Excellent mechanics, lots of options, stunning visuals, top-flight sound design and a emphasis on accessibility make Project Cars 2 a worthwhile sequel that will appeal to anyone who loves cars and isn't afraid of a challenge.
Death of the Outsider's story never lives up to its promise, but strong mechanics, good gameplay, and a fascinating world pull it through.
NHL 18 impresses with new teaching tools, sublime skating, updated dekes and defensive moves, new modes, and a lot of improvements. It isn't a perfect hockey game, but when it skates this well and looks this sharp, who cares?
Unfortunately, Matterfall never quite comes together, despite its short runtime
Incredible levels, beautiful art, a fantastic soundtrack and classic gameplay make Sonic Mania the best Sonic game in years.
Despite its variety and the occasional innovation, Aven's lack of threat and mediocre story make the game feel undercooked. It's a sold city builder that doesn't do enough with its premise to stand out.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles' focus on exploration, crafting, and farming, and decision to eschew combat, is a relaxing change of pace in an industry often focused on violence. How much you get from a game like this is up to you: its lack of direction will inevitably bore some people, but it will captivate others. If you open your mind, the world of Gemea has many beautiful things to show you.
Great zones and questing content, new additions like Demon Hunters, Artifacts, and Class Halls, solid group content, an engaging story, and the return of WarCraft’s best group of villains make Legion one of the best expansions WoW has had at launch. It’s hard to judge the final quality of an MMO on release, but right now, Legion is on the path to becoming one of WoW’s strongest expansions.
When Verdun works, the mixture of tension and uniqueness it provides is unlike anything else and utterly engaging. Too often, however, the game gets in its own way, either due to technical issues or poor design decisions. It’s an incredibly interesting and unique game, but its tedium and technical issues should be considered before you enter its trenches.
Livelock is a solid twin-stick shooter with interesting character classes, good gameplay, and fun co-op play. The story is unoriginal and bland, and the game is relatively short, but it’s a worthwhile play for fans of the genre, even if it doesn’t do anything to drastically change it.
Madden NFL 17 isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn fine football simulation that puts the game first, and then gives you lots of ways to play it. There’s teaching tools to whip even the most noobish of newbies into Football Gods, and the strong core gameplay and large variety of modes should please longtime fans. If you’re a football fan, it shouldn’t be missed.
King of Fighters remains what it has always been with its latest entry: a niche fighter with a great cast, an unforgiving learning curve, and a lot of heart anchored by an incredible fighting engine. It’s not for everyone; no game is. But if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to it, and learn it, it’s a tournament worth entering and a fight worth fighting, all these years later.
Instilled with a pervading sense of disquiet and a knack for the disturbing, Inside is a memorable, beautifully realized puzzle-platformer. The game’s middle drags as it leans too heavily on puzzles, and the game’s short length and ending will no doubt put some off, but some strong puzzle and world design and an engrossing, murky narrative makes Playdead’s latest is an adventure worth taking.
Mighty No. 9 is not a good video game. It's is loaded down with lots of cool ideas that it never fully explores, and frankly it feels unfinished, unpolished, and unplaytested. It has potential, but right now this game serves as a warning about the dangers of stretch goals and crowdfunding, and only the most die-hard Mega Man fans will find something worthwhile here. Everyone else is better off sticking with the Blue Bomber.
An excellent fighting engine, superb visuals, incredible teaching tools, and ridiculous design chops make Guilty Gear -REVELATOR- one of the best fighting games around. Those who are happy with -SIGN- may balk at the price, but everyone else, from fans to newcomers, should be more than happy with what's on offer. If you're ready to rock, Guilty Gear is happy to oblige.
Despite its troubled launch, the PS4 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV honors Street Fighter IV's impressive legacy while adding a few wrinkles of its own, making it an essential purchase for long time fans and newbies alike. It is easily the best and most accessible console version of the title available, and will do more than enough to keep you busy until Street Fighter V. If you're looking for the definitive edition of one of the best fighters on the market, look no further.
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster is a fantastic collection that brings together two great games, and a lot of supplementary material, to create the most complete Final Fantasy X release to date. A few bugs currently mar the PS4 version, but if you can look past them, you'll find the most beautiful and complete version of these games. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy X and X-2, and can get past the bugs, you owe it to yourself to check out this collection.
Toren is an imaginative game with an interesting narrative and beautiful game world. For every moment of striking art or good design, however, there's something wrong with the game technically or in terms of its moment to moment gameplay. Ultimately, like Moonchild herself, Toren would have benefitted from a bit more time in the tower, exploring its own design and ideas before rushing to the top. There's very few things that are more ironic than a game that plays with the notion of time feeling incomplete.
Bastion was excellent in 2011, and it's excellent now. Everything in Bastion - the narrative, the audio and visual presentation, and the gameplay - works together to create a cohesive experience, a feat few games can manage. Those who have played the game before won't find anything new here, but this release is for the dedicated fans, and for those who haven't experienced the game 'till now. If you're in the later camp, I envy you. You get the opportunity to play Bastion for the first time. As for the rest of us, well, it's just another opportunity to experience an excellent game again. Celondia, we're coming home.
A fantastic fighting system, excellent production values, great story mode, exciting new characters, solid online play, and lots of single-player content make Mortal Kombat X one of the best fighters on the market. It isn't a flawless victory, not quite, but its damn close, and even after these years, it still has the power to bring a group of my friends together to watch Fatalities and swap controllers, waiting for just one more round. Now then, who's next?