PJ O'Reilly

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Feb 2, 2022

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Dying Light 2 is a pretty disappointing sequel to one of our all-time favourite zombie games. The parkour and combat here feels slightly off-point, light, floaty and unsatisfying. The first game's signature tense melee encounters feel diluted in a setting that gives you far too much space to catch your breath and night-time sorties lack the straight-up fear factor that made them so appealing first time around. With a lacklustre campaign that offers little to enjoy in the way of drama, some serious performance issues - which we hope will be patched day one - and an enormous world stuffed full of basic busywork padding, this is one zombie apocalypse we're finding quite hard to recommend.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jan 24, 2022

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Overall though, Rainbow Six Extraction, while it lasts, is a super solid time, a delightfully warped addition to the Rainbow Six stable of games that is a total blast when played with the right people. It also sweetens the deal that it's available via Game Pass, meaning there's really no reason not to jump in and get down to some good old co-operative strategy action.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Jan 20, 2022

Critic90/100

Agreement—

With Windjammers 2, Dotemu has taken the fiendishly addictive core formula of the Neo Geo classic and improved upon it in every way. The core gameplay here remains as immediately endearing as ever whilst being enhanced and given a real strategic kick by a bevvy of new moves and skills that add to the fun without detracting from or overcomplicating proceedings. Yes, there's not much in the way of modes, and we've yet to see how online fares here, but this is another banger from Dotemu, an all-time classic improved upon, an arcade classic refined for a new generation.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Jan 18, 2022

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Drinkbox Studios has served up another great time here with a colourful and clever dungeon-crawling adventure that gives you a ton of options as to how you approach its challenges. Switching up forms, mixing and matching skills and hoovering up an absolute ton of loot is addictive stuff here and, although it can be a tad repetitive, this is one of the slickest indie RPGs we've played in quite some time.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Dec 6, 2021

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Halo Infinite feels like a big step forward for the franchise, a slick shift into the open world arena that manages to strike a fine balance between the traditional narrative-driven Halo of old and all-new levels of freedom and emergent gameplay.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Nov 17, 2021

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Battlefield 2042 is a bit of a mixed bag as things stand right now with the excellent Portal mode overshadowing almost everything else on offer. The futuristic large-scale battles are spectacular stuff, for sure, but it's all a little disjointed so far with the all-new Specialists underlining a feeling that solo soldiering has somehow taken precedent over the series' signature teamwork. There's still plenty to enjoy in this meaty package for early adopters, and we've no doubt DICE will be busy improving things as the months roll on but, outside of a mode that celebrates the series' history more than it embraces what's new in this latest entry, what's here struggles to feel absolutely essential at launch.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Nov 12, 2021

Critic40/100

Agreement—

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition on Switch delivers three of gaming's true greats in a shockingly rough package that manages to suck pretty much all of the fun out of Rockstar's stellar crime epics. This is a poor port, a shoddy, stuttery, low resolution mess full of bugs, glitches, audio problems and more besides. If can grab this one on any other platform, we'd advise you do so or, at the very least, hold off until it's been patched and hopefully improved in the future. As things stand, this is a very, very long way from 'definitive' - this isn't the way we want to remember these games.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Nov 5, 2021

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Just Dance 2022 is okay. It's more of the same with some cool new tracks, a slick and smooth experience overall that plays it safe and works just fine as a result. However, it also constantly pushes its subscription service and ends up feeling a little convoluted and tacky as it spends more time flogging tracks you don't own over letting you enjoy the ones included with the base game. Fans of the series - or anyone who's just danced to even a single track from the series - will know exactly what they're getting here, but newcomers should be aware that they'll need to fork out more cash after buying the game in order to enjoy the full experience.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Nov 5, 2021

Critic60/100

Agreement—

World War Z is an unremarkable zombie shooter that serves up a decent five-odd hours of action if you can find a few friends to play with. It's repetitive stuff; basic and unsurprising for the most part, but this Switch port is solid, managing to provide the full-fat experience without too much in the way of technical issues or other shortcomings. If you're in the mood for blazing through bland masses of zombies with a few friends in tow, this one's got you covered – just don't expect much more than that.

Pure Xbox

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 30, 2021

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Riders Republic is a fantastic open world sports game that delivers big on massively multiplayer arcade mayhem whilst also giving solo players a ton of content to dig into. There's an enormous, breathtakingly beautiful world to explore here that delivers carefully curated tracks and events for each every one of its sports disciplines, whilst also giving you free reign to head on out and cut your own path through its seven national parks' worth of wonderful wilderness. Yes there's some painful dialogue here and there, as well some issues with bugs and crashes during this launch period, but none of that is enough to put us off getting stuck in and just enjoying the smorgasbord of arcade sports action that Ubisoft Annecy has served up.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 19, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Crysis 2 Remastered is a super solid port of an excellent FPS that looks and plays fantastically well on Switch. Yes, you lose out on multiplayer, but there's still a generous single player campaign to get stuck into here that does a great job of funnelling you through its blockbuster setpieces whilst ensuring you get plenty of opportunity to tool around and experiment with your crazy Nanosuit powers. Crysis 2 may well be the very best entry in Crytek's franchise, and it's absolutely one of the finest shooters currently available on Nintendo's hybrid console.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 19, 2021

Critic80/100

Agreement—

The Crysis Remastered Trilogy arrives on Switch in a fantastic set of ports that deliver the full-fat super soldier experience with very little in the way of stutters, bugs or other technical failings. If you're picking this one up as a complete set, you've got a ton of excellent shooter action to blaze your way through in a trilogy of games that's aged remarkably well over the years and looks and plays great on Nintendo's hybrid console. Individually, however, things get a little more complicated, with the first two games easy recommendations, whilst number three is a little on the short side and feels rather threadbare without its multiplayer aspects to beef things up.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 19, 2021

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Crysis 3 Remastered stealths its way onto Switch in a fantastic port that delivers super solid gameplay and very little in the way of noticeable technical issues. However, with its mutliplayer aspects completely excised, this is now a fairly slim package that ends up being the hardest to recommend of the three Crysis titles available on Nintendo's console, especially if you're considering picking it up as a standalone title. What's here is still top-notch stuff, it's just a little too short-lived.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 6, 2021

Critic100/100

Agreement—

Metroid Dread is a triumphant return for both Samus Aran and developer MercurySteam.

Nintendo Life

PJ O'Reilly·Oct 3, 2021

Critic50/100

Agreement—

Embr has the potential to be a good time, a slapstick bit of carnage with friends that provides a decent amount of missions to blast through and plenty of unlockables and variations on modes to keep you and your party of first responders busy. However, on Switch this potential goes almost entirely unrealised as the online component of the game is a bust. Get a few Switch-owning friends to set up a match and you may find some fun here but without crossplay, and factoring in a few other gameplay irritations, this one is quite hard to recommend on Nintendo's console.