Robin Baird's Reviews
Overall What Remains of Edith Finch is a masterfully executed story and experience. If you are looking for an intriguing story to take an active part in and experience this is a great game to check out. I know I’ll be thinking about this game and going back to it to look closer at various aspects for a long time to come and is well worth anyone’s time.
I’m honestly happy I waited until Persona 5 Royal came out to play Persona 5. It is well polished and feels like a game that could have come out for the first time this year. This is absolutely an excellent example of how to rerelease a game and make paying full price for it worthwhile. For me to only have minor complaints about a game, which is easily well over 100 hours of gameplay, even if you don’t do everything is rare. If you loved original Persona 5, Royal is worth your time. If you’ve never played the original or any other Persona game, Persona 5 Royal is a perfect game to pick-up and get into the series.
Persona 5 Strikers is a brilliantly executed melding of the Dynasty Warriors style gameplay with Persona 5 characters and systems. It delivers a solid story while staying true to the roots of both games. There were some small issues with how some of the systems were set up, the default sorting for the items list for one, and I wish some of the actual content of my P5R saves would have carried over. Despite these minor issues, I had a blast hanging with the Phantom Thieves again and working to make the world a better place. I would never have thought to ask for this melding, but it's a beautiful experience.
Looking back at this point I can see a clear progression From Bastion to Transistor, to Pyre and this is not only the best story they have told but it is also most well-executed game on all fronts. For anyone who enjoys party based RPGs, this is one game you really shouldn’t pass up.
Moss is a charming and fun mixture of aspects of both Redwall and Neverending Story but also feels refreshingly fresh. Polyarc has managed to combine concepts from a lot of other VR games and make it all into one fun and interesting game the whole family can enjoy. The only real disappointment I have about this game is that it is so short. This is our Moss Review for the PSVR.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the best game in this trilogy and was well worth the wait. I've been trying to hold myself back with gushing about all the things so I don't spoil it for everyone, but seriously this game is a masterpiece. Yes there are somethings which bothered me while playing but overall the experience was magnificent and should not be missed.
This game delivers a deep RPG experience where the various choices you make, both in character creation and in gameplay, have a bearing on what happens and how you need to go about completing tasks. There are general guidelines of what needs to be done but not a whole lot of direction on how to do those things, which leaves a lot of room for creativity.
Assassin's Creed is one of those franchises which started out strong but after a few games the shine began to tarnish. I'm not sure what state Origins was in when Ubisoft decided to give it extra time to iterate, but it was clearly time well spent. Origins is exactly what the series needed to make it new and wonderful again. It's not perfect, but it sets a great roadmap for the future and the imperfections can be honed into something even more incredible.
Overall World of Warcraft Classic is a solid effort and a ton of fun.
If you enjoy going out and fighting progressively tougher monsters while working your way to new rewards, then Dauntless is a game you need to checkout.
Burning Crusade Classic has been an excellent launch of some of Blizzard’s best expansion content to date. It’s an excellent experience for veterans and players who never got to experience Burning Crusade the first time around. However, if you are looking for an authentic TBC experience, this isn’t it. I mean, you can’t get that no matter what because part of the experience is we all knew so little about WoW’s inner workings, and there’s no way to recreate that. If you’re looking for a version of WoW, that’s a bit of a slower pace and less handholding (unless, of course, you get certain addons), then you should probably give Burning Crusade Classic a try.
Overall, End of Dragons feels like ArenaNet has taken all the lessons of both Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire and honed their newest expansion into the best of both. The few areas where things aren't quite there, they are working hard at fixing them in the right way, which will be best over the long term, rather than quick kneejerk solutions. This is the perfect capstone to the story they have been telling for the last ten years, and this expansion makes me excited to see where they will go from here.
Dragonflight has been the revitalization that World of Warcraft sorely needed after Shadowlands. Yes, there are some issues that still could use some work, but that’s the nature of MMO development, especially when you change things up to such a degree as this expansion did. I’m also heartened to see them willing to make big adjustments like they have planned in 10.0.5. I honestly thought Guardians were going to have to suck it up until 10.1, at the least for a talent tree rework. If they can keep this up and regularly deliver content and adjustments, Dragonflight could be the best expansion World of Warcraft has ever done.
Overall Ys VIII the Lacrimosa of Dana is a compelling and entertaining JRPG. I often found myself torn between pushing the main story forward and doing all the side activities, but the real tell was I just really enjoyed spending time in the game no matter what I was doing. The graphics, music, and game mechanics all work well together to provide many hours of delightful and fun entertainment.
If a murder mystery action game sounds like a game you might like, I highly recommend playing Omensight. From beginning to end it just doesn't stop on delivering a solid experience. Although the story seems to be straightforward and simple at first it opens into an interesting tale with complicated characters helming the ship the whole way through.
sadness. The Long Return is a relaxing puzzle game with very light platforming elements included. Although I was lead directly through each zone, in many of the zones, I was free to wander as much as I wanted to.
I enjoyed every moment of Lost Ember, and when I stopped playing, I just wanted to get back in the game and wander around more and find more of the memories.
Coffee Talk is the kind of game I would never have thought to ask for, but it is exactly what I needed to take a break from my normal video game fare.
One of the other joys of Little Nightmares is Tarsier did a great job of instilling a sense of dread and foreboding throughout the game without really employing a lot of the standard horror tropes. There’s no real gore in the game and precious few jump scares; instead, there are environments disturbingly covered in what appears to be blood, creatures which have apparently killed themselves, some extremely creepy monsters to avoid, and a brilliant soundscape.
Overall Hob is a fantastic game and just be on a play list for anyone who enjoys puzzle platformers and wouldn't mind some light RPG elements thrown in. The story is told organically and beautifully through gameplay and has some of the best sound design I've seen in a game.