Galwayer

New year, same crap. Forget about playing 4 defs, forget about wildly stupid but heavily advertised "FC AI" - it is laughable, glitch-heavy gameplay again... Oh my, oh my... FC24 was far, very far from ideal but EA keeps crushing expectations in a truly horrendous way.

Oh my... Not sure where to start. Bugs aside, you get arcade crap-show of pressing "tackle" button and catching randomly successful interceptions and hugely inconsistent shots. While I generally like FUT and SBCs in particular this ping-pong hell of "gameplay" consistently getting harder to tolerate each year. If you want some "football" - please, I dare you, go to Konami's EAFootball weirdo. Even in its broken state it'll give you much more fun from a match. FC24? Avoid at all costs.

I do not touch non-game issues like glitchy anti-cheat or stuttering here and there. This year FIFA stays the same, do not lie to yourself. Visuals are a bit better, chemistry system is a bit different, there are minor revamps in different aspects but the core thing stayed the same: when you do anything besides the match itself - game is close to great but when match is started - even if you like it at first, gameplay will rise its ugly head later on. You'll see the same ping-pong, defensively helpless, mind-boggling decision making by the players, itchy animations, arcade-feeling speed (lol'd at those claiming FIFA is so slower and close to realistic this year)... It leaves you with the same filthy feeling of being robbed for 60 bucks. Yep, there are no good football alternatives this year but there are many great games around, direct your money there.

1. Defense is even more stupid than last year. Zero defensive awareness. 2. Long-range shots still not fixed and looking ridiculous. 3. Auto-blocking is still huge random. Graphics is very mediocre, no significant changes to main game modes. Avoid by all means.

Not fun. Quite unresponsive controls, very arguable defense balance which affords you to push to the basket via ankle-breaking only, no matter how bigger, faster and stronger vs defender your attacker is. Atrocious defensive movement of your players (autoplays help but to a certain extent), lock-down defense no longer auto-triggers obstacle to shooting player as in 2k18, now you MUST jump with him and it's irritating. On-ball defense is again worse than in previous titles. I do not cover myCareer as I'm interested in myLeague/myGM stuff only and while gameplay is disappointing this year - had to de-install after 10 games. Very upset, even this year's NHL is better.

Well, writing this with mixed feelings. Clear pros: - new GoW is visually impressive even at basic PS4; It's ultimately the most beautiful game at nextGen right now; - plot is quite OK, maybe it's not the strongest side of the game, but definitely not the weakest one. You do feel for Kratos and his son; - realms are nice and exploring every one of them is huge delight. Things which are ok, but far from perfect: - crafting system is basic and not very handy; - foes are designed in economy mode, like having just one finishing animation per enemy - looks unexpected for a project with such impressive production; - generally game brings no new ideas, you just have decent compilation of existing ones, some are polished, some are not. Simply speaking, it is nice ripe apple, but not the apple tree which will push the genre and inspire new projects/approaches. Things which disappointed me: - low number of villain types, killing the same kind of troll 10 times is a joke; - difficulty level does not influence villains behavior, which is a pity. Health and numbers boost is the only difference; - combat is VERY repetitive and tiring; - puzzles are... well... they are there but unimpressive and not very evident sometimes. So I think the best way to enjoy the game is to set easy/normal difficulty level and run through the story. If you want to enjoy combat - welcome back to e.g. Bloodborne (what I actually did).

NHL16 was quite OK, NHL17 felt not so good but it was nice to play a pair of matches online or in franchise mode. I try to do the same in NHL18 (franchise+online) and it is a disaster. This is what happens when you take NHL17 and make "improvements". Glitches, unresponsive controls, strange AI, broken penalties, freezy online play... Once in a week I try to return and play again, but well.. 5 min is max I can tolerate this game.

With a bunch of issues, but highly addictive. DLCs with two new warbands make it even better and the fact that developers still support it adds respect. Loads are faster and technically it is much better game now. If you are for single-play only - try trainer with extra gold option. It balances difficulty a bit down.

Not quite sure about the all the hype. Yes, myCareer is a bit better, you can tune League/GM modes in more variations etc. and it may be interesting. MyTeam got some new bells and whistles... So you can spend some time in the game for sure, exploring these modes. But ****. Post action has been broken since 2k16 and there are no improvements there. Defense behaves strange, points of emphasis are managed differently and less handy. Icing on the cake - 3s % which is ridiculously high. Patches may turn it all to the best but right now it's all far from perfect.