With Souls titles now a pseudo-genre of their own, there's an inevitable familiarity to the rewarding challenges, deft storytelling, and intricate, shortcut-laden level design of Dark Souls 3. But familiarity alone should not detract from this third title's fine implementation of ideas and mechanics. The enigma may be waning, but there's still nothing quite like a Souls game.
This second, short, episode in Telltale’s latest Walking Dead series continues to be a fairly engaging study of Michonne’s character, but struggles to generate much attachment to the other players in its familiar tale of capture-and-pursuit.
It's still the same compulsive, time-attack Trackmania, but some of the beautifully chaotic edges (particularly regarding custom online multiplayer) that made it a cult hit on PC have been dulled.
Decent third-person shooting mechanics, geared strongly toward co-op; but unless your brain is tickled by colour-tiered items the rote repetition will eventually drive you from Manhattan. The Division's speculative catastrophe fiction never sits convincingly with its pure, stat-based loot grind.
Environmentally diverse, and largely consistent in the quality of its conundrums, Soul Axiom is an imperfect but distinct first-person puzzler.
A concise central mechanic, framed by a clever, form-twisting premise and outstanding design in art and sound. Other games wish they could be this cool.
A well-written character in desperate need of a plot more compelling than this laboured retread of the captured-by-authoritarian-jerks Walking Dead staple.
The White March Part 2 brings this multi-part expansion to a satisfying, and typically well-constructed, conclusion; solidifying Pillars of Eternity as one of the best CRPG titles of recent years.
Arslan aims to pepper a re-telling of its anime source material with familiar Warriors-style battles, and that, for better or worse, is what it does. But this release lacks some of the absurd character flair, goofy thrash-rock soundtrack, and (dare I say) depth of the mainstream series.
The Deadly Tower of Monsters is not the tightest 3D hack-and-blast arcade homage you'll ever play, but it is the only one to feature puppies dressed as deadly hoovers, amazing stop-motion dinosaurs, and set design to rival Forbidden Planet.
This Indian Chronicle holds few surprises for those who played China, meaning frustration and contentment in roughly equal measure. Plus some half-decent artistic flair.
Musou-slashing meets light tower defense and the effortlessly heartwarming world of Dragon Quest; with all the vivid art direction, retro audio, and somewhat repetitive questing that implies.
It'll do nothing to shake the series' reputation for check-box collectibles and all-too-familiar mission types, but Assassin's Creed: Syndicate plays to the structural strengths of a terrific Victorian London setting, enjoyable characters, and a few smart, iterative design changes.
A promising opening and some decent, world-appropriate characters are squandered in an overly-prescriptive narrative that ends on disappointing and inconclusive cliffhangers.
Solid. Dependable. This edition of Football Manager has set itself up not to concede, and to make occasional expressive forays into new territory. The scattering of innovations (hilarious character creator aside) are worthwhile, but some old, persistent quirks still rankle.
Eschewing complex 3D flight models for whiskey and galactic broadsides, Rebel Galaxy takes the traditional space trading model, dresses it in spurs, and sets it loose on a frontier that's dynamic, dangerous and unashamedly fun.
Something of a return to form after 15, but sooner rather than later EA will need to stop re-arranging pieces of their existing code and actually develop a properly new and substantial FIFA engine.
An open, responsive football title with a lot of individual player freedom, but one that also has dodgy keepers, absent fouls, and the usual iffy online environment. The PC community may bring it up to scratch, but at release it's an ugly port that does a disservice to the game within.
A chaotic dust bowl of an open world, rendered and recorded with Avalanche's usual technical excellence on PC. Like Max's car some parts are a little ramshackle, but if you stick to causing bedlam there's plenty of fun to be had.
The White March is an expansion of gorgeous new landscapes, new companions, and new challenges. It should push players out of their combat comfort zones, and is a fine excuse for some familiar PoE questing, but doesn't yet feel essential.