Well, if you’re wondering about how it’s going to perform on your platform of choice, we can tell you that things are looking, and feeling, real good this time around. There’s a major visual leap that merits further discussion, but not before we get into what’s on offer on each playable platform and how the game makes use of what it’s got with each configuration.

To that end, it’s a good idea to begin with the Xbox Series X and how Marcus’ early days are brought to life on it.

 A Range Of Options On The Series X

It’s the usual round of offerings on the Series X, with Quality, Balanced, and Performance being your options, something that’s become a sort of standard for the beefier versions of current-gen hardware.

The Quality Mode sets things at 30fps in exchange for “higher visual fidelity”; Performance goes for 60fps to ensure “smooth motion and responsiveness”, while Balanced targets 40fps while bridging the gap between the other two modes on the visual front, although it does need a 120Hz display. If you’re planning on hosting 3-4 player co-op in the Campaign, it’s worth knowing that even Performance is going to target 30 fps.

We’ve got a few general observations to go over before tackling how each mode performs and which one is our pick for this particular experience. Gears of War: E-Day is a busy game, and there’s an astounding amount of stuff happening on your screen, whether it’s right in front of you or in the background, with the lighting working hard to illuminate each scene with aplomb, while the sound design really sells the action alongside some great voice acting. It looks stunning at night, with atmospheric lighting and rich global illumination bringing Kalona’s devastated streets to life.

Kalona is a city under attack, and the balance between its proud structures that are still untouched by the locust conflict and desolate areas where that fight has already unfolded helps showcase a level of detail that deserves all the praise we can give it. The presentation here definitely lends itself well to the Quality Mode’s visuals, but is that FPS nerf something we could live with in a game like this?

Let’s begin with buildings around Kalona that are still intact. Look at a glass panel on one of them when you’re playing on Quality, and you’re going to see reflections that shift with your own perspective, the light behaving exactly as it would if you were actually there. The gentle glow of the sun serves to better underline the suffocating darkness of the shadows if you’re out in the city at night, chasing down whatever new objective prevents Fenix and his Squad from getting a well-deserved break.

Textures and volumetric effects, of which smoke and fog do occur quite often as you’d expect from a city-turned-warzone, are all very immersive touches that help sell the impression that you’re trying to save a city under siege. Every firefight comes with explosions, particle effects, environmental destruction that happens in real time, and, of course, gunplay that’s quite responsive in the hands while it looks and feels very satisfying to execute on screen.

Of course, the Performance Mode is where that gunplay is really going to shine, and it was the option we defaulted to for most of our playtime. It simply is the best way to enjoy this one’s combat, and while it does achieve that by sacrificing reflections and a bit of visual flair, it isn’t inferior by any means, and looks good enough to make it easy to recommend.

There is the Balanced Option for those of you who can take that dip in frame rates for improved visuals, but it’s going to come down to personal taste. We do recommend trying each one out for yourself since they’re all worthy options to experience a game whose visual polish is a noteworthy upgrade from the last appearance in the franchise.

But it is worth mentioning that performance on the Series X was excellent across the board, with nary any stuttering or dropped frames to dispel the immersion and engagement that comes so easily once E-Day gets some momentum going.

An Absolute Beast On PC

You’re probably thinking that the console version getting as much praise as it has spells good news for those of you playing this one on PC. You’re certainly correct, although there are minor concerns.

Our test machine had an RTX 3080 Ti, Ryzen 9 5900X, and 32 GB RAM, running every setting from High to Ultra for different test scenarios, with 4K output and DLSS set to Ultra Performance. A brief rundown on PC settings options is needed here. There are also a lot of ways to tweak the experience to your liking, with sliders for the effects, reflections, ray tracing geometry, post-processing, motion blur, animation, and cosmetic quality, a bunch of settings around ray tracing, and so many more to allow you to make changes and get the best out of the game on your machine.

Note that E-Day is an extremely demanding game, so our frame rates were hovering around 30 to 50 fps during particularly chaotic combat moments. As expected, these visual improvements create a distinct divide from the console release, solidifying this as the definitive platform for the game.

While the Series X did put up a surprisingly good fight, it cannot hope to match the superior detailing and lighting that add a lot of immersion to the often chaotic scenes you’re going to experience throughout the game. The reflections are more detailed, while a cleaner overall image is sustained very well across the chaos that unfolds, often abruptly enough that we’d have allowed the game a slight margin of error to catch up.

It doesn’t need it, though, as we saw a very stable image no matter how intense things were getting on screen. We’ve mentioned how things can get very busy, but allow us to paint you a picture of a set piece that occurs relatively early in the story. You’re looking down on the city with the barrel of a machine gun in front of you, and the Locust forces are not very happy with your aerial assault.

There are ground troops and explosive cans to take them out with, seeders launching projectiles that you must shoot down almost constantly, Locust soldiers moving around to try and get around your sightlines, the environmental destruction that stems from explosions along with particle effects, all against the backdrop of a city whose crumbling splendor is on proud display.

Those reflections in the glass panels on buildings? They’re noticeably better on PC, as are the ones in puddles that you step in from time to time. Rays of light aren’t just from the sun or lamps, but from Marcus’s armor and the world around him, all of them lighting up the world with a glow that’s very welcome in narrative moments where things are tense, and the shadows feature deep black levels that enhance contrast and highlight the ruined state of Kalona’s infrastructure.

The shadows and volumetrics are another highlight, along with excellent detailing and brilliant visual design that really help sell the setting of a city facing a siege against an enemy that is able to brush aside its defences with relative ease. Of course, getting into a battle is as smooth as it can get, and the new cover mechanics and movement systems really come to life with the improved visual fidelity on PC.

Even so, with so much happening during heavy action, noticeable performance drops occur from time to time. We wouldn’t call those game-breaking, but they were momentary lapses that stood out given how well the rest of the experience was presented and polished.

All in all, it’s very impressive that E-Day has been able to present such a level of visual quality on our PC while sustaining performance consistently enough, with only minor issues to break the spell Kalona casts on you.

Taking Gears Into The Future

You might be wondering about how well E-Day stacks up against Gears 5, especially after the latter received that upgrade for the Series X that made it quite the looker. However, The Coalition’s latest offering benefits from being an exclusively current-gen title, with improved detailing on the world and character models marking a tangible upgrade over its predecessor.

That’s quite a compliment given how Gears 5 was already so darn good at bringing the franchise’s signature blend of chaos and melancholic beauty to life. That chaos is another difference, and the sheer amount of environmental detail that shifts alongside the tide of battle is something you’re going to notice quite quickly in E-Day.

Of course, the new movement, animations, cover system, and the general quality of gunplay are also upgrades that are going to stand out. When you consider all of that against better textures, lighting systems, and the overall polish on the presentation, E-Day is definitely a step forward for the franchise’s design language, and is sure to contribute to everything we see from the franchise after it.

Kalona’s a big part of that, and is a design choice that allows The Coalition to retain enough creative control over what unfolds in front of you while allowing for a bit of player agency alongside levels designed to sustain the intensity of each fight no matter how long it lasts. Its architecture boasts of a time when humanity’s peaceful era led to some real progress, all of it now put at risk by the events of The Emergence.

As ground zero for the events of the franchise that follow its demise, Kalona City is the perfect stage for E-Day to tell its story. It’s how the game manages to present a sense of scale and spectacle while also managing to sell each fight as a desperate struggle for control of an area. It crumbles around you as the action unfolds, a constant reminder of the stakes for which you’re fighting. It’s the facilitator of a generational leap for the franchise, and a great one at that.

Know that we don’t say that lightly. Gears of War: E-Day is a game that comes together very well, bringing the excellence of individual technical systems to a canvas that makes even a fight that unfolds organically feel like it’s been scripted. It’s Gears as you know it, but graphically dialed up to make that familiar experience push forward into a future where further innovations now feel like they’re an inevitability.

Those performance drops on PC didn’t bother us, but they are an area where the game could use a bit of fine-tuning. Of course, there’s always the possibility that they melt away with more powerful hardware or at a lower resolution, but despite those minor flaws, across every supported platform, this game represents a clear evolution.

Finding the right balance between graphical fidelity and smooth performance is straightforward on Xbox Series X, thanks to its versatile display options, while its PC version shows you what it can do when you really push it to its limits.

No matter which one you’re playing, Gears of War: E-Day is a great tech showcase and is quite clearly one of the best-looking games of this generation.

They’re giant open worlds that are designed to have you exploring every available square inch of land you can find, with interesting rewards and intriguing stories just waiting for you to stumble upon them. They feature gruff-voiced protagonists who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and often add the burdens of others to the load.

Both games feature fighting systems that can have you feeling untouchable once you master their unique rhythms, while allowing for a surprising amount of nuanced customizability to the experience. But if you’re somebody who’s played both, you know that they’re also worlds apart.

With all of the improvements that have now been implemented in both Pywel and The Continent, we thought it would be a more interesting comparison if we looked at how both worlds have evolved since we first embarked on the respective journeys that they take us on. Let’s get right to it!

A Feast For Your Eyes

We felt the visuals in both worlds are a good place to start, as it’s an area where we believe both games are now evenly matched. However, Crimson Desert Enhanced does benefit from being a game that’s been made with modern technology, while Remastered is bringing modern features to a game that might not have been made to accommodate them.

However, it’s important to remember that CDPR’s 2015 title was quite ahead of its time when it was released, and the studio had already given the world a visual bump with that next-gen update from a few years ago. The remaster brings path tracing and improvements to existing ray tracing mechanics, alongside improvements to textures and assets to give us a very immersive and visually splendid world.

And yet, an open window in a room sometimes forgets to let rays of light in, forcing you to pull out a torch whose glow behaves exactly as it should with the new system governing it. Geralt’s hair often gets black when he’s in dark places, which can be quite jarring for those of us who know him as the White Wolf.

You see the game’s visuals working very well for the most part, until something out of place reminds you of The Continent’s age. It’s something that Pywel doesn’t have to struggle with, although that one did have its fair share of problems on the visual front.

However, the developer has worked to polish the visuals on offer over the course of the year, and Crimson Desert Enhanced is now a version of the game where every scene it presents comes with visual splendor and beauty to match The Continent, and perhaps even surpass it thanks to the benefits of being developed with more modern tech from the get-go.

But how does it feel to engage with the worlds themselves? That’s a facet of the experience that an open world lives or dies by, and it’s also interesting to see how both games have evolved their worlds over the years. It might look like Pywel and The Continent are similar in the ways in which you get to engage with them, but we’d say it’s more about what those activities encourage instead of what you do with each one.

The Continent’s a place that’s reeling from events in the past and present; its war-torn desolation forms a perfect backdrop for Geralt’s cynical examinations of the world around him. The things you do as a Witcher, when viewed through that lens, aren’t necessarily nudging you toward a more altruistic point of view, but challenge you to see the world as it is.

When you translate that into gameplay, you get choices that come with consequences you have to live with, and the potential for stories that feel personal when you play through them. Yes, the game has its minor share of generic open-world stuff, but given that Monster Nests, Hidden Treasures, and so many other activities directly feed into your role as a Witcher, the risk of monotony is somewhat offset by what you get to do with the rewards that come.

Kliff’s role as a Greymane is a little different, coming with more altruistic connotations and political intrigue that make Pywel a melting pot of different factions, cultures, and perspectives. That automatically lends a certain unique flavor to nearly every enemy you come across in a land where distinct biomes help maintain that variety.

Moreover, the spread of activities on offer is similarly aligned with making Kliff rise to his destiny while solving the mysteries of The Abyss. That means exploring the world makes you a better Greymane, while also showing off so many mysteries, quests both interesting and mundane, and a lot of things to distract you from the main story, no matter how determined you are to begin its next chapter.

Which one you’d prefer is sure to come down to personal tastes, but Remastered is the finest version of a world where the very writing forms an undercurrent of quality to it. In terms of nuance, The Continent edges ahead of Pywel despite being equally matched on visual quality in terms of how its world can not only pull you in, but also have you thinking about it even when you’re not actively exploring it, even if Pywel manages to have more scope in this regard.

But the world’s visuals and exploration are only parts of what make great RPGs.

A Challenge For Your Hands and Minds

The combat systems on offer, as well as the ways in which Geralt and Kliff are able to get around quickly in maps that span vast distances, are equally important in crafting a cohesive experience.

Let’s begin with the combat, and how Geralt’s abilities as a Witcher lend themselves to the illusion of a fighter with whom most opponents would rather avoid a direct confrontation. He’s got magic, his swords, his superhuman speed, and of course, potions, oils, and bombs, all of which are options in a fight.

He’s got the knowledge of Kaer Morhen guiding his preparations for fights against deadly monsters, while human enemies are going to be hard-pressed to even hold a candle to his prowess with a steel blade. He’s formidable, but not entirely infallible, and Remastered has done well to improve on his movements and animations, making them more fluid and quicker to give combat a much-needed boost.

But the enemy AI on offer is also important, given how Remastered has made enemies more coordinated, forcing you to switch out the original game’s pattern of “attack, attack, dodge/parry, cast sign, attack again”, instead making you pay attention to where attacks are coming from and respond accordingly. The dynamic camera is another nice touch and makes each fight all the more immersive.

However, from a progression standpoint, we’d argue that the new skill tree makes getting to your comfort zone so much easier if you’re coming back to the game after a previous playthrough. It’s so easy that you risk staying there and not taking advantage of how it now facilitates builds in a way that makes sense, something that a more casual player is going to miss out on, given how many other systems are competing for their attention.

Crimson Desert’s combat and progression mechanics are more woven into the gameplay, as are traversal mechanics. Geralt’s ability to swim, sail, and ride across The Continent matches in comparison to Kliff’s ability to fly, summon wyverns or Dragons, or use his own Abyss-powered abilities to cross even the most imposing natural obstacles with relative ease.

It helps that Pywel is designed to make you use those abilities intelligently, and to demonstrate that same cunning in a fight. Where Remastered brings Geralt into fights where he’s outnumbered by a group, Pywel pits Kliff against literal armies. It’s also relevant to remember that most of his main abilities have been refined, enhanced, and even added to over the course of this year to make Crimson Desert feel like a whole new game while retaining what was already working in these areas.

They’re vastly different experiences, to be sure, but we’d have to say that as far as combat, traversal, and progression go, it’s a tie.

Stories For Your Hearts and Souls

Ah, the main narrative. The reason why many of us end up spending several hours engaging with worlds like Pywel and The Continent. Be it the ever-present threat to reality that stems from misuse of the Abyss in Crimson Desert, or the devastating effects of the Conjunction of the Spheres and the desolation of a war-torn land in The Continent, it’s clear that both games have very interesting stories to tell.

It’s also clear that while those narratives are very effective at lending context and structure to worlds that would otherwise languish in irrelevance without them, Kliff’s time in Pywel can feel too disjointed, and perhaps even too slanted towards being a good guy to give you the same sense of agency you can get from Remastered.

The search for Ciri, and the people it puts you in contact with, present opportunities for you to put your stamp on the world, leaving it better or worse than you found it when you first arrived. The Bloody Baron and the manner in which your choices can influence his family long after his role in the main narrative is over is a great example.

That he isn’t the only character in The Continent whose life you can impact in such a fashion, and that every single such questline comes with so much nuance and depth that you might need a break just to process it all, is something that didn’t need any improving in Remastered, as it continues to be a very potent storytelling formula that has since lent itself to Night City with excellent results.

Crimson Desert Enhanced has done well to try and make its story more cohesive, but Kliff’s fight against the forces looking to destabilize his world isn’t going to measure up against a story that has so much to offer. Yes, there are highs such as the moment you bring Myurdin down, and lows like Damiane’s discovery of her mentor’s fate, all of which can give you memories to cherish.

But The Continent makes you think like a Witcher and allows you to inject a bit of your personality into its eventual fate. That your decisions carry as much weight as they do is something that allows Remastered to steal the win away from Crimson Desert despite the latest update’s effort to bridge the narrative gaps the original game came with.

We’d say it’s more interesting to be a Witcher than a Greymane as far as the story each role presents you with is concerned.

A Common Thread

There you have it. Crimson Desert Enhanced comes with better controls, combat, and traversal mechanics, but The Witcher 3 Remastered is the definitive version of an open world that continues to remain amongst the most legendary ones there are.

The Continent’s overarching story, and the world it thrusts you into, are simply too nuanced and well-written for Pywel’s relatively tamer take on destiny to compare to. However, if you look at how both games have evolved from their original releases, things get a little more interesting.

You see, The Witcher 3 has been beloved not only by its players, but also by its makers, and has thus seen two incredible expansions and two substantial updates over the years, with another one and a whole sequel on the way. Geralt and Ciri have also managed tos tay in the spotlight due to the franchise’s presence in other media, giving Remastered the benefit of a constant spotlight. It’s an improvement that brings new tech to an already great game, with noticeable improvements to the underlying systems that made it special in the first place.

Crimson Desert, on the other hand, has had to claw its way up from a rather lackluster release response, using every improvement it has made to earn back goodwill from its audiences, and as such, makes for a more impressive upgrade. Enhanced is the culmination of a journey that might have taken another studio a very long time to complete, and it now exists mere months after the original release and has already laid the groundwork for an expansion; it is something we can’t scoff at.

As a complete game, we’d have to hand the win to The Witcher 3 Remastered, but as an evolution of the game that came before it, Crimson Desert Enhanced is the more impressive upgrade.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It’s no surprise, then, that Star Wars, as versatile as it is as an IP, lends itself so well to racing games- to the point where it’s almost surprising we haven’t had way more of them over the years than we have. Fuse Games’ Star Wars: Galactic Racer zooms onto the scene to fill exactly that void, and does so with flying colours, delivering a thrilling, adrenaline-fueled, wildly addictive racing game that can stand toe to toe with the best arcade racers out there.

"Star Wars: Galactic Racer lets you zip through its courses in one of four different types of vehicles"

Coming from a studio that was created by former Criterion Games talent that worked on the likes of Burnout and Need for Speed, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Star Wars: Galactic Racer controls like an absolute dream, boasts an incredible sense of speed, and touts unmatched moment to moment game feel.

Moving through courses at constant breakneck speeds never stops being thrilling, and every successful drift around a tight corner comes with a spike of dopamine. There’s nothing quite like zipping and weaving your way through a series of tight, claustrophobic, winding paths fraught with hazards and opportunities to crash, before bursting out onto open land and boosting away at awe-striking speeds. Galactic Racer captures that feeling again and again and again, even after dozens of hours of playtime.

The variety on offer in vehicle types certainly complements those strengths. Star Wars: Galactic Racer lets you zip through its courses in one of four different types of vehicles (or repulsocraft, as the game calls them)- landspeeders, speeder bikes, skim speeders, and of course, podracers. They all handle differently, and especially differ in their individual drifting mechanics, though each is an absolute joy to control.

My personal favourites turned out to be skim speeders, which allow for incredibly tight and high speed, high risk cornering and turning- once you get to grips with them, at least. I would, however, have liked greater granular variety of vehicle options within each individual vehicle class, because right now, the options feel a little limited- even though that is offset by the impressive customization mechanics on offer in the campaign (more on that in a bit).

Meanwhile, Galactic Racer also puts its own interesting spin on boosting- on top of regular boosting, unless you’re in a podracer, you can also use their repulsocraft’s ramjet engine. Once primed, you can activate the ramjet to supercharge your engine and hit even higher speeds for sustained windows- but make sure you turn it off before your engine overheats, lest you literally explode. It’s an excellent risk versus reward mechanic that greatly adds to the high-speed thrills the game already delivers in spades.

Just as fun and satisfying as the act of driving your repulsocraft is the act of sabotaging your opponents. You can, of course, do so through brute force, with high-speed nudges, crashes, or whatever suits your play style (such as different types of offensive and defensive abilities), and predictably enough, that never quite gets boring. There’s always something incredibly satisfying about ramming into an opponent and watching them explode in cinematic cutaways as they crash into an obstacle- the game very much does feel like Star Wars x Burnout in those moments (and there’s no shortage of them).

"Just as fun and satisfying as the act of driving your repulsocraft is the act of sabotaging your opponents."

Given how well it plays, Galactic Racer would have been a salivating prospect for racing fans as is, but what makes the game even more interesting is how its campaign is structured. The game is set in the wake of the Empire’s fall in Return of the Jedi, and you play as Shade, a former pilot who joins the Galactic League, an underground racing competition for all professional and aspiring intergalactic speed freaks. What’s particularly interesting about the campaign, however, is that it adopts a roguelite structure- which ends up working remarkably well in more ways than one.

Each run begins with selecting a vehicle, and adopts the overarching structure of a branching objective map that takes you from event to event. Objectives range between regular races, time trial events, and eliminators, which are longer races where the racer in last place is knocked out at regular intervals until one competitor emerges victorious.

Meanwhile, at times, you can also choose to not participate in an event, and instead meet with one of several different characters who might offer you different kinds of deals that could benefit you (or not) in several ways. Personally, I was hoping for a little more variety as far as race event types are concerned- as fun as each event usually tends to be thanks to the game’s core gameplay strengths, repetition can sometimes set in due to the lack of variety in the race event types on offer.

Structurally, however, Galactic Racer’s campaign’s branching objective map works quite well. You always have a choice between multiple events, which makes you can make things significantly more or less difficult for yourself through those choices- though there’s always a lot to consider. For instance, picking the easier option of a time trial where there’s no danger of crashing out of your run can be an alluring prospect, but at the same time, eliminators or races where there’s much greater risk of prematurely failing your run yield much greater and more valuable rewards.

Meanwhile, it’s also important to consider more than just the next event – that low stakes option might look attractive on its own, but there’s always the chance that the event after that is more than you bargained for. Planning ahead becomes important, then, adding further to how well the campaign’s structure captures risk versus reward decision-making.

"Planning ahead becomes important"

Other than time trial events, each race lets you crash a limited number of times, at which point you’re out of the race, losing you a league token. Each run also gives you limited league tokens (and initially, only one), and once you run out of those, your run is over, and you have to start again from the beginning. That, of course, means you don’t have to win every race to progress, though the better you perform, the better rewards you earn, in turn increasing your chances of progressing. The rewards you earn at the end of each race, meanwhile, range from weapon parts, credits that you can use to buy new parts or repair existing ones that have adopted malfunctions, or upgrades that you can use to enhance your repulsocraft’s various stats.

This being a roguelite though, when you fail a run, you lose all of the progress you have made over its course, including upgrades and customizations made to your vehicle- though there are ways to make some permanent upgrades nonetheless- such as adding new auto parts to the pool that you buy from in the middle of a run.

Additionally, you can also use upgrade points accumulated over the course of each run to permanently enhance vehicle’s stats, allowing you to kick off runs from progressively stronger starting points as you pump more points into your craft. There’s an impressive range of upgrade and customization options available- though I will admit to being disappointed by the fairly limited cosmetic customization options available for repulsocraft.

By and large, however, thanks in large part to the level of strategy involved on both micro and macro scales, progression in Galactic Racer feels consistently rewarding, and only serves to make the game that much more addictive- yes, this is very much a “one more run” game that will keep you glued to the screen unreasonably late into the night.

Each run sees players moving from one location to another, and successfully completing a run advances you further in the story- and yes, Galactic Racer does have a story. It’s definitely (and unsurprisingly) not the highlight of the experience, but Shade’s quest to climb the ranks of the Galactic League and dethrone the villainous reigning champion Kestar Bool does still serve as a solid, fun framing device for the campaign. The story feels right at home in the fringes of the Star Wars universe, and even manages to rope in some fun appearances and cameos from characters that fans of the movies will recognize in ways that feel organic.

It’s also remarkable just how well the story – and really, the game as a whole – captures the vibe, tone, and atmosphere of the Star Wars universe. From the environments and the vehicles to the characters and more, everything looks and sounds perfectly Star Wars, right down to the details in the repulsocraft’s elaborate dashboards, or the pre-race engine prep you do before the countdown for each race.

"Each run sees players moving from one location to another, and successfully completing a run advances you further in the story"

There’s impressive environmental variety on offer, which not only sets each locatoiapart from the others in how they look, but also has gameplay repercussions. For instance, the frozen wastes of Ando Prime impact things such as handling, but long stretches of ice on the track also keep your vehicles’ temperatures low, allowing you to use your ramjet for much longer without the risk of overheating.

On the other hand, the lava pools found on Sentinel I will do the opposite, and quickly heat your vehicle up, which means avoiding them is usually key. Meanwhile, each location also comes with multiple different courses, each of which is excellently designed, with a fine balance of large, expansive spaces that let you fly at breathtaking speeds, and tight, winding sections that challenge you to skillfully thread around dangerous obstacles. Without a doubt, track design is one of Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s bigger strengths.

Beyond all that, the campaign does plenty else to keep things varied and interesting for players, which only adds to how addictive it is. For instance, each run allows you to play with one of several different racing styles, with more unlocked as you play more and accomplish various tasks and challenges. Each racing style comes with unique perks and advantages, such as allowing you more crashes per race, or rewarding more aggressive gameplay focused on takedowns, among many others.

Meanwhile, not long into the campaign, you also get the ability to pick between several different backers who provide you with additional boosts and rewards based on your performances, while there are also various favours to earn from characters that you meet throughout the campaign that provide different boosts and bonuses, and more, adding another layer of planning, strategy, and replayability, all of which enhance the campaign’s roguelite structure that much more.

The campaign is easily the star of the show in Star Wars: Galactic Racer then – which is a good thing, because outside of the campaign, the game offers less than I was anticipating. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a lack of content. No, on the contrary, across its Scenarios and Arcade modes, Galactic Racer has a solid amount of races and time trial events for players to tackle.

That said, I would definitely have liked more ways to play the game. For instance, I would have loved a longform mode that allowed for more traditional ways to play with the game’s impressive customization toolset, without the campaign’s roguelite trappings, for those looking for a more conventionally structured experience. Or, at the very least, an option to create custom tournaments- hopefully that’s something that gets added in the future.

"The campaign is easily the star of the show in Star Wars: Galactic Racer"

On the multiplayer side of things, I struggled to find many races in the multiplayer sessions held during the review period. I was only able to play a couple of races, which were expectedly fun, but I’m hoping to sink my teeth into that side of the experience in a much more meaningful fashion post-launch, one there’s a larger pool of players online.

From what I have seen so far, Galactic Racer seems to be launching with a decent suite of multiplayer offerings. There’s quick races, quick podracing, and more longform tours that use the campaign’s roguelite structure. Whether Fuse Games and publisher Secret Mode plan to add more multiplayer modes remains to be seen. The developer has promised post-launch content, but details are yet sparse on exactly what that content will entail.

Meanwhile, from a tech and audio-visual perspective, Galactic Racer is an impressive game in more ways than one. For starters, it looks absolutely gorgeous. The vehicles look excellent, the environments are gorgeous and obsessively detailed, and the lighting system on display in particular as absolutely stunning.

Audio design is also absolutely top notch here. Every repulsocraft sounds spectacular, and the sounds accompanying each action in different environments add massively to the experience. Most importantly, the game also runs almost perfectly, which is crucial for an arcade racer. In all my time with it so far, I have hardly encountered any major frame rate drops.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is an excellent game. It boasts tight, thrilling, action packed racing that not only captures the Star Wars racing vibe perfectly, but also delivers an experience that comes absurdly close to the highs of the Burnout franchise. Meanwhile, the roguelite structure lends itself perfectly to the campaign, making for an immensely addictive and replayable experience. Though the game could do with a little more variety in the content on offer here and there, by and large, this is one of the most enjoyable Star Wars games in recent years, and absolutely unmissable for all fans of arcade racers.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.

Providence is the new map introduced in Story Pack 2, and it is one of the highlights of the expansion. The tropical setting gives the DLC a visual identity that provides a change of scenery from that seen in the base game and allows the art direction to shine. Littered with lush jungles, extravagant architecture and the bones of ancient behemoth beasts, the environment is a feast for the eyes. Along with the striking set dressing, Providence is also a lot of fun to explore, with tons of verticality and open spaces which take advantage of Borderlands 4‘s movement mechanics. These spaces also give players a range of different options when it comes to choosing how to approach each combat encounter.

With all of that said, this is a Borderlands expansion, so the main thing that matters is how well the core loot and shoot experience works here. Thankfully, the gunplay remains one of the experience’s strongest qualities. I chose to play as C4SH – one of Borderlands 4‘s DLC Vault Hunters – and I found the shooting mechanics to feel just as responsive and tight as you would expect from a Gearbox FPS game. Firearms feel good to use, movement feels pretty fluid and there’s a satisfying rhythm and weightiness to switching between different guns, reloading, and utilizing abilities when you are fighting.

FL4K and the Last Resort doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it also doesn’t need to. Borderlands has spent years refining this tried-and-tested formula, and it works well. The real hook, as always, is the loot. You’re constantly finding new weapons, while you play, leading to you comparing stats, swapping out your current loadout and wondering whether that gun you just picked up might completely change the way you’re approaching combat. Story Pack 2 leans heavily into that dynamic cycle, adding two new Pearlescent weapons alongside 18 pieces of Legendary gear and six Legendary Class Mods.

And some of the new weapons are ridiculously fun to play with. For example, The Astonisher is a Ripper shotgun that consumes its entire magazine with every shot, with its damage increasing based on how much ammunition you’re burning through. It’s a simple idea, but it gives the weapon a completely different rhythm from a conventional shotgun.

Then you’ve got weapons like Lovelorn, a Tediore assault rifle that can spawn automated kill drones to help you mow down enemies. There is also the Hand Frag, which adds a shotgun blast when you reload, and Fourier’s Malady, which throws copies of itself when fired. There’s Avarice too, which is an Order assault rifle that literally spends your money every time you pull the trigger in exchange for increased damage.

These make for some of the most refreshing elements of the DLC, and they provide a good reason for seasoned players to return to Borderlands 4 to check out the expansion. The unpredictability of the loot adds a level of spontaneity and that is where FL4K and the Last Resort excels, keeping things feeling exciting even after you’ve spent countless hours shooting your way through Pandora and beyond.

Numbers and stats are obviously important, but the most memorable weapons have an identity of their own. It would be easy enough just to look for whatever gun has a higher damage figure, but if you play that way then you are severely limiting yourself and missing out. The enemies you are fighting through are less remarkable, though. I played through the expansion solo and rarely found it to feel particularly challenging unless I was caught outside of cover and suddenly overwhelmed and outnumbered. The enemies have some visually cool designs, but I never felt they fundamentally changed how I approached combat.

However, that’s not necessarily a major problem here. The DLC’s enjoyment comes from the combination of movement, gunplay, abilities and loot, and that core loop keeps you on your toes and remains remarkably addicting.

The plot here is similarly safe, it is perfectly functional, but it doesn’t do anything that fans of the genre haven’t seen before.

FL4K himself felt a little one-note to me as a character, but Mr. Chew is an entertaining companion and the basic premise works. There is a reason the “man risks life and limb to rescue his dog” formula has been used so many times. Give the player something they immediately want to protect and you’ve got an easy, legitimate motivation to base the rest of the narrative around.

The writing also fits comfortably within the James Gunn/Guardians of the Galaxy-style tone that has become synonymous with Borderlands. It’s witty enough, energetic enough and self-aware enough to keep the momentum going, but it never challenges the conventions of the series.

And that’s basically how I felt about FL4K and the Last Resort overall. I liked it but I didn’t love it, simply because there isn’t anything here that blew me away. It is fun enough to kill a few hours with and I didn’t encounter anything that I particularly disliked or found frustrating. It’s safe, polished and perhaps a bit shallow, but that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker for long-time fans of the series when the fundamentals are this enjoyable.

I don’t go to Borderlands to have my worldview challenged. I’m playing it for fast-paced dumb fun. To enjoy the ridiculous guns, tight shooting mechanics and colourful worlds packed with things to kill and loot. FL4K and the Last Resort understands that perfectly.

But saying that the Nemesis System is the only thing great about them would be doing both titles a disservice. There’s also that heady blend of the established lore in Lord of the Rings versus intelligent additions that make the experience feel rooted in its inspirations, but bold enough to tell its own story. It’s a franchise that conquers Mordor both literally and figuratively, and you’re at the center of it all.

"Talion’s fate becomes the perfect entry point for Celebrimbor, the legendary elven blacksmith who forged the One Ring for Sauron and paid a heavy price for it."

If that doesn’t keep you rooted in its world when it makes its Switch 2 debut this week, there’s more to it than its best features. But does that new version manage to hold up well enough to make this one as good on the go as it’s been at keeping us glued to our seats in the past?

Let’s begin with Talion, and how he’s often the best vehicle for the Shadow franchise to blend the old and the new. He’s more than just a gruff-voiced protagonist capable of incredible feats with the blade, being a Gondorian ranger and all. He’s also a good man, devoted to his family and in possession of a code of honor that grants him a strong moral compass.

That’s all well and good when life is going well, but things don’t stay that way for very long in the game, and we’re not going to spoil it if this is your first time with it. Talion’s fate becomes the perfect entry point for Celebrimbor, the legendary elven blacksmith who forged the One Ring for Sauron and paid a heavy price for it. It’s a name that immediately strikes awe in the heart of a fan, and it’s an excellent choice to present his alliance with Talion as an uneasy one.

That’s because Talion himself becomes the focal point for the overarching struggle between light and darkness that roots the franchise’s narrative, while allowing that conflict to spill into the gameplay in interesting ways. Player agency is at the center of it all, letting you choose your course of action in an open-world design that’s very liberating once you get some momentum in it.

There’s the matter of the New Ring, and the ability to mind-control Orcs, which is where the dichotomy between the noble Ranger and the Elf whose ruthless quest for revenge sees him justify any means to reach the ends he desires. It’s in how you decide which side to act on in any given moment that lends the game its flavor, and the Nemesis System its potency.

"Talion’s tale is one in which he has no choice but to be an anti-hero, and it’s a narrative that deserves a closer examination"

But no matter what you decide to do with your powers, you know that Talion’s tale is one in which he has no choice but to be an anti-hero, and it’s a narrative that deserves a closer examination.

It’s a good idea to look at how Monolith placed the narrative within the larger framework of Tolkein’s well-established universe, as it’s a choice that immediately lends potency to the story it was trying to tell.

Placing the narrative roughly around the time the One Ring remained with Bilbo, safely tucked away in his pocket while he enjoyed the domestic bliss of The Shire, was a great choice. It was a great way to root Sauron as a threat, while managing to make the first game make good use of his agents in Mordor.

It also helped present a story that fit credibly within the larger mythos of the franchise, and we’re personally fans of how it manages to give us a unique perspective on the Eye of Sauron that’s ever alert for the presence of the One Ring at the end of it. It pulls at your heartstrings long after you’re done with it, but its effectiveness is rivalled only by its execution.

It could have been too easy to throw in a bunch of familiar faces from the books and films, find ways for Talion to meet them, and call it a day. But the Shadow franchise wisely brings in fresh new characters who embody the ideals and personalities of the ones we know and love, while leaving them free to tell their own stories through Talion’s eyes.

It’s also great that the supporting cast is quite limited in both titles, with new and old faces woven into the narrative and gameplay quite well to be a cohesive experience in which engaging with those characters brings tangible gameplay rewards while further deepening the narrative ethos that the game establishes.

"Having Orcs respond to betrayals or a failure to protect them makes every recruit a potential source of questlines that end in a confrontation."

Of course, that supporting cast of characters is supplemented quite well by what’s going to be the feature that stands out the most to you: the Orcs you get to, er, “befriend” along your journey.

Building an army whose effectiveness is hinged on the obedience of a bunch as rowdy as the Orcs might sound like a folly to any member of the Fellowship, but Talion doesn’t really have the cream of the crop to work with in Mordor. Ratbag’s good for some comic relief, but man, is that Orc incompetent.

Of course, other Orcs soon become available to you, each coming with their own strengths, weaknesses, and, of course, unique personalities and a whole lot of ambition as they try to climb the ranks and lead their comrades. The fact that each one of them is a potential recruit to Talion’s cause then creates the scope for interesting games of cat and mouse, all of which are woven into the very fabric of the worlds Talion explores.

It’s an ambitious idea that spreads its effects across sprawling maps and two whole games, building up to what we can only describe as large-scale battles that are the result of Talion working systematically to dismantle enemy formations and to cause chaos at the right moments to ensure that he plays as dirty as the ones he’s fighting.

His Gondorian honor may disapprove of such methods, but the cunning that his training as a Ranger has imparted in him knows that there is no other way. But it’s when his control over an Orc breaks that lends the entire franchise its unpredictability. Having Orcs respond to betrayals or a failure to protect them makes every recruit a potential source of questlines that end in a confrontation.

That you have different ways to respond to such efforts only increases the number of variables you’re left to play with, and you could even pit Orcs against each other to empower a potential recruit while getting rid of a pesky opponent in one fell swoop. The possibilities are endless, and it’s all in your hands. It’s probably the closest you can get to feeling what the power of a Ring can be, and it’s something you can’t put down once you begin with it.

"Talion’s quite the warrior with his sword, while Celebrimbor brings the unerring precision of an Elf to his mystical bow."

Of course, a Ring doesn’t just let you command armies. It can also give you the power you need to obliterate them.

Talion’s quite the warrior with his sword, while Celebrimbor brings the unerring precision of an Elf to his mystical bow. That’s a potent combination in any fight, but pair them together and put a Ring on their finger, and you soon have a being that even the mightiest Ologs can find hard to slay.

The combat system evolves across two games into one that weaves in the best RPG elements of such titles into a combat system that brings an insane amount of depth to a take on Rocksteady’s fluid combat system in the Arkhamverse that feels familiar but entirely new.

Talion’s animations work well to convey his newfound speed and agility while also showcasing his prowess with the blade. The powers he unlocks over the course of two games only serve to supplement his already strong foundations as a Ranger, and a rather good one at that.

However, what makes the Shadow franchise addictive is how each fight can soon go from being a random encounter with a group of Orcs into a full-fledged fight for survival with multiple Orcs with a grudge showing up to get a piece of you. Getting from one place to another comes with a tangible risk, making Talion feel like a hunter who’s also hunted.

It immediately makes Mordor a place where you don’t entirely sheathe your sword, and must be ready to parry a sudden attack at a moment’s notice. Well, that’s exactly what you’d expect from a land that’s so rooted in Sauron’s villainy, and we’d have it no other way.

"It’s an experience that comes together so well across two games, building on its scope and size in a way that makes you feel so darn powerful it really feels like you’re trying to take off a Ring of Power."

It’s a testament to the franchise’s quality that there really is nothing like it on offer today, and with the Nemesis System out of circulation for a while, there could be nothing like it for a while.

It’s an experience that comes together so well across two games, building on its scope and size in a way that makes you feel so darn powerful it really feels like you’re trying to take off a Ring of Power. And that’s not something any game can reliably duplicate without an innovation that’s as visionary as the Nemesis System.

That there’s a solid experience that doesn’t rely on that innovation as its pillar, with every other part of it working well to feed the kind of experience it’s aiming for, is icing on a very tasty cake. It’s also as satisfying as elven bread for those of you who’ve dived deep into Lord of the Rings and its associated lore.

Of course, how that experience translates to the Switch 2 is a factor, and we can say that both Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War run well on the Switch 2, delivering smooth performance whether you’re playing docked or in handheld mode. Frame rate drops are minimal across both games, keeping the action fluid and making the transition from the TV to the portable screen a comfortable one.

The Bright Lord stands tall as a modern protagonist who can rival even the finest warriors we’ve met over the years, and is probably going to occupy a corner of our minds forever thanks to how memorable he makes his time in Mordor.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch 2.

"The driving sensation in NASCAR 26 is the star."

If there’s one thing I can immediately say, it’s that the driving sensation in NASCAR 26 is the star. And, for me, its balancing demands led to a more profound state of mind where I found joy in repeating the same process lap after lap. Across oval and tri-oval layouts especially, when my tyres felt locked in the groove, I entered an unblinking flowstate.

My driving was rarely perfect, with NASCAR’s characteristically round circuits scrutinising imperfections harder than more traditional tracks. An unsettled entry pushes you wide of the apex; getting back on the throttle too quickly compromises your exit; a millisecond’s over-aggression on the brake pedal leaves you fighting to recover the racing line. So yes, while you’re invariably chasing perfection across fifty, seventy, even a hundred-plus laps, rarely do you reach it. The trick, instead, is in how you keep things smooth and steady without over-correcting.

So, like real-life then, are NASCAR 26’s constant micro-adjustments. And, reinforcing this is the game’s refined tyre model – coming as a follow-up to NASCAR 25’s substantial rework – with iRacing Studios doubling the number of tuning parameters while decoupling lateral and longitudinal force. The result is a car that responds more convincingly to the competing demands of acceleration, braking, cornering, and drafting, so even minor inputs can prove significant, and you’ll feel their impact immediately on the track.

However, it did take some extensive controller recalibration to get there. Initially, I found the default settings far too responsive, particularly on the straights where the smallest steering corrections sent the car zigzagging across the track like I was drinking behind the wheel. Braking presented a similar problem, with the delta between left trigger and in-game application feeling noticeably delayed. If I missed a braking point in training, I’d prefer it was down to my moderate skillset rather than something calibrated directly into the game.

Fortunately, to remedy this – and perhaps aware that the default settings won’t suit everyone – NASCAR 26 ships with a suite of controller parameters, allowing you to adjust dead zones, steering non-linearity, speed sensitivity, damping, and braking response. After copious experimentation I found a calibration that softened the straightline skittishness, so I was able to engage with the car’s behaviour while establishing a sense of weight that was strangely absent before my extensive fine-tuning.

"NASCAR 26 ships with a suite of controller parameters, allowing you to adjust dead zones, steering non-linearity, speed sensitivity, damping, and braking response."

And while the controller’s calibration options were explained in the menu, the same can’t be said for your vehicle’s setup systems. Spring rates, bump and rebound, tyre pressures, sway bars, brake bias; all can be adjusted but the game didn’t explain what any of these parameters actually do. So, while I often like to tinker with my vehicle setup in other racers, I don’t retain the numerical knowledge to understand how to glean extra performance out of my machine. Here, I needed guidance, but the game doesn’t provide it. As a result, I stuck to the much simpler tight-or-loose presets knowing that I’d otherwise have been able to tame my car’s handling beyond controller calibration if, for instance, I knew which camber setting to choose.

Still, when everything eventually clicked, and when I wasn’t wrestling with the controls, the patient pursuit for precision indeed became meditative. NASCAR 26 achieves something remarkable in that the repetition of oval racing doesn’t feel like repetition at all. More like a mindful exercise in continually trying to get the next lap closer to perfect.

NASCAR 26’s attempts at authenticity go beyond reactive car handling. iRacing Studios has worked alongside NASCAR for generations, and that relationship is evident in the game’s attempts to recreate the ritual of a race weekend. The broadcast presentation, branding, trackside atmosphere, and visual spectacle aim to make each event feel like a genuine broadcast, but the overall feeling isn’t especially electric. New smoke, particle effects, dynamic lighting, and cockpit interiors add to the occasion, while the addition of burnouts brings some welcome personality to celebrating a victory.

Authenticity stretches to Peak Performance too, a training mode that puts Jamie McMurray in your ear while you observe useful visual markers around each circuit. Signs, cones, and advertising decals are taught as reference points for braking, turn-in, and throttle, and eventually you stop following the coloured racing line altogether in favour of reading the track. For a newcomer, this mode is an excellent way to learn the language of NASCAR.

And, Peak Performance’s bitesize track guides become the first step toward circuit mastery. Bristol, with its claustrophobic concrete and relentless cornering is like pressure-cooked NASCAR, demanding a different rhythm to the blistering straights of Indianapolis or the drafting battles of Daytona and Talladega. Pocono, meanwhile, rewards experimentation across its unusually wide tarmac, where multiple racing lines produce different approaches to a corner.

Yet, NASCAR’s road and street courses don’t offer the same rewards. On Watkins Glen, Sonoma Raceway, or San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado the heavy stock cars became clumsy, difficult to position, and prone to bumps and paint swapping. The reason for this, I feel, is the game’s handling model, which is favourably tuned for ovals over traditional track layouts. The experience was less convincing as a result, where precision gave way to crude racing.

Street racing in NASCAR 26 masked tyre degradation, too, which has grown in importance this year. At Indianapolis, I felt the car becoming less stable on corner entry as my tyres deteriorated, with my pace gradually falling away. Then, after fitting fresh rubber, the difference was dramatic, with me able to blast past multiple opponents on a single straightaway. Deciding when to pit, then, is more than a matter of maintenance, with strategic implications whether you opt to preserve track position or pit early for a late performance advantage.

Fuel consumption adds another consideration, forcing you to balance outright pace against how long you can remain on track. The thing with tyre degradation in this game, though, is that the performance differences are perhaps too pronounced. In Pocono, I opted to stay out for a couple of laps whilst my rivals pitted, only to find myself with too much ground to recover on the leader when I’d finally had my stop. Back in Indianapolis, I carved through the field too easily on an offset strategy. The problem here, though, was that I was a lap down after a pitstop blunder.

"Authenticity stretches to Peak Performance too, a training mode that puts Jamie McMurray in your ear while you observe useful visual markers around each circuit."

While the effects of old rubber are easy to measure, NASCAR 26’s new Dynamic Track feature is more difficult because its influence never felt particularly obvious during my play though. Conceptually, I’m compelled; as rubber builds on the circuit, the optimal racing line widens and encourages you to search for new grooves.

I certainly saw AI drivers moving higher as races progressed, but I rarely felt the need to change my own approach. Any performance drop-off or enhancement always felt to me like conventional tyre degradation rather than a track-wide evolution. Perhaps it’s deliberately subtle, but either way I’d prefer Dynamic Track to impose itself more forcefully during races.

Similarly, the distinctions between NASCAR 26’s four series were hard to parse. Shared between Cup, O’Reilly, Trucks, and ARCA are the same driving characteristics, although ARCA’s notably slower pace makes it a less enticing experience. There are differences in speed and braking behaviour, with Trucks, for example, able to full-throttle round Nashville while O’Reilly cars need to lift before cornering like their Cup counterparts, but these distinctions aren’t pronounced enough to alter how you approach a race. Jumping between series felt like a cosmetic novelty rather than an opportunity to learn a new discipline.

Elsewhere, career mode gives NASCAR 26 a place to earn progression, beginning with a humble ARCA season and gradually building towards the higher tiers of the sport. Good performance earns reputation which unlocks better sponsorship deals and money-making opportunities, while conventional income can be spent on repairs, car upgrades, and improving your team’s facilities. It’s a pleasing, if admittedly mild, ecosystem, where longer-term strategic depth takes time to reveal itself. Early decisions feel immediate, but the prospect of investing in your operation gives every dollar a purpose. The downside, however, will vary between players; repairs can become expensive, particularly if you’ve a habit of rear-ending your opposition. Resources are quickly stretched, meaning partial repairs and safer driving habits become the optimal way to eventually fund performance upgrades, new staff, and team development.

Outside Career, NASCAR 26 offers a modest selection of ways to experience its racing. The Chase provides a standalone postseason competition, allowing you to enter as one of sixteen drivers in a playoff encompassing ten rounds without committing to a full season beforehand.

Paint kit, meanwhile, provides extensive scope for customising your own liveries, while various quick race formats – each modifiable by race length, tyre wear and fuel consumption rates, and more, giving you a swift way to get back behind the wheel. None of these modes change the driving experience, but they provide useful alternatives to Career’s multi-season progression.

"Outside Career, NASCAR 26 offers a modest selection of ways to experience its racing."

So, in summary, NASCAR 26 surprised me. As someone coming to NASCAR with more experience of traditional circuit racing, I expected the endless ovals to feel repetitive. Instead, I found myself obsessing over incremental improvements; carrying a fraction more speed into corners, finding the fastest line, feathering the throttle a little more carefully. Like I said at the outset: NASCAR 26, for the most part, nails its driving model, making precision driving feel rewarding in a way few racing games manage.

That said, the game isn’t without its shortcomings. Dynamic Track never felt as influential as I expected, and the four series don’t feel sufficiently distinct to justify their inclusion (beyond simply providing multiple tiers to progress through during Career mode).

Extensive controller recalibration meant I had to work for my immersion, but once I’d sussed out the right settings for me the patience, aggression, and precision that make stock car racing so distinctive emerged. It isn’t a flawless simulation by any means, but after countless laps chasing the perfect line, I’ve come away from NASCAR 26 with a better understanding of why this particular brand of racing can be so hypnotic.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.

Basic or Expert controls

Along with the difficulty options, the first choice presented to players is whether they want to go with a simplified “Basic” control scheme, or if they would prefer the “Expert” controls which offer a lot more freedom of gameplay. While the Basic option might seem preferable to those new to the franchise, it’s difficult to recommend due to how heavily it hampers your general maneuverability during intense dogfights. Rather, regardless if your experience level, I would heavily recommend going with the Expert option, since even the finer controls it offers begin to feel quite intuitive after spending just a few minutes of gameplay.

Unlock as many Parts as possible

While the Aircraft Tree has plenty of juicy new jets and weapons to unlock, having a large arsenal of Parts is just as important, and can play a surprisingly major role in making your preferred jet feel even better. Having as many Parts unlocked as you possibly can also goes a long way in boosting the capabilities of certain weapons or aircrafts, making even otherwise boring-looking choices start feeling a lot more enjoyable.

Don’t be afraid to repeat levels to grind for currency

Since there are more than 30 jets to unlock throughout the Aircraft Tree, along with extra weapons for each, a variety of Parts, and even the need to buy extra jets for your squad mates, you might find yourself going broke quite frequently. To counter this, don’t be afraid to repeat missions you’ve already completed. While you won’t get the first-time completion reward for repeated playthroughs, successfully completing missions that offer opportunities for high scores will still end up giving you more MGP than you’ll know what to do with, making the idea of unlocking that F-22A Raptor a less daunting prospect than it initially seemed.

Go deeper (not wider) into the Aircraft Tree

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve offers plenty of options for unlockable jets and Parts right off the bat, between bombers, dogfighting specialists, and even stealth jets. However, it is worth keeping in mind that going deeper along the tree can often give you the chance to unlock much stronger jets and Parts. If you want the best Sukhoi, for example, you should focus on going along the MiG and Sukhoi line along the bottom of the tree rather than divert your attention with the Mirage or F-16 in the tree’s other parts. Similarly, if you want that F-22A, stick to the top path, only spreading your MGP spending around if you need to get some other Parts along the way.

Master the High-G Turn

Missions throughout Wings of Theve, especially once you get deeper into the campaign, can often be harrowing experiences thanks to the sheer number of targets you have to deal with while also avoiding things like homing missiles, difficult terrain, and agile enemy jets. One of the most important tools you have to deal with these situation is the High-G turn. Pulled off by hitting break and accelerate together while pitching your jet up or down, the High-G turn allows you to quickly turn around by sacrificing a bit of speed. As you will quickly learn, the High-G turn is an invaluable technique that is bound to save your life just as often as it gives you new openings to take out some enemies.

Clouds can be your biggest enemies

The impressive cloud tech used for Ace Combat 8 has also led to the unfortunate side effect of making clouds even more difficult to see through, which in turn makes fighting and flying through them quite challenging. Aside from effects like icing up your jet or reducing the homing capabilities of your missiles, clouds can also just simply be disorientating, and even I ended up suffering from many crashes because I couldn’t see an incoming mountain while flying through stormy weather.

Clouds can also be your best friends

On the flip side, however, clouds can also prove to be quite useful, especially in longer missions against enemy jet squadrons. Many of the effects you are forced to suffer when flying through clouds also apply to your enemies, which means that not only can you get the drop on your targets by sneaking through cloud cover, their offensive capabilities are also reduced due to missiles losing much of their homing capabilities.

Utilize your squadron

The squadmates in Ace Combat games have traditionally been fairly useless, opting to simply fly around and offer the enemies targets besides yourself. However, Wings of Theve goes a long way in making them useful by giving you four distinct commands that they can execute on: focused attacks, dispersed attacks, use of SP weapons, and cover. The last two tend to be especially useful during frantic battles since they can effectively use their more powerful-yet-limited weapons to help you complete objectives, and can cover your rear so enemies don’t sneak up behind you and take you down with a couple of missiles.

Accelerating all the time is a bad idea

Speed control is an important aspect of gameplay in Ace Combat 8, and just slamming the throttle down to the max is far from the best idea. While speed can be quite useful, especially when you’re trying to chase down a fleeing enemy jet, you’ll need to decelerate just as often, since it can be quite easy to overshoot your target and find yourself needing to make a sharp turn to target them again. This becomes especially useful when dealing with some of the boss encounters, since slowing down to stay behind your target can often yield better results by giving you more time to shoot them down than simply zipping by them would.

Not all jets can take off from everywhere

One of the hardest lessons I learned about haphazardly unlocking a cool new jet that I was hoping to use in subsequent missions was that it could only launch off an actual airfield with a runway, and the next few missions took off from an carrier. This meant that I had to go through quite a few missions before finally getting to fly that F-16 I had been waiting for. Keep this in mind when being excited to unlock a new jet, since the Aircraft Tree clearly denotes whether a jet can take off from a carrier, and you can avoid suffering through this heartache during your own playthrough of the campaign.

Mission briefings are important

Along with sprinkling in details about the overall lore of the Strangereal and the current geopolitical happenings, mission briefings play an incredibly vital role in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve since you don’t really get much guidance on what you’re supposed to do once you’ve sortied. Paying attention to the mission briefings is incredibly vital for any potential ace pilot, since you also don’t get any mid-mission log that tells you what your objectives are going to be, and the briefings also provide some hints about what kinds of unique challenges you can expect in any given mission.

Multi-target Missiles are Very Situational

While multi-target missiles tend to look incredibly cool, especially when you are able to hit 8 enemies with a single pull of the trigger, they also tend to be quite situational owing to the fact that you never really get multi-target missiles that can target ground and aerial opponents; you’ll have to pick between one and the other, which massively brings down its general utility in some missions where, for instance, you need to destroy some SAM sites. For more general-purpose SP weapons, high-velocity missiles or bombs tend to make more sense, since any gaps left in your offensive capabilities can be filled in with your standard missiles.

Standard missiles are your most versatile weapons

Speaking of which, standard missiles will be your bread-and-butter weapons throughout Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Not only can they be used on aerial and ground targets, you also won’t be running out of them over the course of a typical mission. If you do happen to run out, standard missiles slowly regenerate over time. They might not be as flashy as a railgun or multi-target missiles that can hit eight jets at the same time, but what they lack in flair they more than make up for in being reliable.

Tailor your jet’s Parts to the mission’s needs

Aside from picking your SP weapons, the biggest decisions you tend to make before sortieing into a mission tends to be your jet’s parts. Depending on your aircraft, you get a number of slots to fill on across body, weapons, and miscellaneous categories, giving you plenty of freedom to focus on certain aspects of your jets and weapons. The Parts you choose can also help shore up gaps in your offensive capabilities by, for example, improving the damage of your bombs or allowing you to carry more standard missiles for particularly long missions. While sticking to a single Parts loadout might seem more convenient, tailoring your choices to the needs of the mission will help you get through your objectives and get high scores for that coveted S ranking more reliably.

Jets being expensive doesn’t mean they’re the best

While standard progression logic would indicate that the jets at the far right of the Aircraft Tree might be the best ones in the game, it is worth noting that they still tend to have their own pros and cons. Since each jet can only equip certain SP weapons, you might find yourself missing out on bombing or rocket capabilities despite flying your high-end Sukhoi or F-22A. Aside from balance considerations, this also helps to ensure that your older aircrafts never really fall out of favor, since you might end up going back to a more basic F-16 just because it offers better handling at medium speeds than the F-22A.

Aside from collectibles, documents and recordings, there’s a lot to discover in the city. Without further ado, let’s dive into 15 things to do after finishing the story, starting with the most obvious goal…

Defeat all the Resonants

It may only become obvious after defeating the Dancer and the Deserter Resonants, but you can pretty easily skip several of the others (not quite comfortably, given how good their abilities can be, but still). In fact, unless you take the time to explore the Underpass and the final zone, the final two Resonants might not even be all that obvious. So what better way to leverage a more powerful Dylan than to clean them up and unlock their abilities?

The Command Ability

You’ll especially want to take out the Resonant in the Unknown, since this unlocks an ability that – unlike all the others – is always available. Command doesn’t use Power – instead, it relies on charges and can be used to convert an enemy to your side. Did I say “an enemy”? I mean, any enemy, even the larger Hiss and Mold running around and making life miserable. If that wasn’t enough, the remaining 25 percent (probably more) of the Talent tree is built exclusively to take advantage of Command, so you can build into it pretty easily.

Fully Upgrade Aberrant

While you’re at it, look into upgrading all the different Aberrant Forms and Finishers. You can fully master a few Primary and Secondary Forms through the main story and side questing, but unlocking all the Finishers will require going out of your way. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile, especially considering their perks, whether it’s extra Falter dealt by uppercutting fools, igniting enemies with the Split Pivot, and so on.

The “Secret Organization”

The Federal Bureau of Control isn’t the only clandestine organization in the city. In fact, another, referred to as the “secret organization,” is busy keeping tabs on the FBC, at least to the best of its abilities. They have several hideouts throughout, but accessing them requires completing different puzzles, whether it’s activating appliances in a coffee shop from smallest to largest or turning on washing machines based on a number grid. Even if the lore doesn’t intrigue, they’re well worth completing for the Power and Health upgrades.

Dylan’s Sketches

Bet you never guessed that our boy, Dylan, was an artist. His muse? Almost anything, really, but you’ll need to correctly place the props first. From cats enjoying a picnic to properly organizing art gallery exhibits, you’ll know the placements are correct when he affirms them and can sketch peacefully. And lo and behold, the drawings themselves aren’t half-bad.

Complete the Arcade Machine Challenges

While leveling up the zones, you’ll inevitably spot arcade cabinet icons here and there. If the zone’s rank is high enough, interacting will take you to a separate instance with a unique challenge, from surviving a never-ending onslaught of enemies in shrinking zones to playing Domination solo, protecting three points of interest. Besides the high scores and bragging rights, they award Power upgrades and even cosmetics. If nothing else, they’re also a great place to push your build to its limit.

Complete all World Feats

You’ll clear World Feats in different zones to improve your Build Power and even farm the Source required for goods, including materials, whether you’re aware or not. Denoted by small white icons, these range from Apex Hunts, where you’ll battle a challenging Elite enemy, to Air Drops that require some platforming to interact with. Completing them also levels up the zone, which is a great way to unlock more bonuses like increased Source, health drops and even a chest detector.

Complete all FBC Board requests

Another means to farm Source is by helping out the FBC with requests, often found on notice boards in each zone. You’ll probably complete some of them without even knowing it, and while they can be fairly bog-standard – like clearing out hostiles or helping escort some Rangers – they’ll still award a healthy amount of Source.

The Last Taxi

A sentient taxi that takes you to an alternate dimension where you communicate with a lost traveller by payphone? Sounds like a Remedy game, for sure. There’s a taxi for each zone, and as you progress, the conditions for exiting the threshold become more varied, such as shining a floodlight to discern the correct taxi or picking the odd one out based on their flashing lights. Fair warning, though: There’s no reward. It’s just the inherent nature of the puzzles that make them worth investigating.

Contain the Altered Camera

Encountered fairly early on as part of the side quest “Freeze Frame,” the Altered Camera will essentially take your photo, suspending you in place for a short period, and then teleport away. Containing it involves sneaking up behind without getting spotted and interacting with it. Which is easier said than done, since you’ll need different traversal abilities

Complete the Testing Facility Puzzles

Throughout Manhattan are abandoned FBC Testing Facilities that were conducting some paranatural experiments, whether it’s objects that change shape depending on where you’re standing or transferring charge between pylons in hot potato-esque fashion. Besides the rewards, it’s worth taking the time to wrap all of them up – the puzzles themselves serve as an excellent break from the combat and exploration.

Find All Artifacts

As unexciting as they may feel in the opening hours, Artifacts can actually become pretty build-defining as you venture further along. And while you’ll discover a healthy amount by following the story, it’s worth visiting the vendor in each zone, since it’ll likely have an Artifact to sell, and completing the side quests, which provide them as rewards. And while you’re at it…

Finishing All Side Quests

Honestly, you might as well. Besides the taxi and Altered Camera questlines that span the entire game, there are side quests with multiple parts like Carbon Copy, which involves reuniting twin sisters, or the curious case of the Altered Speaker, which involves tracking down an entire set. Several of these award Artifacts and offer interesting lore to boot.

Fully Leveling All Zones

If you’re truly hurting for something to do at this point, then try maxing out a zone’s rank. It may seem daunting at first, but completing requests, side quests, and World Feats will make it fly by. Besides, you’ll also unlock new World Feats, which further help with the process.

New Game Plus

Once everything has been more or less wrapped up, you can enter New Game Plus by going to The Gap and interacting with the mural of Resonant abilities. Your traversal abilities and map progress are reset, but you’ll keep all the Aberrant upgrades, abilities, cosmetics and stat upgrades. Enemies are significantly tougher in NG+, and bosses even have new attacks, but you’ll also have a fourth Artifact slot to help even the odds. And if that’s not enough, the Board may have some interesting remarks to share when unlocking new abilities from the same Resonant.

Enter: Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel set 14 years before the events of the first game that brings back classic duo Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, returns to the more grounded tone of the series’ earlier entries, and evolves the series’ tried-and-true formula with several interesting changes and additions. The result? A Gears of War game that is not only well worth the long wait preceding it, but also ranks as one of the series’ best outings in years.

E-Day tells the story of Emergence Day, the day that the Locust Horde emerged from beneath the ground and laid waste to the planet of Sera, launching a global, years-long war that would destroy much of the planet and claim countless lives. Marcus Fenix returns as the primary protagonist for the first time since the end of the original trilogy, while Dom, too, returns as the secondary protagonist. In more ways than one, Gears of War: E-Day attempts to recapture the magic of the series’ earlier days.

"As much as I loved E-Day’s campaign, and as much as I do think there are things to appreciate in the story, I feel the narrative department is one of the game’s weaker areas."

As much as I loved E-Day’s campaign, and as much as I do think there are things to appreciate in the story, I feel the narrative department is one of the game’s weaker areas. On one hand, as a longtime Gears fan, I absolutely adored seeing Marcus and Dom take centerstage again.

From Marcus’ gruff attitude and his classic, grumpy one-liners to the strong, brotherly bond that he shares with Dom, everything about the duo and their dynamic that was special in the original trilogy works remarkably well here as well, especially if you’re coming into the game with a pre-existing fondness for the series and the characters. Granted, the game’s writing can still be a little spotty at times, with more than a few moments of flat dialogue or character interactions that just don’t land, but overall, there’s a lot to like here for veteran series fans.

That said, not everything E-Day’s story tries lands well. Its attempts to ground Marcus with yet more past trauma feel largely uninteresting, especially given the fact that the series has already gone through those same beats and arcs in the past (and much more effectively, I might add). Similarly, Dom’s arc feels like a series of missed opportunities, in that it feels like he barely even has one. His shared past with Marcus does have some part to play in the story, as you might expect, but for the most part, Dom feels like he is barely involved in the story in any meaningful way.

"As a longtime Gears fan, I absolutely adored seeing Marcus and Dom take centerstage again."

Perhaps that is down to the fact that E-Day spends significant chunks of its campaign trying to get players to invest in its two main new additions – both of whom are admittedly great characters. There’s Mags Carter, a former Gears who wrestles with a respiratory disease and with disillusionment with the government she once served even as is thrown back into the fray on Emergence Day.

Then there’s Lucas Reyes, a nervous yet well-meaning rookie who could have easily been a forgettable trope, but actually turns out to be an endearing and likeable personality. Both new characters are solid additions to the Gears cast, and have no issues standing right alongside Marcus and Dom as E-Day’s core group. In fact, I would even say that Mags in particular probably has the best and most interesting arc in the game – even if it sometimes does feel a tad half-baked.

What works far better for Gears of War: E-Day than its enjoyable but inconsistent storytelling is its setting. The entirety of the game is set across just a couple of disastrous nights in the city of Kalona, and it works spectacularly on multiple levels. For starters, conceptually, I personally love that level of narrative focus. E-Day is a hugely important day in Gears lore, so getting to see it all pan out with this level of detail and attention is massively exciting for series fans- and this game does great justice to that concept. You get to see the horrific, destructive effects of Emergence Day across an entirely, densely populated city in real time, and it is incredible.

A thriving, active urban location isn’t something that we’ve ever seen in a Gears game before, so it’s an absolute joy to not only see it here, but also see it get obliterated in horrifying ways across the length of the campaign.

That setting is also what allows E-Day to bring back some of the horror vibes that were such an important part of the older Gears of War games, making for more than a few moments laced with palpable dread and atmosphere as you walk through dimly lit corridors or devastating scenes of ruin and destruction. Don’t get me wrong, this is still very much a bombastic action game, but like the series’ earlier outings, it does feel much more grounded and, at times, horror-tinged.

"What works far better for Gears of War: E-Day than its enjoyable but inconsistent storytelling is its setting."

Kalona also serves as a great setting for Gears of War: E-Day from a design perspective. Not too long into the campaign, the game opens up and lets you lose in the city, adopting a semi-open world approach. Where Gears 5 let players traverse larger, open-ended maps, E-Day instead zooms in and delivers a smaller but denser and more deliberately designed location. It’s a much better fit for the Gears gameplay loop- the city is a wide-linear environment with plenty of room for exploration and optional content, but being a packed, urban environment, it retains the tight, linear, claustrophobic design that always works best for the franchise.

Exploring the city is, for the most part, quite enjoyable, with plenty of side missions, collectibles, and more to distract you from the critical path. That said, though the city’s design does make exploration fun, the actual optional content you find isn’t always as consistently impressive. There are some solid side missions to be found for sure, but for the most part, they lack narrative weight or any unique design ideas, and instead end up being rote combat encounters- with a couple of exceptions here and there.

Thankfully, the actual act of moving about and navigating the city always remains fun, thanks in large part to Gears of War: E-Day’s new and improved movement mechanics. Gears characters have always had a distinct, heavy feel to their movement, and that, of course, is something that E-Day very much retains, though it does also introduce new movement options that improve things in significant ways. Players can climb and vault over ledges and obstacles, jump at any time, slide under gaps, use low ground cover, and more, as a result of which moment-to-moment movement now feels faster, more agile, and more dynamic than it ever has in a Gears of War game.

As you would expect, that elevates the game in more ways than one. For starters, level design in E-Day is top notch. It boasts more verticality than we’ve ever seen in a Gears game to date, which, of course, is perfectly suited for E-Day’s urban setting. Meanwhile, combat and encounter design also benefit hugely from the improved movement mechanics. Those, of course, are areas where Gears of War games have always excelled, but with enhanced movement and more complex, layered, and vertical level design, E-Day boasts perhaps some of the best encounter design in the entire series.

That, in fact, is what I would say is this campaign’s biggest strength. It is superbly paced, and like all the best Gears campaigns, knows how to keep ramping things up. From excellent set pieces and high-octane boss fights to tense combat encounters and thrilling on-rails sequences, it keeps finding ways to make its combat mechanics and level design shine.

"Thankfully, the actual act of moving about and navigating the city always remains fun"

The fact that it doesn’t run out of steam throughout the length of its dozen hour-long campaign, which, of course, is also punctuated with plenty of excellent cutscenes, heartfelt and intimate character moments, moments of levity, and more, is testament to how well paced it is. All of that only serves to highlight the inconsistencies with the writing that much more, because if The Coalition had the writing chops of the likes of, say, Naughty Dog or even IO Interactive with 007: First Light, it could have turned out an even more memorable experience.

Meanwhile, E-Day makes changes to the Gears gameplay experience in other ways as well, specifically with the introduction of build customization options. Each weapon now has several mod slots, which you can also equip armour mods to beef up your defenses, and tactical mods, which are essentially abilities working on a cooldown. Weapon mods can often provide legitimately useful perks, such as chainsaw executions that grant automatic perfect reloads, while tactical abilities can change up the action in some interesting ways as well. All told, customization options are fairly limited, but I do appreciate the small level of agency and variation they add to the combat- while scouring environments to find mods is also always fun.

Weapons themselves feel typically excellent. Every shot feels weighty and impactful, and of course, there still is nothing that is quite as satisfactory as the feeling of that perfect active reload. Both new and returning weapons shine in their own ways, and throughout the campaign, I found more than a few that I fell in love with- from the trusty chainsaw Lancer and classic Hammerburst to the deadly Torque bow, the explosive new Gut-puncher, and many others. Combined with the new dynamic movement and the excellently designed combat arenas, the weapons and core combat mechanics of E-Day make every single firefight you get into an absolute blast.

Typically for the franchise, the game is also a visual and technical beast. E-Day uses a visual pallet that harkens back to the war-torn, browned out urban landscapes of the original trilogy, while still managing to boast the visual and artistic variety that they so sorely lacked.

"It is superbly paced, and like all the best Gears campaigns, knows how to keep ramping things up."

Environments are obsessively detailed, characters boast incredible, lifelike designs and animations, enemy designs are typically excellent for a Gears of War game, while, as mentioned earlier, the game also excels at visual depictions of widespread urban destruction and slaughter. Make no mistake, there’s no shortage of jaw-dropping moments and visuals here. There are times when E-Day stutters a little bit with its frame rate (I played mostly in performance mode on an Xbox Series X), but by and large, it’s every bit the visual and technical marvel you would expect a Gears of War game to be.

Gears of War: E-Day delivers all the things you would want first and foremost from a Gears experience in spades- blood, guts, explosions, and high-octane action. Its storytelling and writing can feel a bit inconsistent, but even so, it manages to deliver one of the series’ best-paced and most enjoyable campaigns in years.

New movement mechanics and encounter design in particular help the series’ excellent fundamental combat mechanics shine brighter than ever, while Kalona also serves as a great semi-open world-slash-wide linear setting, even if its optional content offerings aren’t always up to the mark. All said and done, Gears of War: E-Day is an excellent new outing for the series, and one of its stronger entries in many years.

This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.