Paul Tamburro
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Game RevolutionLatest Reviews
Hogwarts Legacy is Harry Potter-flavored comfort food — it is as crowd-pleasing a game as you’re likely to find. It’s ironic, then, that it releases in controversial circumstances, as author J.K. Rowling’s persistent hounding of the trans community casts a dark shadow across the franchise. Legacy has not been unscathed, with there being calls to boycott the RPG so as not to give her more money or relevancy. Amid this ongoing debate — or perhaps because of it — Avalanche Software’s take on the Wizarding World is so plainly benign and forgettable that, if you didn’t know about Rowling’s history, you couldn’t possibly guess that this is a controversial release.
Overwatch 2 is a weird sequel. Game developers almost exclusively want to go bigger and better with their follow-ups, but that distinctly isn’t the cast here. Blizzard has decided to scale things back to 5 vs 5 bouts over 6 vs 6, has only included three brand new characters, and has added just a smattering of new maps. It’s a controversial move and one that would be an incredibly tough sell if this was a full-priced game. But that’s the thing — Overwatch 2 isn’t a full-priced game.
Has a game ever had a better selling point than “you play as a cat”? But Stray doesn’t just let you take control of a character who looks like a cat — it authentically replicates the dexterity and adorableness of one, too. As you nimbly explore its cyberpunk city from his unique point-of-view, you’ll meow, you’ll lovingly cuddle up against NPCs, and you’ll occasionally get your head stuck in a paper bag. It’s all very cute — that is until the alien headcrabs latch onto your furry skull and suffocate you to death.
That LEGO video games have proven so popular in the Star Wars space is a feat that is rarely given enough praise. LEGO’s games are all about poking fun at their subject matter; Star Wars is a series where, if you criticize a background character who showed up for 30 seconds in Return of the Jedi, some corner of the internet will start a harassment campaign against you. Many Star Wars fans treat the series with a level of reverence that it perhaps doesn’t deserve, considering some of the nonsense it has thrown up — Jar-Jar Binks, Anakin’s hatred of sand, the entirety of The Rise of Skywalker. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga doesn’t shy away from the series’ low points, making this a celebration of all facets of this disjointed franchise, not just its best bits.
Gran Turismo 7 marks the series’ 25th anniversary, and this long-awaited PS5 sequel is both a celebration of Polyphony Digital’s trailblazing GT franchise and of racing in general. The Tokyo-based studio’s love of cars is infectious; I wish I could love anything as much as they clearly love sitting behind the wheel. If this isn’t immediately evident from its lengthy, historical opening cinematic, then it most certainly is when you hit the tarmac, the intricacies of each car’s handling authentically replicated across its shockingly photo-realistic tracks.
In the past two OlliOlli games, an engrossing gameplay loop of combo-ing impossibly long grinds and improbably extreme tricks was teamed with jarringly drab visuals. Looks aren’t everything, but with its low-rent pixel art, an otherwise stellar series struggled to stand out. With OlliOlli World, developer Roll7 has finally settled on an art style that works — so now we have Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater crossed with Adventure Time.
No game has been more emblematic of Microsoft’s shift in priorities post-Game Pass than Halo Infinite. Its free-to-play multiplayer launched ahead of its planned release date, with 343 Industries providing the full experience — albeit in beta form — in November. Now, its long-awaited single-player campaign is gearing up for launch, with it headed to Game Pass as a wholly separate component. This untraditional release highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly of games launching through the Game Pass service, as while Halo Infinite truly feels like the start of something special for 343 Industries — the developer has stated that Infinite is a decade-long platform for Halo — it’s also been left unfinished by design.
Forza Horizon 5 is a perfect marriage of the series’ best ideas so far, neatly planted in its most exciting and diverse location yet. For returning Forza players, there’s a combination of both major and subtle changes, from the fantastic improvements to car sounds to the intense dynamic weather options such as tropical storms and sandstorms. For new players, its once overwhelming litany of menus and activities have been streamlined, with easy-to-understand progression making it the most accessible Horizon entry yet.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a throwback to a bygone era but with the technical prowess of a current-gen game. Taking its cues from older The Legend of Zelda games — it’s no surprise that its developer and digital animation studio Ember Lab previously produced a Majora’s Mask short film — puzzle-solving through its lush world feels like being wrapped up in a comfort blanket. Unfortunately, Kena’s retreading of old ideas also means that it doesn’t do anything new, with this unoriginality leading to an enjoyable experience that fails to carve out its own path.
How did this happen? Biomutant has been in development since 2015, originally set for release in 2018, before being delayed all the way into 2021. We’ve seen smatterings of footage here and there and the occasional playable build, with developer Experiment 101 being so quiet that they even had to confirm the game wasn’t canceled. Typically, this signals a game being sent out to die by its publisher as a result of it not meeting internal expectations. But no — Biomutant is somehow one of the most boundlessly fun, ambitious, and creative open-world games I’ve played, surprising me at every turn with its unapologetic focus on letting the player have a good time. So again: How did this happen?!