Author: David Carter
It doesn’t appear to have been under any pressure, even if the entire world was waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong’s cocoon to eventually burst. As a brilliant continuation of the original Hollow Knight and a superb game in its own right, this superb follow-up to an all-time classic has more than met my high expectations. While staying true to the formula that made its predecessor so remarkable, it makes significant and little changes to almost every aspect of it. Silksong is unreservedly difficult, incredibly imaginative, and remarkably reflective in both its beautiful setting and the tales it tells. Even though…
The long-running NBA 2K series from Visual Concepts closely resembles the lives of the players it strives to imitate. There are instances when a hotshot rookie shows promise despite performing poorly in back-to-back games. For others, it’s more akin to a cunning veteran closing in on retirement—we catch a glimmer of potential. For better or worse, that’s what keeps me returning year after year. Now, if I claimed I wasn’t afraid of being disappointed again, I would be lying. However, NBA 2K26 did not let me down this year, in contrast to the heartbreakingly mediocre Phoenix Suns, whom I obstinately…
Lost Soul Aside is a fun character action game, despite its jumbled, misdirected jumble of disparate, badly realized ideas that alternately lay up rakes for itself to step on. I’ve enjoyed battles and boss fights, but far too frequently in between, I’ve had to endure a monotonous plot with unmemorable characters, awkward platforming in the levels, and puzzles that would make the shape-matching tasks you’d give a toddler seem easy, all wrapped up in a misleadingly ostentatious package. In games, where concepts and advancements conflate craft, technology, business, and art, originality is ephemeral. This is particularly true in the expanding…
For more than 15 years, my love for looter shooters has been blazing brightly, and Borderlands was the spark that ignited the fire. Gearbox demonstrates that it still knows how to deliver the boom with Borderlands 4. It seemed like this franchise had started to lag in the genre it created after Borderlands 3 fizzled out a little, but 2025’s Borderlands surprised us once more by abandoning segmented sections and adopting an honest-to-goodness open world. The story takes a refreshingly grounded approach that works; the movement is drastically improved, making it one of the most immersive first-person shooters available, and…
The September Humble Choice selection has been formally revealed for those wishing to expand their PC collection as the colder fall weather begins to set in. If you join up for a Humble Choice membership, you may purchase a range of titles, such as WWE 2K25, Destiny 2: Legacy Collection, The Plucky Squire, and five others, for just $14.99. In addition to those titles, this month also includes a complimentary one-month subscription, which enables you to disable advertisements on the website, access free games, and more. September 2025: Humble Choice A Humble Choice membership offers a variety of other benefits…
It’s a common saying that war never changes, but what if the terrible things that happen during a conflict become monsters that ensnare people in a cycle of their worst actions? Hell is Us uses its fantasy near-future scenario to take a grim, realistic look at the horrors of war, yet even then, it turns out that human depravity is still worse than any supernatural disaster. Hell is Us kept me engaged during my 38-hour excursion, even though the actual act of fighting your way through the monsters of this ravaged nation isn’t doing anything novel for the action-adventure genre.…
It has been difficult to forecast Nintendo’s “game + add-on” rereleases just by looking at that label. While the more recent Super Mario Party made its way onto Switch 2 with the Jamboree TV expansion, which was both identical to the original game and completely different in a few strange ways, Super Mario 3D World made its leap to Switch 1 with Bowser’s Fury, which was essentially a brand-new game. It is now Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s time, and its Star-Crossed World add-on is a Kirby-sized breath of fresh air just because it is so simple to explain: it…
When it comes to remakes, where do you draw the line? How do you strike a balance between maintaining the originality and exercising creative freedom? While everyone has a slightly different response, Konami prioritized faithfulness in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the 2004 stealth-action game remake directed by Hideo Kojima. Except a significant graphic makeover, Konami kept Snake Eater almost exactly one-to-one and was not afraid to give Kojima and his crew credit throughout. As a result, even though Metal Gear Solid has aged over the past 21 years, there is still something fresh about its classic stealth-action gameplay…
Fans of 2D ninja platformers are finding 2025 to be an incredible year. Sega’s legendary Shinobi franchise has come out of a 14-year hibernation to launch a fistful of kunai directly into your adrenal glands, and the 16-bit blood sprites on Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s katana have hardly dried. With plenty of contemporary flair, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance revives the series’ slash-and-dash action. It equips the returning hero Joe Musashi with a deliciously broad range of intense ninja techniques and displays them all in a stunning hand-drawn style, creating an experience that is always visually pleasing but occasionally challenging on reflexes.…
With the original taking place in the 1930s, the sequel taking place in the 1940s and 1950s, and Mafia III taking place in the late 1960s, the Mafia series has steadfastly advanced through the decades since its inception. I was prepared if the 1970s, 1980s, or both were to be the following stage. Whatever it was—casino intrigue, shine boxes, or late-night stealing of enormous kitchen knives from Martin Scorcese’s mother—I was game. However, Mafia: The Old Country takes us back to the beginning of the 20th century rather than bringing us closer to the finish. And not only to the…