A fun arcade racer with lots of variety but one which often confuses and feels decent, rather than brilliant when moving at top speeds.
Transformers: Battlegrounds is a simple and functional tactical combat game starring Optimus Prime and Megatron which is very good. What's very bad is that it looks last-gen, has a jaggedy curve with minimal overall challenge and doesn't shout 'Play me!' too often. If you're ok with that, then you have a few hours of relaxing fun ahead of you.
A well-designed and well-executed platformer which is mechanically sound; the problem comes when you realise you feel nothing and are playing for playing’s sake rather than because you’re enjoying it.
Le Tour De France Season 2017 is the Team Sky of cycling games. It is the best of the genre, it is familiar and it's liked by only the true hardcore.
Puyo Puyo Tetris is a solid fusion of two distinct and entertaining puzzle games, resulting in a high quality, long-lasting and very challenging game.
Given the source material One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 is likely to be avoided by most as they have no connection already in place and the genre is ten-a-penny on the current generation of consoles. This would be a mistake. The story is lively and full of interesting characters even if it's basic in its plotting and execution. That�s not a problem though given the focus is on the battles themselves and the mechanics of the fighting, made ever deeper thanks to the variety of crew members at your disposal and the combos that come with them. It�s not Bayonetta depth but it sits well alongside Kratos and company. The structure can get repetitive but there�s so much going on in addition to the main objectives that if you enjoy this at the start you�ll still do so at the end. The otaku edge to it is the nudge needed to make it a worthwhile addition to your collection.
Deck13 has improved their offering since Lords of the Fallen but this action-adventure RPG still fails to dazzle. It works well, but nothing more.
Fundamentally that's the overriding feeling of Watch Dogs. It's a game that has so much to offer and so many things to do that it can't fail to engage you as a player. But eventually you'll realise it's not all good and what you find interesting is done. There's little to compel the player to finish in terms of the way it does things, aside from that square button which allows magical occurrences to happen. With this introduction to the world of hacking Ubisoft have created a behemoth of an IP, one that promises much. Like its predecessor though, we'll have to wait for the tighter and more focussed second iteration, removing what didn't work and improving that which did, to realise that full potential.
It doesn't quite shed the feeling of being an unfinished game though. If Destiny is meant to be this multi-year, multi-game shared-world experience is this it and will we just get more of it? If so it's good but it's not genre-defining. What genre is it trying to define actually? What have Bungie got still to come and how will that change things for better or for worse? It doesn't really matter in the here and now; this is the game we have to play. But the fact it shows promise and pain both at times throughout its life, as well as making us question if this is it or what more there will be, doesn't really garner it with glory. If you go into it knowing what you have today and that in the future something might - or might not change - then you'll be left with an enjoyable and long-lasting experience. If you expect the future that might be now - if you have bought into Bungie and Activision's chatter as being the day one solution, well, with that your joy will be muted.
With Lords of the Fallen we have the first true "inspired by" Dark Souls game and the developers have had a good stab at recreating the wonders of that title and ended up delivering what can be described as Dark Souls for the MTV generation. It's a big, brash and colourful rendition of what makes the genre wonderful, with a sprinkling of innovation and a chunk of failure mixed up into a forgettable story, with some fun but ultimately limited gameplay. You'll enjoy it whilst it lasts and if new to this type of game the length it lasts will extend quite a way, but it could have been more had it kept in mind what was proven to work and added to that, rather than taking some of those bits and pieces and building from that foundation.
New Star Manager ups the ante as you step up from footballer to football manager. The football remains great fun but the rest will work for some and not others. The PlayStation version looks, sounds and runs fine but the Switch's stick and touch screen combo would be preferred.
A fabulous demonstration of what football management is really like, of which there is no peer. But impenetrable to many and less fun for all, it makes you think of the past too often to ignore.
Lara is the main reason you'll play this game, and as long as you go into with the right expectations, you won't be disappointed.
Kirby Star Allies provides kinetic joy for one or more players and without a challenge which causes you to go blue in the face, ensuring its place in the Switch’s library as a platformer of choice.
Disc Jam invokes the spirit of days gone by in arcades of old playing air hockey, and works well, but doesn’t quite have the oomph to impress upon you any must-have demands.
A delightful game, full of things today that are very much an Assassin's Creed game. However it's still far removed from what an Assassin's Creed game used to be - for some this is good; for others, less so.
Wonderful retro-entertainment with this re-imagining of Burnout's crash mode. Play with the laws of physics in your car and get that high score.
Nioh is a very good game of its own right. It doesn't do anything new but it does deliver one of the deepest combat mechanics inside an engaging action-adventure RPG.
The Journey makes the purchase worthwhile and the rest of the content will keep you playing for months. FIFA 17 delivers as per usual.
What we have here is a fun story with actual impactful choices lending a level of replayability unseen to date in similar games.