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This Turn-Based RPG Musical Is Fun But Drags A Bit In Act 3 | People Of Note ReviewPeople of Note was clearly made with lots of love, but it is also a deeply silly game. Conflicts are resolved between musicians flinging music at each other, a simple country-wide road trip transforms into a battle to save all of reality, and somehow everyone is convinced that the power of friendship will somehow overcome an ancient eldritch-like power. If I didn't know any better, I'd think this game was an old-school role-playing game. And, to be fair, People of Note shares a lot of parallels with those games. While that means the strengths of those types of games are present in People of Note--notably the music and world design in its case--it also means that some of the shortcomings that can be found in the weaker installments of the genre are present in Iridium Studios' turn-based RPG too. People of Note sees would-be pop star Cadence striving to fulfill her dream of winning a singing competition and getting propelled into fame. Worried that the pop song she's prepared isn't strong enough to sway the judges, she sets out through the land of Note in search of people who can add to her song. Her journey takes her to a desert where everyone is all about different kinds of rock music, a futuristic metropolis blanketed in perpetual night and inhabited by EDM-obsessed disc jockeys, a block-shaped party city that's all about rap and hip hop, and so much more. And all the while, repeated references to an event known as the Harmonic Convergence steel you for what will eventually be a sharp tonal shift away from road-trip comedy to dramatic high fantasy. Your enjoyment of this story is really going to come down to how much you like puns and pop culture references--People of Note's humor is not unlike Borderlands 2 or Saints Row IV. The game rides the line between funny and corny well enough for me, save for one moment in the third act that made me cringe so hard, I contemplated simply not playing any more of the game that day. But I also enjoy games like Borderlands and Saints Row. If you're not a fan of the idea of a story that takes every single conceivable musical term and crafts a whole high-fantasy society and plotline with said terms, People of Note is probably going to grate. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsApr 7

Life is Strange: Reunion Review

IGN PC ReviewsApr 6

Super Meat Boy 3D ReviewSuper Meat Boy 3D proves that Meat Boy can work in three dimensions, even if some perspective-related issues keep it from reaching the heights of the 2010 classic.

IGN PC ReviewsApr 1

This Fun New Puzzle-Platformer Is Limbo, But Not Creepy | Darwin's Paradox ReviewDarwin's Paradox takes the 2D puzzle-platforming sensibilities of a game like Limbo or Inside and makes it distinctly less creepy and unsettling. Whereas those games presented elements of light body horror and spooky high-contrast compositions, Darwin's Paradox evokes classic cartoons starring goofball protagonists in vibrant, colorful settings. The result is a pleasant little gem of a game with loads of variety that makes the most out of its relatively short playtime. There's a core comedic premise to Darwin's Paradox that begins subtly and then slowly becomes more obvious as time goes on. Your eponymous little octopus, Darwin, just wants to get back home to the ocean. But on his journey he haplessly bumbles his way through what is clearly a full-scale alien invasion of Earth. In most games, the hero would steel their resolve to take on the alien menace, but Darwin is just an octopus. For all he knows, this is normal among land-dwellers, and he doesn't really seem to care either way. So he's less of a hero and more of a Mr. Magoo, with his own perception limited to the threats around him as he gets flung around a hostile world and just tries his best to survive. We as the (human) viewers understand what's happening in a different context than he does, and that makes the story work on two levels at once. Though he's not a hero, Darwin certainly has an expansive move set, which makes the game's platforming feel natural and fluid. They all trace back to the behaviors and adaptations of real-life octopi, like suckers to stick to walls, shooting ink to escape predators, and camouflage to blend in with their environment. And like a real octopus, he's most mobile underwater, where you have full 360-degree freedom of movement. Though traversing your way through land environments feels good, going underwater is immediately more natural. It really accentuates the feeling that you're a fish out of water the rest of the time. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsMar 30

Darwin's Paradox! ReviewKonami's quirky new platformer brings good times, but occasionally hits a brick wall.

IGN PC ReviewsMar 30

Marathon ReviewThis ruthless, deeply unapproachable extraction shooter is worth every ounce of hell it puts you through.

IGN PC ReviewsMar 30

Marathon Review - Incredible Highs, Painful LowsWe started on Perimeter, the map tuned to provide the "easiest" experience in Marathon , and spent the next 15 minutes trapped in the very first building we entered, fighting every single team of player "Runners" in the match. It was GameSpot senior producer Jean-Luc Seipke's very first match in Bungie's online first-person extraction shooter, and it was nothing if not a trial by fire. Together with our matchmade teammate, we battled down hallways and around corners, flanking and catching opponents out, dying and reviving one another time and again. We came back from near-defeat over and over, hanging on by a thread. At one point, with my guns completely dry, I slipped an opponent by hopping over a railing to a lower floor, only to sneak back up the stairs, find them facing away, and knife them in the back until they died. Another time, an invisible Assassin character lost us in a cloud of smoke, and I jumped through some broken windows into the room where we'd last seen them, hoping to flank--only to find them hiding in a corner, a claymore at the door, ready to ambush my teammates. They never even saw me as I machine-gunned them. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsMar 25

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection ReviewThe best way to play as the most underrated version of the Blue Bomber.

IGN PC ReviewsMar 25

Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup In Bellabel Park Review - Bring Your FriendsNintendo has consistently leaned on Switch 2 upgrades to fill gaps in its release calendar, enticing fans to return to their favorite games from the Switch 1. Those upgrades usually enhance graphical fidelity or add some new bells and whistles, like the Zelda Notes feature added to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The upgrade for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Meetup at Bellabel Park, is pricier than some other Switch 2 upgrades, but its novelty comes from transforming Mario Wonder into an almost completely different game. And that new game is a well-made party experience, even if it may not be exactly what Mario Wonder fans are looking for. Bellabel Park is almost entirely focused on its multiplayer component, which is admittedly a strange turn for a game and series so known for its single-player platforming prowess. That isn't to say that there's no regular single-player content whatsoever, though. The story of Bellabel Park, such as it is, involves a new area of the map: the eponymous park that houses special Bellabel flowers. The Koopalings show up to steal the flowers, so Captain Toad and the Poplins agree to scour the world map for them. You'll find a new brigade tent belonging to a Poplin scout in each world, which leads you to one of the Koopalings. If you're making your way through Mario Wonder for the first time, this will be a neat little throughline that you encounter occasionally, but if you've already finished the game, you can easily just jump into the series of boss-fight stages. This time the Koopalings are enhanced by the Wonder Flower, so each one reimagines the Koopa kids with some fantastical effect. Wendy turns into a bulbous Cheep-Cheep-like fish, while Morton becomes a massive marionette puppet. You have to traverse a stage being terrorized by their special effects before confronting them as bosses, and it's fun how these classic baddies--who, let's be honest, haven't gotten much to do lately--are recontextualized with wild, stage-changing effects. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsMar 25

World of Warcraft: Midnight ReviewEnthralling zones and a satisfying endgame loop.

IGN PC ReviewsMar 23