ShackNews
78
Avg Score

Latest Reviews

The First Berserker: Khazan is an unusual Soulslike. Most Dark Souls imitators don't quite get what makes FromSoftware's formula work or they tone down the difficulty to be more approachable. Developer Neople made Khazan more demanding and, at times, even more rewarding than the games that inspired it. It's a...

March 27, 2025 Read

The 2025 Major League Baseball season has begun and just a couple of weeks ago we got the latest installment in San Diego Studio’s baseball sim series. MLB The Show 25 not only continues the Negro Leagues for a third straight game, but it also makes meaningful improvements to Diamond...

March 27, 2025 Read

There’s a sequence in Look Outside I’m never going to forget. I’m in a ravaged apartment, fumbling in the dark for supplies and equipment. The family that lived here was overcome by the thing outside, but it’s not over for them yet. I’m dealing with them one by one, out...

March 20, 2025 Read

There came a time in Atomfall when I felt the game had gotten away from itself. I was sitting just outside the perimeter of a prison, staring at dozens of heavily armed soldiers, giant robots, guard towers, and automatic turrets. The entire compound was surrounded by a fence with an...

March 20, 2025 Read

Xenoblade Chronicles is a beloved series with a dedicated fanbase, but 2015’s Xenoblade Chronicles X is a bit of a black sheep. It came out on the Wii U in 2015 and didn’t have long to impress before the platform’s discontinuation in 2017. Monolith Soft, however, saw value just begging...

March 17, 2025 Read

Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrives at a strange time for Ubisoft. The company needs a win after some rough releases that each had their own merit but didn’t quite stick the landing for a variety of reasons. Avatar: Frontier of Pandra, Skull and Bones, XDefiant, and Star Wars Outlaws have all...

March 17, 2025 Read

FragPunk is the video game equivalent of a picture you put on the wall that looks nice at a glance, but never quite seems to balance right. The latest multiplayer game from NetEase following Marvel Rivals' launch in December 2024 works hard to give itself a strong identity, with a...

March 16, 2025 Read

Just like its impressively long and unwieldy title, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a messy game. But it’s a messy game with lofty ambitions and a lot to like, even if which pieces you end up liking are not the pieces you expected or...

March 13, 2025 Read

Wanderstop is like Spiritfarer for burnout sufferers and overachievers. The central focus is meaningful and expertly executed in its own right. However, it's the attention to detail in every other area that makes Wanderstop feel special, to the point where anything, even just planting flowers, enriches everything else. Ivy Road...

March 9, 2025 Read

When we asked WWE 2K25’s lead gameplay designer Derek Donahue how Visual Concepts goes about creating games on a yearly schedule, he described working with an annual franchise as a blessing and a curse. “I love it because it means we get to give something to fans every year, and...

March 5, 2025 Read

Opposite attraction, or the unlikely pair, might be a bit of a cliché, but there’s still charm and solid storytelling in there if it’s weaved with good hands. Hazelight Studios have been masters of cinematic co-op experiences for years now, so it should come as little surprise that Split Fiction...

March 3, 2025 Read

Like Fights before it, Knights in Tight Spaces is the kind of game where it's easy to lose track of time. The story will have you reaching for the Skip button by the time you go on your 10th or 20th run, but there's nothing repetitive about the formula, especially...

March 3, 2025 Read