In this rundown, we’ll discuss the best games right now part 17 you can play on your Xbox One (X), PlayStation 4 (Pro), and Nintendo Switch this fall. In this overview you will find Mafia: Definitive Edition, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and Project Cars 3.
Best Games Right Now – Part 17 – Mafia Definitive Edition
Mafia Definitive Edition is a remake of Mafia, a game that came out eighteen years ago. But it is not just a remake. Many aspects have been rebuilt and that makes for a pleasant experience. Mafia offers a romanticized glimpse of organized crime at the height of Prohibition, a time in the United States when alcohol was declared illegal, allowing enterprising businessmen like Don Salieri to save the thirsty with a welcome product.
Tommy Angelo enters this life by being the right person in the wrong place as his taxi driver skills are forcibly recruited by a mafioso couple trying to escape a gunfight. Very little has changed in Mafia’s design and gameplay formula. Hangar 13 has provided a perfect recreation of Lost Heaven and given it a beautiful new coat of paint. And fortunately we see that in all kinds of facets of the video game,
The power of modern hardware (let’s face it, this generation is still powerful) breathes new life into the more dramatic environments and cutscenes through excellent weather and lighting effects that bring out the best in the most memorable sets. The images also extend to the cast of characters. For the remake, the cast enjoys super facial animations. With some of the lesser characters you still see a bit of the old game, but all in all you can clearly see that a lot of time has been spent on this.
The remake also takes great advantage of the modern gameplay mechanics of third-person action games. The game has a good cover system, analog aiming and easier chases. As you race down the road avoiding cops or mafia goons you can navigate to special map markers that lead to small construction zones that you can pass through and leave your pursuers behind. Shooting at vehicles is also made easier thanks to a fine, automatic aiming system.
Best Games Right Now – Part 17 – Watch Dogs Legion
The Watch Dogs series now consists of three open world games in which you are active as a hacker. You can access the personal information of people on the street and influence all kinds of things, on state and in buildings. For example, you can disrupt traffic in various ways, by controlling cars remotely, and taking over security cameras and more. Where part one took itself a little too seriously and part two threw it overboard, we see a different approach in Watch Dogs Legion.
In Watch Dogs Legion, there is not one main protagonist. You start with any character and you are tasked with building the organization DedSec from then on, in the fight against multiple enemy groups. including Albion. You build that up by recruiting people on the street. You can really snag all npc’s (non-player characters) for your goal, making them playable. After recruiting you can switch to other team members. Everyone has their own skills.
And for all kinds of missions and challenges, you need the qualities of different team members. One is good with drones, the other hacks very quickly, another has a unique weapon, then someone with his own vehicle, et cetera. The gameplay possibilities aren’t endless, but it feels like it. It is also very cool to be able to switch all the time, since it feels like you are really working from the shadows and undermining the established order with Jan with the cap.
So there is little to complain about in terms of gameplay. In addition, the controls also work well and that switching between characters does not negatively affect the gameplay. They often use the same weapons and skills and the unique possibilities are also on the same buttons. What is holding back Watch Dogs Legion is a superficial story and some technical flaws. They are so noticeable that it sometimes disturbs, but hopefully those problems will disappear when the next-gen upgrade is available.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
In Best Games Right Now – Part 17 next is Crash Bandicoot 4. If you used to have a PlayStation, chances were you had one of the three (mainline) Crash Bandicoot games. These were cool platform games with quite a challenge, a cool atmosphere and distinctive graphics. Along with Spyro the Dragon, Crash was synonymous with PlayStation platformers. Over time, many more games have appeared in the series, but none of those titles really matched the trilogy. Now an official fourth volume has been released. Not by the original makers, but by the trilogy remasters.
And that part is called Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. You can immediately see from the title that there is humor in the game. It refers to the fact that we had to wait more than twenty years for the fourth part and that this time we travel through time and dimensions. You come to all kinds of different places that have nothing to do with each other, but that introduce all kinds of cool gameplay elements. This involves new elements, such as hanging from lianas, grinding on rails or running over the wall. It is a deepening of the well-known gameplay.
In addition, this time there are different masks that have a lot of influence on the game, without really adjusting the core. So you can reverse gravity or slow down time. All masks are meant to overcome the new challenges and in our opinion they are a great addition to the franchise. Crash Bandicoot 4 also has a modern element of outfits, which you can unlock by collecting diamonds and other things. Don’t worry, luckily there are no microtransactions in this video game.
Over the years, a number of new games have appeared in the series. While those games may still have been fun somewhere, they failed to transfer the core of a Crash Bandicoot game to a modern game console. And Toys for Bob, the developer of Crash 4, fortunately succeeded. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is chock-full of cool and beautiful levels, more than enough challenge and shows what the series stands for. In our opinion one of the best games you can play at the moment.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skate 1 + 2
The recently released Skater XL made it painfully clear once again that skateboarding is not easy to convert into a video game. Developer EA has finally answered fans’ cries for a new part in their series, but it will be years before the new Skate comes out (until then we still have fun with Skate 3 from that publisher, you know). Fortunately, Activision knows how to give an appropriate answer: a re-release of the hugely successful first two parts of Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
The two wildly popular games from 1999 and 2000 put skateboarding on the map for the general public. Suddenly, everyone could shake up the most bizarre tricks, accompanied by smashing punk rock and stylish hip-hop. Many people know Tony Hawk, but you could get started with many more big names. Legendary skaters like Rodney Mullen, Eric Koston and Steve Caballero were smoothly guided as they slide, jump, flip and grind through accessible neighborhoods of New York, Venice Beach and more.
It is therefore special that this new version feels very familiar. Within a few rounds you make the most absurd combinations and you achieve one goal after another. In this completely rebuilt re-release, all levels from the first two games are playable. They have a much more detailed design and therefore look fresh yet recognizable. The nostalgic value is enormous, partly due to the largely returned soundtrack. To renew the whole thing, modern pro skaters, such as Nyjah Huston, have been added.
Also, you can now redeem your hard-earned points for new clothing, boards and tricks in the game store. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 has remained incredibly faithful to the original games. The fact that it is then possible to give the game the same feeling, both in terms of atmosphere, the controls and the soundtrack, is a wonderful achievement. That the game is well received, is evident from the fact that this re-release has become the fastest selling game of the entire Tony Hawk series. Now just hope that this is enough to give THPS 3 and 4 such a deserved remake.
Best Games Right Now – Part 17 -WRC 9
Next in the Best Games Right Now – Part 17 is WRC 9. With the annual release of the official WRC games, developer Kylotonn is taking good steps towards a better rally game every time and the studio has done that again with the ninth release. If you are looking for a good rally sim , WRC 9 is the right place for you. Make no mistake, this is not an arcade game focused on accessibility. You can change the difficulty at will in the settings, but you still have to navigate the cool cars over some of the most demanding off-road tracks from around the world.
This means that the hatchbacks in WRC 9 feel good. Cars now drive as you would expect and they react to the environment and its elements. Steer the cars well, because the elements can surprise you. And that is what makes the gameplay so exciting. The use of color has also improved enormously. While there is no HDR in sight, there are some beautiful vistas nonetheless. Descending the hill into a valley with damp fog is often a beautiful thing. However, not everything is beautiful.
If you look a little further away from the track, you will still see some rough edges. But the cars and the direct track are the most important and they have received a graphical upgrade. The career mode was already cool in the previous game, so not much has changed. You still have to manage your own team on top of driving the rallies. This is cool, but it could do with a nicer finish. A few new rallies have also been added, including Sardinia and Kenya. Especially the latter is a great addition.
It is of course fun to measure your skills against your friends and the world. That’s why all multiplayer modes are back in the game. Think daily, weekly, and monthly events with online leaderboards, multiplayer lobbies and even a new Club mode that lets you rank with your friends in a series of online events. The WRC games get a little better every year and that is the case now. It could all look a bit nicer, but the gameplay, most importantly, feels really good.
Best Games Right Now – Part 17 -Project Cars 3
Next in the Best Games Right Now – Part 17 is Project cars 3. Project Cars raced into the hearts of many racing sim fans a few years ago and Part Two put everything into even higher gear a few years later. With Project Cars 3, Slightly Mad Studios is doing things differently this time, as the racing sim setup gives way to more focus on arcade racing. As long as that goes well, you will think. With this third part, the studio has tried to make a game for a larger audience and they have succeeded. The racing sim style of yesteryear has been replaced for a more arcade feel.
That does not mean that the cars are now very easy to drive, but the difficulty of the previous games has been considerably reduced. This works out well for the larger audience, but the hardcore race fans will have to shed a tear before they can still race. A game called Project Cars of course needs a lot of cars and this third part is fine. You can tear with more than two hundred cars. And new in this part is the ability to upgrade those cars with new parts.
This works well and is fun to do. It is great to always try out a new upgrade on the track. You can really feel the difference. In addition, the cars look even more realistic and sound like never before. In the career mode, which has been spruced up this year with cool challenges that add extra progression, there are now also several events on top of the races. For example, you have to knock over objects on the track for points and also set fast lap times. These are well-developed events and sometimes give you a break from racing.
Marvel’s Avengers – Best Games Right Now – Part 17
Next in the Best Games Right Now – Part 17 is Marvel’s Avengers. Marvel’s Avengers is doing really well in theaters (at least when we were still going to theaters …), and publisher Square Enix is now trying to replicate that success with Marvel’s Avengers for PC, Google Stadia, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It’s a action-packed third-person adventure game with a unique story, an extensive single player and a cooperative multiplayer. Online you play with three other people and choose from one of the growing list of heroes that you can design yourself. The goal: to defend the Earth, of course.
Basically Marvel’s Avengers is a really nice video game. We had a good time with the extensive single player and the fantastic story. But we must also honestly mention that a lot of bugs appeared while playing, for example. Admittedly, a lot of problems have already been fixed thanks to various patches, so it shouldn’t bother you anymore. Another, less satisfying aspect of the game is less easy to solve through patches.
The game lets you perform the same missions for loot over and over again. Nowadays that is no longer strange, but unfortunately the loot is quite meaningless. And that also makes the grind feel meaningless, especially when you notice that the game no longer gives you the fun it did in the beginning. Initially, Marvel’s Avengers feels really nice with all its systems, but over time we notice that it gets boring quickly. You are playing for the sake of playing, not so much for the fun.
At the bottom of the line, Marvel’s Avengers feels like a game with a solid campaign and it’s really nice to play with the heroes. But after the campaign, the gameplay experience collapses a bit and there is not enough to be able to continue playing. And on top of that, while reviewing, there were a lot of performance problems. The Avengers title is a game-as-a-service example of how not to do it, with obvious issues tweaked after launch.
Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles
When Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles came out for the Nintendo GameCube in 2004, it was one of the most interesting titles because of its multiplayer. Not only is it a Final Fantasy RPG with cooperative, offline multiplayer, you also had to use the Gameboy Advance (including the special Link cable for the GameCube) to participate. An expensive, special affair, but not for the people who already owned such a cable and a GBA. Now, sixteen years later, the remaster has been released. Is it still that special?
In any case, the basis is not angry. And that is good and bad news. The story is still the same: you go out to collect a certain type of energy, so that your city remains protected from toxic gas. You can play alone (although the game is not made with that gameplay in mind), but also with two to four friends. The charming art style has also been preserved. Graphically the game of course looks much nicer; but that does not apply to all environmental elements, unfortunately.
In addition, the control has also remained very simple. That is an element that should have been brought to 2020. A simple menu for healing your team members, instead of the current cumbersome implementation, would have saved a lot. Fortunately, the developer has adjusted a number of things. This way you end up in dungeons that are much more difficult, giving old players more than enough reason to go through the (special) story again. Because it just remains a nice game.
The most annoying feature of the new version is that the game can only be played online. And that while offline co-op, gaming together on the couch, was just so cool about the original (and let’s be honest: gaming in general). It is just very unnecessary and therefore feels very sour, especially for the people who have never experienced multiplayer before. Fortunately, there is cross-play, allowing PS4 and Switch owners to play together, for example. If this is not a problem for you, then a nice adventure awaits you.
Best Games Right Now – Part 17 – Ride 4
Developer Milestone is known for the MotoGP games, but the studio also makes its own motorcycle racing game, simply named Ride. We have now reached the fourth in the series and it is better than ever. Where in MotoGP you can of course only race with the MotoGP motorcycles, in Ride you can race with all kinds of motorcycles. From the slowest motorcycles for the road, to the fastest for the track and many in between. And in Ride 4 you will be presented with a nice collection of more than 170 motorcycles.
In the career mode you gradually get more access to cooler tracks and better engines. It’s a big mode with lots of races, but in a possible Ride 5 it could have a little more ‘story’ in it. A racing game stands or falls with the gameplay and how the engines can be controlled. And luckily every Ride game is better than the last so far. The weight shift in the corners feels a lot better and the engines are much more precise in the corners. This does mean that it will be a bit more difficult, but after the shortest time you will soon master it.
In addition, you can make it easier for yourself with many different assists and you can upgrade the bikes with better engines, brakes, exhausts and much more. It is great to mount an Akrapovic or Arrow exhaust on your motorcycle, for example. Not only does it look cool, but it also sounds better. The Ride series has been racing for a number of years and Ride 4 does that much better than its predecessors. Definitely recommended for the racing fan, especially if you like to ride a few legendary motorcycles.
FIFA 21
If you’ve played one FIFA, then you’ve played another. With such a comment you go nice and short, but we can understand why some gamers have taken that position. FIFA games feel like a game with incremental updates: small updates that can make or break a game. But they are the same type of updates that you may not be aware of at all while playing. And then it can be such a nice addition, but if no one really notices – what do you do?
Well, we have seen versions that made us wonder: okay, but what has changed in the gameplay? Fortunately we don’t have that this year. FIFA 21 has received a number of handy adjustments that make the game faster, smoother and more fun than ever before. For example, tweaks have been made to the control when you do not have the ball, but the passing has also been somewhat overhauled. As soon as a game gives us the feeling of control, we are a group of happy players. And that’s the case here.
Other notable adjustments (we actually think it’s improvements, but can imagine that not everyone thinks it that way) we have to do with how the keepers react. They are much less aggressive, so you can use some variation in your game. Long distance shots, beautiful volleyballs and neatly finished shots are given space again. And the same goes for the headers: it is again a profitable opportunity to enrich your game. In terms of gameplay, a lot has changed, so we often play a game.
And then of course we have the different modes within FIFA 21. Unfortunately, Volta is still not the better mode it may be, but other modes – such as the career and Ultimate Teams modes – offer enough variety and gameplay to justify purchase. This is probably the best FIFA game that Electronic Arts has released on the current generation of game consoles, but we will only know for sure in a few years. Now more than ever we are curious about what the successor will be like on the new generation.
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