Metroid Dread review – prime Metroid

The first proper new Metroid game in over a decade celebrates the series’ 35th anniversary and the return of one of Nintendo’s greatest heroes. As far as some fans are concerned Samus Aran is, along with Link and Mario, the third pillar in Nintendo’s trinity of foundational classics. The Metroid games she stars in are […]

Eastward review – Zelda meets EarthBound

A new indie game tries to combine two of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises, using some of the best 2D graphics ever seen. Back in the mid-90s, at the start of the PlayStation era, it seemed like 2D graphics would quickly become obsolete, a forgotten evolutionary step on the road towards photorealistic visuals. And for a […]

Crown Trick review – random roguelike generator

GameCentral reviews the latest indie roguelike from Team17 and a game whose basic principles date back over four decades. Roguelikes are so called because of Rogue, an ancient 1980 Unix-based dungeon crawler that had procedurally generated levels and permadeath, making each run a unique and precarious experience. Classics of the genre, like FTL: Faster Than […]

Madden NFL 22 review – so many bugs, so little depth

GameCentral reviews EA’s first new sports sequel of the year and finds a game weighted down by the success of Ultimate Team. The Madden series, like many annually released sports sims, has issues. How do you refresh a franchise that has run for decades? How do you innovate when fundamental problems remain? Fans expect a […]

Splitgate is the best Halo game since Halo: Reach

Splitgate, the new in-beta free-to-play arena shooter from 1047 Games, is what would happen if you stuck Halo 3 and Portal in a blender. The result is a game where no single mechanic feels completely unique, but they all mix together into a fantastic multiplayer offering, and a much-needed update for a very tired genre. […]

Quake Remastered review – 25 years of fragging greatness

One of the most influential first person shooters of all time is celebrating its quarter century, with a remastered definitive edition. When Quake first came out in 1996 it redefined first person shooters as we now know them today. It wasn’t the first of its kind – although developer id Software also made that, in […]

Psychonauts 2 review – playing with your mind

The cult classic PS2 platformer finally gets a modern sequel and it’s even more bizarre and imaginative than the original. No one person or company can be good at everything and even when it seems like that might be the case it’s usually only because they’re working in a very narrow field. Developers like Naughty […]