Milestone is delivering the full 2025 rosters of the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP, and they will have their real numbers and are even so keen on the details that they will swap the numbers for 1's should you win the Championship. It's rare these days to see a company put such an amazing effort into developing this game to a level unheard of before. They could have taken the easy route and just rehashed the same old game and added a few minor tweaks, but they didn't. Take a bow Milestone, for you have made the undisputed king of motorcycle racing simulation with this latest release of MotoGP 25.
Having taken a year off and changing its name, I was hoping Monster Energy Supercross 25 was going to be a drastic improvement. Sure it’s better in some aspects with the new engine, but it just feels like the same game once again. If I didn’t know what year of the game I was playing, I wouldn’t be able to tell you without looking. If you’ve skipped the last game or two, then it’s a worthwhile upgrade, as well if you’re a superfan of the sport, but for casual fans or those that buy it every year, it just feels like another lap.
While I enjoyed Parkitect, it’s not something I can see myself investing substantial amounts of time in. It’s easy enough to pick up and play for small amounts of time, and that is enjoyable. There just isn’t enough content to really keep me interested for long. That also falls into the statement made at the beginning of this review about me not being highly creative as well.
All in all though, I’ve really enjoyed my time with The Talos Principle: Reawakened. The puzzle mechanics are smartly designed and put to use in some truly ingenious scenarios that test our logic and ability to plan ahead and think outside the box. The new chapter is a worthy challenge for returning players, and bundling that in with the base game and DLC is pretty damn good value.
While visual novels don’t vary all too much outside of their stories, Destino Indomable’s unique telenovela show backdrop and unscripted scenes actually makes a lot of sense and is quite clever. While the lack of voice acting was a letdown, the over-the-top drama and slaps more than made up for it, and made for a memorable few hours with a dramatic Latin soap opera full of slaps.
There’s always some design decisions that have to be made when balancing fun gameplay versus pure realism. When simulator is in the name though, you generally expect it to be as realistic as possible, regardless of how mundane or tedious certain aspects may be, as simulating said job is the goal. Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator gives an insight into the life of a paramedic, but there’s certainly a lot of design choices that were made for ‘gameplay’ over realism.
I will admit, although I am a bit older than the characters in Lost Records, I am close enough to their ages that the friendships, environment, feelings and music all resonated with me. When the credits rolled on Tape 1, I didn’t just like Lost Records, I loved it. It was a tale of friendship, adventure and testing the depths of ‘best friends forever’. If Don’t Nod can follow this up equally with Tape 2 on April 15th, this might take first place for me in the series and give me the same feeling I first had when I first played Life is Strange back in 2015.
The first one was groundbreaking and while maybe not perfect, it couldn't have set the stage any better for the second installment. This was undeniably better than what came before, and the third entry only sealed the deal on where this is going. Now though? This feels like The Last Jedi kind of disappointment. Nothing really seems fresh and interesting, instead just reskinned missions that could have easily been DLC for Sniper Elite 5.
While it’s a short career at just a few hours, it’s certainly a memorable one. Techno Banter is filled with hilarious and clever writing that’s sure to illicit some laughs. It’s an odd premise but it works surprisingly well and is wildly weird in all the best ways.
Although Pets Hotel is cute, it’s lacking. It could have been so much more, but I think it falls again into the category of games ported to console that should have had some more care added to them before release. I knew from the start to take the gameplay with a grain of salt. I enjoyed taking care of the animals and the minimal management elements added a bit of interest, but there just isn’t enough here to captivate and keep me playing for a long period of time. While I might recommend this for younger gamers because it’s pretty simple, the clunky mechanics would be frustrating for them, I think.
