James Paley
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
Underwater exploration should be so cool. Who wouldn’t love drifting through the deep, scanning fish and solving mysteries? I so badly wanted to love Endless Ocean Luminous, and I simply could not. While the vibes are immaculate, the actual gameplay loop is a murderous grind with no relief in sight....
Adding DLC to a story as complete as FFXVI comes with some risks. Stories have their own momentum, after all. It can feel very weird to try and come back to a finished tale and sort of putter around. The apocalypse is in the skies, the mood is grim, and...
Spiritual successors are a tricky business. If you change too much, you lose that critical connection to the old game(s). But changing too little is equally risky. You don’t want it to feel like a re-hash, you know? Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is more than a JRPG. It’s a long,...
Sonic fans are generally split into two camps. The 3D fans are forever looking for the next Sonic Adventure game. Meanwhile, the 2D fans are just building new games in realms that Sega has long abandoned. Freedom Planet 2 is one such title. Like the previous entry, this is a...
Strategy RPGs are not normally known for innovation. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with slowly building on an established formula. Plenty of franchises do an amazing job making tiny changes to winning ideas. This just means that unusual new games land with that much more impact. Unicorn Overlord feels...
Persona games tend to sneak up on me. Having played the original, I expected my time with Persona 3 Reload to be a bit of a chore. Instead, I’ve found myself charmed and compelled at every turn. There’s new content to explore, new visuals to take in, and new mechanics...
Life in the Han dynasty was apparently pretty brutal. At the very least, death was around every corner for its rulers. Such is the lesson imparted by Reigns: Three Kingdoms. But don’t worry! As far as brutal murders go, most of yours will be quick and painless. Sorry, I’m getting...
I’ve noticed a pattern with DLC as of late. If the release is divided into two parts, the first one will be pretty light fare. An appetizer, if you will. Echoes of The Fallen, the first part of Final Fantasy XVI’s DLC, is exactly that. You get a few new...
There’s an elegance to city builders that I appreciate. Your fledgling town is a puzzle with constantly moving pieces. Every new addition is an opportunity for something else to go wrong, forcing you on your toes at all times. Yet when things fall into place, it’s positively thrilling. SteamWorld Build...
Sometimes a game collection is a sobering reminder of how good we’ve got it now. I loved Jurassic Park when I was kid. Read the book, watched the movie, the whole nine yards. I even played one of these games back in the day. Running around with dinosaurs and shooting...
2D Mario games occupy a weird space in my brain. It’s important that they innovate, but not too much. Otherwise, they lose something ethereal that I can’t define. They’re tied to the past in a powerful way, so much so that they’re automatically nostalgic. There’s a tightrope act that each...
I know, objectively, that Pokémon games are for kids. The cute characters, the color schemes, the relatively simple combat mechanics. All designed to appeal to a broad audience and a wide age range. At the same time, Detective Pikachu Returns is especially for kids, you know? Something about the writing,...
