Rime has the potential to be so much more than it actually is. It’s got stunning presentation, an intriguing world, and some neat ideas. However, all of this is overshadowed by the more mundane puzzles and glaring technical issues that come with it. While Rime may well have looked to some of the modern greats for inspiration, it’ll struggle to be remembered for half as long.

Trine 4 is still a triumph and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to series veterans or newcomers. While it might be a little conservative and still suffer from pitfalls that held back previous games in the series, Trine 4 is one of the best puzzle-platformers you’ll play this generation.

In almost every way, this is one remastered title that truly captures the magic of the original while also making meaningful improvements.

It’s hard to really define what makes Circa Infinity so compelling, but it is. The frantic pace, on-your-toes reactions, and pulse-pounding soundtrack lend themselves to a great overall experience.

I certainly can’t recommend Mushroom Wars to everyone, but for those who have a passing interest in real-time strategy, it’s a great option. The game includes a lengthy campaign mode, quick-battle Skirmish mode, and boasts an upcoming multiplayer option to allow players to challenge each other in battle.

To my surprise, Styling Star charmed me a lot more than I initially expected.

The weapon variety and a mix of cool Behemoths to fight makes it one of the best free-to-play games that I’ve ever jumped into and I just love how the game doesn’t attack you with microtransactions. There’s a lot of value and fun to be had in Dauntless, especially considering the non-existent cost of entry.

The Furious Wild provides even more reason to return to Three Kingdoms and to lose yourself once again for a score of hours engaging in some of the most rewarding gameplay modern strategy games have to offer. But maybe wait a while, until the bugs are ironed out and some of the games rougher edges are smoothed over.

It’s also relatively short to complete as the game only has a few Chapters, meaning you can wrap up the story in between 10-15 hours. This makes it the perfect game to pick up and play on a weekend, especially if you’re looking for something that combines simplistic and fun gameplay with a strong narrative and a quirky plot. Trust me, taking on Jala’s role of an ex-battling skater girl in the early 2000s is a wild and entertaining rollercoaster ride, sure to have you laughing along every step of the way.

Once all the glitches and other buggy performances are cleared away, I’m sure My Time at Sandrock will be a practically flawless, cozy game. I look forward to continuing my town expansion, and I already can’t wait to see what new adventures await for the rest of the My Time series.

Longtime fans of The World Ends With You may not have an issue with this slow gameplay loop because of all the great callbacks to the first game, but it does end up feeling like the game could’ve been a shorter, more enjoyable package if some of the days didn’t feel so padded.

Valorant is likely to make a big impression on anybody that enjoys competitive shooters, even if it is a little light on content at the moment. Genre newcomers will need to stay patient to push past the initial difficulty curve, but its exhilarating combination of gunplay and agent abilities is accessible enough that reaping its rewards shouldn’t take too long.

For all of its problems in the first few hours, Yo-Kai Watch 3 turns itself around wonderfully for an experience most any player can enjoy. Its a great entry for fans new and old, and an indicator of the greater heights the series is headed toward.

Gravity Rush 2 powers through its noticeable flaws, and the overall product is an exclusive experience that shouldn’t be missed by any PlayStation 4 owner.

Its inclusion of a myriad of different modes and customization add a depth that past installments were missing.

A very typical Pokemon game. It innovates a bit, messes stuff that should have been left alone up, and leaves other things alone for better or for worse just like every generation before it. The core gameplay though is still just as fun as ever and the addition of exciting new Pokemon, a beautiful new region, new more organized multiplayer activities, and a fun new open-area to explore help push Pokemon Sword and Shield over the edge to being a game worth picking up for any Pokemon fan.

Though the game isn’t purrfect (puns are back on the menu) by any means, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Cat Quest 3. It doesn’t have the most sophisticated story or combat system, but its fantastic potential for exploration and build diversity results in an experience that is hard to peel away from. The feline-inspired whimsical charm and gorgeous sun-kissed visuals make it a world I want to be in far beyond the 10-hour runtime. Whether you’re a cat lover or not, Cat Quest 3 is an all-around good time and is an undeniably charming and wonderful pirate adventure.

If you’re a fan of the first game or want a new third-person shooter with tons of replayability thanks to randomized levels and dungeons, this game is the right choice for you. Remnant 2 might not technically be a looter shooter, but plenty of loot can be found. You have to be willing to go down the spooky alleyway or head into the mysterious hole in the ground and trust you’ll find something cool.

This standard plot isn’t enough to take away from everything Fantasian does well, though. In fact, it is because the game follows such a classic JRPG format that you likely won’t even notice you’ve been playing it for 20+ hours when all is said and done, which is quite the accomplishment for a mobile title.

It’s a story that isn’t afraid to take its time and let things play out slowly, and even though the pacing can be rough at times, it’s a refreshing thing to see in video games, which are usually so focused on keeping the action and pace at 100 percent. The quality-of-life improvements to the game, like Turbo Mode, help make it that much more digestible.

If you're looking for a heavy duty game to sink a few thousand hours into, this isn't for you. If you want to simply spend a few hours exploring a charming world with plenty of puzzles and platforming, Infinity Nikki might just be your dream.

An incredibly complete package and is among the best sport sims you can play currently.

There’s enough in The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs to make this one of the best expansion packs you can get to date.

We’d always known that Game Freak had created a world that was truly special when the original games first released on the Game Boy, and that vision’s finally been brought to life with Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee.

Despite having a predictable story, refurbished design elements, and some minor quality-of-life issues, Dungeons of Hinterberg feels like a one-of-a-kind, refreshing holiday experience.

Diablo 2: Resurrected Review – For the Faithful By Ed McGlone Published on September 30, 2021 Home » Reviews » Diablo 2: Resurrected Review – For the Faithful Share Tweet Night Mode Diablo 2 Resurrected on PC Diablo 2: Resurrected is a remaster simultaneously complex, and also incredibly simple. Visually, it’s a night and day difference between its predecessor, even on the Switch. But from a gameplay perspective, it is incredibly faithful, almost to a fault. Very little has been changed from the original release which will likely be music to the ears of the most hardcore Diablo 2 fans, resistant to change. In that sense, it’s a very “simple” upgrade. However, that decision not to use this opportunity to spruce things up may end up being a thorn at the side of newcomers and fans without rose-tinted glasses. Let’s talk about what Diablo 2: Resurrected gets right first. Visually Diablo 2: Resurrected is a triumph. It takes a very old game that looks, let’s face it, like ass by today’s standards, and turns it into something charming and wonderful to behold. By charming and wonderful, I of course mean gory, gothic, and dark with a new level of detail that was not possible in the original game. Fans wouldn’t have it any other way in that regard. Gameplay-wise, very little has changed because very little needed to change. Diablo 2 is still an all-time great game and that is still the case in Resurrected. All of the game’s classes are incredibly distinct from each other and each has a multitude of different play styles you can elect to spec into. There are Trap Assassins, Elementalist Assassins, Bow Amazons, Javasons, Werewolf Druids, Werebear Druids, Hammerdins, Whirlwind Barbs, Summoner Necros, and Bone Necros, Ice, Fire, and Thunder Sorceresses, I could go on and on. Layered on top of that are gear and set items that can further augment your gameplay and of course the fabled Runewords that players can chase to really perfect their builds. Leveraging all of that and creating your perfect character is definitely a grind. It’s a grind that may not make sense to an outsider, because at the end of the day you’re just running through the same content you did before, just faster, but those of us that love the genre do get it and love it for what it is. What’s great too is that players now have an easier way of getting to experience the lore, environment, and story of Diablo 2. Diablo 3 had a really compelling story that is heavily connected to the events of Diablo 2. While you can still enjoy Diablo 3 without having ever played its predecessor, it’s far more enjoyable if you do know fully what’s going on. And with Diablo 4 coming at some point in the future, it’s absolutely worth a single playthrough for the story and to experience this legendary game at least once, even if you’re not planning on staying a while or killing Baal 10,000 times. All of that said, while yes, Diablo 2 is still an excellent game, it never was a perfect game, and there are some issues that were forgivable back when it was originally released that stick out like sore thumbs now in Diablo 2: Resurrected. I have extremely fond memories of Diablo 2 going back to my days in middle school and high school. My friends and I would spend hours perfecting our magic find gear and mastering our speed runs through Mephisto and Baal to grind for better loot. The funny thing about memories, though, is that sometimes your brain selectively chooses to remember good ones, and deletes all of the bad ones. For example, I barely remembered that Stamina was even a thing, and yeah it’s very much a drag early on. While it improves over time as you pump up your Vitality, I can totally see fans that are not married to the idea of loving Diablo 2, getting frustrated very easily over it, and giving up on it before it starts to resolve itself. If the frequent battles with your Stamina in the early game don’t scare players away, the inventory management might. This is another Diablo 2 memory I subconsciously left behind apparently. I do not remember having to constantly go into my inventory to either drop stuff, or go back and forth to town to stash and sell items as often as I apparently need to while playing Diablo 2: Resurrected. Did I just never pick things up in the original game? Did I just not know anything better back then? I don’t know the answer to those questions, but the reality is that in 2021 it’s kind of brutal and not in a good way. Your choices are basically to be extremely selective on what you decide to stop and pick up and then possibly miss out on upgrades, or just spend most of your gameplay time in your inventory. While I’m fortunate that the version of Diablo 2 that contained respeccing made it into Diablo 2: Resurrected, I would have really preferred to just have unlimited respeccing as you do in Diablo 3. As it stands, it’s a pain in the ass to experiment and you’ll need to really commit to your play style and resort to starting a new character if you want to have easy access to something different. Finally, let me just also add, that the lack of a local couch co-op option for console players is a total bummer. I have to imagine, considering Diablo 3 had the option, that it probably wasn’t a philosophical choice, but rather it probably just wasn’t possible. Still, that doesn’t make it any less of a disappointment. I know that hardcore Diablo 2 fans don’t want to even entertain the idea of Diablo 3 seeping into their beloved game; I totally get that sentiment and don’t want a watered-down version of Diablo 2 either. However, a few modern touches, addressing the three biggest pain points I mentioned above would have gone a long way to properly resurrecting Diablo 2 and making it a premier ARPG in 2021. It doesn’t reach that potential, sadly, but it’s still an all-time great game that mostly holds up as long as you can look past its dated features.

The Turing Test is an absolute marvel of intelligent puzzle design that makes you feel amazing for conquering it. You can feel an intense love for the specific brand of room-by-room puzzling at every corner here...And with a fascinating narrative that explores themes few games have ever touched, you’ll be constantly enthralled by the philosophical debates between a human and an AI just as often as you’ll be frustrated by a puzzle for designing around the simple solution you had in your head.

As beautiful as the storybook world looks in 4K, it simply isn’t enough to justify a second purchase for those who’ve already played through it on the PS3 and Vita. But if you fall into the camp of people who are intrigued by this charming world, or if you just want more Dragon’s Crown in your life, there’s no better way to play this game than on the PS4.