James Paley
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
PGA Tour 2K21
As a sim golf acolyte, I picked a great time to get into the genre. PGA Tour 2K25 is slick, seamless, and pretty compelling. You’ve got a bunch of ways to play, and an endless amount of mechanical customization to mess with. If you want a particular kind of match,...
PGA Tour 2K25
As a sim golf acolyte, I picked a great time to get into the genre. PGA Tour 2K25 is slick, seamless, and pretty compelling. You’ve got a bunch of ways to play, and an endless amount of mechanical customization to mess with. If you want a particular kind of match,...
Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is tough to recommend. This is a deep, difficult strategy RPG with a long campaign, tons of characters, and satisfying mechanics. Unless you’re coming here from the Disgaea series. Then it’s a shallow imitation of a superior franchise with an even more inconsequential storyline. On...
Though I did have a couple of grievances, this game was a lot of fun. My stress levels went way down once I stopped trying to 100% every stage. The boss fights are all clever, the controls allow for precise maneuvers, and the visuals are nice and crisp. It took...
The bottom line? The Great Circle is an excellent time. The voice acting is great, the action is breezy and fast, and the whole game is quite beautiful. Plus the story has some serious hooks. Indiana Jones is all about globetrotting adventures, punching nazis, and solving gigantic mysteries. This game...
Make no mistake, this is definitely the superior version of Dragon Quest III. The modern mechanics and slick visuals strike that balance between retro and modern sensibilities. Combat is as easy or as difficult as you need it to be. I wish the auto-battle system was less powerful, but it’s...
This game suffers when subjected to a reviewer’s brutal pacing. Maybe if I hadn’t been racing towards the finish line, the endless tiny loading screens wouldn’t have bothered me as much. I was also forced to discard a lot of the side content. It’s not super compelling stuff, but the...
Shadow Generations feels like a sequel. This is a pretty neat trick for an add-on bundled with a remaster. The controls are better, the graphics are crisp, and the level design is great. While the Sonic section looks awesome, it still feels like the original release. Which is normally fine...
The cool thing about story-driven games is that your story can be about literally anything, if done right. Apartment Story is a tiny narrative in a cramped space that feels much bigger. This is a simple concept fleshed out and made richer, more engaging, and more rewarding. It turns out...
Killing zombies is pretty fun, it turns out. It’s so fun, in fact, that there’s a whole genre of games dedicated to the activity. Dead Rising is one of the genre’s best, a glorious romp through fields of bloody carnage. The Deluxe Remaster has amazing new visuals and upgraded controls,...
Star Wars games are great, but they tend to tread pretty familiar ground. You get a lot of Jedi, space battles, and non-space battles. Star Wars Outlaws tries something a little different. And it works! Finally, a glimpse into the massive criminal underworld. On the other hand, if you don’t...
Worldbuilding is pretty important when making games. A rich world full of cool characters and adorable wildlife goes a long way towards a good game. On the other hand, worldbuilding only gets you so far. At least for me, the core gameplay loop has to be equally engaging. Creatures of...
