NHL 23 Review

“By including full IIHF women’s team and tournaments, not just custom players, NHL 23 makes hockey video game history, even if NHL is the only option on the market these days. In the microtransaction-based Ultimate Team, EA’s clearly profitable card-trading team-building mode, those women from IIHF teams make their first appearance. Surely destined to spark nonsense conversations about inter-gender hockey, the move is the right one to go along with Canada’s Sarah Nurse co-cover star debut.”

Read my full NHL 23 review on IGN

MLB The Show 22 Review

“If there’s a singular presentation tweak worthy of discussion, it’s Matt Vasgersian’s retirement from the virtual commentary booth. He’s called The Show since 2006, and while undeniably routine and stale in recent years, Vasgersian became the series’ voice. Replacing him is Cubs/ESPN regular John Sciambi. Despite the repetition (Sciambi doesn’t have 15+ years of calls recorded) and occasional inaccuracy, he handles the material convincingly. It’s a worthy performance alongside color man Chris Singleton, and together, there’s a baseline to build on.”

Read my full MLB The Show 22 review on GamesRadar

King of Fighters XV Review

“SNK has built a branded fighting game universe, for better or for worse. The boldness with which KOF XV descends into unintelligible anime nonsense is almost admirable. What was once about overthrowing corrupt organizers like Geese Howard has become an exercise in absurdist fantasy. Alternate dimensions rip open, and a sold-out crowd watching the finale still thinks they’re somehow safe being near this tournament location.”

Read my full KOF XV review on Inverse

The Division 2 Review

“Division 2” is the worst of ‘stand your ground’ laws and ‘good guy with a gun’ beliefs. Enemies wander the streets, guns outstretched sideways as they blindly fire like Hollywood’s abysmal thug stereotypes. There’s no narrative context for their actions, or why all of them willingly die for their cause – or what their cause actually is. They just hate innocents. That makes them easy villains to conservative eyes. They’re bad guys, the lot of them, and that’s all anyone needs to know. “The Division 2” may as well be Carlson’s primetime lead.”

Read my full review of The Division 2 at Variety

NBA 2K18 Review

“There’s an authenticity in rotating courtside banners and between-play chatter by the announcers, changing as the year moves on with new sponsors cycling in. The insistence on using Virtual Currency (VC) for everything compounds the issue, though. NBA 2K18 wants you to drink Gatorade, but it’s also interested in getting you to spend more real money in the game.”

Read my full review of NBA 2K18 at Polygon

NHL 18 Review

“EA’s NHL remains the best of the publisher’s sports franchises in terms of its simulation, even as its slow pace of growth becomes increasingly hard to ignore. FIFA’s authenticity fluctuates, Madden plays safe, and NBA Live comes and goes. NHL stays consistent. Frustrating as off-the-puck AI can be (players too frequently seem blind when the puck is loose), in motion, it’s hockey bliss. It’s also apparent that a lack of updates and changes year-over-year is beginning to stagnate things.”

Read my full review of NHL 18 at Polygon

Yonder Review

“Yonder comes from Australian studio Prideful Sloth games. For the developer of Yonder, there’s no better name to represent their output. Yonder won’t pressure anyone when wandering the landscapes of Gemea. Without leveling, without health, without time restrictions, everything you do is free of confinement. Yonder is, plainly, a game of almost nothing where you need do nothing.”

Read my full review of Yonder at Polygon.

The Division (PS4) Review

“A vocal computer AI calls out bad people as targets. Markers aim predominantly at people in hoodies, UbiSoft socially blind to the real world stigmas they’re perpetuating. Then they make The Division’s government-led vigilantes equally villainous. Men in hoodies are killed for looting dead bodies; Division members loot their victim’s corpses. No one comments on the ethical paradox.”

Read my full review of The Division at Review ‘Em All

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PS4) Review

“Garden Warfare’s sequel is $60, runs on the technical background of EA’s multi-million dollar Battlefield series, needs a $300 console or super charged gaming PC, and has no tutorial. After five hours of play, it’s still unclear what Garden Warfare 2’s stars are for. Being connected online for a thin solo campaign, you cannot pause – you play when EA says you can. You can’t play on your bathroom break because you’re not allowed a bathroom break.

This is PopCap’s output now.”

Read my full Garden Warfare 2 review at Review ‘Em All

Deadpool Review

“Marketing and fourth wall breaking are arguably too meta. An audience paying to rebel against nay-saying corporate figureheads by seeing Deadpool – “the movie the studio didn’t want to make” or some such nonsense –  are simultaneously paying a salary. Involving lesser X-Men mutants only furthers the agenda. Never mind that jokes about throwing away cash on prior Reynolds superhero failures are totally okay; we’re all supposed to laugh at ourselves for expecting better.”

Read my full review of Deadpool at DoBlu