Every game in The Sims series has been followed by a spate of expansion packs which add items and features, but The Sims 4 seems to have been designed solely for the sake of its expansions. It begs to have things added to it, and many people will be left feeling rightfully aggrieved to have paid full asking price for it. The gameplay is as fun and addictive as ever, but while added features breathe plenty of new life into the old formula, they aren't enough to keep The Sims 4 from feeling like half a game. It isn't a complete misstep, but it's certainly a long way from the heights intended for it.
The multiplayer is superb when it comes together, but the game lacks enough variation to be a true classic.
Let down by its story, dialogue, and visuals, Tales of Zestiria is still pretty good - but not quite good enough.
It's far greater than the sum of its parts and should please all fans of JRPGs.
If there's one thing that�s not in doubt, it�s that A Pixel Story is immensely good fun and will leave you with a smile on your face. It�s bright and colourful, beautifully presented, with great gameplay and so many nods to old films and video games that you�ll be left wondering how it keeps itself from bursting at the seams. What it�s really lacking is a true spark of individuality, a single unique element to make it explode off the screen and grab your attention. It ends up relying too much on nostalgia to tug at your heart strings, rather than trying do it itself. There�s a very good chance that you�ll love A Pixel Story as much as we did, but don�t be surprised if you find yourself wishing it was slightly more than it is.
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.
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.
The Crimewave Edition does too little to Payday 2 to make it a really worthwhile update.
Pathologic hasn't aged very well. It's biggest flaw? It's simply too slow and clunky.
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.
Farming Simulator 15 is only likely to please a narrow spectrum of people who love tractors and ploughing the fields.
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.
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.
Games are better than this now. Call of Duty is becoming a relic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.