The lack of caution occasionally leaves Little Red Lie feeling more like a rant than a cohesive drama, but also fuels the game's many, caustic insights. Will O'Neill is the rare example of a modern game-maker with something to say. And although not every word of it is trenchant, or even entertaining, it's all worth listening to.
I mean, do you see the genius in that? Do you see how Modern Warfare 2 says something, and then unsays it, but in a way you might not notice, but also leaves the writers, developers, and the entity of Call of Duty an escape route from any accusations of intent or subjective belief? In a postmodern world of alternative facts and the end of the metanarrative, where it seems like there are no answers, truth, or anything you can fully believe in or trust, and everything shifts all the time, I think Modern Warfare 2 is a kind of masterpiece. And now I imagine them using that quote, “Modern Warfare 2 is a kind of masterpiece,” on a poster or something later on, and everything around it won’t matter.
Resident Evil Zero is a joyless game. Every section feels like a tedious lateral thinking puzzle – "the farmer has a fox, a chicken and some grain, but can only carry one at a time" – and the locations and creatures are half-heartedly designed. If you haven't played it, it provides valuable insight into where Resident Evil, and perhaps games at large, went wrong over the past decade or so. Other than that, it feels like work.
Terrible AI leaves this as the most unconvincing World Cup simulator possible. Not recommended.
At some point, it was decided horror games were more effective if they didn't involve combat; since then, they've flailed looking for ways to fill a now empty space, and a groundswell of aspiration, toward making videogames broadly about more than murdering for reward, has emboldened them. However, if the creators of horror games have silently, collectively agreed to redefine a genre, Outlast 2, packed with nonsense plot, engorged levels and frantic, anonymous bloodshed, feels like the definitive failure of their ambition. Don't be fooled by it, or its intent.
Nice as it can be to look around the world of Everbody's Gone To The Rapture, its story is dead, empty, and filled with redundant notions of player engagement.
There are few redemptive qualities to The Legend of Korra. Decent gameplay could have been made excellent if only there were more enemy types and, perhaps more importantly, the environments weren't so uninteresting. The story is shallow, the characters are shallow, and the world is shallow. It's bewilderingly underdone; there's very little content and it doesn't really engage with its source material. It doesn't even feature subtitles, so deaf people won't be able to follow it. You might be able to waste a few hours with it, but after that, it'll only be good for gathering dust.
Accessible and routine, This Is The Police is simultaneously a rich video game and a poor depiction of its subject matter. Whether the game's creators welcome it or not, at times like these, when police officers in the US are under intense scrutiny, This Is the Police's representation of their work bears similarly close examination. By that measure it falls short of relevance and borders on removed.
Massive, full and with a list of things to do which borders upon incessant, Forza Horizon 3 is a driving game both without direction and made by a studio seemingly – understandably – bored with cars. It isn't wholly different or worse than its predecessors, but after four years of these games, and with titles like DiRT Rally rediscovering the fundamental, basic thrills of racing simulations, Horizon 3 feels tired.
Just Cause 3 is an absolutely functional, totally pedestrian sandbox game which just so happens to launch at a time when the old models of open-world structure and design feel more overused than ever. Every standard issue, familiar mechanic and conceit is present here – if we needed one more argument for a new type of sandbox, one that doesn't prioritise or even feature the tropes and clichés we've come to expect, this is it. It's fine. It's there. It's benign. Even if you haven't played it, you've already played it.
What may seem like an ambitious project is in the fact the combination of a standard third-person shooter and the kind of cheap sci-fi drama you might find in the darkest corners of Sky TV. Visually tepid and filled with abortive gunfights and platforming, Quantum Break also struggles to contain its plot, while at the same time underselling its characters. Remedy's previous games have been characterised by a distinctive tone and knowing humour. By comparison Quantum Break is a glossy, charmless, wholly moderate outing.
Games are better than this now. Call of Duty is becoming a relic.
Although it feels like more than a mere movie tie-in, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark still isn't a good enough game to stand on its own. Those who buy it will likely be most interested in seeing giant robots doing battle with other giant robots, and though it will deliver on this it won't do so with sufficient fun to make it particularly interesting. Add to that the lacklustre nature of its other elements, and it is barely worth investing the six or seven hours required to complete it.
Infinity Runner is far from the worst way to pass the time, but it won't occupy you for long as it takes a mere couple of hours to complete. An arcade mode is designed to add some content, but in all honesty, the gameplay isn't strong enough that you'll want to delve into it. You won't even want to read the lore which is unlocked by obtaining collectables, again thanks to the poor grammar and asinine logic plaguing it. Infinity Runner has some good concepts and plays okay enough that you won't hate it, but it simply doesn't cohere sufficiently to enamour you of it either.
Farming Simulator 15 is only likely to please a narrow spectrum of people who love tractors and ploughing the fields.
Alone in the Dark is a weak survival horror pastiche largely devoid of original moments. The occasional dash of character in its 1920s Deep South setting can't make up for repetitive puzzles and the feeling we've seen all of this before.
Pathologic hasn't aged very well. It's biggest flaw? It's simply too slow and clunky.
The Crimewave Edition does too little to Payday 2 to make it a really worthwhile update.
The Surge also has an admirable interest in real-life and a rare anger that manifests in excellent scenes of violence. But as well as being racked with contradictions (not to be mistaken with nuances) its length and the genre conventions into which it so heavily leans dramatically undermine what could have been a potent satire.
A solid, well-meaning driving game. DriveClub shares it problems with various other contemporary racers. Speaking more broadly, it's the product of a current, misguided trend towards "social" play.