Dennis Scimeca's Reviews
If you are a first-person shooter fan generally, and if you enjoy team-based FPS play specifically, not at least trying Overwatch feels criminal. Blizzard always imparts a deep sense of holistic quality into its games, and Overwatch is no exception.
[I]f you're deciding whether or not to buy Rock Band for the very first time, I wish I could convey just how much I wish the instruments had been this high-quality and the song library this deep when I first started playing Rock Band eight years ago.
Far Cry Primal takes the series in a strange and satisfying direction
I had expected Tales from the Borderlands to be just a side story, something inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Borderlands franchise, but there are events within Tales from the Borderlands that will have substantive effects on the Borderlands universe should they bleed over into any further games set on Pandora.
New Ratchet & Clank game captures all of the fun of the original
You always play as part of a cover band in a Rock Band game, but in the main games you're part of a really good cover band that knows how to mimic the songs they're playing. In Rock Band VR, you sound like a cover band that sounds like a cover band, which isn't nearly as satisfying unless you're enamored enough with the VR technology and experience to not care what the song sounds like as long as you're having fun.
Hyrule Warriors is not easy. I had to turn the difficulty all the way down on more than one occasion to get through the game in a timely fashion. That's a relationship I am used to with so-called "core games," or games aimed not at casual players, but traditional gamers who want some good, old-fashioned punishment through game difficulty.
Guardians is a disappointingly uneven experience
I enjoyed Quantum Break in the same way I enjoy Marvel superhero movies. They're fun to watch while I kick back and eat some popcorn. But when I go to see The Avengers I don't have a control pad in my hands, and there's where Quantum Break gets confusing for me. Sussing out the relative importance of the two halves of Quantum Break messed with my head as much as trying to sort through all the story's causality loops.
If skill challenge is your motivation, Guitar Hero Live will demand much more of you by default. If you're looking for a party game consider the regulars on your guest list and their level of frustration tolerance.
The game doesn't shine unless you have real communication among teams, which is tough to find with random players. I can't see myself sticking around to learn all the different Battleborn and embrace what this game is ultimately about without a group of friends to play it with.
I also can't be upset about how hostile The Witness often felt, because the game taught me a lesson that was worth the pain—about how intimate puzzle games are. I think they represent a more direct relationship between creator and participant than most genres, and that's an aspect of puzzle games that I've never really appreciated before.
The new, ocean-based mechanics breathe some fresh life into Beyond Earth, but perhaps not as much as the new diplomacy and affinity systems introduced by Rising Tide.
Maiden of Black Water is decidedly an example of a game where genre experience and fandom has everything to do with its appeal. Games like this are fan service at this point, and Maiden of Black Water strikes all the correct notes.
Toy Soldiers: War Chest is a delightful take on tower defense
That's not an uncommon motivation for a lot of Game of Thrones fans—and the same goes for many of the characters in the story. I can therefore think of no finer way to describe just how authentic a Game of Thrones experience Telltale has crafted.
The endings for Season Two collectively did the worst thing an ending can do for a video game franchise: They made me unsure that I cared about season three. [WARNING: Spoilers in this review]
Sunset Overdrive tries too hard to make you love it
The more we played The Pre-Sequel, the more dubious we became as to whether it warranted a standalone release. Oxygen consumption and verticality were the only fresh elements in the level designs. The new weapons classes—cryo and laser weapons—felt like additions to our arsenal that we could take or leave. The writing was full of references to the previous two games.
Star Fox Zero fails to capture the magic of its predecessors