Hardcore Gamer

• SWITCH
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

There’s no hesitation in saying that Fuga: Melodies of Steel has some of the best tactical turn-based combat ever created. Both the first and second titles create a stream of combat based on skill and strategy that keeps the player from feeling both weak or overpowered at any time. Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 manages to feel much the same while adding new abilities and changes that help combat and challenge flow without any problem. It’s perfectly balanced throughout the entire journey and simply requires a lot of dedication to move forward through each fight no matter the outcome. While there are multiple endings that depend on various decisions made throughout the story, there are also helpful options for those who might not get what’s considered the best one the first time around, and new game plus for those who want to challenge themselves to unlock every little last nugget of information that can be uncovered. Fuga is short enough that it feels easy to replay at any time, but long enough to keep thoroughly invested throughout. We cannot recommend Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 enough to those who played the first title and hope those who haven’t consider giving the series a much-deserved once over as it’s one of the most satisfying turn-based challenges to date.

• PS5
• 2 / 5
• États-Unis

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum could have ushered in a new era of The Lord of the Rings-based games. One that had the daring to fill in Tolkien’s gaps, but still showed respect for the source material. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t that game. While the story is compelling with a great performance from Smeagol/Gollum, the remainder of the game is a woeful mess. While Daedalic’s vision for Middle-earth is filled with artistic beauty, it’s altogether let down by a terrible technical presentation that’s far behind today’s standards. Ultimately, though, it’s the lack of polish and jankiness that is its undoing. From the myriad gameplay issues that bog down the simple mechanics to the mind-numbing crashes capable of hampering progression, there is little about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum that’s polished or enjoyable. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum crafts a compelling story around Gollum and Smeagol, but it fails to craft a polished, stable or enjoyable gameplay experience. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t the Precious we’ve been searching for.

• PC
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a solid throwback FPS that makes up for being too generous with the resources by its excellent weapon, monster and level design. The world of Warhammer 40,000 translates fantastically well to this type of game, with decades of lore and design to draw from to create a fully-realized backdrop. The enemies come in a variety of styles from various normal humans to huge and deadly aliens, and they all mix together well to create firefights that need just enough in the way of tactics to keep the brain a little bit active. The only real challenge, though, comes from the game encouraging sloppy play in its frequent less intense sections, so when it’s time to pay attention it can be easy to get caught off guard using bad habits. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is an oddly slow burn, but when it finally fires up in the latter half, the action feels worthy of the righteous might of a Space Marine.

• PS5
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

Other than having vague missions at times to get to story-essential races, LEGO 2K Drive is an incredible time. There’s so much fun to be had that it’s impossible to be bored by anything that goes on and the mission variety is far more of a blessing than a curse — although work does need to be done to explain how to accomplish mission objectives. The racing action itself is top-shelf and a fantastic basis for a long-term series if that works out. The roots of arcade-racing fun are here, with a lot of depth to the gameplay thanks to things like platforming-style jumps enabling more ways to pickup weapons and power-ups. Anyone who wants a racing game they can spend hours at a time with and never run out of things to do will be overjoyed with LEGO 2K Drive. It plays great, is the best-looking LEGO game yet and has fantastic sound design across the board.

• PS5
• 3 / 5
• États-Unis

TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 3 seems to focus more specifically on the technical aspect of the bikes while touching up other areas. The physics are improved and realistic, which also leads to a hard learning curve. Upgrading the bike through the Seasons is key for not only more success, but also overall enjoyability of the game itself. Atrocious visuals and the lack of life on the track hamper the overall experience of the game, though. The best way to experience TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 3 is on the PS5 to guarantee the DualSense works, as on PC I don’t have a way to verify if that works or not. Cruising the island can be fun, but I’d rather just take my actual bike out for a more satisfying experience. Having a virtual group to ride with on the island and race with would have upped this “open world” racer. It also retails for $49.99, which even at a discount, is asking a bit much.

• PS5
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order built a solid foundation on which to build a sequel, and Respawn Entertainment has happily obliged. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes what worked in that first game and expands it significantly. It’s bigger, grander and more ambitious, with a few trade-offs. While the story isn’t as personal, the events feel more significant and have greater consequences for Star Wars as a whole. It also helps that the story remains intriguing and engaging throughout its lengthy campaign. The design is fair, with well-laid-out levels, enemy placements and plenty of incentive to return or start a New Game+ save. Gameplay is as fun as ever with quality-of-life improvements and new saber stances injecting additional variety to play around with. Unfortunately, some decisions forsake organic experimentation in favor of trial and error, and some elements don’t feel nearly as polished as they ought to be. Its presentation is beautiful outside some last-gen-looking NPC interactions, but it’s burdened by a terrible technical performance that makes the ‘performance’ mode nonviable. Ultimately, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a very good game with a great story, excellent design and fun gameplay, but hampered by a lack of polish and poor performance. It may not have achieved the rank of master, but Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a true Jedi of the light side.

• PC
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Nearly a decade on, Teslagrad 2 strides into view where the original left off, with a modest but still entertaining palette of magnetism-based gameplay and precision-platforming alike. A justifiable approach from Rain Games in parts given how easy it is to grapple with, though one that isn’t as bold and surprising a second time round — lacking the broader creativity a sequel of its nature could have and should have brought. Curious in many ways, when it comes to applying one’s abilities. In others, a game whose short run-time and lacking narrative sadly isn’t offset by a more memorable and meatier world to explore. Short on meaningful exploration it may be, however, a focus once more on the intrigue of its mechanics, one that helped the original shine all those years ago, in similar fashion helps Teslagrad 2 establish itself as that of a solid, though flawed, follow-up.

• SWITCH
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

XSEED has a hit on their hands with Trinity Trigger. Everything about the game is enjoyable and in the case of the story and combat, everything perfectly gels together. The action has a good clip to it — not being too slow or too frantic and you’re eased into the systems gradually to avoid being overloaded with information dumps too often. The flow of the action from battles to relaxing town sections makes for a nice balance and having enemies so close to the towns themselves does a nice job of showing that there are stakes to what’s going on in the world. This isn’t the prettiest-looking game in some ways due to texture problems, but it doesn’t slow down or have framerate dips and the anime cinematics are gorgeous. The soundtrack is top-tier as well, with a mix of relaxing songs for towns and action-heavy tunes for battle while voice acting helps the characters stand out more than they would with just text bubbles. Anyone on the lookout for a new action RPG will find a lot to love with Trinity Trigger, especially if something that blends fantasy with a slice of life is desired.

• PS5
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Dead Island 2 is a gory adventure that offers up plenty of mindless mayhem for zombie slayers. The remnants of California make for a great playground to dismember and destroy the walking dead in every conceivable way the game presents. The beautiful, sunny environments provide a stark contrast to the reanimated rotting carcasses. But as fun as the combat can be towards the end of the story, the missions began to feel as fresh as the enemies’ flesh as the repetitive nature of the quests turn them into chores in the final hours. Unremarkable story and repetitive gameplay aside, what Dead Island 2 does well it does very well, and despite these shortcomings, killing thousands of zombies with everything the game puts at the player’s disposal can still be a great time.

• SWITCH
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection remains true to its original releases while adding a couple of appreciated additions to clean up some of its timewasters. We are of course talking about the Buster MAX Mode which makes getting through the random battles a lot more bearable. You can still play it as it was intended to be played, but having an escape feature be tied to RNG is not ideal. Outside of this and some accessibility options, not a whole lot has changed from the original games – there’s even its online functionality, allowing for multiplayer and trading. Each release is still as good as we remember them being, and considering you get upwards of ten games, it’s hard not to recommend this to new and old school players. Capcom is quickly running out of Mega Man games to remaster, with notable exclusions being Battle Network Transmission, Command Mission, Legends and Star Force, but they continue to release incredible value propositions that bring these classics to a brand new generation of players.

• PS5
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

While not a lot has changed in terms of ways to play MLB The Show 23, the experience on the field is much improved. The time spent on the audio aspect and the focus on better replicating a television broadcast are this game’s specialty. The lack of updated rule changes, however, is a weird gaff. The modes remain the same for the most part outside of the inclusion of the Negro League stories. This is hampered by tying progression down to the Challenge Mode, which has been historically frustrating. Spreading the game across multiple outdated platforms and also tying this to Game Pass is hurting the progression of the series as it has become visually dated. This isn’t a big deal if you’re already paying for Game Pass, but paying $70 for a dated-looking game where a good bit of it is unchanged and previous Diamond Dynasty progression is reset is a hard ask. MLB The Show 23 is still a solid game of baseball, but it has been a solid game of baseball for years and being stuck on one platform no longer offers an excuse for attracting new players.

• PC
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Tchia is a terrific ode to New Caledonia that’s sadly hampered by a bloated and standard open-world design that tries to do too much. Still, even if the gameplay isn’t wholly original, there’s fun to be had here, with truly impressive sights and sounds that can make the archipelago a delight to explore at times. Just try to maintain some focus as you navigate the numerous distractions and you’ll experience quite the impressive trip.

• PS5
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

2K and Visual Concepts continue to show commitment to this franchise in WWE 2K23 by making necessary gameplay changes and additions to an already-strong core that was established last year. WWE 2K23 then pushes the graphical fidelity forward to the point that it possibly surpasses its NBA 2K counterpart in the grand spectrum of things. The big help coming with cleaning up previous nuisances with the gameplay are a big help while making MyGM and MyRISE deeper will be much appreciated by the community. The Wargames match is going to be popular as everything about it works and the match itself is extremely fun. The new design for Showcase Mode is also a success, but the biggest improvements come in the technical depart of WWE 2K23. While some modes are left lacking, the others that saw more options are great and nothing needed to be sacrificed along the way.

• PS5
• 3 / 5
• États-Unis

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen was the evolution Destiny 2 needed with its great story, revamped campaign structure and enough interesting activities to keep players excited. Destiny 2: Lightfall only had to follow that template and continue building toward the ultimate conclusion of this saga. It doesn’t, delivering a threadbare story and a dangerously-low amount of new content for its cost. The story is incoherent and nonsensically jumps back and forth between different plot threads. The campaign does at least provide a handful of great missions and an excellent Strike to play through, and it’s all helped by the fact that Strand is a brilliant subclass that spices up the gameplay. Destiny 2: Lightfall’s biggest problem, however, is that for $50-$100, it provides little new or exciting content. One Strike, no Crucible maps, no Gambit maps, the same patrol zone design and the same enemies. Strand is fabulous, some of the campaign missions are truly masterful, and the game remains genuinely fun, but these can’t offset Destiny 2: Lightfall’s shortcomings. Destiny 2: Lightfall is just another filler expansion on the pathway to the final showdown.

• PS5
• 3 / 5
• États-Unis

With The Official Videogame 6, The Monster Energy Supercross series from Milestone continues to feel like the pot on the back burner of all the racing series they develop and publish. They have the license and claim a bunch of updates every year, but the core racing experience remains troubled and inconsistent, especially in comparison to the MotoGP series of games. Having said that, I still feel this is the most fun I’ve had out of all the games in this series and that may be thanks to the AI changes and removing any assists. Still, each game comes out a year behind in its roster and track updates and it just doesn’t do the best job of replicating the sport. The Rhythm Attack and new Supercross Park are both welcome additions and cross-play will allow for bigger racing rooms online, but the fact that Milestone still sells the game for $10 less than normal retail won’t help justify it in the current generation as that price is now $60. They need to take a year off and develop specifically for current generation hardware and catch up its calendar year to the same year that it’s released.

• PS5
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a dark fantasy take on the Three Kingdoms. The difficulty is high, almost seeming insurmountable at first, but part of what makes Wo Long great is how the difficulty isn’t unfair. The gameplay is structured where players are rewarded for learning the fighting style of their enemies and using their mastery of their own skills against them. It can be frustrating and requires patience to master, but it’s such a great feeling to finally overcome a strong adversary. Challenge alone does not make a game great, but Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty excels in every area from artistic design to gameplay mechanics. Watching nameless warrior execute their different moves is akin to a ballet of brutality. The gameplay mechanics are are smooth and responsive as the game is challenging, making it a joy to invest the time in mastering the battle system. This isn’t the Three Kingdoms setting we were expecting, but it is the Three Kingdoms game we needed.

• PS5
• 2.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Perhaps if Scars Above had put more work into the areas where our lead heroine has to explore this strange world and analyze it more in order to solve various puzzles, basically letting her be the scientist she is, it could have been vastly better overall, or at least help give it a better identity to help it stand out more. Instead, Scars Above settles for being a generic third-person action game that rarely, if ever, takes any sort of risks. While it may not fall prey to anything that feels egregiously bad and at least has decent combat, you’ll likely walk away from the mystery of the Metahedron feeling more bored than satisfied.

• PS5
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

When compared to the original, Octopath Traveler II is largely more of the same but better. The battle system is just as enjoyable as it was the first time around with additional layers of strategy added. Solistia is a great new world to explore, and the added day and night cycle help make everywhere feel more alive. While at its core it plays like a classic turn-based JRPG, the Break and Boost system helps set it apart from the classics that inspired it. The HD-2D graphic style does a fantastic job in making Octopath Traveler II feel both contemporary and classic with one of the best soundtracks among recent games. It hits the sweet spot where it brings enough elements of contemporary gaming to the classic JRPG format.