Nicholas Friedman
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CBR Latest Reviews
There's gear, but it's not based around loot. It's a simple upgrade system that unlocks as you collect things, complete missions and hunts, and progress in the story. It's straightforward and honestly quite refreshing. But it's also packed with technical issues, even when playing on the Xbox One X. Constant slowdown and frame-rate dips, audio tearing and the occasional full application crash break the game's momentum. I lost about an hour of progress two times during the game when it decided ...
Of course, it's hard to review a title like this because of how ongoing it feels. It's Animal Crossing, plain and simple, but the best it has ever been. Thankfully, Nintendo plans to extend the game's legs with patched-in holiday events throughout the year -- simultaneously solving the famous "time travel" exploit and adding a bit of detriment to those who choose to use it anyway (seriously, it's awesome Nintendo left it in).
Overall, fans of Kingdom Hearts will find little more here than a handful of new cutscenes to enjoy, and a continued cliffhanger for where the series goes next. For a franchise that rose to AAA status on its basis of blending the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy, it doesn’t feel like either of those things are really core to the future of the franchise. At least, not directly.
As far as workout games go, Ring Fit Adventure goes above and beyond in terms of polish. Not only is it a great way to workout, but it's also extremely fun and addicting. It's one of those games you just can't imagine being possible without that pinch of innovation that Nintendo is known for. If you're hard-pressed to find a gift for a Nintendo Switch owner this holiday, consider Ring Fit Adventure. Just don't blame us when you or someone you love gets totally swole.
Overall, Luigi's Mansion 3 is a fantastic evolution for the spooky series, with developer Next Level Games learning from each and every bit of feedback on Dark Moon to elevate the series to AAA status. It's sweet, unsettling when needed and packed full of content. What more could you want from a game starring Green Mario?
Overall, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare makes a very solid case for renewed interest in the franchise. By playing into the nostalgia of the original series' characters, amping up the stakes in single player and bursting the door wide open for the multiplayer community, Modern Warfare re-asserts itself as a major player in the genre.
While nothing revolutionary Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a great example on how to tide fans over for an inevitable sequel. Bethesda has done this plenty with its other titles like Dishonored: Death of the Outsider or Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, and it's nice to see it continue. With the story revelations dropped by the time credits roll in Youngblood, we can only imagine what's coming next -- and we cannot wait.
In this case, the positives do really outweigh the negatives. Rage 2 is a strong shooter that tries its best to emulate the feeling of the more recent DOOM and Wolfenstein entries. It's story may be weak, but with a colorful, crazy open world and plenty of activities to sift through, its hard not to recommend this post-apocalyptic party. And honestly, its even better that it's single player-only game. We could always use more of those.
There is also downloadable content planned for the game, which only feels a little bit weird considering there are a number of characters you fight in the main story that aren't actually playable in the game. So, if they plan to sell us Cyrax or Sektor later, it feels just a bit shady to face fans to pay for them. Seriously, they have full move sets and everything.
These little touches go a long to make sure players know that Yoshi's Crafted World isn't a game that's going to keep anyone from playing it. From top to bottom, it is a lovely, enjoyable little platformer that certainly stands tall next to its more difficult counterparts. Looking for a palette cleanser or a game to play in short bursts on the go? You got it. Want to sink eight hours into colorful worlds and cardboard cut outs? It's all here.