Soul Calibur VI

The last entry I played in this series was II.

Now, 15 years later, the gameplay is still the same, as I realize that the move sets of characters are identical and embody them.

Soul Calibur VI brings back the fan favourite characters, and the franchise is no stranger to guest characters, as so far, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher and 2B from NieR: Automata have arrived.

My favourite remains Yoshimitsu, a character who is well known for appearing in both Soul Calibur and Tekken as a combatant.

The meat is of course the (online) multiplayer, and so far, I’ve had frantic trash talking evenings with some of my buddies, cursing the special moves, the ring outs and “doing the same thing over and over”.

Soul Calibur VI is everything positive I remember from II, and it's a good thing that the fighting genre is still so much alive and kicking.

Rating: 8.2

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

A lesser continuation than Rise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider sees Lara in another new setting; this time set in the Peruvian jungle where an apocalypse is about to happen and a hidden city needs to be saved before it gets remade, or outside forces occupy it.

The gameplay and features are still intact, such as challenge tombs, puzzles, gunplay and climbplay, but the overall plot and narration are less interesting, despite that I enjoyed playing this with a high frame rate mode being available on my PlayStation 4 Pro.

Again, Jonah is the only returning supporting cast, and Trinity also returns with new leads to keep Lara busy, while tribal creatures are also involved. Aside from the subtitles having different colors per characters like previous entries, you can also set the voice acting to native, dubbed, or overlapping.

It's also gorgeous to look at it's environments such as the mountains and the water effects, and it seems that any modern video game nowadays has a a camera, or a selfie mode. What's up with that trend?

Rating: 8.2

Splatoon 2

I didn't completely review Splatoon three and a half years ago because of the lack of content back then, but then again, at the last paragraph, I did give it a summary, as afterwards only more content in the form of weapons, stages and clothes was introduced, so the rating stands for me.

As I am catching up to the Nintendo Switch's current library, Splatoon 2 stands before me. Is it a worthy sequel? One thing is for sure; Nintendo fixed the content, even upon release, as the single player has grown, and there are more online modes.

The campaign is yet another fun one to play, as one of the squid sisters is missing, Agent 4 is tasked with getting through the Octovarian army in 5 sections. Weapons are introduced, while enemies and obstacles will keep you busy.

New announcers Pearl and Martina will keep you occupied whenever you start up the game, while the shopkeepers seem to be the same ones returning. New songs, weapons, stages and splashy colours are also included.

The online multiplayer remains the meat of Splatoon 2, as Turf War and ranked matches return to give you matchmaking, leveling up statistics and early on lets you unlock more nifty weapons with their own nifty abilities.

Equipment with passive features also returns, and local multiplayer is also available. The numerous weapons and abilities to use keeps the replay value high when combined with the matchmaking, and I simply love how the matches only take a few minutes, and yet you keep want to play a few more matches after each one.

Splatoon 2 is a liquified inky sequel, with enough content to keep you returning, and it's great for a few rounds of playtime as a pick up and play kind of game.

Rating: 8.4