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Books Video Games

Exclusive Interview: “Tom Clancy’s The Division: Recruited” Author Thomas Parrott

 

While the third game is just a rumor at this point, fans of the shooters The Division and The Division 2 still have a lot to look forward to. Not only will there soon be a spin-off game called Heartland, but there’s also a movie in the works, with Jessica Chastain [Zero Dark Thirty] and Jake Gyllenhaal [Spider-Man: Far From Home] slated to take direction from Rawson Marshall Thurber [Skyscraper]. But first, fans can enjoy a suburban vacation (of sorts) with Tom Clancy’s The Division: Recruited (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), a new novel from writer Thomas Parrott. In the following email interview, Parrot discusses how he came to write this survival thriller, what inspired it, and why he balked when I referred to the games as “post-apocalyptic sci-fi shooters.”

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iOS PC Reviews Video Games

“Puzzle Quest 3” Review

 

Here’s a little tip for you: If you ever see a review of a mobile game on this site, it’s safe to assume one of two things: it’s either a lot of fun or so terrible that I feel a moral obligation to warn everyone not to get it, even if it’s free. Thankfully, the free-to-play, fantasy-themed match-3 puzzle game Puzzle Quest 3 (iOS, Android, PC) is decidedly in the former category.

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PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games

“Horizon Forbidden West” Review

 

On the Saturday I started playing Horizon Forbidden West (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4) for this review, I was expecting a package from Barnes & Noble. So I decided I would start the game, but then take a quick break after 10 minutes to see if the mail had arrived.

Except that when I did take that break, it wasn’t 10 minutes that had past, or even 15, it was well over an hour. It was then that I realized what I had both suspected and hoped about this third-person action / adventure game: it was as effortlessly fun as its predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn.

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PC PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games

“Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection” Review

 

It goes without saying that if you’ve already played a relatively new game on a previous generation system, or still own it, there’s no reason to buy the new version on a newer system unless there’s something new or improved about it (I’m looking at you, Metro Redux, and your thankfully revamped controls). Especially given how the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are both backwards compatible. Which is why, if you’ve played or still have Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy you don’t need the Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection (PlayStation 5, PC), which brings those third-person action / adventure games to Sony’s new system and PCs.

If you haven’t played them, though, Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection is both a good time and a good value.

Well, assuming you’ve already played 2007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, 2009’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and 2011’s Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (all of which are available in the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection). Given how Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End brought this series to a satisfying conclusion, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was an engaging side story / post-script, neither should be your first time with this series.

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PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Switch Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

The Worst Video Games Of 2021

 

By any measure, 2021 was a terrible year. And while some games made it better — hence their inclusion on my Best Video Games Of 2021 list — there were also some that made it so much worse.

Here, in the order I suffered them, are my least favorite games of 2021.

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PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Switch Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

The Best Video Games Of 2021

 

While 2021 has been a terrible year, it was actually a pretty good one for games. Way better than the last couple, anyway.

Here, in the order I played them, are my favorite games of 2021.

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PC Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Halo Infinite” Single-Player Review

 

Thanks to its multiplayer mode being free, and super good, it’s easy to forget that Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) also has a single-player campaign. That is, unless you’re one of the people who prefer to play these games solo, and with its epic sci-fi space opera story driving the action. It’s for them — by which I mean us — that I present this assessment of Halo Infinite‘s story driven campaign.

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Books Video Games Xbox 360 Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

Exclusive Interview: “Gears Of War: Ephyra Rising” Author Michael A. Stackpole

 

Having explored the time before the first game (Karen Traviss’ Aspho Fields and The Slab), the time between the second and third (Traviss’ Jacinto’s Remnant, Anvil Gate, and Coalition’s End), after the fourth game (Jason M. Hough’s Ascendance), and both during the fifth and before the first (Hough’s Bloodlines), the novels based on the Gears Of War games are now mining the previously untapped era between the third and fourth games with Michael A. Stackpole’s military science fiction novel Gears Of War: Ephyra Rising (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Stackpole discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why you don’t need to have played all of the Gears games, or any of them, to understand it.

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PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Call Of Duty: Vanguard” Review

 

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: I love shooting Nazis in the face from the first-person perspective. And with all the shit going on in the world — people shouting “Jews will not replace us”; people wearing sweatshirts with Nazi symbols to keep warm while committing treason — my trigger finger is especially itchy these days. Thankfully, shooting Nazis is exactly what you get, and more, from the World War II first-person shooter Call Of Duty: Vanguard (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC). But what makes this installment really satisfying is how, across the board, the good people at Sledgehammer Games have added interesting new mechanics while keeping, and bringing back, what made this shooter series so great in the first place.

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