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For 250 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 31% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 65% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Lowest review score: 20 Pokemon Violet
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 138 out of 250
  2. Mixed: 81 out of 250
  3. Negative: 31 out of 250
252 game reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Crimson Desert
    The balance, in particular, isn’t quite right yet. We certainly applaud the fact that the game doesn’t hold your hand, but the contrast is quite stark. In some missions, everything is so broken down and spoon-fed to you that the game guides you through every step like a toddler. And at other times, you have absolutely no idea—and absolutely no explanation—of what you’re supposed to do. The lack of narrative and coherence is clearly a shortcoming. Despite all its flaws, there’s definitely the potential for a fantastic game here. It never becomes as emotionally compelling as Arthur Morgan’s story in Red Dead Redemption 2, and it lacks that childlike wonder of Breath of the Wild, but it all looks great and the massive amount of content makes up for a lot. Crimson Desert is a rough diamond that still needs a good polish. In its current form, it’s an okay game with obvious limitations. With enough post-launch support, it might still achieve what it sets out to do: become one of the better games of the year.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Life is Strange: Double Exposure
    Visually, the series takes big leaps forward, and the winter setting makes this a perfect game for the end-of-year period. It feels like a warm, familiar blanket. But a beautiful setting is nothing without a good story. This time you and Max must solve a murder, and today she has a new superpower: a peek into a universe where that murder never happened. Not a bad find, but it's never deployed as creatively and cleverly as rewinding in the original game. The further you get, the more the plot also seems to lose its pedals. Bummer.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
    How we like the latest Call of Duty? Well, pretty much like the previous one and all those before it: unpretentious entertainment that slips in as smoothly as a slice of pizza. Not that we mind, because we love pizza.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
    Aside from its wacky premise, F.I.S.T. is a more than solid game that plays smoothly and looks great - especially thanks to the PC and PS5's graphical processing power. But the difficulty level is quite high - due to the clumsy controls at times even a little too high. So prepare for frustration and disappointment, and very often try again.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Call of Duty: Vanguard
    With Vanguard, Call of Duty returns to the roots of the series: World War II. The solo campaign is entertaining but short, and the multiplayer is exactly as expected: full of action and adrenalin. However, the few novelties are not spectacular enough to lift it above mediocrity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Battlefield 2042
    Up to 128 players, regardless of whether they play on PC, PS5 or Xbox Series, can take on each other online at the same time in epic battles. Getting that done without too much lag and hiccups is a technical feat and works wonderfully. Too bad the amount of bugs in our test version was too high to make the game really excel.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Booster Course Pass - Wave 1
    Unfortunately, the quality of the new tracks varies: Toad Circuit feels like a rush job, while Paris Promenade perfectly captures the wonderful chaos of Mario kart. In summary, we're happy for more Mario kart, yet we're a little disappointed that the first part of this expansion doesn't reach the towering level of the original.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Submerged: Hidden Depths
    Looking for a challenge? Then Submerged: hidden depths is not the right game for you. After all, this game is meant to be a quiet adventure, and it is. Maybe even a little too quiet.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tour de France 2024
    The game occupies a rather strange place on the spectrum. On the one hand, it wants to be a racing game, where you control your own rider and determine how fast he drives, when he sits in time trial position and how he cuts corners. However, a cyclist is not a car, and the controls feel rather clumsy at first. It gets easier as you persevere, but we suspect many players will soon drop out.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    SAND LAND
    Anyone who read the manga in the 2000s must acknowledge: what this game looks like is how the static manga images came to life in your head. It is of the last things Akira Toriyama did before his death: congratulate the developers for bringing his creation to life so beautifully. Rightfully so. So really one for the fans, because the gameplay is okay, but it doesn't break any pots: it's a typical action game in an open world.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unknown 9: Awakening
    Is it due to the fact that the game is released on both the previous and current generation gaming consoles, which limited the developers? The game takes itself very seriously, and we can't imagine that they deliberately left one of the most annoying elements of the previous console generation - the many (hidden) loading screens - in the game unless there was a technical need for it. Add to that the wooden and terribly dated character and facial animations, and the result at least does not live up to what you should expect from a video game anno 2024.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Until Dawn
    So why only three stars? Basically, this is a remake of a PlayStation 4 game from 2015, which you could have long bought for next to nothing. This new version looks even better and adds some bells and whistles, but too little to justify the $70 price tag. Many other games from that era were upgraded for the PlayStation 5, costing a dozen euros or often even free. To charge full price for this is money-grubbing.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No More Heroes III
    Since 2007, little has changed in the formula of No More Heroes. The third volume is no exception. No More Heroes III is rough, fast, bizarre and brutal. And that makes the game simultaneously great and frustrating.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lost Judgment
    Lost Judgment is a combination of a thriller movie with a smoothly playing and well-furnished action-adventure game, where you will easily need twenty to forty hours to reach the end. So much for the good news. The game suffers from the same disease as many Japanese genre rivals: it wants to cram too much into one game. A little more focus would do the series good.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King's Bounty II
    King's Bounty II may not be the most original or visually impressive game we've gotten to play lately, but it does manage to translate a typically childlike fantasy to the screen. And childlike fantasy is just the thing everyone can use on occasion.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dragon Quest Treasures
    Grab your spade, your flying pig and your pirate hat: it's treasure hunting time in Dragon Quest Treasures. There is some fine loot to claim, though not all that glitters is gold. Our conclusion: Treasures mainly is a good introduction to the series for somewhat younger or less experienced gamers.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Destruction AllStars
    To become a fixture like Fortnite, though, Destruction Allstars needs more content than its current four game modes and handful of courses. In any case, Lucid Games has already announced plans to continually expand and improve the game at least during its first year, so the future looks bright for PS5 owners.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    F1 Manager 2022
    In 'F1 Manager 2022' you manage an existing Formula 1 team and literally decide everything. Which mini-part of the car will be further developed, which departments will be expanded, which sponsors will be brought in and which goals will be set. Even during the grand prix, you determine the race strategy and try to lead your team to victory. Great detail, but therefore rather meant for a certain niche.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Call of the Sea
    Call of the Sea is basically one big escape room, in which you go from location to location while solving varied and mostly interesting puzzles. Sometimes, however, developer Out of the Blue expects a little too much, which can lead to frustrating moments and a wandering player.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sid Meier's Civilization VII
    Civilization VII is great. Exciting. Frustrating. It's like a Rorschach test: how you look at it depends from person to person and moment to moment. Besides the obvious improvements, many of the game's flaws were perfectly avoidable, which leads us to conclude that this game is not finished. And we take issue with being asked full price for a game that is not yet finished. Our advice: if you're not a huge fan of the series, wait another year. If you are, prepare for a rough ride.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Way of the Hunter
    After each direct hit, you can see in slow motion and in great detail which trajectory your bullet traveled, where and with what force it hit the animal, which vital organs were pierced and at what point your poor prey died. No gratuitous violence, but a realistic, almost scientific representation of how you killed that innocent pheasant or that cute little deer. After more than three decades of playing video games, there is very little that makes us uncomfortable, but 'Way of the hunter' occasionally made us gulp.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
    'Clone' is rarely a good category to be categorized in, yet Nickelodeon All-star Brawl is a creditable fighting game. Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros: Ultimate still offers more value for money, but the mechanics and gameplay of All-star Brawl are surprisingly good. If you are looking for a decent platformer or are a hardcore fan of the genre, you should definitely give the game a try.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Little Nightmares II
    It's remarkable how quickly 'Little Nightmares 2' takes hold of you. The constant sense of unease is excellent, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the game is artificially stretched by puzzles that are unnecessarily drawn out and complex. And so this beautiful nightmare ends in an ordinary dream.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Guilty Gear -Strive-
    The fighting system of Guilty Gear Strive requires tactics and precision, and the solid soundtrack full of roaring guitars supports the epic battles. What we liked most about this fine fighting game is the distinctive graphic style of the cutscenes that is carried through into the game, making you feel as if you are playing the lead role in a great anime.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
    The missions offer plenty of variety and are nail-biting at times. You can play them alone, but just about everything makes you feel that this is not the intention: Black Ops 7 is clearly designed to be played with multiple players. The campaign also works much better when you try to achieve your goal with others. We already knew that Call of Duty is primarily a multiplayer extravaganza. Still, we expected a little more here.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game
    The game, with its flamboyant characters, fast action and simple controls, at times resembles ‘Wii Sports’ - still one of the best-selling sports games - and that's a compliment. It is also touching how enthusiastic the diverse participants are, whether they win a medal or lose hopelessly. Even in the virtual Olympics, taking part is more important than winning.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    WRC 10 The Official Game
    WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship is the full name of the game. Quite a mouthful for the official video game of the royal class in rallying, already the tenth in the series. WRC 10 builds on the solid foundation of its predecessors, and that results in a very enjoyable racing game.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spacebase Startopia
    Spacebase Startopi’ taught us that aliens are just like people - they're cranky if they don't get a latte in time, tweet about their day and leave a giant pile of trash behind - and that running a space station is damn hard work. The game won't achieve the same cult status as the original, but as a strategic building game that doesn't take itself too seriously, it's good for several hours of solo and multiplayer fun.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Soulstice
    The developers responsible for ‘Soulstice’ took a good look at the ‘Devil May Cry’ series. The dark, sinister atmosphere in the desolate world from the game is spot on, and you almost effortlessly conjure smooth and flashy battles from the controller. So where does it go wrong? In the way the camera works. It is mostly fixed, but jumps between scenes, suddenly taking you in completely the wrong direction. The clumsy and awkward way the game handles this is your most difficult opponent.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Scarlet Nexus
    Scarlet Nexus aspires to be an anime. It succeeds with flying colors, as evidenced by the beautiful style, but regularly loses itself in the story that is difficult to get going and requires a lot of attention to be able to make sense of it. Thankfully, the lightning-fast battles make the heart race and leave you wondering what happened. But in a good way.
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In Progress & Unscored

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    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Palworld
    There is nothing wrong with being inspired, and many movies and games are variations on existing themes. But ‘Palworld’ adds nothing original and there is more than a hint of plagiarism about it. This chaotic bastard child in which creatures can not only be deployed as soldiers or slaves but also horribly tortured caused nothing but annoyance for yours truly. But look, tens of millions of players appear to like it after all, so there is indeed a market and an audience for it. Fascinating, but that still doesn't make it a good, original game. [Early Access Score = 20]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Slay the Spire 2
    Slay the Spire II isn’t exactly a revolution: the framework of the original remains intact, but there are so many new cards and the new characters are so unique that we’re already completely hooked and frantically searching for ways to “break” the game by finding crazy card combos. The new feature we were most looking forward to was multiplayer: from now on, you can team up with other players to take down monsters. That requires a lot of coordination, especially when playing with three or four people, but wow: it adds a whole new dimension. In case it wasn’t clear: we would have rather played Slay the Spire II than written this piece. Though that’s not entirely true: we think this game is so good that we believe everyone should try it, and we’re happy to recommend it. Your wallet will barely feel it: you can get started for just 25 euros. [Early Access Score = 100]

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