Paul Tassi's Reviews
Again, it's more cake. Origins was delightful and Odyssey hits almost all the same notes, so there's a lot to like about it as well. But this series needs a bit of breathing room, and I hope it gets another bit of rest after this.
Assassin's Creed Origins improves from its past few installments in almost every way, yet it never quite reaches the heights of the games it tries to emulate.
While there's still room for improvement, and for this universe to live up to its full potential, Destiny 2 makes undeniable progress, and reinforces the idea that this is a series we'll be playing for at least an entire decade, when all is said and done.
Agents of Mayhem is a strange game. I did enjoy much of my time with it, but I kept wishing it was a fully-fledged Saints Row sequel, not some alternate universe spin-off with less content. I didn't expect all that much going in, but by the end, I wanted more than I got.
Prey has come out of relative nowhere to be a truly great campaign experience that succeeds despite some of the game's more muddled aspects. I'd recommend giving it a shot.
I have a feeling that Mass Effect fans will enjoy the game, but I don't think anyone will claim it outclasses the original trilogy, outside of maybe the very first game. If you could combine the story and memorable quests of the originals with the combat, visuals and scope of Andromeda, you would have the perfect video game, though I think what's offered here will satisfy most.
I was impressed with Horizon from the outset, my interest lagged a bit in the middle, but by the end I was a convert. This is a very cool universe with a genuinely likable new lead. Gameplay is excellent in most sections, and it avoids some irritating open world tropes like overloading players with substance-free side missions. There are some problems that reflect Guerrilla being new to this genre, but ultimately the good far outweighs the bad.
This is the game the original Watch Dogs should have been in many ways, and while it may still have more to learn, it’s hard to say that Watch Dogs 2 is anything but a success, and proof that Ubisoft can learn from their mistakes.
Skyrim is a great game, but one where I finally might have reached my limit, as I discovered in this latest playthrough. If you’ve never played it, this is definitely the version to get, and if you’re a superfan, you’ve probably already bought it before reading this review.
No one makes more beautiful shooters than DICE, but their gameplay still leaves something to be desired, despite what appeared to be a total refresh with the WWI setting. Fans of the series may look past these faults or even embrace them, but some of them are hard to get past, and can define the entire experience.
If you're a fan of the first game, I certainly recommend this one as well. But in a competitive season, it's hard to see Mankind Divided being as impactful or memorable as Deus Ex's reassurance five years ago.
Inside is an incredible game, a compelling artistic achievement that deserves your time no matter what genre of game you normally prefer.
It has been a very long time since I've felt this much passion for a game. Overwatch is a perfect storm. It's a new IP, looks gorgeous, plays phenomenally and singlehandedly rekindled my desire to play a genre of game I thought I'd left behind at this point.
In short, it's an Uncharted game, and once again, that can speak for itself.
If you like Far Cry, there's a pretty good chance you'll like this as well. But if you're becoming exhausted by ~20 hours of leveling, skinning, leaf-collecting, trinket-finding and map-clearing after the last few installments, Primal is definitely more of the same. The setting change is effective, but this isn't going outside of the series' comfort zone as much as Ubisoft might have you believe.
In my mind, Fallout 4's greatest triumph, and its one major point of evolution is in its storytelling, crafting a lengthy, unexpected ending and resolution that I will remember for years to come. It also remains one of the best games in existence for those who simply like to wander and explore and unearth long-buried secrets. But it struggles with archaic gameplay systems and an inflexible engine that anchor the game to the past for all the wrong reasons. Fans may enjoy more Fallout and a brand new map to explore, but this sequel will not be heralded as revolutionary or overly impressive this time around.
[W]e're back to tightly packed cities and crowds for two years running now, like we've warped all the way back to the Assassin's Creed II trilogy. And no matter how pretty the games get and how tight the mechanics are, it never feels fresh anymore.
[I]t's been a long time since I've had a game feel relatively off-putting at the start, and then slowly reel me in until I couldn't help but love it by the end. I went to the party, got hammered, made out with a lampshade and went home, full of warm, fuzzy memories. It was an absolutely ridiculous experience that I would heartily recommend to anyone.
Destiny may have seemed like a total letdown a week after launch. but I think what it does bring to the table is enough to have attracted a large, passionate playerbase, and the game is going to have legs well into the future. We're living in an age where for better or worse, many games eventually evolve into what we hoped they'd be at launch. If current trends hold, that's going to be Destiny too, but two months from its debut, it hasn't had a half-bad sprint out of the starting gate either.
It may not shake up the series like the initial console port did, but the game has been refined and distilled into something pretty great all the same. I have an unsubstantiated hunch that there may yet be one more expansion coming, given that D3 has sold 20M copies across all platforms, so we may see more variants of this game yet. For now, enjoy Ultimate Evil as either your 4th go-round in the D3 universe, or your first.