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The Sinking City provides top-tier gameplay in the psychological horror genre, and brilliantly blends beautiful surroundings with a terrifyingly haunting and mysterious presence. Horror fans, especially, will want to pick this up at their earliest convenience.
The scope of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is impressive. The story is all about fan service, but its fun, enjoyable fan service. The game is fun solo, though multiplayer is ideal. The drop-in, drop-out multiplayer makes that a breeze, and the Switch's portability and connectivity make it easy to find opportunities to play. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is a grand, action-packed celebration of the Marvel Universe that fans won't want to miss out on.
Gears 5 is incredible from start to finish, and, playing on PC, it is easily one of the best ports to the platform. Despite the few hiccups with servers, I was able to play entirely on Ultra settings without issue, and that's on hardware that isn't exactly the latest and greatest. The visuals are beautiful, gameplay is fun and gory, the campaign is heartfelt with incredible performances from the cast, and it is just a wonderful experience from start to finish and beyond. This is a title fans of the series will not want to miss, and it is a shining example of how The Coalition has put their mark on the franchise.
The graphics move at a steady clip, taking on a "less is more attitude" and managing to convey a sense of foreboding and horror even without the most detailed, three-dimensional monsters to be found. The experience of Blasphemous is a delight and fans looking for a video game that will manage to present a fair challenge can pick this one up, knowing that they'll be playing one of the most disturbing, immersive experiences in video games this year. From the bloody graphics to haunting music, Blasphemous finds its way into your nightmares and is a game begging to be replayed, thanks to its fantastic gameplay.
But that's ultimately a small gripe when considering everything else the game has to offer. The vast majority of Link's Awakening has an incredible foundation, and a new coat of paint helps the experience feel fresh and lively without heavily retooling anything. New and old players alike will find something to enjoy here, and the previous expectations from both -- the high of Breath of the Wild vs. the preconceived notion of what the game is and was -- will almost certainly be set aside to simply play and enjoy a sometimes unexpectedly charming, if not entirely new, Zelda game.
No matter how familiar you are with hockey, even if you've never played a single second of the NHL game franchise, you will have fun with NHL 20. It's an impossibly irresistible sports adventure that you'll have trouble putting down with the phrase "just one more game" becoming part of your regular vocabulary.
To be clear: The Outer Worlds is in no way, shape, or form a Fallout game. It has nothing to do with it. But it takes lessons learned from those games and implements them in a way only Obsidian Entertainment could. If there's to be a successor to that sort of game, an even more modern version, The Outer Worlds is a mighty fine candidate.
If you love Overwatch and have $40 to spare, there's really no reason not to check this port out. It's just as fun as ever and you can actually take it on the go, something people have been asking for with Overwatch for years. Overwatch on Switch may sound too good to be true, but that's not the case. The truth is, this port is very good.
Most big-budget games just don't take risks these days. With Death Stranding, Kojima has taken one million risks, and virtually all of them pay off. Like the box art says, it's "a Hideo Kojima game," and there's nothing else quite like it.
Arise: A Simple Story lives up to its namesake, telling a captivating tale full of charm and heartbreak that hit me right in the feels. It's an experience I won't forget anytime soon, and while there are a few flaws, they cannot outweigh what a meaningful experience this turned out to be, and I couldn't recommend it more.
Multiplayer experiments aside, Resident Evil 3 itself should delight anyone who's playing it for the first time or those who already know its story inside and out. It's easier than ever to become immersed in Raccoon City and Resident Evil mechanics have never felt as fluid as they do in this game. Resident Evil 3 proves that Resident Evil 2 wasn't just a one-off success of a remake and shows that Capcom has a winning formula on its hands.
Persona 5 Royal truly captures all the promise of the original while adding so much more to the mix, and is easily one of the most rewarding, captivating, and enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in some time. Few games have ever hooked me as much as Persona 5 Royal, and if you weren't sold the first time around, do yourself a favor and give Royal a chance to floor you, because it most certainly will.
Even though The Last of Us Part II relishes in making players uncomfortable and reminding them characters can lose everything at a moment's notice, those bleak traits are part of the game's appeal even if the charm's a morbid one. It's a monumental effort in storytelling and a model for tales of vengeance and repercussions pushed forward by gratifying gameplay, and while not everything you do will sit right with you, the game never leads players to believe the result would be anything different.
While The Origami King can feel formulaic at times, the entry does more to reimagine the franchise than not. It won't impress fans who were hoping for a larger RPG focus, but its charming characters and story will keep fans hooked. Paper Mario has never felt so fun than with The Origami King, and its lighthearted feel is the perfect thing for gamers to sit with this summer.
Traveling around between areas is a breeze with quick travel options right off the bat, you can skip through basically any cutscene or prompt, characters are all animated well and retain their anime looks (with some extra fan service details established fans of the work will be sure to recognize), and each playable character comes with a variety of attacks. It's all in the service of capturing what makes Fairy Tail such a great experience. FAIRY TAIL is bombastic, breezy, and full of fun to watch characters, except, this time, it's us making it all happen.
Along with the professionals returning from the previous games (who have all been aged, and thus feel fresh again) there is a flood of recent talents added, too. Coupled with the new additions to the soundtrack that instantly gel with the rest of the package, you have an overall game that honors the current skateboarding culture. A return to the welcoming arcade-like gameplay of the franchise while giving everything a fresh coat of paint for the new era. This could be the start of the grand, new wave for the Tony Hawk's brand, and, even if it's not, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the king's return to the throne.
A lot of folks will likely gripe about the lack of new content in Super Mario 3D All-Stars or about the inclusions that they might have wanted to see in the compilation. At the end of the day, however, the games here are so good, and the amount of content in this package is so high, it's hard to really hold the decision not to include even more against it. Everything runs smoothly, the necessary control changes work well, and having these titles available in a portable format is delightful. For those that have never played these games, or longtime fans looking to revisit some old favorites, Super Mario 3D All-Stars offers three of the best games of all time. After all these years, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy remain as captivating as ever.
The challenges and style make the latest installment in the Crash Bandicoot series instantly feel like one of the classics, but there are so many new features and abilities that the game is several steps ahead of its predecessors. It's both a throwback to the past and an innovative glimpse into the future, striking a balance that so few reboots and sequels are able to find. If you love Crash, It's About Time is as close to perfect as you can get, even if it makes you break a controller now and then.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is in the running for 2020's Game of the Year, blending some amazing mechanics, compelling storytelling, and flawless gameplay. Even if you're new to the series, this is a must-buy if you own any of the video game consoles that it will be released on later this month.
With the avatar customization, set customization, and unbelievable fluidity in musical choices it offers, there's plenty to love with Fuser. Players with a need for different color modes due to color blindness will be delighted to see three other modes available here, as well as subtitles. This effort might not sway gamers with a distinct aversion to rhythm games, but fans of the genre who have grown through various consoles and popular hits will have a blast. In fact, it is entirely feasible to think you could craft a convincing set with this set of tools, and that's the highest praise I can muster. There's never been a better video game to move a crowd than Fuser.