PC Game Reviews

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Our detailed reviews help you make informed decisions about your next PC game purchase. We provide a thorough analysis of gameplay, graphics, story, and more.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 ReviewTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 proves yet again the series’ over-the-top skateboarding formula is totally timeless, even if some of the changes to THPS4 miss the mark and the soundtrack has been fumbled.

IGN PC ArticlesJul 7

Review: Umamusume: Pretty Derby on Steam Makes the Game Even Better After years of waiting , Cygames has finally localized Umamusume: Pretty Derby for an English audience and ported it onto Steam. With an updated UI that makes playing in full screen a comfortable experience, it feels like the ideal way to experience the world of umamusume racing. Umamusume: Pretty Derby takes place in a world where horses don't exist. Instead, we have umamusume, horse girls who take on the names and legacies of real life race horses. Stronger and faster than the average human, these umamusume love racing and running, and the various story modes revolve around these races, which are also based on real life racing seasons. There’s no main story, per se. Rather, there are story arcs that focus on an umamusume or group. For example, the first story revolves around Mejiro McQueen, whereas the second one’s about Rice Shower. Screenshot by Siliconera The meat of the game centers on raising your umamusume in Career Mode, and then setting her either on your team for daily races, PVP, and events. Career Mode’s story focuses on you, a Trainer at the highly competitive Tracen Academy, helping your trainee through their three years at school. Each career takes three in-game years (72 turns), with set goals that differ between each umamusume. Some want to reach a certain number of fans within a time limit, while others have goals tied to specific races. The thing about Umamususume: Pretty Derby is that it's a game that hinges on luck. Even if you’ve gathered the best support cards and sparks for your particular girl, RNG can really mess you up. One unsuccessful training session, even if it had a low failure rate, can set you back three whole turns to restore your umamusume to full health. Not doing so can cost a race, which can then snowball into a failed career. The unpredictability of Career Mode is frustrating, admittedly. However, I don’t really mind it as much as I might have before. The newest scenario on the Japanese server makes it so ridiculously easy to raise everybody that it’s nice to actually put in the work again. Screenshot by Siliconera Unless you’ve played it yourself or seen clips of it, it can be hard to understand the appeal of Umamusume . “Horse girls based on real life race horses race and then perform a concert afterwards” sounds pretty nuts. If you enjoy sports manga, you'll probably enjoy the stories, as they’re very focused on themes of hard work, friendship, and such. The horse races are very exciting to watch, too. Everything—from the sound design, cinematography, and sheer adrenaline of watching your girl dart past her rivals to get to the finish line first—really pulls you in. Like with Granblue Fantasy , the in-house localization team did fantastic with Umamusume: Pretty Derby . It’s a good mix of localization and translation that makes for a comfortable reading experience. I’m also a huge fan of how the Steam version splits up the screen compared to the DMM version. It's actually full screen, and it's easy to reference information like the log or my support deck. The one thing I'm on the fence about is the accelerated schedule. On one hand, it'll be nice to get umamusume that the Japanese server has had for years instead of having to wait for their debut. On the other, we don't have as much time to save between banners compared to when the Asian servers launched these characters or support cards. The positive about this, though, is that the concept of "limited characters" doesn't really exist in Umamusume: Pretty Derby . I pulled the New Year Kitasan Black during summer, for example. Even if a banner comes and goes, you still have a chance (albeit a lower one) to get who you want. So there's no FOMO or anything like that. You can jump in at any time and not lament about missing a limited character you wanted. Screenshot by Siliconera Umamusume: Pretty Derby has been blowing up on social media lately, so people who didn’t know about it before might have seen what the gameplay is like through screenshots or videos. The heavy RNG and long career mode might be a turn-off for some, but I still urge people to try it out, especially while we’re still receiving daily log-in bonuses for the global launch. It’s definitely a game you have to experience to understand what all the hype is about. Umamusume: Pretty Derby is readily available on the Windows PC and mobile devices. The post Review: Umamusume: Pretty Derby on Steam Makes the Game Even Better appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraJul 7

Review: Nova Hearts Romance Interrupted by Tedious Fights Nova Hearts is such a fun idea for a game. Superheroes! Love! Feeling like you’re getting to be Sailor Moon finding your Tuxedo Mask! The problem is that while the visual novel mechanics well and it can sometimes be funny, the actual romance isn’t all that great and the turn-based RPG-style battles are the absolute worst. It’s such that I found myself wishing it was a more straightforward VN with no combat and maybe even no romance due to how awkward some relationship elements turn out. Luce is back in her hometown of Vermillion after terrible experiences at college. A situation happened regarding performance in a class, nothing went as she hoped, and she’s in recovery mode at her mom’s. Except she doesn’t really get a chance. Her childhood friend Will and CJ, who they went to school with as kids, stop by and she’s soon headed to a party planned and executed by the guy behind her first kiss, Sasha. Except while there, strange monsters appear. Luce and CJ transform into super sentai, discover after the fact that Will possesses the same powers, and decide to protect the town as Luck, Chaos, and Wish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk6aTohHUb8 In general, I really appreciate the execution in Nova Hearts. The story is told through visual novel-style cutscenes and moments in which Luce is in her room texting people on her phone. Relationships develop as a result of responses, with an astrology app letting you see if you’re close to being friends or possible lovers with other individuals. Sometimes, these segments can be quite clever! The weird thing is that the narrative and characterizations in Nova Hearts are at their most awkward and worst whenever romance is involved. Rather than actually getting to know people and see relationships develop naturally through conversations, such as in some life sim s, JRPGs , and Japanese-made otome games , the execution here makes me feel like Lightbulb Crew is in a rush to immediately make things happen. Before you even get to know a person, you can essentially have Luce leering and awkwardly hitting on people. Sometimes the dialogue selections for them come across as such a cringe pickup line that I actually avoided making that choice in-game because it felt inappropriate to say to someone I’d just met. (This happens with Basile, as an example.) Screenshots by Siliconera I felt like it got in the way of the plot too. Yes, we know going into it that Nova Hearts will feature dating sim elements and an opportunity to romance characters. But instead of that coming up as a complement to a story exploring what’s happening in Vermillion, why Luce, CJ, and Will gained powers, and stopping it, it feels like it forces its way into the forefront of everything. Luce just got back to town and very obviously going through a thing, so maybe the first thing her longtime friend shouldn’t be doing is encouraging her to find a hook up at a party? Childhood friend Sacha comes up? Talk about how not only he was Luce’s first kiss, but Will was dating him too. Learning combo moves? One of them is associated with a “romantic” rope-tying class. There is nothing wrong with being sex positive, but the way in which Shoreline Games wrote it makes every relationship come across as incredibly superficial, even with folks Luce is talking to on a regular basis. If I’m going to virtually flirt with someone and shoot for an ending with them, I should at least know who they are as a person. While the direction “dating” takes doesn’t exactly make the Nova Hearts romance options incredibly appealing, the turn-based combat system is one of the slowest and worst I’ve encountered. A set number of battles come up as part of the story during certain events. The general enemy designs are repeated throughout each “chapter,” with the boss featuring the only novel design. You’re forced to trudge through fights, selecting from only a handful of commands, though in my experience the only worthwhile options are anything with AOE to hopefully end things as quickly as possible. Even the most basic enemies feel like a slog and potentially a challenge since there’s no real “leveling up.” Your party members remain at a stagnant HP. Attacks will always do a fraction of damage to any opponent. Some of the bosses will involve pretty unfair attacks. It isn’t fun. You aren’t even getting to level up individual abilities in the “fitness” app at a brisk pace, since those will tend to require a minimum of 500 points. Combo attacks mean more waiting, since you need to try and sync up attack timing, and those can be helpful! But you’re limited to four equipped at a time instead of just… I don’t know… allowing me to use any combo I please in a game where combat crawls and a boss fight can be completely unfair at times? I don’t think the Switch is the ideal platform for Nova Hearts either, as there are a number of technical issues. The biggest issue I encountered involved loading. There are substantial loading times between getting into the game, getting to the text message menu in Luce’s room between story segments and fights, and between fights and story segments again. If you aren’t spending an absurdly long time waiting to get through a battle, then you’re dealing with unexpectedly long loads to get to or from them. On the Switch, some bugs come up during those Nova Hearts fights too. During the first boss fight, an instance came up in which Wish fell during the fight to an attack from that foe. When she did, that opponent just… disappeared. Chaos and Luck attacked the enemy as usual, beating the character on their next turns, and then the effect animation for the one falling showed up where the person should have been. When I’d check the Power Up app during a fight to check enemy attacks or set ally combos, it’d often say “Power Name Very Long” instead of an actual opponent’s attack when in the enemy section, which was pretty weird. The concept behind Nova Hearts is good and I like some story elements, but I’m not a fan of its romance and hate its combat. The relationships come across as awkward and superficial, with the script never really providing reasons why I should want Luce to end up with anyone besides “they’re hot.” The combat crawls along, is unenjoyable, and doesn’t feel fair sometimes. Top it all off with some issues with the Switch version, and I’d say it’s best to look to other dating sims on the system. Nova Hearts is available for the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. The post Review: Nova Hearts Romance Interrupted by Tedious Fights appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraJul 4

Persona5: The Phantom X Review in Progress A journey through the psyche that retreads old wounds.

IGN PC ArticlesJul 3

Ready or Not Dev Releases Before-and-After Screenshots as It Battles Against ‘Censorship’ Backlash and Steam Review-Bomb CampaignVOID Interactive has responded to player backlash after it made changes to the PC version of its controversial shooter Ready or Not in order to secure a console release, citing "misconceptions and misinformation" about the amendments and releasing before-and-after screenshots.

IGN PC ArticlesJul 3

Ready or Not Review-Bombed on Steam as PC Players Claim Shooter Was 'Censored' to Satisfy Console MakersReady or Not, the tactical first-person shooter from VOID Interactive, is being review-bombed on Steam due to changes made to the game to secure its release on consoles.

IGN PC ArticlesJul 2

Mecha Break Review in Progress

IGN PC ArticlesJul 2

Sega Extends Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Master Crafted Edition Refunds as It Fights to Turn Around ‘Mostly Negative’ Steam User Review RatingSega has addressed Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Master Crafted Edition's rocky launch, extending its refund policy for the game, offering a 50% upgrade path discount, and promising a string of patches.

IGN PC ArticlesJun 30

Review: Persona 5: The Phantom X Is a Shadow of the Original Persona 5: The Phantom X is the latest of Atlus’ efforts to turn it into every genre. After a dancing game, a Musou and a tactics RPG, here is the attempt to capitalize on the popularity of gacha games. After the Black Wings Game Studio game's release in China and South Korea over a year ago, it’s now reaching English and Japanese audiences. Persona 5 as a gacha is a concept that surprisingly makes sense. Gachas work through regular updates with story chapters that introduce new characters. Persona’s “gain a party member in each dungeon” progression system fits alarmingly well. Making this work requires a new cast though. Theoretically, it’s unlikely anyone would want to gamble to pull each of the original Phantom Thieves when you could just play Persona 5 . Instead of the usual gang, we get a new protagonist codenamed Wonder who is basically Joker with a 90s boy band haircut. He is introduced to the Metaverse by Lufel, an owl whose name I keep forgetting since I call him Owlgana so often. Imagine Morgana, but he can fly and uses big old-timey words. Also his vehicle form is a car, not a bus. Those are the only differences. Screenshot by Siliconera In Persona 5: The Phantom X , a mysterious force is using the Palaces in the Metaverse to drain the desires of ordinary people. An incident with a deranged bike courier causes Wonder to fall on his phone and enter the Metaverse. Once there, he unlocks his Persona and begins recruiting members for a new band of Phantom Thieves. Some of them are recruited through the traditional Persona way. Motoha Arai is a Chie/Ryuji hybrid with a personal connection to the first villain. Others are pulled from Contracts, aka a gacha system. It feels reductive to call this Persona 5 with gacha mechanics, and yet that is exactly it. If you’ve played a gacha game, you know what this means. There are daily goals, training modes and time-limited events. You have a multitude of currencies, upgrade items, and special character tickets, all of which can be earned or paid for. My experience with the genre is entirely HoYoVerse’s work, particularly Zenless Zone Zero , but the systems are practically identical. Screenshot by Siliconera But under that, this is Persona 5 . The same stylish UI is meticulously recreated. The dungeon navigation is tinged with stealth mechanics and hidden treasures. Combat involves the same turn-based system, with Baton Passes, All-Out Attacks, and navigator bonuses all present. There’s a Velvet Room (this one’s underwater) where you can fuse Personas. All this is wrapped up in a city life sim, during which you have to study, work part-time jobs, and hang out with your friends. Everything you’d expect from Persona 5 is here, just as you remember it. However, Persona 5: The Phantom X always feels like a lesser version. City life elements are no longer measured on a limited timeline, instead restricted by a daily energy meter. Dungeons strip out resource management tension (save rooms auto-heal you) and instead block progress with arbitrary level caps. Even the plot feels weaker. The original game's first target is a creepy school coach abusing his power. Here the first target is a man who… likes bumping into women on the subway? Screenshot by Siliconera The most egregious downgrade comes in the Persona system itself. Negotiation is out, as Personas leap straight into your compendium upon defeat. You’ll amass a small army as a result, but Wonder can only equip a maximum of three, a quarter of Joker’s maximum. Even building them feels limited, with fewer ability slots and a greater number of passives over battle actions. Personas feel less versatile all round here, which is a shame when the series is literally named for them. Persona 5: The Phantom X is a difficult game to recommend. As a gacha game, it’s elevated by lifting so much from Persona 5 . But the inverse is true, as the gacha elements have weakened a lot of what made the original game great. If you loved the style of Persona 5 and want something free and casual that lets you kick around in its world some more, there’s fun to be found in Persona 5: The Phantom X . But those who min-max the Fusion system or hate gachas are unlikely to be convinced. Persona 5: The Phantom X is out now for PCs and mobile devices. The post Review: Persona 5: The Phantom X Is a Shadow of the Original appeared first on Siliconera .

PC News Category - SiliconeraJun 29

FBC: Firebreak ReviewA compelling co-op shooter that doesn’t have the depth to keep things interesting long-term.

IGN PC ArticlesJun 27