some kind of weird historical meaning, though, just forget this ever happened and move on. It's great, in some ways, that Duke Nukem Forever was released at all. But don't be confused into thinking that it's a great game.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dark Sector
    Between the dreary action, the sluggish movement speed, and the seemingly tacked-on multiplayer, you’ll probably want to pass on the whole thing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Anthem
    Anthem needs more than just new content. A lot of work needs to be done on a wide variety of the game's fundamental elements before it can join the ranks of other redeemed loot games like Diablo III, Destiny, and The Division. Whether EA will give BioWare the latitude to overhaul the parts of the game that need it--and whether it's even technically feasible for them to do that in the first place--are questions with uncertain answers.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Anthem
    Twice on PS4, the game crashed so hard that it literally powered down my console, forcing me to repair all my storage devices before I could boot it back up. A game making you worry about damaging your hardware is just inexcusable. I don't remember seeing this many big and small technical issues in a major release since, well, Mass Effect: Andromeda. How that reflects on BioWare's recent track record doesn't really need to be said.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I Am Alive
    I Am Alive is extra disappointing because it has so much potential right up front, and then wastes no time squandering all of it. Its premise is exciting but its promise goes wholly unfulfilled, and at some point you've got to stop lauding a game's good ideas and think about how much you actually enjoyed playing it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011
    I enjoy playing around with all the different creation and storyline-focused options in these titles, but when I actually find myself presented with the concept of wrestling, my enjoyment disappears in a cloud of disappointment. There was a time when this gameplay design worked, and that time was years ago.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Star Wars Battlefront II
    The end result feels like a game that was created in a boardroom, its DNA formed by focus testing and market research. Time will tell what EA does in an attempt to remedy its grave errors with Battlefront II, but the game as it stands today is little more than a disappointing mess. Its technical prowess, beloved characters, and shiny spacecraft serve as little more than a distracting facade that covers an embarrassing attempt at a marquee Star Wars game.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rogue Warrior
    You have to wonder how something like this makes its way onto shelves as a full-priced product. Though there's some sort of ironic fun to be had by cruising through the short campaign and listening to Mickey Rourke shout obscenities, it's practically impossible to wring $60 of excitement out of this disc.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fire Pro Wrestling
    I enjoyed it in spurts, but there's just too much wrong here to hold your attention for long. As amusing as it can be, it's really just a janky wrestling game with avatars stapled on for maximum stupidity.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Driveclub
    It just isn't much fun to play. The core act of driving a car feels off in a way that completely put me off of playing the game. Without that in place, the rest of it just falls apart. The PlayStation 4 has been without a serious racing option since launch, and Driveclub doesn't fill that gap.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Metal Gear Survive
    Metal Gear Survive is both a bad survival game and a bad Metal Gear game.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Metal Gear Survive
    After Phantom Pain was released and the split between publisher Konami and series creator Hideo Kojima became public, some folks lamented that we'd never see another game on Konami's Fox Engine ever again. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Deadliest Warrior: The Game
    It's a clever idea, but the mechanics of this high-damage fighting game don't lead to a lot of interesting depth, making it all fall flat.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Metal Gear Survive
    It has all the trappings of a game that should probably be free-to-play, but Konami is asking $40 for it up front. That's a bad deal.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mass Effect: Andromeda
    It's also an utter mess in a technical sense. There are a few enjoyable moments here and there, and over time you can see the skeletal framework of a better game start to emerge, but given the heights Mass Effect has reached in the past, it's hard to believe this is what we've been waiting five years for.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Knack
    Here is a game that dutifully balls up tired cliches and flat, unimaginative game design just for the sake of filling a presumed-to-be requisite slot in a launch lineup. It does the barest minimum necessary to craft a functional, if utterly flavorless morsel for families hungry for something to feed their shiny new PlayStation 4.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mario Super Sluggers
    As a Mario game, Mario Super Sluggers feels kind of cheap; as a baseball game, it fails to capture the finer points that make the sport interesting in the first place. Its accessibility is probably Mario Super Sluggers' most well-realized characteristic, but what you're getting access to simply isn't much fun.
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In Progress & Unscored

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    • 85 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Starfield
    While a lot of Starfield's familiar Bethesda cruft is outdated and often boring in the early game, the story, quest, characters, and interactions all get better the more you play. That doesn't mean you can ignore the awkward traversal and janky bugs, but it is questionable how damaging those elements are to the experience after 250 hours in Todd Howard's space epic. [Quick Look]
    • 69 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me
    "The Devil in Me" takes an intriguing historical true-crime premise, mixes it with a bit of SAW, and half-bakes it, amounting to a very by-the-numbers, unscary addition of the Dark Pictures Anthology. Unlikable characters with dull personal problems and a plot with glacial pacing bog down a game that had a lot of potential in its set-up. That's not to mention the graphical glitches and other oddities that make the game feel rushed out the door. These unfortunate factors culminate to make The Devil In Me the weakest of the Anthology series thus far. [Quick Look]
    • 69 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Callisto Protocol
    The Callisto Protocol was touted as the next Dead Space and it unfortunately suffers for that comparison. With frustrating, awkward combat, an uninteresting plot, and jump scares that fall completely flat, The Callisto Protocol struggles in the shadow of its spiritual predecessor, which did all of those things better 14 years ago. (This is all not to mention the full-screen strobing light effects that cannot be turned off; an accessibility failure that one would not expect of a modern AAA game.) It's a pity that Callisto copied the aesthetic of Dead Space while failing to execute the aspects that made it frightening and fun. [Quick Look]
    • 90 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
    Quick look (video).
    • 56 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Redfall
    Redfall fails to compel on nearly every level, not just in its uninteresting story, but also its all-too-familiar gameplay. Not only does Redfall feel like a game stuck in yesteryear, even its performance finds a way to disappoint. [Quick Look]
    • 88 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Horizon Forbidden West
    Undoubtedly a gorgeous spectacle in every way, Forbidden West struggles to develop a compelling storyline out of the gate. It mitigates that through a satisfying and customizable combat system, though in our playthrough so far, hasn't demonstrated a substantial evolution from the original. [Quick Look]
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Hong Kong Massacre
    Quick look.
    • 76 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    For Honor
    Quick look.
    • 90 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Marvel's Spider-Man 2
    It runs so, so smooth with no hiccups. Doesn't matter how much crazy bullshit is happening on the screen. Technically it's in the top 3 PS5 showcases. It's phenomenal.
    • 79 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Escape Academy
    Former GameMaster Jess geeks out way too hard at Jeff Grubb, teaching him the ropes of escape rooms! [Quick look]
    • 69 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    High on Life
    Despite the way-too-chatty guns (for what it's worth, there's options for that), High on Life ends up being a pretty fun shooter in a colorful and ridiculously stupid sci-fi world. It's not reinventing the wheel with its combat, but it doesn't really have to in order to be an alright time. The boss fights are surprisingly enjoyable and the game's exploration is satisfying, with upgrades and unlocks that open the world gradually, in a way that reminds me a bit of Ratchet and Clank. High on Life's crass humor is an understandable balk point for many — and the first hour or two is unrelentingly... well, Roilandy — but if you can push past the bad first impression, it's a good ol' competent FPS. [Quick Look]
    • 83 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Octopath Traveler
    Quick Look...
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Somerville
    Somerville's strengths come from its mysterious narrative and storytelling intrigue, but it fails to match the overall polish and cohesive game design language as its spiritual predecessors. [Quick Look]
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Days Gone
    Quick look...
    • 86 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Bayonetta 3
    Platinum makes Bayonetta wilder and more unpredictable than ever, mostly for the better. [Quick Look]
    • 86 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Cyberpunk 2077
    Jeff Gerstmann & Jeff Bakalar's early impressions.
    • 56 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Choo-Choo Charles
    A spooky and ambitious little indie game that knows exactly how silly it is, Choo-Choo Charles has some expected flaws from the constraints that come from being a single-developer project, but makes up for it with its originality and moxie. (I mean, what other game out there is about fleeing from and fighting a demonic spider-train? You just can't get that in a AAA game!) It's one of those indie horrors that's brimming with the joy and the jank that makes me love the genre overall. [Quick Look]
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Chant
    The Chant is a psychedelic folk-horror action-adventure game that has more to it than one might expect from an indie title. While it doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table with its gameplay, it does provide a successfully fun experience and a compelling cult setting to sink into. [Quick Look]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Mirror Forge
    Mirror Forge is a little indie horror joint with a lot of heart and a lot of glitches... but that's not really a deal-breaker for me. It's one of those scrappy super-indie titles whose charm is actually kinda amplified by its rough edges. The developer's love for Silent Hill, Eternal Darkness, and Stranger Things is apparent as our trauma-laden protagonist wanders through bloody hallways with ancient secrets, told to us via somewhat goofy voice acting. Cliché stuff, yes, but I can't help but enjoy that this is a game that knows what it is - an ambitious, mishmashed, indulgent homage to some really great things. A solo developer stretching their legs and seeing what they can pull off. A janky, but entertaining time. [Quick Look]
    • 84 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Resident Evil Village
    Some say it takes a village to do a quick look, others say it only takes Brad and Vinny. Sit back and enjoy as the Giant Bomb team takes an unedited look at Resident Evil Village.
    • 89 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Apex Legends
    Jeff, Brad, and Ben jump into Respawn's new free-to-play battle royale game.
    • 89 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Last of Us Part I
    Quick Look
    • 87 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Hi-Fi Rush
    It's so nice to have a surprise like this come out of nowhere...and at the end of the year I expect I'm still going to be thinking about this when it comes to game of the year time. It would have made my Top 10 last year. - JG [Quick Look]
    • 88 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Night in the Woods
    Quick Look.
    • 96 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Elden Ring
    The Jeffs and Jan convene and hold gnarled fingers together to chat about their harrowing adventures in the world of Elden Ring.
    • 78 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Detroit: Become Human
    Quick look.
    • 93 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Persona 5
    So stylish...I am diggin' it. [Quick look]
    • 83 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Marvel's Midnight Suns
    Marvel's Midnight Suns has snappy tactical combat that's incredibly satisfying and manages to juggle numerous social links successfully with familiar heroes. [Quick Look]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Ship of Fools
    Ship of Fools is a neat little roguelite Overcooked at sea mashup. Things get chaotic real quick as you and a friend have to navigate the seven seas and make sure to not throw precious material overboard. [Quick look]
    • 74 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
    An intro into the Warhammer universe that'll make you want to dive all the way in. Gothic organs blast as you and three other friends blast through hordes and hordes of decaying enemies. [Unprofessional Friday]
    • 80 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The Entropy Centre
    The Entropy Centre is a brutally brain-bending Portal-like, using time as its main mechanic. Casual puzzle-enjoyers might find its trial-and-error game loop more frustrating than fun, but the meticulous-minded will probably enjoy its challenges. [Quick Look]
    • 71 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Pokemon Violet
    The age of the Switch's hardware and GameFreak's prowess as a studio is on full display in the newest Pokemon release as we see muddy textures and single frame animations. While we get a new crop of cute Pokemon, a more open world, and new battle mechanics we're unfortunately stuck trudging along at a snail's pace because of the game itself. [Quick Look]
    • 72 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Pokemon Scarlet
    The age of the Switch's hardware and GameFreak's prowess as a studio is on full display in the newest Pokemon release as we see muddy textures and single frame animations. While we get a new crop of cute Pokemon, a more open world, and new battle mechanics we're unfortunately stuck trudging along at a snail's pace because of the game itself. [Quick Look]
    • 86 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Pentiment
    Pentiment sheds the dice rolls and combat to emphasize the branching conversations and compelling narrative that Obsidian is best at. And the result is an engaging page-turner that can only really work as a video game. [Quick Look]
    • 93 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
    Quick look.

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