Tim Lawrence
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MP1STLatest Reviews
The Crew Motorfest is a fun surprise. I intend to keep playing it for at least a few more hours and will likely keep it installed if I need a pretend mini vacation. My biggest gripe is the Internet Car Influencer culture from which the game takes its narrative cues. I hate the world of influencers like every other adult with a brain. But the setting is genuinely fantastic to race around. The cars and other vehicles are fun to drive (except the planes in a race); plainly put, it’s a fun racer. Here’s to hoping we get more games in this direction and eventually see the genre return to its former glory.
It’s unfortunate that the hype train got so carried away during the years long lead up to Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt RED definitely didn’t help with their marketing that leaned into the hyperbolic expectations. It made the backlash more powerful and more negative than this game probably deserved. This Next-Gen version isn’t hot trash or unplayable but it definitely has benefited from having another year and a half in the oven. One can only hope that the industry and its community members learn how to manage expectations and avoid this mistake in the future, but if human history has taught us anything, that’s not likely.
Ultimately, if you are a skating or platforming fan, or you just like a stiff challenge, OlliOlli World is a must-play. It’s a good game that knows what its inspirations are and doesn’t try to be more than what it is. I can see myself coming back to it for a long time and I’m excited that we are getting such a solid start to the year.
Narita Boy didn’t have to be very good. It was largely crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and once it was out it could have been like a lot of Kickstarter games, or it could have been a non-starter that got launched and fell flat, but the team at Studio Koba really pulled this one out. It’s not a life-changing experience nor is it some deeply spiritual journey, but I think it’a a fun retro game that understands that it’s still a modern release. This is the sort of project that makes big publishers take a team seriously, and whether they decide to partner with a publisher or stay indie, I suspect we’ll see more from Studio Koba coming down the pipeline…er, datastream.
I’m giving Hot Wheels Unleashed a 8.5 out of 10. If all you care about is the racing itself it might be a little higher, but the issues with the controls in the Track Builder and a few other small issues here and there make the score for the whole product a solid 8.5. Hopefully people are able to see past or even embrace the less than stellar parts because ultimately I think this game is worth playing and I think that for fans of arcade racing, it’s a must-play. I’m pleased that it lived up to my expectations on that front. Hopefully we’ll see a resurgence in arcade racing on this generation of consoles but whether or not that happens I’m glad we have this to either kick it off or hold us over. Maybe Milestone could talk with Rockstar about doing the next Midnight Club game before they make another one of these. Now wouldn’t that be something.
Cloudpunk is a game I’m glad exists. It’s a game I hope people see. It is definitely not for everyone, possibly even most people. But it leaves me very much hoping that Ion Lands gets to keep making games and gets to do so with a bigger budget as I suspect most of the issues I had with Cloudpunk would have been at least a little alleviated with a bigger budget. It is encouraging to see that the developers are still adding features and I’ll be following their work in the future.