How could anyone think this is the Metropolis people want to adventure through? A city Superman has abandoned that appeals only in an opening cutscene before revealing itself to be a lifeless hub of non-interaction. Thinking back on it a few days from now I’ll probably only recall endless rooftops with endlessly respawning enemies and giant guns. Go here, shoot stuff, go somewhere else, shoot some more stuff. Do that and nothing else over and over and over again until your eyeballs start bleeding.

Some nitwits at Warner Bros. seriously thought this was what people were craving not only out of a game set in the “City of the Future” but a sequel to the Arkham series. “According to these charts gamers played something called ‘Destiny’ so they MUST want something else that poorly imitates it!” They’ve all decided ahead of time that all players want is the same shit shoveled out to them because of the 𝒶𝓁𝑔𝑜𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒽𝓂, the 𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓀𝑒𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒸𝒽, the ⓓⓐⓣⓐ. And then when it’s rejected as it has been time and time again it’s taken out on the employees being forced to partake in its creation instead of the people who actually make the decisions.

Kudos to Rocksteady for actually taking risks despite being shackled by the games as a service model. Actually killing off the Justice League is a bold move that isn’t unique to the source material but is radical in the world where crybabies go on the internet and complain because their favorite character isn’t kept alive for every single entry of a franchise (see: The Last of Us: Part II). But it’s no wonder the risk stood out and made news because it’s the only risk. It’s buried under junk that isn’t risky at all in the slightest. Or maybe it was now that the actual sales numbers have started coming out. Whoops.

I’m sure if Rocksteady is allowed another chance they’ll either return to their roots and do another thing in the vein of Arkham—which is fine by me and I’ll be there—or they’ll move on. Maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe the games industry needs to move out from under the ever-increasing demands of out of touch corporate snakes. Because what’s going on right now ain’t it, chief.

AEW came out of the gate swinging with a massive amount of support from professional wrestling fans. The company’s aim to be a competitor/an alternative to WWE has been viewed as a victory for the business. So naturally they set their sights on the lucrative world of video games. After several delays Fight Forever finally arrived in June and unfortunately the delays were foreshadowing for a disappointing experience. WWE 2K23 released stuffed with content in a mostly successful effort to cover its technical shortcomings. Fight Forever doesn’t do nearly enough to distract from its much worse limitations.

Simplified controls and a story mode that can branch off in several directions attempt to harken back to the glory days of games like WWF No Mercy or SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain. Being able to switch camera angles and activate pyro at any point during a wrestler’s entrance is pretty neat, even if the entrances themselves are puzzlingly short clips that only last a few seconds. The variety of match types with additions such as the ridiculous Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch (based on the very awful one between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega) is surprising. On the surface it all seems like a wrestling game that’s trying to be just that: a straightforward, old-fashioned pro wrestling video game.

Yet it all has a very “one step forward, two steps back” feel to it. The aforementioned story mode, called Road to Elite, changes based on what the player does, but it’s very quickly obvious how limited and poorly written it is (some of the cutscenes are agonizingly cringy). It’s short, which in turn means the replay value is low because of how little it actually offers. The creation modes are very sparse, offering less customization than games from the 90s did. The roster is a headscratcher, lacking several AEW stars who would seem like shoo-ins but featuring the likes of Cody Rhodes who hadn’t been in AEW for over a year at the time of the game’s release. The plethora of mini games are bad across the board, not to mention a confusing thing for Yuke’s to have spent time and resources on.

Perhaps some or all of that could be excused or at least taken in stride if the gameplay wasn’t smothered by unresponsiveness. The controls are sluggish and the collision detection is poor. Hits or grapples often simply don’t connect, which makes playing the game on a harder difficulty a nightmare. Also, a thing that isn’t unique to this game (it has plagued WWE games for a little while now) but still annoyed me is the amount of rope breaks registered to the point where it seems as if you have to pin or submit an opponent in the dead center of the ring. If a body part isn’t under or touching a rope it shouldn’t count as a rope break!!!

It’s a shame to see AEW’s first swing at a major wrestling game fall short because the good ideas are frustratingly noticeable. I believe they can and will improve upon what Fight Forever attempts with future iterations. But when stacked up against their major rival in the year of Luigi 2023, AEW has lost the gaming battle to WWE. Tony Khan would probably say they aren’t competing, but this is my review dammit.

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Note: I haven’t played the Stadium Stampede mode and probably won’t get a chance to anytime soon.