Edd Harwood
An attempt at resurrecting the horror genre from a top-down perspective that has gone horribly awry. Terrible controls, frustrating visual effects and limp action result in Outbreak being a barely functional game.
A framework for a game without any real follow-up or entertainment to be had.
There's little to recommend. The presentation is wonderful, but it is let down by everything else.
If you want a brilliantly designed logistical puzzler then so many other games offer so much more.
Speedball 2 HD is a purchase for those who want to rekindle the early 90s, the glory days of gaming, the Amiga, the Master System, the Atari... however the resultant fire will barely light the soul, sizzling out all too quickly.
While not as genre-bending as perhaps one might expect a video game portrayed as a interactive theatre show to be, Knee Deep does provide an entertaining, if rather silly, distraction while it lasts.
Bewildering at first, but with time you can discover a surprising amount of depth and originality. Sadly this PS4 version is rather unnecessary with poorly optimised controls and no mod support.
Whether or not The Elder Scrolls Online is for you depends on what you are looking for. It is not a conversion of the single player series that many might have hoped for. You can finally trot around Tamriel with your friends, slaying goblins and daedra, but the experience is hindered by uninspiring combat mechanics and far more restrictive exploration options resulting in a less immersive world.
Some will see Continue?9876543210 as a success, masterfully drawing sentiment from poignant (though sometimes clumsy) words, moodily lit pixels and brooding, bubbling music. Others will find a game with simplistic mechanics and frustrating repetition. In truth, both sides have a point.
There is certainly potential beneath the many unrefined and unpolished layers, but Blackguards does not feel worth playing in its current state. Outside of the combat the game fails to impress in any way and often frustration at the user interface, the loading times or the embarrassingly jerky cutscenes drive the player away.
If Double Fine had taken the effort to make Grim Fandango playable without changing the atmosphere of the game: made navigation faster, fixed the inventory, added autosaves and stopped it crashing, then it may have been a worthwhile effort. Instead it is only possible to recommend this to those truly looking for that nostalgia hit.
If you’re into numbers there is much to love about Offworld Trading Company. It is all about the bottom line and getting those figures to add up. The novel use of money not just as a resource but as liquidity for your company allowing you to purchase all the other resources you require is initially confusing, but ultimately rather wonderful when you fully understand it. The trouble is that all these numbers begin to feel rather heartless after a few hours.
Quest for Infamy is an extremely rough diamond, buried under one too many layers of mess. If one can dig it out they will find a real gem, and it shows promise for future offerings from this team.
Call of Duty: Ghosts does not tamper with the formula, fans will receive what they expect yet, with the world moving on to the next generation of consoles, many could perhaps be wanting more and Call of Duty: Ghosts is too formulaic to offer this. It is a victim of its own institution in a world that is quickly moving forwards.
A wonderful experience only marred by its brevity.
While better on PC, the PS4 release brings this remarkable game to a new crowd.
A fantastic sandbox for experimentation, yet this framework is not backed up by a rich environment. It is screaming for more involving missions, plots and choices to make you feel like this is a game from this millennium rather than a mere tribute to those from the previous. It certainly does a superb job of revitalising Syndicate for this generation, but it feels like it could be so much more.
While we're sceptical about the rather rushed out nature of this remaster, it has to be said that Homeworld is still a fantastic Real Time Strategy game and should be in the library of any one with an interest in the genre.
XCOM: Enemy Within should be an essential purchase for fans of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, or even those who have not experienced this brilliant remake. With its many additions and changes it provides fans with a revitalised campaign filled with clever nuances and potentially increasing the game's lifetime by several magnitudes. It is not without its blunders, however.
When wrestled away from its uncompromising difficulty Gods Will Be Watching becomes a different and wholly original beast. It is rather unlike any game before it. Scant few dare to explore such dark and dubious moral grounds, and the way it hammers such choices home with such brutal and stylish pixelated visuals is quite shocking.