Assessed solely as a Zelda game, Hyrule Warriors probably isn’t good enough to lure in non-Dynasty Warriors fans, but it is passable enough to offer Musou lovers something different to play between their usual battles for dynastic superiority.
If The Division was without its Dark Zone, it would be an ignorable, banal experience - a soulless grind in a game created by committee. It's to the credit of the game that this one additional section elevates the experience from this, to something actively great. Contrary to advice The Division might give you, stay out of the Dark Zone at your peril.
It would be difficult to call Far Cry Primal a bad game, but it would be just as hard to recommend it with anything other than a thousand and one caveats attached. While it presents itself as something new, different and vital, the truth behind this absurdly shallow veneer is that you've played this game before − at least if you've touched a Far Cry game since its third instalment.The amount of traction you get from that fact will vary, just as the enjoyment of Ubisoft's other big series, Assassin's Creed, wavers from person to person. A victim of Ubisoft's mass homogenisation techniques it might be, but Far Cry Primal is still fun, solid and the kind of thing you can lose hours to, given half a chance. Problem is, that half-chance is getting harder to come by. Why give it that amount of the day when you've already given nearly exactly the same thing your time before?
With the involvement of Jonathan Blow, there's been a lot of chin-stroking and borderline pretentious articles going up about The Witness - understandably, given it's such an arthouse project. But there's no need for that here: the game is very good, and if you've even an inkling you might enjoy solving 600-plus puzzles in a gorgeous island setting, we'd heartily recommend The Witness.
Confusingly good fun at first, Dragon Quest Heroes soon falls into a familiar, inane rhythm. Dynasty Warriors' audience will at least get something out of it.
Fallout 4 is a good game, no doubt, but it's hard not to feel let down after six months of solid hype, and high expectations on the side of the players. It hasn't learned any lessons from predecessor New Vegas, and aside from smaller tweaks and decent gunplay, there's very little to the core game that wasn't in Fallout 3. Building your settlements is fun and the main campaign missions (after a time) are engaging and entertaining. However, for a near-20-year-old series to take two huge steps forward in 2008 and 2010, only to hardly make any progress in 2015, is galling. Go in with that in mind and you'll have a lot of fun. Expect a nuclear revolution and you'll be left wanting.
Slow, boring, and rarely challenging, Need For Speed is a serious misstep.
Halo 5: Guardians features an underwhelming, confusing and surprisingly banal campaign that's not actively bad, but equally not quite good enough to warrant a purchase on its own. Fortunately, Master Chief's adventure doesn't end here, and whether you team with friends and ramp the difficulty up, or get stuck into some 12 on 12 Warzone action, the extensive multiplayer offerings ensure Halo 5: Guardians isn't a total washout.
Forza Motorsport 6 is a terrific game. It misses a few minor beats, with yet another career mode that throws you straight in there, and good god the serious attitude of the game is sickening at best. But this is one of the best driving simulations out there: it's the game launch title Forza 5 really should have been. We're a bit spoiled for choice in great driving games this console generation, and Forza 6 screeches in and finds itself a place at the head of the table with consummate ease.
It's become a cliche to herald each edition of the Fifa rival as a return to form – but with added skill and aggression and a Euro 2016 tie-in, it's hard not to this time
Just like the game part, LEGO Jurassic World's entire presentation - its cinematics, its atmosphere - is predictable. Good enough, but incredibly safe, and definitely a factory line production that inspires little other than blandly trundling through the game, chuckling a bit at some jokes and ignoring most of them.
The refreshed PS4 and Xbox One version of this anarchic co-op shooter is worth staking out for those who missed it first time around
Magicka 2 is fun in the right circumstances - i.e. when you've a friend or three in tow - but even then it's a case of an all-too-familiar experience to the first game. That's not in itself a bad thing, as the Magicka formula is a solid one, but it is disappointing - there's hardly any progress from the first game. For a sequel that took four years to hit, that's just not good enough.
It's an interesting and, importantly, fun game with enough going for it to keep you coming back, trying out new and different things and generally helping out in one of the most violently dodgy election campaigns ever seen.
It requires patience, a keen eye, reflexes and skill - and the ability to accept that you will die a lot. And sometimes it will seem unfair. And sometimes you will want to throw your controller at the nearest hard surface. But Titan Souls is a fantastic game; a fine example of what is possible with a simple idea, stripped-down controls and a dense atmosphere backing it all up.
For those of us who sit our backsides firmly in that camp, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is bloody - very bloody - good fun.
There might have been some worries when the series ended up in the hands of new developer Gearbox, but they've proven to be unfounded; Homeworld Remastered Collection has been handled with the care and attention it deserves, and is worth a place in the library of any self-respecting fan of strategy games, spaceships or little things flying around going pew pew pew.
The Order: 1886 isn't easy to recommend, but it isn't impossible to endorse, and despite its familiarity, is a game we enjoyed our time with. Here's hoping The Order: 1887 pushes for greater.
A mite obtuse at first and sometimes unfair in its logic, sure, but a recommended game and one sure to have people poring over pulling off their perfect Shawshank Redemption-esque escape for years to come.
Difficulty spikes aside, this is a great PC edition of a fantastic arcade shooter.