Hardspace Shipbreaker has a great deal in common with another game I played this year; Powerwash Simulator. While the games couldn’t be any more different, the mundane act of performing simple labor still places both titles in a very similar lane. Stepping out of my airlock to dismantle a lifeless ship piece by piece kept my interest for several hours, even if some tedium started to present itself.
This latest iteration of Saints Row is a full-on reboot, taking bits and pieces of the previous games under the control of a whole new boss with a brand new crew. While the open-world sandbox nature of the game is still as fun as ever, nearly everything else is bland, boring, and filled to the brim with a vast array of technical issues.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is Monolith Soft’s greatest achievement, crafting a world and narrative so breathtakingly stunning that I relished every last minute of my 140-hour playthrough. While it certainly has the Switch’s hardware bursting at the seams, it nonetheless impresses at nearly every turn. In short, it’s an undeniable masterpiece.
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is exactly what you would expect based on 2020’s remake of Destroy All Humans! Crypto is back, alongside the femme fatale, Natalya, in an effort to save the Earth. Now with more weapons at your disposal, Destroy All Humans! has never looked or played better, well, apart from a host of bugs, that is.
Soul Hackers wasn’t a game that fans ever thought they would see a sequel to, especially after being absent for over a decade now. And yet with the SMT branding removed, Soul Hackers 2 has finally arrived, offering an action-packed JRPG experience that feels more like Shin Megami Tensei-lite, for all the right reasons.
The Ascent is back with Cyber Heist, a short 3-5 hour DLC add-on that takes you to the Dark Playground, a whole new location to explore and earn a few credits. Tasked with tracking down a scientist for some cutting-edge tech, your new melee capabilities will satisfy your bloodlust in what feels like one extra long side quest.
Dusk Diver 2 is in many ways a worthy sequel. But its over-reliance on its few dungeons, spongey enemies, and fetch quests do cause the experience to be the lesser game when compared to its predecessor. Still, if you can overlook some of its flaws and take the game as it is, its story and characters eventually do win out in the end.
Cult of the Lamb is one part hack and slash and equal parts village builder, akin to something like Animal Crossing or Cozy Grove. Its gorgeous art direction and style flourish here with addictive gameplay, satisfying combat, and numerous systems put in place that made me fall in love with my little morbid cultists. Cult of the Lamb is downright superb and a game you desperately need to play.
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever, is a new addition to a beloved series meant to expand to new audiences with its more fast-paced combat and presentation. While its characters, story, and combat truly shine, the repetitive side quests, painful localization, and blink and you miss it subtitles, counter a lot of what the game does so well.
Stray is a title about life, legacy, and loss. You’ll travel around a walled-in city, helping out its civilians as you attempt to find a way to escape this cyberpunk metropolis. You’ll have a friend in B-12, a drone who can hack doors and converse with you about the state of the world, and you’ll do all this as a little orange cat, complete with a dedicated meow button.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II has finally been re-released on modern consoles, given the same coat of paint as its predecessor did last year, which is to say seeing the title sporting an upgraded resolution and widescreen support. While the adventure itself is as fun as it has always been, it’s a game was really should have had more work done to bring it to today’s hardware.
Simulation games are nothing new. But those that hit a high level of mainstream, those that become a talking point across the industry, or those that show up in top ten charts alongside the AAA heavy-hitters, well, those are exceedingly rare. And yet, that is exactly what Power Wash Simulator has done.
Outriders: Worldslayer certainly aims to set up the future of expansion content for Outriders, but while the improvements to skills and gear are sound, even fantastic at times, the core content loop is simply not enough. Its brief 4-hour campaign isn’t given enough time to flesh out its villain, and its endgame is the most repetitive content the title has given us thus far.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is certainly a better go-around that the previous effort by Omega Force. While it adapts the Three Houses storyline in an alternative way, with great results of borrowing a lot of key systems, the lack of variety in the mission objectives, reused locations, and disappointing storyline for its protagonist, certainly hold it back.
Armed with a gun and a supernatural camera lens, you’ll investigate a mystery buried deep within the walls of the St. Dinfna Hotel. Inspired by a wealth of survival horror games, such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel succeeds more than it stumbles, creating an engaging, albeit clunky, horror experience.
MX vs ATV Legends has a solid foundation for a fun off-road experience. While its UTV component is anything but stellar, Legends is sadly plagued by a wealth of technical problems stemming from stuttering menus, pop-in, uneven volume leveling, and more. If All Out didn’t sell you on the franchise, Legends most certainly will not.
Mario Strikers: Battle League is the third in the Soccer series for Mario and company that began way back in 2005 on the Gamecube. This latest entry for the Nintendo Switch has been a long time coming, but despite its flashy presentation, its shallow offering of content holds back what could have been the ultimate return to one of Nintendo’s best sports franchises.
Back when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made their cartoon debut back in 1987, I was 8 years old, the perfect age to latch onto this bizarre franchise and never once let go. I’ve been around for the good, the great, and the bad, breathing in and out almost every form of media that would adapt these heroes in the half shell from iteration to iteration.
