Karl Smart

“Terminator 2D: No Fate is a faithful recreation of the amazing movie that bears the same name. You get moments to play as Sarah, John, and the T-800, recreating some of the best moments from the film. However, a lack of longer or extra levels that could have added to the playtime of Terminator 2D: No Fate holds it back from being a true masterpiece.”

“Killing Floor 3 must be doing something right as the game series is well into it's third game, but I can't understand how a very generic horde-shooter can last this long. With under 2000 players on the game a couple of weeks after launch, it shows that people don't see much in this game anymore, which hurts it more than anything else. Killing Floor 3 is a good game at it's core, but without players, there is no appeal to a game that is made for online co-op play.”

“Squirrel with a Gun is one of those games which is a streamer's dream. A lot of references to other media can be found around every corner, there is a challenge in the level design, and the guns are a lot of fun. However, with no objective marker or quest log, you do spend far too much time wandering around looking for fun instead of having fun, some of the level designs become frustrating to have to do the same thing over and over in order to get to a single objective, only to fall off something and have to climb forever all over again.”

“Funko Fusion is much like the Pop Vinyl brand that it represents: A lot of brands on board with a lot of potential for fun to be had with the product, but ultimately most of the time this game will sit on a shelf gathering dust because of cheap production on the product and nothing much to do with it once it is out of the box.”

“World of Warcraft: The War Within gave us a promise of the best story that Chris Metzen has come up with that will draw back all the players who left because of the boredom of Shadowlands and Dragonflight, but ultimately under-delivers on that promise with a short story, a focus on anyone but the player, and changing bad gameplay mechanic names to hide repeated content.”

“Hypercharge: Unboxed is a game that is going to fall under its own greatness. The gameplay is solid and a lot of fun, but there is little left for the game once you have unlocked everything except to play for the sake of it. A lack of DLC plans from the developer/publisher means this great game is going to die under the weight of its own promise.”

“Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is a bare-bones collection featuring the early days of Jurassic Park games. While there are some minimal quality-of-life enhancements added to the overall product, it's the same we expect from all retro collections these days and does nothing to stand out like other offerings have. Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection is good for people who don't have the time or money to track down the consoles and games themselves and just want to play the games on modern hardware.”

“WrestleQuest does a good job of taking something that you wouldn't think would fit as an RPG game and makes it work. The world is amazing, the characters, and cameos are really going to invoke the golden era of Professional Wrestling. However, once you rip that nostalgia away you are left with a very bare-bones RPG experience that gets boring very quickly.”

“World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic is one of those games that is held back by two things: The community, which has become so toxic that it cannot be saved, and a company that only listens to its Top 1% of the player base (Streamers and hardcore raiders). Wrath Classic could have been the game that returned World of Warcraft back to its glory days, but listening to the wrong people, has doomed the franchise back into its darkest days, ruining one of the best experiences with it.”

“The King of Fighters '98 is one of those games that will always be remembered for being the best of the series, and The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Final Edition continues to show why that is so while adding some modern networking improvements to make sure that it will be played online by the hardcore player base for a long time to come.”

“Final Fantasy XIV Online: Heavensward & Final Fantasy XIV Online: Stormblood are prime examples of how you should follow up a great opening chapter in a multi-game game like Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. The time spent with Final Fantasy XIV Online now feels like it is really getting somewhere instead of just one long introduction. While Final Fantasy XIV Online: Stormblood doesn't quite balance the leveling experience with the story questline, everything comes together as an overall amazing experience leading into Final Fantasy XIV Online: Shadowbringers.”

“World of Warcraft: Shadowlands shows that the whole World of Warcraft game is really showing it's age, not to mention that since losing a lot of their key development people from the Blizzard side like Chris Kaleiki and many others, leading to this being a more "by the metrics" Activision based game experience than what Blizzard is renowned for. For a lot of people, the heart and soul of World of Warcraft is dead at this stage, but since it is still early days, future patches and content additions can revive the game into a playable state for those who are still addicted to the game after over 16 years… But only time will tell at this stage.”

“Money aside, Street Fighter V: Championship Edition doesn’t do much to fix a long list of problems that the fighting game community has pointed out about this game since the beginning and doesn’t look like they’ll do anything about it either. Long term fans will know to avoid this like the plague, diehards would have all of the content already at triple the price, and newcomers are smart for waiting out to buy this game cheap.”

“Challenging puzzles framed with one of the most recognizable serial killers in film history mixed with cute graphics would be a weird mix, but it works. Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle is a great experience that makes you want to give it one more go to get that sweet kill instead of turning you away in frustration when you miss that final character.”

“Pure Farming 2018 is a "as the box describes" experience. If you love farming, or want to learn about farming, then Pure Farming 2018 is going to be perfect for you. Heck, if you want an afternoon of doing next to nothing, then this also works for you. But unless you have the passion for farming, it's hard to recommend Pure Farming 2018 as a video game.”

“Saban's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Mega Battle is a cheap cash in and the price reflects it. However the game is so bad that it's not worth buying. My recommendation is wait for it to hit one of those PS+ or Games with Gold free game deals and then maybe think about it.”

“Dragon Ball Fusions is a wish forfilment to some degree. While it gives us the concept of being able to fuse any character we want, the rest of the game doesn't live up to that one mechanic. Personally I blame the release of it on the Nintendo 3DS as it limited the other aspects of the game in order to pull off the main mechanic. The game is still fun to play, if not easy to abuse. Dragon Ball Fusions is a game that is going to cater to the casual Dragon Ball fan and the hardcore alike, but the hardcores might not like the overall package once the thrill of fan service wears off.”

“Perfection in remastering. Batman: Return to Arkham is something that I was hoping for since they announced Batman: Arkham Knight on the PS4. I wanted to go back to the beginning of the series without having to go back to finding my PS3 and setting it up. It's good to see that instead of going the cheap code upgrade route that a lot of PS3 remasters have gone through (I'm looking at you Resident Evil), Rocksteady decided to take the care to get the game engine upgraded and used to its potential. This is right up there with Bioshock: The Collection in terms of how to do a remastered game for this generation.”