Erik Kain's Reviews
It's one of the best video games I've ever played, and is sure to keep you busy for many hours, days and weeks, exploring this vast, beautiful, unexpected world.
Nioh is a fantastic Samurai action-RPG with excellent Dark Souls inspired combat, multiplayer options and tons of content. Not for the faint of heart. Boss fights can be as tedious as they are challenging.
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is a great new direction for the series that's genuinely scary and is only marginally held back by tedious combat.
Dishonored 2 doesn’t live up to the original, but it still provides great gameplay mechanics and a sense of freedom you can’t find anywhere else.
All told, Infinite Warfare is a good game. I’m going to keep using the word “solid” to describe it, even though it takes place in outer-space, often above solid ground. It’s formulaic and straightforward, but what it lacks in imagination it makes up for in tight gameplay and gorgeous visuals.
‘Titanfall 2′ is a masterpiece of game design that breathes life into the first-person shooter genre and treats its audience with respect.
This is a franchise that keeps getting better each year, but has made a real evolutionary leap and become something far more stimulating and creative than in years past in 2016. That’s pretty neat.
Get in on the action while multiplayer is at its peak rather than waiting for a discount.
For all its color and all its life, No Man’s Sky is still little more than dead space.
There’s plenty of mystery and betrayal and a good, fun, and fairly brisk story that will leave you wanting more—even if the end isn’t really a massive cliff-hanger or anything (like some Telltale episodes are.)
Suffice to say, I was utterly absorbed by this game. I didn’t even think I’d like it at first, but now it’s easily one of my very favorite Oculus Rift titles, and one of the best games I’ve played all year.
Dark Souls III does everything really, really well. It is the best looking Souls game hands-down. It's built with care and attention to detail, and all its systems work flawlessly.
There's a lot in Salt and Sanctuary to love, and I would argue that applies to non-Souls fans also. While it's certainly challenging, the 2D nature makes that challenge quite a lot different from Dark Souls. It can be extremely difficult at times, but fans of platformers may find something here they didn't in the Souls games.
There's a lot to love in XCOM 2, and hopefully patches and mods will shore up its weakest elements. Even though I think it misses what ought to have been a super easy shot in many ways, it's still among the funnest and most rewarding games I've played in months.
I loved Firewatch, mostly, letdown with the ending notwithstanding.
Character customization, combat, and the weird story and brilliant end-game all make this one of my favorite action-RPG's of all time. Meanwhile, the Dark Arisen changes make the game somewhat more traversable and streamlined, turning a fun but frustrating game into something far more enjoyable. There's nothing really new here, but it's great to finally have the game on PC.
It's a great multiplayer game and well worth playing, but it certainly won't hurt to wait a bit until the price comes down. Better still, if you wait you can go and buy two or three copies with friends and play it the way it's meant to be played: As a team.
If you haven't played Bloodborne yet, this is the perfect time to start. If you've already sliced your way through the bloody streets of Yharnam, The Old Hunters gives you plenty of good reasons to come back for more. I give the expansion a resounding Buy in my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. It's worth every penny and every bloody, grueling minute of your time.
All told, Halo 5: Guardians is a smashing success. The campaign isn't the strongest of the series, but it's still a fun space opera romp, and its ending transforms the Halo universe completely.
I'm sure it won't be for everyone, but if you enjoy horror movies like Scream and want to experience the genre with some agency in the story's outcome, Until Dawn is a great choice. I give the game a resounding Buy on my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. It's like no other game out there.