All of that said, even though I’m having a great time, my early first impression is that this is more Division.

We’ll save our thoughts on the overall multiplayer experience and progression for our full review, but early thoughts right the same from our previews: Battlefield 6’s multiplayer really is a standout. Hopefully servers hold and that experience carries over to the real thing.

From what we've played so far, Marathon feels like a modern love letter to the classic games from Bungie’s past, while keeping their sights on the future. While the learning curve is steep, the community the game is building is already growing strong.

Endfield has done a great job of mixing so many complex systems and genres into a fun, narrative driven ARPG.

At the end of the day, I’m enjoying Star Wars: Outlaws much more than I think I expected I would given I can’t force push or deflect lasers bolts with an energy sword as I’m usually wont to do in these games. Kay is a compelling protagonist, and one I’m eager to see the rest of her story play out. We’ll have our full review in the coming days as we finish up the story and see how day one performance shakes out.

Starlink’s unique blend of planet-surface combat, open world exploring, and space opera story make for an extremely good time so far.

As it stands right now, Sea of Thieves is an empty playground of wasted potential that requires too much investment from the player with too little in return.

Overall, Warlander just doesn’t do enough to make it feel special or justify its predatory monetization scheme. The first few matches are fun, but once you run into enemies who are objectively more powerful again and again, the fun begins to fade and there isn’t enough variety to keep things fresh.

I wanted to love Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance so badly. I grew up reading R.A. Salvatore’s novels about Drizzt and his companions. Baldur’s Gate was my first CRPG that I ever played. The original Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Dark Alliance II are probably my favorite games from the PS2 era. But sadly, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance just misses the mark in so many categories. It was a slog to get through, and there is almost no reason for me to ever pick it up again.

There simply are not enough ways to say, "Do not buy this game". It is not worth its price tag and the dollars spent to hours of enjoyment is missing in every conceivable way. Perhaps there is a tiny niche of players who will enjoy it for a time before moving on but, as yet, they haven't materialized.

Bound By Flame sounded promising every time we saw it... but so do most games. What we ended up with instead is an RPG trying to be as great as its inspiration but never coming close. Poor combat, poor story, and poor acting, all serve to make this "epic tale" one you'll want to skip. Do not buy.

All of this is to say simply: Redfall is a bad video game. It's one that feels both underbaked and unfinished, releasing in a visually poor state loaded with bugs, lackluster gameplay and just a boring, empty world... I cannot recommend anyone spend time with Redfall, especially with Microsoft charging $70 for the title on Xbox or PC, and even on Game Pass I'd recommend simply playing Arkane's other titles like Dishonored or Prey.

he core shooter mechanic doesn’t feel good. The world map is for show. Game has balance issues.

If you’re looking for a deep MMORPG or Battle Royale experience then A3: Still Alive is not that game. Most of the game plays itself, the monetization model is relatively offensive, and progression is overly complex for no reason. Each of the classes are also gender locked, which shouldn’t be a thing anymore. On the other hand, it’s a very pretty idle game.

At its core as well, Gollum as a protagonist was never going to be all that enticing, despite his intriguing personality in the books. The surrounding game and narrative had to be absolutely stellar to sell Gollum as a compelling protagonist, and Daedalic fails full stop here. And it's a shame because the team are very obviously Tolkien fans aiming to tell a good story set in Middle-earth. However, at the end of the day, the game on release would have been better off never leaving its cave.

The War Z has about as much value as its crappy in-game melee weaponry and that’s not much at all. At least it doesn’t cost anything to play after you buy it, and the cash shop items are fair enough, so you won’t see people running around with machine guns just because they spent money. If you’re going to give your money to a zombie-survival game, grab ArmA II and a copy of the DayZ mod, or wait for the full retail version of DayZ to arrive on digital store shelves and check that out. Do not buy into The War Z.

Maybe I'm just jaded and my review is more harsh than usual because of it, but Dragona does nothing to set itself apart from anything else on the market. The little highlights of the game, like the environments, are often over shadowed or covered up by much worse features. Dragona just isn't worth anyone's time. I wish I could say more, I wish I could like it more, but in the end there is no use lying on the game's behalf.

It takes a truly awful game for me to tell you not to try it out, so I'm not going to say that here. In fact my parting advice to you is that you do try it, even if it's just briefly, to understand where I'm coming from; the simple and tedious gameplay experienced within the first five minutes doesn't get any more exciting over the next 30 hours.

ARGO Online only launched on April 21, 2011, but appears to be singing its swan song already. ARGO does have some interesting classes and more than enough PvE content to keep players leveling; but all of the PvP features that the game boasts are not playable due to diminishing player numbers. If something were to change in the population department, then ARGO Online would be worth a second look.

Hunter Blade is a decently fun and very familiar action oriented MMO. Working your way through hunts and slicing through monstrous beasts is a satisfying time waster. But with flaws such as the game-breaking fatigue system and the lacklustre social activity, unfortunately we will just see Hunter Blade put to bed in time.

Take my advice and consider doing something else with your life that's more meaningful than playing this sad excuse of a bait-and-switch. Much as I don't like poo-pooing on others' hard work and effort, I see no reason why anyone else should have to go through the same heartbreak that I did.

This game bored me senseless. It not only didn’t engage me, at times it seemed to go out of its way to actively repel me. While there are probably plenty of gamers out there who might enjoy a game that requires so little thought or personal engagement, I’m not one of them. I won’t be playing this game again and I won’t be looking for anything else produced by Mira Game either.

There is a reason why you have seen this crop up in many “Worst of...” lists including our own “Worst MMOs of 2013”, if it’s not for these reasons mentioned within this review, then it is for it’s downright disgraceful approach to MMO design, or just the controversy it has caused within the MMO community. Scarlet Blade is a title you’ll feel ashamed to play, and is truly one of the worst MMOs of this year.

The whimsical character and environment designs and the tactical combat seem like draws from a distance, but once in the game there is little substance to keep the things interesting. The early levels are a tedious grind that the game conveniently offers the opportunity to pay your way out of, and no real opportunity for meaningful interaction with other players. Even if you want to really dig in and learn how to get the most out of the systems, the poor documentation and dry tutorial levels make mustering the effort to play the game the challenge rather than anything in the game itself. I enjoy tactical turn-based combat, even if it’s numbers heavy and features simple graphics. Inferno Legend just isn’t enjoyable.

Mortal Online 2 is not a complete game. This feels like an early access title in disguise, just waiting to start charging its players a $15 monthly subscription fee in order to keep development on track. The fact that its first two and a half weeks after launch was unplayable by the majority of the playerbase is the most telling of all, but in tandem with too many missing systems and features it’s not hard to think of it as an unfinished product. Thankfully, at least for now, the subscription charges are postponed until the server issue is completely resolved. But even for $39.99, I would not recommend Mortal Online 2 to anyone unless you are absolutely dying for a full loot open PvP MMORPG to play. And dying you will get – a lot.

So, is Noah’s Heart fun? Well, it can be. Is it good? If you like Genshin Impact, don’t mind monetization, don’t listen to the voice acting, and don’t care about not being able to read the story text…it might be. In general though? If you don’t mind mobile ports I’d give it another few months for fixes before I’d make another attempt at it. The current state is only half-baked at best when it comes to PC play, and if you are a primary PC player, I wouldn’t recommend it at all. Noah’s Heart may be available on PC, but it’s really just another mobile game made to fit a bigger screen while it blindly gropes for your wallet.

Embers Adrift has a lot of fantastic ideas, but I just don’t feel that it is quite there yet. I do genuinely hope that the Embers Adrift team continues to make improvements and listen to their passionate community, because they will be critical in those days ahead as they start to iron out improvements and optimization issues. Maybe one day in the future I will return to Embers Adrift, but for now, I would just honestly rather play anything else.

The early access version of The Wagadu Chronicles has a unique setting, great accessibility, and a fantastic soundtrack. Unfortunately, these features does not make an exceptional game. There’s a basic framework here that needs a lot of refinement, and some direction on a core game loop. I feel like a vast majority of Wagadu is built with the premise of societal interactions, and I fear that will be a tremendous gamble from an untested niche. [Early Access Provisional Score = 30]