Cadence Of Hyrule Review – Groove is in the Heart

Cadence Of Hyrule Review – Groove is in the Heart

The most surprising thing about Cadence of Hyrule, despite being so unusual, is how much it immediately feels like a Zelda game. Aesthetically, it sits somewhere between A Link to the Past and the cartoonier Four Swords games, but its Zelda roots run much deeper than that; This is not just Crypt of the NecroDancer reskinned. Much like The Legend of […]

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Dragon Quest Builders 2 Review – Building On A Strong Foundation

Dragon Quest Builders 2 Review – Building On A Strong Foundation

The old adage of “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t just apply to printed matter. When you first see images and screenshots of Dragon Quest Builders 2, it’s easy to write the game off as yet another blocky-building sandbox game. But Dragon Quest Builders 2 is more than just your run-of-the-mill material-gathering, object-crafting, block-laying game. […]

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Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Review – Dancer In The Dark

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Review – Dancer In The Dark

Whereas previous Final Fantasy XIV expansions grappled with broad-brush concepts in corruption, religion, and imperialism, the path you tread in Shadowbringers is a distinctly personal affair. The central conceit is the battle between good and evil, and between the dual concepts of Light and Dark, but at its core is a story about a protagonist who’s been […]

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Whispers of a Machine Review – Hushed Greatness

Whispers of a Machine Review – Hushed Greatness

In Whispers of a Machine, a retro-styled point-and-click adventure, interesting themes and mechanical elements relating to human augmentation are stapled onto a recognizable framework. Your character, murder investigator Vera Englund, has access to cybernetically augmented abilities thanks to some neat future-science, and she can do things like perform biometric readings of the folks she is interviewing […]

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Metro Exodus Review – Brand New Days

Metro Exodus Review – Brand New Days

Beyond the dark, oppressive tunnels and radioactive surface of Moscow are the societies that emerge from a nuclear apocalypse and prospective lands habitable for new life. It’s a sensible change in setting that broadens Metro’s horizons, though it sometimes loses the focus the series is known for. Still, the firefights and stealth deliver a familiar […]

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Team Sonic Racing Review – Gotta Go-Kart Fast

Team Sonic Racing Review – Gotta Go-Kart Fast

Team Sonic Racing is a wonderfully varied, fast and frenetic kart racer that, while a little derivative on the surface, successfully carves out its own space with a focus on team racing. Although Sonic, Tails and the gang might not carry the same weight as their mustachioed counterpart in red, and despite a few technical hiccups, […]

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A Plague Tale: Innocence Review – Of Rats And Children

A Plague Tale: Innocence Review – Of Rats And Children

One of the most macabre scenes in A Plague Tale: Innocence is the eponymous plague, manifesting in the form of cursed rats. These vermin have a malevolent, otherworldly presence, their incessant screeching and scratching on stone pavements and atop piles of corpses making for a nightmarish, cacophonous din. Like sewage sludge, these creatures pour out of crevices […]

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Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Review – Short On Heroics

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Review – Short On Heroics

Relentless absurdity and hyper-stylized action have been core tenets of the No More Heroes series. It never cared for making much sense and instead embraced its own ridiculousness with bold self-awareness, a staple of director Suda51. The slimmed-down hack-n-slash spinoff, Travis Strikes Again, hits many of the same notes, but not as hard and with varying degrees of […]

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Anno 1800 Review – The Prettiest Spreadsheet

Anno 1800 Review – The Prettiest Spreadsheet

At the heart of any European town founded before the 19th century lies a church. It’s the same with Anno 1800. At the center of your city sits a magnificent cathedral, its spectacular steeple reaching for the heavens and illuminating the lives of everyone who passes by. It’s a very beautiful church, but it’s hiding something. […]

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Void Bastards Review – Genres Collide

Void Bastards Review – Genres Collide

Void Bastards never lets you get too comfortable. As you explore spaceships, scrounging around for supplies to push yourself that little bit further, your strategy has to be flexible. An electrifying zapper is good for immobilizing some enemies, but it’s useless against those with shields. A lobbed grenade is handy against those shielded enemies, but it […]

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Dauntless Review – Whole New World

Dauntless Review – Whole New World

Dauntless brims with energy. It’s in everything from the exuberant use of color to the larger-than-life Behemoths with cheeky nods to the developer’s Canadian roots. Monster Hunter: World’s high-realism design almost feels grimdark in comparison to the Shattered Isles’ Crayola color scheme of glamors and on-the-nose armor designs. The game has chutzpah, but it lacks that little bit […]

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