Reviews
632
Let sleeping dogs lie. For many years now, I've felt like I knew exactly what to expect from a new Call of Duty game without ever needing to play it.
Rita’s Rewind is well worth checking out if you’re a fan of Power Rangers or retro-style tributes to the beat ‘em up genre. It also offers up some great fan service and nostalgia, with its super scaler segments mixing up the gameplay with all sorts of blockbuster arcade scenes that do a respectable job honouring the source material. And hey, if you’re a lapsed Power Rangers fan, the memories should come flooding back in no time! This truly is a great way to mark the series’ 30th anniversary and goes to show just how much fun this franchise can still offer after all these years. So go, go Power Rangers!
Ever since we caught wind of MachineGames making an Indiana Jones title, we've been very excited by the prospect, but ultimately, we're a little disappointed in the final product. The overall experience isn't bad, and it successfully sells the Indiana Jones fantasy, but the gameplay elements here just don't match up to the vibe of a fun-time Indy adventure. The pacing is all out-of-whack, the open stealth-driven levels don't work in the context of an Indiana Jones romp, and the game just feels at odds with itself overall. We're always up for trying something different and for teams breaking genre tropes, but in the end, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is at its most fun in fleeting moments - which is a shame considering the amount of care and attention that's been put into adapting this famous old franchise.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a pretty big mess. In its current state, this is a badly-judged game in almost every way. The new zone is incredible to behold at times, for sure, but it's a world at odds with itself; full of gear and guns, but with precious little in the way of enemies that challenge you to use them. The story is terrible, the A-Life system is AWOL, and the acting and writing is atrocious. Stalker 2 is cheap in how it kills without warning, is packed full of bugs and performance issues on Series X, and is devoid of mostly anything that makes it feel worth playing for very long.
Square Enix has successfully revived Dragon Quest 3 once again with this HD-2D Remake – making it more accessible than ever for newcomers with an array of quality-of-life updates and offering up more than enough new content for veterans to make it worthwhile revisiting. Even if it has aged, this is another great addition to the company’s HD-2D line and well worth playing if you’re a fan of old-school JRPGs.
Death Stranding Director's Cut is a phenomenal experience that, five years on, is still as incredible, mechanically, narratively and graphically, as ever. A top-notch cast do their best with what is an admittedly bonkers story (bonkers in all the best Kojima ways, you understand), whilst this incredibly haunting world, this emotional tale and its incredible characters, absolutely hook you in for one of the most memorable journeys of the past few console cycles. It's so good to see this masterpiece finally arrive on Xbox.
Shadow's latest chapter is arguably his best video game outing yet and easily the definitive experience in Sonic X Shadow Generations. The remaster of Sonic's existing campaign tops it all off, even if it has aged a bit in 2024. Fans of the ultimate lifeform (and the blue blur) should have a blast with this one.
Overall then, Black Ops 6 features a really good campaign mode that's certainly worth the download on Xbox Game Pass. The story has a lengthy runtime — roughly eight hours at least — and is crammed full of interesting, varied missions - including one huge surprise that left us with a cheeky grin as we played through it. This is a big step up from the other COD campaign currently available on Game Pass in MW3, and fans of big, bombastic AAA experiences should have a right old blast with the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign.
Alan Wake 2: The Lake House is another brilliant slice of Remedy goodness. This expansion certainly veers more into Control territory, so if that's your Remedy jam, you're going to have a great time with this one. For us, we'd have liked the game's final DLC to feel a bit more like Alan Wake in its concept and execution, so The Lake House doesn't feel quite as accomplished as the base game or its previous Night Springs expansion. At just $20 / £15 for both DLC packs though, you really can't go wrong in opening up your wallet for some fresh Alan Wake action.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead delivers plenty of spooks throughout its roughly eight-hour adventure, but it does run out of ideas somewhat during the back half of that runtime. When called upon, the cast is well-acted (even if the story is quite threadbare) and the whole thing does enough to cement itself as a worthy entry in the 'A Quiet Place' universe, which is a nice achievement for Stormind Games. Some more late-game variety and additional options for dealing with the enemy could have made this a horror great, but as it stands, The Road Ahead is just a decent romp through what's becoming quite a popular movie universe. Horror game aficionados and A Quiet Place superfans should definitely consider this one, but for those less experienced, there are better options out there on the horror game market.