Jordan Oloman's Reviews
Snake Pass is a formidable, acutely designed puzzle platformer with a unique twist, unlike anything I've ever played
WindJammers is a totally radical 90s sports game that is a bunch of high octane fun with friends at home or in the frisbee gauntlet online. Master every cardinal direction and become the one true discus God!
What The Golf is a hilarious, addicting golf game that unravels the sport into clever puzzles and intrigue.
Sackboy doesn’t have the tight movement tech of Crash Bandicoot 4 or the butter-melting charms of a game like Astro’s Playroom, but it’s well worth a look if you’re in the market for an innovative platformer that makes the most of the PS5’s exclusive features.
Redfall is a compelling adventure with killer combat and an atmospheric setting in which you can easily lose a weekend. Even though it feels watered down by Arkane’s systemic standards, it’s an ambitious, primarily successful experiment full of narrative nuance and unique ideas. Hopefully, Redfall’s shakeup of the genre will pave the way for more inspired looter shooters in the future and, selfishly… another immersive simulator?
Death Squared is an impressive use of the Nintendo Switch hardware and the first great puzzle game on the system. It's worth a punt if you're looking for fun puzzle domestics with friends or just want to embolden that home screen with a fun pick me up for your commute.
Immortal Redneck is an old-school first-person roguelike with all the bells and whistles. It's tough but fair, fun and steeped in a silly aesthetic. Perfect for a reliable departure from your backlog.
Shadow of War is like someone telling you a really exciting story, but they're so indulged in it that they trip over their words and you end up confused and you can't grasp the great magnitude of the adventure in their brain. Muddled but ultimately satisfying and fun, this is a gorgeous Orc pancake with a little too much sickly syrup.
The Darkside Detective is a short but worthy addition to your adventure game library, with endearing characters and references, wrapped up in an appealing art style and score.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine excels in its narrative, visuals and audio but really struggles to fit into the video game medium with its tedious gameplay. This is overshadowed by beautiful stories and moments of pure humanity.
Deck 13 improve on Lords of the Fallen with a sci-fi Souls game in a gorgeous universe, but it still falls short at a couple of hurdles before it can be considered a worthwhile experience for fans of this emergent genre.
The Crew 2 is a fantastic open-world racing game that creates an unintentional post-apocalypse out of its gorgeous open-world by failing to ply it with meaningful modes
Microtransactions still loom large, but small iterative changes and the horsepower of new-gen consoles combine to make FIFA 22 feel like a worthwhile upgrade without needing anything revolutionary or terribly exciting from EA's side.
FIFA 23’s slick and dramatic virtual football is fitting for the series’ last hurrah under its long-time name, but familiar frustrations abound, and it still greatly undervalues some of its most beloved modes.
Yoshi's Crafted World doesn't use its clever conceit as well as it should or weave a poignant story, but it's still a solid and accessible Nintendo platformer.
A well-functioning port of a brilliant game with an unexpected identity crisis. Given the availability of other platforms, the visual compromise makes this technical marvel a difficult sell to first-timers and veterans.
Overall, I see Diluvion as a spectacle first and a game second. It’s wonderful to look at, listen to and experience. You could easily get lost in this subterranean adventure, but the lackluster controls and repetitive gameplay chip away at the luxurious coat of paint, and you may start to forget about those few fascinating moments of tense exploration.
Little Town Hero is a solid RPG with several unique, ambitious new systems that light up different parts of the brain than you may be used to. However, it also feels like it’s still in the prototype phase. The battle system is fun to figure out, but ultimately combat is so drawn out and confusing that it becomes exhausting. Unfortunately, it’s not as snappy and enjoyable in quick bursts as Pokemon, which may be the thing that doom’s Little Town Hero’s clear potential as a brain-teasing game to play on your commute.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an intricate RPG brimming with realism in an immersive world, but all of its grandeur is consistently overshadowed by the unpolished experience of tinkering with its systems.
Sea of Thieves is the perfect framing device for nautical adventure that rewards a committed group of young-at-heart, social pirates to find and evoke the fun from its sandbox. Unfortunately, that gorgeous world has questionable systems and content limits that (if not dealt with) scupper its incredible potential and give it a worrying sell-by-date.