I think that Watch Dogs 2 wants to say a whole lot about the contemporary world, but it never moves away from generic statements like “information good” and “military-industrial complex bad” to say anything specific. In fact, it has some profound convictions about not saying much at all. The positions it lays out remind me of competitive debate: forcefully presented but never all that convincing.
Headlander is a little action, a little puzzle, and a great time overall. At around 10 hours or so, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and I think it’s perfectly balanced as a game to pick up for an hour of gradual progress after work or school a couple hours a day. It’s well-designed and has a clear purpose in mind.
9 fits that bill, and you're probably better off with Shovel Knight or Freedom Planet's oldschool-yet-new sensibilities. Every time I try to think about what the motivator for playing this game would be, I immediately dismiss it. I repeat: I have no idea who this is for.
Like its forebear or Van Sant's Psycho, The Revolution carries many interesting pieces inside of a rough, and unlikable, exterior. The weight that it wants to carry proves too heavy a load for what the game is able to do. Overwhelmed, the game collapses.
Cameron Kunzelman tweets at @ckunzelman and writes about games at thiscageisworms.com. His latest game, Epanalepsis, was released on May 21. It's available on Steam.
Cameron Kunzelman tweets at @ckunzelman and writes about games at thiscageisworms.com. His latest game, Epanalepsis, was released on May 21. It's available on Steam.
The Flame in the Flood gives us familiar territory. The world has gone back. There's jangly southern-style music with heartfelt vocals. There's crafting. But there's real wonder in those moments when you're just trying to get another mile down the river so that you can live a few more days. There's something special about staying afloat in all of that ruin. The Flame in the Flood is a beacon, something golden, in a worn-down world.
It denies the player a blank slate through which to make their own choices. Michonne is in a strange space between brand promotional piece and a true season of The Walking Dead game. However, all of that said, the compressed three-episode nature of Michonne could be to blame for that, and only time will tell if the full work coheres into something more than the slight thing we have in the first episode.
It sort of did, but the stress never dissipated.
But at the end of the day, there just isn't that much here for me, even as a casual-sometimes-hardcore Halo fan. If you think Destiny could scratch the itch you have for Halo, pick it up over this game. If not, buckle in for an underwhelming mechanical retread with a so-so story framing the whole experience.
I believe that Armello has many of the pieces of an amazing game, but those pieces don't quite fit together just yet. I think that the development team, if given the chance, could iterate on this design to hit a perfect mix of computer mediation and boardgame excitement. While Armello misses the mark for me, I look forward to whatever they cook up next.
I 100% enjoyed all of my time with The Beginner's Guide, despite a few instances of clumsy writing, up to the point where the last chapter slipped over into the epilogue. I feel like the tail end of the game is almost kitschy in how it plays out, and I believe that the game would have been so much stronger and braver for ending with the last voiceover of the final chapter. By continuing to go on and on with the narration, I felt like I was being robbed of significance by someone attempting to visually and emotionally sew up something that could not be repaired. This is all to say that you should play the game.
It's not just the online mode: from play to unlock design, I did not have a good time with Toy Soldiers: War Chest. This anecdote might sum it up best: a friend back from a long trip watched me play a single mission. We sat in silence through interminable wave after wave, and about halfway through the hour-long mission he blurted out "why are you even playing this?" I didn't have a good answer.
Until Dawn is genre-changing across the board, and I literally cannot wait for other games to pick up even 1% of what it brings to the table in terms of narrative and design innovation.
Guild of Dungeoneering might be my new thirty-minute game, unseating Spelunky as the game I play while waiting for dinner to finish cooking or while I'm listening to an album. It keeps me playing without bleeding me dry, and I think about lost fights and incomplete dungeons for longer than I should while not playing the game.
There's a solution [to my issues with the game], I guess. It would be to recruit my team of five and play with people I know. It would be to vet the world and close myself off from the weird chance of playing with randos. Lots of people have no choice but to do this for various reasons. I understand that's a solution, but it isn't a road I want to go down. I want to be open to the clever teammate. I want to be open to the all-star player who happens to queue alone. I want to be open to wonder.
Arkham Knight translates a very particular kind of Batman into a very particular kind of game, and when the developers are short-circuiting your play experience to tell a good story, there are some unthinkably good moments. When they are going through the motions of combat and high-concept comic bookery, there are some unbelievably terrible and laughable moments. Despite wading through the latter, my memories of the former are grand enough that I think they're worth getting to.
Does The Escapists explore or expose anything the average person doesn't already know about prisons? I don't think so. It is a puzzle game, and if you enjoy puzzles and you have an extreme amount of patience, I would encourage you to check out The Escapists. If you're looking for a hard, or systemic, view on prisons, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Project CARS is a racing game that simulates the act of racing lots of different vehicles in locations all over the world. It is very excellent at that, and if you like the idea of a racing sim you should give it a shot. I had a great time racing around the tracks, but it isn't something I am going to turn on very many more times. If a good simulation of driving cars at moderate-to-fast speeds is what really rocks your world, buy this game because I don't think it gets better than this. If you want something a little more exciting, grab the infinitely-excellent Blur or start rocking your Big Wheel again.
At the end of the day, The Handsome Collection contains more Borderlands than I would ever want to play, and the likelihood that you will enjoy it or not has more to do with your being a fan of the series already or not. It is an immense amount of gameplay "value" for what you will spend on the collection, and if you're looking for something to kick a few hundred hours into, there are less interesting games you could be playing.