The Crew 2 fails at providing the heart of what what a racing game should offer, specifically a fun and rewarding driving experience. All the icing and fancy decoration in the world won’t make a crappy cake into a great cake. The Crew 2 can take a pack of exotic cars racing on a mountain road and produce results that are about as exciting as a round of solitaire.

I went into this game really expecting to like it – and I did, for the most part. In the end, I couldn't get past the odd tone and the feeling that it was penned by someone who didn't actually respect the source material, but wanted to write a self-aware parody of it.

Like Destiny, like No Man's Sky, like Fallout 76, like The Elder Scrolls Online, Anthem could be a great game by next year. But that doesn't make it a good game now. Right now, Anthem is not good. And given what's come out of BioWare in the past and the kinds of lasting, impactful experiences that the gaming world knows BioWare is capable of delivering, that's truly sad.

I also wish some narrative sections played out to their end and the choices mattered a bit more, but Foreclosed tells its story and gets out. I can’t fault it for not overstaying. If you want a snappy cyberpunk adventure it might be worth seeing how the story of Evan Kapnos and his fight for his own identity play out. Just be prepared to deal with some average and occasionally frustrating gameplay all along the way.

There a lot of elements of SkateBIRD that are great. The birds are fun, as is customizing them and finding more things with which to dress them up. Their little adventure is also fun, the soundtrack is excellent, and the levels are fun miniaturized takes on the normal skatepark fare. It’s just that there is so much dragging these charming elements down, the most noticeable of which is the actual skating and the physics involved with it. SkateBIRD might be fun to experience for its premise and cuteness, but those looking for a good technical skate game experience will likely find their expectations crashing and burning frequently, much like most of my sessions with it.

It's bright, wacky, and colorful. I'll give it that. But there's really no edge over playing this bizarre amalgam of space poo and disembodied brains over a shooter like Ikaruga, which has far more polish. I do have to admit though, that these silly adult games never get old, even when they're as middle-of-the-road as this one. As it stands, this waifu would have been left just fine covered.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 must be played with a second person, preferably someone who doesn't mind having a passive support role. It's easier to appreciate the story and gameplay, which aren't half bad, when you don't have to switch between characters all the time.

There’s an action game underneath all of Wanted: Dead’s problems that is not half bad, especially if you liked games like No More Heroes, Devil’s Third, and Wet. It’s ridiculous in its context and action. Unfortunately, for everything good I could say about this game, there was at least one or two things keeping me from enjoying it. Between cringe-worthy dialogue, game crashes, clashing moods, random and ridiculously difficult moments, and broken mechanics, Wanted: Dead takes a lot of effort just to play, let alone enjoy.

I wanted desperately to find a good game underneath all the bugs in Redfall, and every now and then a tiny ray of light would shine through and give me hope. I took my time to give it a fair opportunity where others wrote it off only a few hours in. Unfortunately, they were right, and this will go down as one of the more disappointing games that I’ve played in recent years. All we can hope for now is that Redfall’s disastrous journey serves as a warning to Microsoft and its stable of development studios. Not because the world’s second-largest company can’t take the hits, but because players deserve better.

Burger Time Party! succeeds in providing Burger Time on the Nintendo Switch. Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot else going on to justify the 5-star price for the 2-star burgers it serves up.

A good effort by an indie studio as the art style drew me in from the moment I first saw it, but it lacks any sort of depth as its puzzles aren't difficult to figure out and it's story, as horrific as it turns out to be, didn't really entice me.

The Devil in Me often subverts your expectations in such a way that diminishes player agency and makes your own choices feel arbitrary. Although its added gameplay features make for a more interactive experience, they hardly break the mold and were poorly executed. Technical issues tarnished the experience overall. The game still relies heavily on QTE-based survival mechanics and does little to set itself apart from its predecessors. What had the potential to be a truly horrific conclusion to The Dark Pictures Anthology amounts to little more than a lackluster thriller with a predictable narrative that opts for shock value and jumpscares over quality.

If the idea of playing a shooter crammed on top of a modern edition of Drug Wars, full of pseudo ironic stunt casting and roguelike gimmicks sounds like a good time, boy do I have a game for you. The only game for you, really. All snark aside I don’t think I’ve ever played a game quite like Crime Boss: Rockay City. It’s a massive swing and a big miss, with enough force to crack the sound barrier while the ball stays in the catcher’s mitt. It’s neither a cynical corporate cringe like Sharknado, nor is it a low-budget dud you’d expect to see a crew of robot puppets heckle. It’s weird, loud and uncanny. Frankly I’m surprised Christopher Walken didn’t show up.

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star isn't a lump of coal by any means. Rather, it feels more like unwrapping a present and getting socks.

The problem is that while the game's ambitions are "XL," there's nothing "XL" about the full package. It feels like there are critical features missing, like the ability to play with friends or the ability to do anything with your skills beyond just perform them for yourself over and over. It's a slog once you've mastered these tricks and there's nothing left to do. It's even worse if you don't have the patience to learn, because at that point, there's literally nothing this game has to offer you. And given that the PS4 version of the game had performance hitches at various points, I can envision people's patience wearing thin quickly.

A lot of this game's PSP heritage appears to be on display. While the characters appear to look fine for an HD remaster, many of the environments and menus look awkward and even blurry.

It looks and plays like it is far from ready for wide release, even for your typical early access title. The bad part is that Summer in Mara is not marked as early access, so I don’t think I can be forgiving of its half-baked mechanics, presentation, or UI. 5/10 underwater chests.

If you're a fan of the anime, you're going to enjoy this and you might even come to enjoy the flawed fighting mechanics. For anybody else, My Hero One's Justice 2 is just another aggressively mediocre anime fighter, the latest in a long line of them.

It has glimmers of smart ideas, and the developer could have been a perfect fit, but it just doesn't live up to its potential. It feels rushed and dull, and the show deserves better.

I know volleyball and dodgeball are totally different activities, but the inspiration is pretty obvious here. And if you want to play a sports game like this that’s wacky, over the top, and still has a competitive element, Mario Tennis or the Kunip-kun Dodgeball games are much more fulfilling in every way. And if you’re just a Fairy Tail fan looking for something fun to play with these characters, Fairy Tail: Dungeons or the GUST-developed RPG from a few years ago (with a sequel coming soon) are much more successful in nailing their own concepts. It’s a shame, but aside from some fun visuals and occasional on-screen wackiness, Fairy Tail: Beach Volleyball Havoc doesn’t deliver in either the volleyball or the havoc.

And without VR support for this version, there's no way to even pretend you're really some explorer who uncovered an ancient civilization. You just move like someone ancient.

Pirates isn't a terrible game, but its pedigree means it needed to aim higher. Black Flag's ship combat was extremely refined, but Pirates comes off as a shallow imitator, and will undoubtedly leave players wanting.

Mario Party: Island Tour never seems a natural fit on the 3DS. It feels more like the game has been hammered into shape to fit as well as it can on the platform.

For one of the earliest Nintendo Switch experiences I’ve had with the console, Just Dance 2017 was a disappointing departure. Though its slick and easy to use interface combined with the Switch-centric Tabletop Mode are boons for those looking to dance, there’s little substance here, certainly not enough to recommend shelling out cash for Just Dance Unlimited or even playing this game instead of just turning on the radio and dancing to your own routines.

And maybe that polish will still come. Maybe the glitches will get fixed down the line, maybe the game will get that fresh burst of variety in its missions and enemy types that it needs, maybe it'll get a fresh set of environments. But at this time, The Blackout Club isn't a club worth joining. For now, close your eyes and try to imagine a better game.

To its credit, Steel Seed doesn’t overstay its welcome. You can clear the whole thing in about twelve hours, and nothing here (well, aside from the combat) is bad. It’s just dull. Storm in a Teacup clearly knows how to make games and knows what they’re doing here, but it’s such a mismatch of parts from so many other games that none of them really manage to come together in a coherent way. Steel Seed never finds its identity, which is a shame because Storm in a Teacup is clearly a talented developer who understands how to make games. But Moran was onto something when he said that technique wasn’t as important as conviction. Zoe may be the chosen one destined to save the world, but the game around her never really feels like it's convinced of it — or itself. And if you can’t persuade yourself of the story you’re telling, it’s damn hard to convince anyone else.

Drug Dealer Simulator isn’t an altogether terrible game, but it fails to reach its true potential. The world feels empty most of the time and the game's basic systems get in their own way quite a bit. At the end of the day, what is meant to be a full-fledged simulator experience ends up feeling like a half-finished early access title with plenty of room to improve.

Babylon’s Fall feels like a game that came out a decade ago, both visually and in its gameplay. Combat is clunky and boring most of the time, outside of a few highlights here and there. There’s nothing that encourages players to engage with the live-service elements, despite it being a core tenet of the experience. It’s like someone fed a computer a bunch of information and had it generate an action RPG. Babylon's Fall’s biggest credit is that it’s technically competent; the game isn’t broken or held back by major bugs or issues. It’s a shame, because PlatinumGames has proven itself to be an impressive talented studio. Unfortunately, Babylon's Fall manages to disappoint on just about every front.

If there is a piece of good news here, I feel confident that Asobo will continue to resolve these issues and, given enough time, we'll end up with a Microsoft Flight Simulator that is as stable as 2020 and benefits from all the additional technical improvements. We're not there now though, and now is when folks have spent their money on this product. The '2024' title feels premature; this game needed another 6-12 months of development and testing. It's apparent that it's simply not ready and much more work is required before it is. Flight simmers now have to decide if they want to go back to 2020, like many have, or be the beta testers for 2024 and accept that it'll take time before things are better.

I’ve come to really dig Atelier over the years after kind of avoiding them for a long time (time limits stress me out, I’ll be honest), so much so that I’ve imported the physical trilogy carts for Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition for Ryza 2 back when I had the means to do so. I say that to emphasize the weight of my words when I state how much of a step backwards on the series’ evolutionary trajectory this experience feels like. Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable) to play, and is full of what feel like kitbashed structural systems clumsily molded into a single player game that suffers from its connection to a failed gacha joint. It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.

Kyn is a nice distraction from other games, but don’t expect it to endlessly enthrall you like other RPGs would. However, the scope of the game is well beyond what you’d expect from the two-man team who coded, created, and designed it.

While I dug absolutely every facet of the game's aesthetics and the fact that I was finally able to get more No More Heroes after such a long wait, I didn't quite want it in this format. While it was clear at the start that this wouldn't be a core entry in the series, it's also bereft of much of what makes No More Heroes such an unforgettable and classic game in the first place. Technical issues, strange gameplay decisions, and an overall lackluster series of features make Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes an unworthy placeholder for the next entry in the series.

Ryse: Son of Rome had potential, but Crytek did too little to expand upon its repetitive combat. While I ran through the campaign in about five hours, it honestly felt like 20. And with the formula becoming more and more boring with each by-the-numbers execution, the addition of throwaway collectibles, like vistas and scrolls, couldn't save this game. Ryse doesn't come close to living up to Roman standards.

It feels like there were some very specific ideas the creators of Graven wanted to communicate. But while those ideas sometimes weave together with the game’s dark fantasy, old-school shooter style to form some immaculate vibes, that’s about as deep as it gets. The game seems confused about whether or not it wants to be an awesome action game, a thoughtful explorative puzzler, or some kind of mutant Soulslike gimmick. It sputters across the finish line not really achieving anything but a cool look, undermined constantly by boredom. It’s a shame, because Graven has a hell of a vibe. But there’s simply too much bonkin’ and not enough bangin’.

Crimson Desert is an exercise in excess, and it is worse for it. If you believe more is always better and are so enraptured by “world big” that you are willing to overlook substantial, glaring flaws (and there are many), you’ll love Crimson Desert. Perhaps the most damning thing I can say about Crimson Desert is that it is an enormous game with a ton of content, and I spent most of my time with it wishing I was doing anything else.

The game is less welcoming to new players as its predecessors, and the Main Game campaign mode feels disjointed with uninspired and annoying boss battles. I wanted to like this game, as I am a huge fan of the franchise, but this banana does not pass the smell test.

I feel sad more than anything, because buried underneath the live service slop, there's real potential for a good Suicide Squad game in here. The boss battles show the game's potential. Now imagine more varied missions, different enemy types, and a more interesting gameplay loop that makes the most of this license. Above all else, imagine a better Rocksteady game. Instead of being trendsetters, like with the Arkham series, this studio is now reduced to being trend followers. And I thought the DCEU was bad.

I have to wonder what happened to this project over its lengthy development cycle that took it from a promising spin-off of one of Ubisoft’s most beloved games to what will undoubtedly be remembered as one of 2024’s more underwhelming big-budget releases. It’s not entirely disposable, but it’s far from the treasure it promised to be.

All of this took a promising franchise introduction and just left a bad taste in my mouth. I genuinely enjoyed a lot of aspects of ReCore--the world, the nail-biting platforming challenges, the smart and fast-paced combat. But it comes with so many issues and reservations that it becomes hard to recommend.

There are things I respect about Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Its soundtrack, for one, is uniformly pretty good, and the game’s ambition is undeniable, but I can’t really say I enjoyed much of my time playing it, moment to moment. Occasional striking vistas and questlines can’t make up for a world that feels pretty inauthentic in its representation of a fictionalized version of Celtic culture, and the way you are forced to constantly wander it to complete straightforward missions makes it a space that is hard to enjoy exploring. And while there are interesting roleplaying narrative beats, that is rarely reflected in gameplay that railroads you into one of two playstyles.

While Kirby Fighters 2 is fun for a night with a co-op partner, there's little entertainment beyond that. There are better Kirby games out there. Try those instead.

Despite one-third of the game getting a passing grade, the rest falls short of meeting even the lowest of expectations. Clinging to the coattails of its predecessor, the reboot fails to capture the essence of what made the original Modern Warfare games so iconic. From its lame excuse for a campaign to its redundant multiplayer, finding redeeming qualities in Modern Warfare 3 has been nothing short of challenging. The game amounts to little more than half-baked expansion disguised as a full-fledged title, and the whole thing feels like a slap in the face to consumers. The most disappointing part is that it doesn’t even matter how much we can see through the ruse, because profits will always speak louder in the end. While there still may be new MM3 content on the horizon, it will likely arrive too late to make a difference.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood feels like a short co-op experience stretched out over a barebones RPG skeleton. It doesn’t feel comfortable in its own skin. It’s too thin in some parts while being bloated and lumpy in others. Whatever it is, I don’t really want to touch it. Ultimately, it’s just a disappointing sidestep in an otherwise fantastic franchise.

The Crush House feels like a victim of its own confidence. It’s so self-sure of its premise and big-brained twist that it fails to dig a little deeper under the surface to actually justify any of it. The gameplay itself is incredibly shallow and dull when it isn’t being a frustrating exercise in dice-rolling. The characters are basically all the same person and interact with each other the same ways, repeating the same small set of possible events over and over. Your involvement in the whole equation is to sit there and watch, and hope the emojis and numbers on the screen are doing the good thing instead of irritating you. The payoff is just as shallow as the gameplay, making the whole subversive twist as commentary gimmick a bust.

Battletoads gets very experimental and it's often to its detriment, feeling like it's more focused on being a D-tier Cartoon Network show than a video game.

Resident Evil 0 HD should easily cater to fans of the series, but without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, I came away more frustrated than impressed.

It continues to baffle me as to why Stubbs got this modern re-release. The story is fine, but clever narratives can only take a game so far. Nothing about this game feels like it belongs in 2021, whether it's the repetitive gameplay or the dated graphics. Like Stubbs' character in this specific story, this game should be approached as a curiosity and nothing more.

2064: Read Only Memories is a great game for anyone who agrees 100% with what its heavy-handed, politically-charged plot forces down your throat without question. However, like a political conversation on social media, 2064 is long-winded, overly aggressive in its message, ill-presented, and accomplishes nothing.

The story is also a convoluted mess, going on for much too long. Even worse, its reliance on deus ex machinas is almost comical. The emotional manipulation that Cerny attempts through the story is a bit too brute-forced.

Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield succeeds at getting you into the action with little complication, even if it has less depth than a kiddie pool. It does a poor job at explaining Wally’s situation (everything I know about the story came from outside the game) and this further prevents the experience from being more than something that feels like a prototype. It has a low price that matches well with its truncated runtime and the soundtrack is good enough to help you forget some of the shortcomings. Maybe Aerial_Knight’s next outing will have the recipe for success.

New Gundam Breaker definitely has some great nuanced aspects to its core concept of mix-and-match mech model making, but what it needed was more variety to spice up the gameplay. While last year’s Gundam Vs was nothing mind-blowing it was a much more solid and mixed combat experience.

At the end of the day, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora just feels like a game that’s been made a million times before. You run around and grab resources, craft items, fill out skill trees, shoot bad guys, and search for sets of similar landmarks as you explore a massive map. But it’s all Avatar-flavored, so it’s blue and there are giant cat people running around alongside the humans.

Ultra Street Fighter II tries to add a robust package around its tried-and-true Arcade mode, but much of that package doesn't pan out. All that leaves is the Arcade and Versus modes and for as great as Street Fighter II is, it's a game that also shows its age after a while. Fighting games have come so much farther since SF2 pioneered the genre, so it's hard to imagine going back and especially for a hefty $40 price tag. Thanks for memories, Street Fighter II, but I'm hoping that this is indeed the Final Challenge.

Battlefield 2042 has a serious identity crisis. It clearly wants to be like Call of Duty: Warzone, with its overreliance on fast-quip Specialists that will serve as mannequins for endless cosmetic microtransactions. It also wants to grab some of the audience who religiously play Hunt: Showdown or Escape from Tarkov with its undercooked Hazard Zone mode. Finally, it also wants to be Battlefield to what’s left of a dedicated fan base that’s been left to watch the franchise chase the tail of its competitors for years. We loved Battlefield because it wasn’t Call of Duty or Counter-Strike or Fortnite or Apex or any other popular shooter. This mismanaged project clearly needed more time in the oven and a cohesive design that works to Battlefield’s strengths rather than a game attempting to be multiple things to multiple audiences. In a year where so many releases have been marred by a lack of polish and bugs, Battlefield 2042 may be the biggest offender.

For those that have followed Yoshi since his first starring role nearly 20 years ago, this game is a tremendous disappointment.

Foamstars is a lot of unrealized potential. It's like getting excited about a bubble bath only for the bubbles to quickly dissipate and leave behind only some filthy bath water.

For WWE fans, there is a lot to like with the package, but ultimately, bad design cripples what could be a real winner. While I was not the biggest fan of them, the removal of the showcase events is a huge loss for longtime wrestling fans.

Monster Prom had so much potential and so much to offer that I couldn't wait to tear into it. And on a superficial level, it's an interesting experiment that I thought I would love. Unfortunately, just like the monsters you're courting, once you get to know it it's only a great-looking shell with some fairly rotten insides.

Between a story that reduces much of the depth of the series and a combat system that makes every character play too similar, Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections feels like a Greatest Hits sampler that tries to include everything and doesn’t succeed at doing any of it very well.

Wrath of the Mutants is a functional beat ‘em up. I’ll give it that. If you liked the 2012 show and want more TMNT beat ‘em up goodness to play, it’s fine if your co-op friends are nearby. Otherwise, there are far better options at similar or cheaper prices, even within this IP.

Too much of Game & Wario feels like it's been done before. Its handful of smart designs provide fleeting thrills, while the rest are unfortunately forgettable.

It is entirely possible that Speaking Simulator is just not made to be enjoyed by me. I could see where a streamer could use the game to make a video and get some cheap laughs, letting friends at a party take the controls, or something similar, but as a full-fledged solo game, I found it to be incredibly underwhelming.

As much as I wanted Rage 2 to work, it just doesn’t deliver the best that it could from the two top-notch studios working on it. Right now, I can’t rightfully recommend picking it up at full price, as I just don’t feel there’s enough content here to warrant what they’re asking.

Mighty No 9 does present a few concepts that feel like they could have been the next iterative step. Even if it had avoided its many pitfalls and baffling design choices, though, it's likely a few decades too late for such minor improvements.

When compared to the other golf juggernauts in the video game landscape, the physics are poorly executed. Swings, timing, impact, and reads are far too inconsistent and hinder the enjoyment of the realistic aspects of the game far too much. Combine this with annoying camera angles, bad textures, and grindy gameplay unlock mechanics, and the air gets completely sucked out of the room...The main saving grace for Everybody's Golf Hot Shots is that Wacky Golf is chaotic fun with friends, especially if you don't care about winning. If you're going into the game expecting this to be a next step in the evolution of the series, though, I hope you've got a pretty high handicap, as you're going to need it.

It's really only good for mindless entertainment. I guess the same can be said of most YouTube channels, too.

Despite its veneer of limitless design possibilities, players are ultimately constrained in the types of attractions they can create and pursue during the campaign. While Sandbox mode is your best bet for getting creative with all the bells and whistles Park Beyond has to offer, it too is not immune to the myriad of glitches and technical issues present throughout the game. Although you can spend hours designing and constructing your ideal park, the looming threat of crashes diminishes the incentive to do so, even in Sandbox mode. While there is an innovative theme park sim beneath all the glitches and design flaws, Park Beyond ultimately doesn’t break new ground in its genre and would benefit from taking a few pointers from its predecessors.

It’s tough to recommend Flint, though. While I did enjoy combat well enough, there was no real payoff for it. I didn’t care for why I’d win in battle or what that meant for the characters and the overall story. If you’re looking for a deep narrative adventure, this is probably not the game for you right now, but if you’re really itching for more strategic turn-based combat, or just really love the pirate setting, maybe consider giving Flint a try.

Life is Strange: Reunion is going to make a lot of people happy and I don't begrudge any of them. There are people out there who waited a long time to give Max and Chloe a happy ending. However, as someone who watched Max Caulfield persevere through tragedy to build a happy life for herself, Reunion felt like a regression for this character. If the story was told well, I could overlook a lot of my personal hangups with the story. Unfortunately, I saw the potential of what they were setting up with Chloe and Safi, with Chloe's uncertain place in existence, with the nature of fate and the idea that some events are fixed and always meant to unfold. Reunion set up some tantalizing plot points and all of them underwhelmed.

This will be a better game once the community goes to work, but I’m not willing to drive my truck over this bridge just yet. 5/10 snapping steel beams.

Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a run-of-the-mill Metroidvania with the wrong story and outdated design. Except for the beautiful background art and an interesting variety of enemies, the adventure is a short, stodgy, rudimentary affair with weakly executed ideas. On the Christmas table, it’s the dry and underbaked fruitcake that is still technically edible but is surrounded by far too many better options.

As someone who plays a lot of games, it is very rare to question “Why am I doing this?” “Why am I getting platinum trophies?” “Why am I levelling up every sub-class?” “Why am I prestiging?” We do it because it's fun, or satisfying, or because it will reward us in some way. Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap had me questioning those rewards and that satisfaction in a very fundamental way. I have leveled up characters, beat hidden bosses, and gotten golden gun skins… But to what end though? So I can do it again? So I can move the boulder ever slightly further up the mountain before it slides back down again? For most games, we do it because the answer is, “It's fun.”...Simply put, the act of playing Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is not fun enough to abate that existential question from rattling around your head while you play.

Despite the developer's pedigree with slower-moving games like Echo Night, it had great difficulty putting together a meaningful narrative that was pleasurable in any real way to watch unfold. If From Software opts to create another VR title in the future, I hope it's at the very least a different genre.

Valkyrie Elysium is a disappointing, befuddled, and mistimed return for the Valkyrie series.

Reviews aren’t the place to weigh in on how to fix things, so I won’t do that here. Deep down I hope the developers who are making this are kicking down Electronic Arts CEO, Andrew Wilson's, door asking for more time, budget, or anything really. Developers tend to be super fans who love making amazing games. I believe that about EA Vancouver, but this is not good enough and hasn’t been good enough for years. The players who return year after year deserve better.

In its current state though, it doesn’t feel like it’s worth its $20 (USD) price tag. Unless you’re ok with the extra work of digging through its file folders to import your own music that is, because as the game is right now, you can burn through all of its 10-track base game content in less than an hour. And there's nothing much else to it beyond that.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint had every opportunity to improve on Wildlands, but instead of evolving, tore everything good about that game to pieces and replaced it with too few wins.

If you're looking for a deep, well-rounded driving simulator with a career mode, then Taxi Life is going to fall short on all accounts. There are a variety of similar titles available that do everything that Taxi Life offers and do so much more competently. Taxi Life can look pretty at times, but it's a big ask to overlook its many bugs and short-comings. Driving a taxi around a city isn't the most interesting idea to begin with, so Taxi Life needed to get all the details right, and unfortunately it doesn't come close to doing so.

I ultimately concluded that it's not meant to be that deep. It's just a boring game.

If Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed catches you having too much fun, be prepared to have that stripped from you like a finely quaffed set of Shadow Soul clothes. This game is a constant chore to enjoy and should be reserved for the folks that really want to see where the series began.

A game with a dedicated ‘pull your dick out’ keybinding in 2022 should be way more clever than this. No amount of John St. John voice-over work or copyright-dodging music jingles can cover up the odor emanating from this pile. 4/10 BBQ’d dead dogs.

Madden NFL 20 is the worst major sports league video game out there. Despite some despicable microtransaction design, NBA 2K is an exponentially better representation of its real-life counterpart and has an ever-improving Franchise mode that offers real depth and year-over-year growth. MLB: The Show is the blueprint of excellence for which other sports titles should be judged. Save your money for a series that still respects its fans. 4/10 butt fumbles.

This is an awful lot of complaining, but once I stockpiled enough stuff, I did enjoy actually building with it. Return to Moria makes putting things together simple and enjoyable, as long as you meet a few basic requirements. Free Range uses logic in the best possible ways. It’s important if you’re building something top-heavy that would and should collapse without the right supports. It’s out the window completely for other things. Wanna stick a tiny wooden platform in a sheer stone wall so you can climb around? Do it! Does it make physical sense? No! But it does make exploring and building more fun.

There's a massive amount of work to be done here before I’d ever consider Hyper Scape a go-to over other options in the space.

Unless you’re a mad fan of Vampire: The Masquerade, and need to absorb every piece of literature about the universe, this will be a disappointing experience. While the artwork is rich and the music moody, the writing – the game’s backbone and its entire selling point – is weak. Even fans will likely find this a shallow read where decisions rarely feel like they have any significant weight. Give this one a miss.

Escape Dead Island disappoints on multiple levels, from its lackluster gameplay, to its awful storytelling.

To put it simply, if this was one of those retro re-releases that are basically fancy emulators with additional screen filters and save states, maybe online play as a treat, Star Wars: Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles (whew) probably would’ve been alright. Instead, we have this bizarre Frankenmaster that looks and sounds like the end result of someone playing with a PlayStation emulator for the first time and pushing the sliders all the way up. Preservation is important, even for games that aren’t “classics.” This isn't the preservation you've been looking for.

To offer a mobile iteration that has even less value than the regular version of the game feels like a nonsensical move.

There are so many games out there that do what Sifu does only better. Honestly, if you want a punishing grind where your efforts will actually pay off you’re probably better off just taking a Kung-Fu class in real life.

I disliked Assassin's Creed Rogue on almost every level, from its numerous game-breaking bugs, to its terrible free-running, and (worst of all) its ruined assassination system. Not even the plot, which fills in the gap between Black Flag and Assassin's Creed 3 while recounting the fall of the North American Brotherhood, is very satisfying.

So much of Disintegration is just puzzling. It manages to eke out a space in a hybrid genre but never manages to capitalize on this newfound territory. It offers squad upgrades and control over their movement as a group but fails to let you select who to take with you on a mission or give you control over individual units. You’re given a flying hovercraft but you’re constantly butting up against invisible walls and fences one inch higher than you can fly. It’s unfortunate when a game is bad and broken, but it’s a damn shame when a game is forgettable. Disintegration does not feel up to scratch for a game releasing in 2020.

With NBA Live 15, EA Sports makes minimal progress at best, but can't seem to find a solid enough identity for its hoops sim. The gameplay is all over the place, the modes don't show enough improvement, and the visual splendor is dulled over by commentators who feel like they want to be somewhere else.

As is, Airplane Mode doesn’t make it off the runway. I’d rather fly Spirit.

I knew the writing was on the wall when Everybody 1-2 Switch! was announced in the same month that it was released, with little fanfare from Nintendo. Everybody 1-2 Switch! is fun in the same way that watching a bad movie is fun. If you’ve got some good friends together and everyone’s in a silly mood, you might have a good time throwing on Everybody 1-2 Switch and having a laugh at the absurdity of it all. But after about 20 minutes of this, most sensible people will ask you to close the game and launch Mario Kart, Mario Party, or even Switch Sports before they sink more of their precious time into Everybody 1-2 Switch!

Believe me when I say Terminal Reality's three-volume Blair Witch series is a better use of your time. Or better yet, watch the original found footage classic The Blair Witch Project if you haven't already seen it. It may be hokey, but it's culturally significant – and you may actually walk away a bit shaken.

Ultimately, there are better options out there for those itching for a hunting game fix. Hunting Simulator 2 earns points for its selection of licensed firearms and novel hunting companion system, but little else. The whole experience feels unfinished and the lack of attention to detail works to undermine the genuinely good traits it has. 4/10 sad duck calls.

To put it simply, I just didn’t have a good time with God of War Sons of Sparta. This game stepped into an overly crowded space, brought nothing new or interesting to the table, and has this weird, corporate, “how do you do fellow kids” energy with its faux-retro trimmings that don’t have any historical verisimilitude. Sauceless combat, a do-nothing story, and striking lack of personality don’t do any favors to a novel premise and quality voice acting that gave an initially promising first impression. A God of War Metroidvania could have been a productive and exciting use of the IP, especially in a post-Silksong world, but Sons of Sparta doesn’t have a fraction of that juice.

With problematic detection issues, questionable design choices, and an overwrought presentation, Kinect Sports Rivals fails to be the showcase for Kinect it should be. Xbox One's new camera may be next-generation, but you'll be hard-pressed to see that in Rivals.