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Hands-on: Turns out Stadia is a pretty good way to play Cyberpunk 2077
If you don't have a high-end PC or next-gen console, Stadia's a fine way to go
Stadia's been able to secure precious few high-profile day-and-date multiplatform releases since its launch last November — Doom Eternal, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and not many others. This week, the service landed its biggest yet: the hotly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. It's an enormous and ambitious game that's already developed a reputation for running poorly on most hardware. But while Stadia definitely isn't the best way to experience the sci-fi epic, it turns out it's far from the worst.
Hands on with Immortals Fenyx Rising, a new open world RPG best played with the voiceover turned off
Ubisoft’s new IP is beautiful, fun, and completely overshadowed by its nonsensical narrators
Civilization VI is my new favorite Android game, despite its flaws
The full Civilization experience in your pocket
Not long ago, 2K Games and Aspyr Media released a full port of Civilization VI for Android. While it took over two years longer to arrive than the iOS port, it was definitely worth the wait. Not only is Civ VI for Android fully functional, it's a rare PC to smartphone port that really, really works. And it's now one of my favorite smartphone games.
Hands on with Crayta, an ambitious Stadia exclusive that will certainly die without a strong creator community
If you build it, they must come
Crayta, the latest exclusive title for Stadia, is perhaps the most ambitious project to hit Google's cloud gaming service since it launched in late 2019. Instead of being guided by a central storyline or rigid set of mechanics, Crayta is an “anything goes” online platform where players can both play and build their own unique games. Like any good multiplayer experience, Crayta needs a strong player base right out of the gate for it to succeed, a stake that's raised even higher amid this title's launch-day limitations. I've been playing Crayta for a full a week, and here are my thoughts.
Five months in, Stadia is, ever slowly, packing its library with more and more quality titles. With the release of Doom Eternal earlier this month, the platform hit a major milestone: its first major AAA game to launch day-and-date with PC and consoles. Should you be lacking the local hardware horsepower to bust demon skulls but you're reluctant to stream a game as notoriously fast-paced as Doom, I'm happy to report that, if your network is up to snuff, Eternal runs wonderfully on Google's cloud platform. It's also an intense and immensely gratifying experience.
The yearly E3 expo is always a major event for video games, but smartphone games are rarely showcased. Even Fortnite, one of the most popular smartphone games in existence at the moment, only had playable demos of the home console versions. Earlier this week, Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades for iPhone and Android, and it showed off the game to E3 attendees.
Fire Emblem and I go way back. I have played many of them, but the one I most fondly remember is Path of Radiance on the Gamecube (the one that introduced Ike). The series is known for its turn-based tactical gameplay with anime-styled characters and common JRPG story elements. Nintendo has done a good job at promoting the series throughout its lifetime, especially when it comes to the 3DS releases, and inspiring loyal fans to pick up the latest title. I am not ashamed to note that I am in that demographic. So when Fire Emblem Heroes was announced, you can bet that I got damn excited.
RollerCoaster Tycoon, originally created by the now-legendary developer Chris Sawyer, was released back in 1999 for Windows 95. The franchise has switched developers and publishers several times over its 17-year history, with seven published titles for PC, the Nintendo 3DS, and smartphones. The latest main entry in the series, RollerCoaster Tycoon World for PC, was a universally-disappointing game that was delayed several times in development.
Following a surprisingly fun couple of mobile titles, Deus Ex GO takes Square Enix's formula for adapting its popular AAA series to handheld devices and brings it to the delightful Deus Ex Universe. This turn-based “point-and-click” style board game shares precious little with its cyberpunk dystopian source material (which happens to be one of my favorite franchises). However, that is not to say it is a bad thing, as the fanboy in me screams to claim. It is actually a fun, rewarding, and decidedly challenging experience that fits in nicely with the Deus Ex library.
This War of Mine is not a fun game. But it isn't trying to be. While other "realistic" war games will hand you a rifle and tell you to take that beach, Private, in This War of Mine a few scraps of meat is a much more important tool for survival. You control three survivors living in a bombed-out house in the middle of an extremely non-specific war zone, trying to scrape together enough materials to craft their way through the war without starving or freezing.
It's close to a universal among those who are old enough that we all once owned a Nokia phone and played Snake. We didn't get those early cell phones to play games, but lo and behold, there was a simple and addicting game within. After many years, Snake's creator the man who brought Snake to mobile phones—Taneli Armanto—has teamed with Rumilus Design to revamp and re-release the classic with a little bit of modern flair. After their recent announcement, Armanto and Rumilus released the game to the Play Store yesterday. I've been testing it a bit longer than that and have enjoyed the way the creators stayed true to the original concept while still sprucing things up for a completely new era of mobile gaming.
The second mobile title based on The Witcher series of games has arrived on Android, and it's a bit more action-packed than the board game from a few months ago. The Witcher Battle Arena is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game based on The Witcher universe. It's free-to-play, but the developers say it's not "pay-to-win."
Gaming has come a long way over the past several years. What was considered "top notch" graphics not long ago is no longer impressive in the slightest, and each platform revision aims to bring faster, more realistic titles to the forefront of gaming.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, a wise old man once said, "let go your conscious self and act on instinct." Little did we know at the time Obi-wan was not just talking about using The Force, but about playing the game Duet. This title just came to Android as part of the Humble Mobile Bundle 6 last week, and a few days later it arrived in the Play Store. It has quite a reputation on iOS for being challenging and highly addictive. I set out to learn if those things were true.
Like a great many developers, Gameloft has resorted to rolling in-app purchases into most of its games. One notable exception to that de facto rule is the new installment of the Modern Combat series. These games have much more production value than any other mobile first-person shooter, but this is a genre that's notoriously hard to adapt to touchscreens. So, can a big production budget make Modern Combat 5: Blackout worth your time?
Being completely covered in blue (or greenish blue, whatever) fur is not enough for Leo, the protagonist fluffball in Leo's Fortune – he also has a stylish mustache. Leo was a well-off ball of fuzz when suddenly bam. All his gold was stolen. The thief made one mistake, though. A trail of coins could lead Leo to his fortune, but only if you can navigate this lush world brimming with danger.
The Hitman games have been a staple of third-person stealth action for years. I still remember playing the original on PC many moons ago and being absolutely floored at the detail-oriented gameplay – you had to actually hide unconscious bodies to avoid raising the alarm and disguises only worked so well. Gaming as a whole has advanced considerably since then, but Hitman GO is an attempt to distill that stealthy combat experience into a clean and easy to play package for mobile devices. So, will it strangle your free time?
Monument Valley came to Android a week ago after attracting roughly a million downloads on iOS in the one month since its release. That's no small number, but it doesn't take much time with the game to understand why (a good thing, considering just how little time you're going to spend playing it). Monument Valley has been put together pixel by pixel, with the game offering no more nor less than it needs to provide an absolutely captivating experience.
Portal was released nearly seven years ago as part of the Valve Orange Box, which also included a few other games. Seven years is an eternity on the internet, but the excitement was still palpable when Nvidia announced it was working on a version of Portal for the Shield. Now here we are just a weeks later and the game is about to hit the Play Store. The questions we have to ask are... has Nvidia done the original game justice, and how does Portal hold up after so long?