IGN Game Reviews – Spoken Edition

When we first reviewed Red Faction: Guerrilla in 2009, we gave it an 8.0, for Great. Here’s what we said about it back then: If all you care about is blasting things to pieces, you're going to love Red Faction: Guerrilla.

A wise man once said, “In the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, there is only war.” Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War attempts to create a Civilization-like 4X game against that backdrop, but can’t seem to get away from the fact that war is really all there is to do in the 40K universe. Luckily, it does war pretty well.

I didn’t expect much from Pokemon Quest when I first started playing it. This mobile spin-off has an adorable art style, but it seemed overwhelmingly simple on the surface. However, as I spent more time cultivating cubular Pokemon, Pokemon Quest’s infectious and astonishingly deep Pokemon customization compulsively hooked me -- but maybe not in the most fun way.

Donkey Kong Adventure is a full-fledged new world for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle that puts an ape-flavored twist on its bouncy and colorful turn-based tactical gameplay. It gives up some flexibility to focus its levels so heavily on Donkey Kong's new powers, but in doing so it makes its battles more interesting than just more of the same. I'm not going to try to explain the absurdist story that brings Beep-O and Rabbid Peach to Donkey Kong's world to battle a beefed-up Rabbid Kong.

Update 2: Inside is now available for Nintendo Switch. We played it and compared it side-by-side with the Xbox One version and noticed no discernibledifferences in draw distance, image quality, framerate, or even the initial loading time. In short, it remains the same 10/10 game we originally reviewed it as, and we could not recommend it more. Update: Inside has been nominated forIGN's 2016 Game of the Year.

All in all, Call of Duty: WW2’s United Front DLC feels experimental and exciting in some ways, while safer and dull in others. The changes to the Zombies mode dramatically shake up the formula and make it a high point worth visiting, but otherwise, the mostly underwhelming new maps aren’t breaking any new ground. When I first played Call of Duty: WW2 at release, it felt like a bizarre omission to not visit Stalingrad as a multiplayer destination.

When we first reviewed Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus we gave it a 9.1 for Amazing. Here’s what we said about it then: “Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a fantastic single-player shooter, but what really got me invested was the brilliantly written characters and the performances of its cast. BJ and his crew are full of spirit and personality, and General Engel is as memorable a nemesis as you’re likely to find in games.

In a lot of ways, The Crew 2 feels more like a reboot of the first game than it does a simple sequel. The dramatic shift in tone is perhaps the key reason for this, though the fact that it’s taken a second swing at recreating the entire continental USA for the setting is another. I welcome the lighter approach to the campaign mode and the fun mix of new vehicle types and racing disciplines here, but it’s still a little rough around the edges and missing some surprising features.

I’ve been dumped in the middle of a foreboding, eerily quiet wilderness – like you typically are in open-world first-person survival games. As I make my way to the nearest coast, I’m startled out of my foraging by a bestial grunt and prepare to defend myself. But the hunched and disheveled creature pursuing me stops several yards short of tearing my face off… and waits to see what I do.

In many ways, Warmind succeeds in bringing back the mystery of Destiny 2’s universe. There are plenty of secrets to uncover, new paths of progression to enjoy in both PVP and PVE, and there’s even a short campaign with intriguing lore sprinkled in if you’re looking for some story. However, each of these positives fails to address smaller issues Destiny 2 has been facing for some time.

Once the glamor of Destiny 2: Warmind’s short but well-told story campaign wears off returning to the power level grind feels less fulfilling than ever before. While there’s a lot more power to chase this means you won’t be accessing a decent chunk of the content in the immediate future.

Robert E. Howard’s Conan universe was an unforgiving place filled with dangers around every corner. Conan Exiles lives up to that reputation. It’s not just the other players and NPCs in the world that make this survival game rough; it’s the wolves and giants and other terrors stalking the deserts and forests around you. And even if you manage to survive all that, a sandstorm or the brutal northern cold might lay you low.

By spreading its sails and taking the journey to a creative and interesting setting, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire finds fertile ground for interesting and nuanced roleplaying stories. The main storyline is its biggest weakness, but Deadfire comes into its own by drawing you into the surrounding saga of its embattled islands and the distinct peoples fighting over them. This island chain offers no shortage of fantastic tactical battles, fascinating allies, and exotic places to explore.

Killing Floor: Incursion is a VR shooter that understands a universal truth of human nature: when you read the words “in case of emergency, break glass,” you immediately feel the urge to break that glass.

Some of Total War’s best campaigns over the years, such as Caesar in Gaul from Rome 2 or the Kingdoms expansion for Medieval 2, have been narrowly focused on a specific place and time. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is successful for some of the same reasons those were. When I really dug into it though, what I found was a bit of a showboat. It has a lot of cool, new ideas but slips up on the fundamentals in ways that keep those ideas from effectively coming together into a great whole.