"The Magic Circle" wants to confront you with its imperfections and make you consider why you play games in the first place. It may be the wiliest reflection on the medium to come out of a small studio since "The Stanley Parable" or "Fez." It's the rare sort of game that wants to amuse you, not pacify you.
Basically, you'll either dig the lush tedium of this game or you won't.
"Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" is an ambitious game that is fundamentally about the acceptance of death. It shows how video games can tap into the ordinary without unwieldy mechanics (I'm looking at you "Heavy Rain"). Though It doesn't offer the intellectual workout of another first-person perspective, story-first game such as "The Old City: Leviathan" it is the best scored, most accessible argument for how video games can prosper as narrative sandboxes.
Naturally, I hope that "Beyond Eyes" encourages other intrepid game designers to explore less bombastic realities than are found in most games. And although I liked its ending more than I expected, with little else to stand on apart from its atypical video game protagonist and appealing audiovisual presentation, I found myself wishing this already short game were even shorter.
"Tearaway Unfolded" may have the wide-eyed look of something targeted towards the kids demographic but its fantastical levels and novel mechanics – which take full advantage of the PS4 controller's resources – give it a true all-ages appeal. Even its waggishness settles easily on grownup ears. . . . The British developers at Media Molecule have made a game which, again to draw a comparison with Nintendo's creative philosophy, celebrates what is childlike not childish.
[O]ne of the most emotionally alive games on the market
"Yoshi's Woolly World," won't change how you look at games or lead you to any important insights. It wants nothing more than to perk you up a bit, to lighten your mental load. Life is hard; sometimes a little frivolity is in order.
As tired as space marine tropes are to video games, it would mean-spirited of me to deny that "Halo 5" delivers a solid, blockbuster experience best enjoyed with friends.
"Fallout 4" is best appreciated over time. Play it for ten hours and the game will likely feel underwhelming. Play it for fifty then see if you can stop yourself from playing it for fifty more.
"Cibele" is an important game, not a great one. None of its individual parts are exceptional in themselves. To a certain extent that's a virtue when we reflect on the fact that most video games are constructed around heroics. The game's conceptual force, however, is undeniable, presenting a clear blueprint for how video games can be used as a prop to explore everyday life.
Annoying as I found these technical hitches they hardly deterred me from creating new sequences of pyrotechnics. Perhaps, what that says about me is something that I don't want to think too hard about.
"Dr. Langeskov," the funniest game that I've played this year, features voice work by Justin Roiland of "Rick and Morty" fame, and it would be a shame to miss the tale about the attack of pencils that provokes a shedding of clothes.
With her powers to rejigger events to save people from accidents and themselves, Max seems like an incarnation of Holden's catcher. Though sadly, her power is not immutable.
"Oxenfree" captures a mood (an eerie night), intensifies it (people get possessed!), and then efficiently wraps things up before anything becomes tedious. This analog, supernatural story unites its characters in a web of guilt and showers them in decorative static.
A daunting, confounding, maddening, and beautiful game
If you note the two main characters' penchant for irony and have been paying attention to the clues in the game, such as the cheap mass market paperbacks scattered about the area, you'll sense that the mystery isn't on the level of some global alien conspiracy, but rather, like "Firewatch" itself, it's something mundane and graspable. In the context of a medium that's normally obsessed with feeding on the outlandish, I mean that as a compliment.
For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.
For the foreseeable future, if I'm not reading something, I know what I'll be doing the next time I'm waiting in line.
"Far Cry: Primal" won't re-wire your expectations of what a game can be but it has just enough energy to pleasurably distract one over the length of its journey.
If you're looking for a soulful, artistic shooter "Superhot" is it.