Cory Wells
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Hardcore Gamer Latest Reviews
Killing Floor 3 is extremely fun in its initial stages, but will this wear off over time? Tripwire Interactive has done a good job at updating the previous games, and judging by the Helldivers-like progression system here, the staying power should be there to keep players engaged. Adding six-player crossplay and cross voice will assure the best online multiplayer experience that the series has ever had. Offline single player is more difficult, but the game is designed for online multiplayer. The visuals do a good job of showcasing the Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen Lighting, but stutters and hiccups happen a fair amount. Using Frame Gen on PC works well to compensate. The Specialists and Perk Systems help to add longevity, but you have to dig through the menu to see the other Specialists. In the end at launch, however, Killing Floor III is a bloody fun time.
EA released College Football 25 last year, which became not only a cultural revolution, but one of the most-praised football video games of all time. The amount of love and authenticity that went into that title felt like a rare spark in the industry. How does one follow up with that? By doubling down on that love and authenticity for college football while addressing the most requested community inquiries. College Football 26 adds so many little things while overhauling one major aspect: gameplay. The introduction of the physics-based engine that's seen in the Madden series will be what truly determines if this game wins over the community like the previous title.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is getting its first major update, which in the eyes of Ubisoft, makes the latest release a brand new experience. A good bit has gone into this update which starts with the name, Siege X. It has been ten years since the launch of Rainbow Six Siege and now there's Free Access to the game's massive update that introduces a new mode, graphical improvements and a ten-year plan. Is this the opportunity for newcomers to the series to try it out?
Formula One is currently in its 75th season as a few major changes have taken place so far this season. Codemasters and EA SPORTS have released F1 25 that replicates all of these updates and even features tie-ins to the upcoming F1 film starring Brad Pitt. When the series jumped to the current generation of consoles, many were excited about the possibilities of where this franchise goes. Fast-forward five years and the series remains on its dated EGO engine and has relied on a narrative mode across three different releases that caters to fans introduced to Formula One via a Netflix documentary. F1 25 doesn't feature much that's new, but this car handling may just be the best the series has ever seen.
Milestone has officially released MotoGP 25 as it continues to firmly put its foot into the talks of the top annual racing video game series. With the amount of racing series that exist, there are only about four that get annual releases. Ironically, three of those are from Milestone. The other major competition comes from EA and Codemasters' F1 series, as there hasn't been an annual NASCAR game in years while Indy Car or the WEC don't get annual release games as of now. The specialty of the MotoGP series in recent years is its innovation as Milestone continues to try new things in this series and it works. MotoGP 25 has also made the jump over to Unreal Engine 5, which is the basis of this year's innovation.
Remaster or remake? The stealth drop of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is the current gaming buzz. Most probably assume this is how the game looked and felt in 2006 until they go back to the original Xbox 360 version and wonder how that was even playable. A Mandela Effect for video games is a thing, but there's no doubt that this remaster (and it is a remaster) will bring you back to those days, if you were actually part of those days.
Remember the days when RPGs involved exploring worlds, telling a story and taking a turn in battles? Developer Sandfall Interactive remembers, and at some point the RPG genre began to go in different directions, whether that was an action RPG that took the turn-based element away or full exploratory worlds thanks to series like Fallout and Fable. Sandfall wants to take you back to the original age, and while these types of titles never truly went away, there hasn't been a major AAA release completed like this since arguably Final Fantasy X. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG that pushes the technical aspect of modern hardware to the limit while providing a dark story that presents all the feels.
The PC gaming era from the late 1990s to the early 2000s is untouched in gaming history. Only a select few were able to experience this as the amount of exclusive titles at that time were truly just that. These games didn't make their way over to consoles, and if they did, they never held a candle to the source material. So duplicating this experience for a few old heads hasn't been warranted, particularly since real-time strategy games made a comeback in recent years. Developer Slipgate Ironworks provided an experience that nobody knew they actually wanted, however, and this is perfectly modernizing an old formula with Tempest Rising.
San Diego Studios is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of MLB The Show this year. MLB The Show 25 is also relieving the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One of its duties by making the game prioritized on current-generation consoles (outside of the Nintendo Switch version). Some new things have been added including a new gameplay system known as Showtech, a new boardgame-inspired mode in Diamond Dynasty, good presentation elements and more. At the core of MLB The Show 25, even going completely to a new generation and noting meaningful changes, the series just feels left on second base. A dynasty of a bygone era.
Ten years ago, many would wonder if an officially-licensed PGA Tour game would ever happen again. Fast-forward to today and the genre is eating better than it ever has. There's competition in PGA games and if developer HB Studios was told in 2017 that this is where The Golf Club series would be today, everyone would probably faint. 2K picked up the reigns of that series and transitioned it over to the PGA 2K series. PGA 2K23 saw tremendous growth and improvement over time as the development team would wait two years until the series' next release. PGA 2K25 is now here and is only on current generation consoles along with PC. The strides are substantial.