Latest Reviews
High on Life
I’m about four hours into High On Life and I have a migraine. It’s unfair to say that the game has given me one—I am, after all, notoriously prone to them—but it certainly isn’t helping. The brightly colored, gloopy, blobby alien worlds and incessant chatter from NPCs, enemies, and my...
Beacon Pines
Explore concurrent realities in this extraordinarily beautiful mystery adventure
Deathloop
Video games are inescapably intertwined with iteration and do-overs. It’s written into the technology that builds them, the development practices that craft them, and often the very rules governing how they work: win-lose, trial and error. Some games have tried to mask this artifice in the service of more naturalistic...
Halo Infinite
How do you even consider Halo Infinite in totality? Not just any Halo game but this Halo game—one that was supposed to herald a new generation of Xboxes but was delayed out of the launch window; one that’s had no shortage of public scrutiny over its tumultuous development process; one...
Forza Horizon 5
The implicit promise of Forza Horizon is in the name. You see something on the horizon, you can drive to it. Skyrim with cars. Far Cry with more cars and no guns. Forza Horizon 5, the latest game in the venerable Xbox racing series, is no more and no less...
Back 4 Blood
Celebrated filmmaker Jim Jarmusch once said, “Originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it.” Back 4 Blood, a new zombie-themed co-op shooter developed by Turtle Rock Studios, sure puts this principle into practice. Even its name is a direct callback to the studio’s...
Far Cry 6
Early on in Far Cry 6, a character explains that a revolution isn’t something that happens once, but rather something that will keep happening. History is destined to repeat itself over and over. The irony of Far Cry 6 using this as a theme isn’t lost on me. And yet,...
Sable
When I meet the mask crafter for the first time, I am unsure if I am touching a spirit, god, or machine. The machinists, whose ranks I plan to join today, would probably dismiss the distinction altogether. As I remember this, my hoverbike Simoon purrs outside the tent. She has...
Lost in Random
I play a lot of games for this job. That’s not a brag, it’s just a fact. And while many of those games are good, most of them tend to blend together. But whenever something comes along that is not only great but also feels fresh and incredibly memorable, it...
NBA 2K22
I can’t do it anymore. This is the year that NBA 2K has turned me into the Joker.
Tales of Arise
Bandai Namco’s latest blockbuster is a solid action RPG that just...never...ends...