so, three core components on the launch edition review of this that i'll inevitably revisit in a few months

CAMPAIGN: this isn't as bad as people make it out to be. i say that to say that it's pretty bog standard call of duty all-around. i'd give this 3 and a half stars. the writing's frenetic, nothing ever feels truly desperate and the ending is genuinely abhorrent pacing. where it earns the stars is in the concept of the open combat missions, which are a stellar change of pace to call of duty's traditionally insanely on-rails universal studios rides. that comes at a cost, and they're very obviously imperfect, but navigating a shipping yard with nothing but a knife and trying to complete objectives entirely undetected was really neat. a lot of people took issue with open combat because it felt like it could be really easily trivialized, which didn't make any sense to me. it was like having another, more-specific difficulty slider. another friend i watched did the same shipping yard mission guns-blazing, going instantly loud, setting off every alarm and pushing every engagement he could. i kept parachuting off of cranes and executing people. it's what you made it, and what shines through more than the laziness of SHG in their campaign execution is the lack of creativity people are conditioned to have with regard to the series. solid stuff, post-credits scene is absolutely the most interesting thing that happens in the whole MW reboot so far

MULTIPLAYER: it's MWII with slide canceling, an insanely forgiving TTK akin to BO4 and an incredibly focused powercreep toward the new weapons. one glaring flaw with this game is that all of the maps are from the original MW2, which has a lot of drawbacks. the original MW2 had absolute laserbeam weapons like the ACR, the FAMAS, the UMP and the M4 that were consistently able to erase people from good headglitches. being stealthy was insanely easy because spawns and flow were so predictable. with 14 years of series progression, we no longer have guns capable of beaming folks off of headglitches, which are now far more oppressive because hitboxes have become so much more spotty and realistic. we've also got more dynamic spawn systems that turn these maps on their heads a lot of the time. oh, and the most aggressive EOMM we've seen in the series thus far, rendering most higher-skilled lobbies completely unplayable at a casual level.

ZOMBIES: this is where the game's getting a lot of star power back. it's polarizing completely turning something as tried-and-true as round-based zombies on its head with an open-world, timed extraction shooter mechanic found in DMZ but to argue that it's not a great step forward is silly. there's a lot of dynamicism in it. it's been five days of it so far and i've already had incredible experiences frantically dashing around the High Danger zones, enormous house-sized monster trailing behind me as i make feeble attempts at forming a plan with olympic-level zombies converging from all angles. i've seen calls for help from downed players across the map with 10 minutes on the map timer and done rescue missions, rewarded by the paltry inventories of grateful operators on my way out. i've gotten myself into sticky situations, lost it all and gone in with nothing but my fists to come out adorned with a loadout that could take on an easter egg boss. it's just got so much opportunity. it isn't without flaws: the solo player experience feels so overtuned for the casual player, there's myriad bugs and errors that cost players their hard work, a lot of the missions feel downright impossible without how-to guides and there's not a lot to discover... but this is a lot of what was said about DMZ last year before IW went balls to the wall and turned it into what seems to be, undebatably, the absolute best part of the pretty rocky year of MWII. what matters now is extrapolating what makes this mode enjoyable from the feedback and analytics and hammering in more experiences like that

all in all, i really enjoy it so far. i'm hoping for them to push the absolute hell out of supporting it and turning it into a cornerstone of the franchise

crash team racing is my favorite game, full stop, ever

crash bandicoot is my favorite character in gaming, ever

with that to contextualize things: i did not finish this game as a child with a PSP and infinite free time over a summer

also: there is an entire collectible mechanic in this game where you watch crash die in exceedingly creative (and almost disturbing) ways called die-o-ramas? i feel like that doesn't get mentioned nearly enough

this is, in my opinion, the best kart racer of all time. it's not even like anything else comes close for me. it does every single thing correctly. this game's track variety, the soundtrack, the infamous hidden mechanics, character selection, post-game content -- it's all just the best the genre has to offer. it's so technically sound and feels fresh even though it's been remastered and followed by two full sequels in Crash Nitro Kart (audience gets a little excited) and Crash Tag Team Racing (audience groans).

the only -- and i mean only -- perceivable flaw it has is that a good player is completely unable to lose to a bad player. if you know what you're doing on this game and you go a few races with someone who's only ever played mario kart, you're going to dust them beyond belief. if you know what you're doing on this game, you're practically invincible to items and stage hazards... which, for me, i think it's what really emboldens my love for the whole game. it rewards mastery. there's shortcuts in this game that -- i, with thousands of hours spent on here -- still don't nail every single time. to others seeking a casual kart racer -- as the genre is intended -- they might be soured by the fact getting incredible item RNG won't completely level the playing field.

god, this game rocks