James Paley
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
There’s just something deeply satisfying about mowing down waves of the undead. Like a Zen rock garden full of groaning corpses. Rebellion’s Zombie Army 4: Dead War walks a fine line between indulgent and exhilarating, with only a few stumbles along the way. It’s tough and grounded, but also crammed...
I’m not sure how to recommend Chrono Cross to a new player. This is a haunting, ethereal, beautiful game. The soundtrack is incredible, the story is engrossing, and the visuals are delightful. On the other hand, this was a dense, weird game when it first came out. The decades since...
Kirby games don’t change much from one installment to the next. Instead, players are treated to a constantly evolving core formula, one that never fails to entertain. Kirby and the Forgotten Land continues this tradition, giving players a few new bells and whistles to spice up the usual hits. Conversely,...
Everyone has fond memories of the Mario Party games. They’re colorful, whimsical, timeless treasures that never fail to amaze and delight the whole family. Except when you get bumped to last place by a garbage dice roll, or one of your treacherous siblings, or the sinister RNG. Actually, most of...
Metroid Dread
Metroid games have always had a thin, tenuous connection to sci-fi horror. H.R. Geiger’s aesthetic has a ghostly presence throughout the older games, and those tiny threads of horror have persisted ever since. Metroid Dread looks to revitalize that connection, at least from a mechanical perspective. Rather than a traditional...
Legend of Mana
For the most part, the Mana series is fairly straightforward. You master various weapons, recover the power of Mana in its myriad forms, and save the day. Legend of Mana is slightly different. So much so, in fact, that I’m not sure where to start. The graphics are beautiful, the...
The world holds its breath for the next real chapter in the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga. After the first game shook things up a bit story-wise, the wait seemed both eternal and unbearable. While Intergrade doesn’t really answer any of those burning questions, it is a brief, beautiful distraction...
Outriders
Our relationship with looter shooters has been long and tumultuous. We’ve spent years mowing down monsters, dancing in the rain of treasure that erupts from their shattered bodies. Outriders is the latest milestone in this grim harvest, the newest always-online Arrow Examination simulation from Square Enix and People Can Fly....
Maquette
Breakups are the absolute worst. They leave a crater in your life that stretches for miles in every direction. The event itself burns like mercury stew, so why not wrap it in a protective layer of puzzle game? Maquette explores the existential horror that is heartbreak with a complex set...
Gods Will Fall
Games are all about turning lopsided battles in your favor. Whether you’re fighting empires, armies, or incredible monsters, it’s your chance to do something otherwise impossible. Gods Will Fall presents you with an impossible task that truly feels beyond the reach of most human beings. Whether this Sisyphean labor appeals...
Calico
A good life sim will suck you into a world you’d never considered before. I’m not a farmer or a full-blown cat lady, yet I gravitate to those worlds in games. Calico in particular represents a realm I’d left untouched before now. What if I owned a baker’s dozen cats,...
There’s nothing quite like the Devil May Cry series. Every successive release aims to crank up the insane intensity, assaulting players with an endless parade of ridiculous moments. Devil May Cry 5 is an excellent example of this philosophy writ large, but what of the Special Edition? Are players being...
