While the Mortal Kombat games have always favored those who’d prefer to fight with friends, there are many fans of this fighting game series who’d rather to go it alone. It is for this latter group — of which I am a proud member — that I present the following review of Mortal Kombat 11 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Switch) as a single-player game.
Three years ago, at a press event for The Division, the game’s Creative Director Magnus Jansen assured me that while the shooter had been built for co-op, it could be played solo as well. And while he was right, they certainly didn’t make it easy. But while the same is true for The Division 2 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), certain changes make this otherwise impressive sequel even less friendly (and thus less fun) for those who don’t play well with others.
If there’s one thing that an action game needs, it’s, well, action. But while that may be an obvious thing to say about a game like Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), it’s clearly not obvious enough, if the occasional lack of it in this game is any indication.
Unlike most of the stories inspired by the Halo video games, understanding Kelly Gay’s novella Halo: Smoke And Shadow doesn’t require you to have played Halo 5: Guardians et al. to completion. Now Gay is continuing where her novella left off with the novel Halo: Renegades (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Gay discusses what inspired this story and how it connects to the Halo cannon (and not just the games, either).
Like all good games, the post-apocalyptic shooters in the Metro series have evolved with each iteration. But while Metro Exodus (Xbox One, Limited Edition Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Limited Edition PlayStation 4, PC) does so in some interesting (though not unexpected) ways, some of the new aspects of this sci-fi first-person shooter don’t work as well here as they do in other games.
With Rage 2 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) only a few months away (May 14th, for those keeping score at home), the good people at Bethesda Softworks recently held an event at a loft in downtown Los Angeles where they gave game journalists a chance to play a bit of this open world first-person shooter. What follows are my impression of this game.
Suffice it to say, spoilers follow.
Released in 1998, the original Resident Evil 2 was, at the time, one of the better survival horror games ever made. But times change, and if 2015’s faithful remake of Resident Evil is any indication, the original Resident Evil 2 wouldn’t hold up today. Thankfully, the good people at Capcom have gone a different route with this new edition of Resident Evil 2 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), which not only boasts modern-style controls, but reworks other aspects to make this feel like…well, not a whole new game, but certainly a revived one.
It’s funny, 2018 wasn’t an especially great year for video games — not the games I like to play, anyway — but it also wasn’t an especially great year for terrible video games. Most of the bad games I played this year were more disappointing than outright disasters.
Regardless, here — in no particular order — are the worst video games I played in 2018.
While 2018 wasn’t an especially great year for video games, there were a bunch that I had a lot of fun playing.
Here, in no particular order, are the best games I played in 2018.