As the game reaches the top of what this generation of video games can do, it also shows the pitfalls of this AAA approach. The Last of Us Part 2 is in many ways at war with itself.  It achieves things that I have never experienced in a video game, but it is so tied to the tonal story, of hate and humanism, that it punishes the player for doing anything that doesn’t follow this strict arch.

Surprisingly, Gears Tactics feels like a real red-blooded Gears game, but falls short of that special alchemy of cross platform perfection.