Even if players only progress as far as 'I don't get it', playing Inside—and stepping outside of that comfort zone—will leave you changed, even if only a little, on the inside.
Although the controls can get a little too fiddly for my liking in the latter half of the game, an issue that the first game also suffered, Unravel Two refines the platforming elements to near-perfection and incorporates its puzzles in a way that doesn't feel half as intrusive as it did in Coldwood Interactive's last effort.
This collection really does serve as a time capsule of sorts for the series, allowing fans to go back and pore over the tweaks and refinements between each entry at their own leisure; playing through the games in sequence is truly a fascinating insight into the cycle and evolution of game design.
Dark Souls Remastered is still essentially Dark Souls, just slightly better looking and with better online functionality.
So, should you buy Warmind? With a middling narrative and uninspired copy and pasting of missions, it's hard to argue that this isn't just another stop-gap affair for Bungie while they put all of their efforts into the upcoming major DLC release in September.
With a bevy of bonuses, including content that was previously only available to Kickstarter backers, this truly is the definitive edition of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.
Despite shaking things up a bit with the introduction of aerial combat to multiplayer, The War Machine is essentially no better or worse than most other Call of Duty expansions; there's a handful of decent maps, each with their own pros and cons, and another stab at the lumbering undead, but ultimately it all boils down to how much you like the core gameplay loop of the game and wish for more of the same.
Attack on Titan 2 is a surprisingly solid Action RPG with unique combat mechanics and a traversal system that's probably the closest thing we're going to get to feeling like we're Spider-Man until Insomniac's take on the character drops later in the year.
Coming back to the Devil May Cry series is kind of a bittersweet experience; the games are still relatively competently made and the first and third entries stand out as pinnacles of the Hack-n-Slash genre, but the overt lack of care that has been afforded to this collection makes me reticent to recommend it to all except those who possibly haven't experienced the series yet and are curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Far Cry 5 may not be the coming of the Messiah that the marketing materials will have you believe, with the promise of a bold new frontier in gameplay quickly giving way to the usual rhythm of rallying a ragtag group of freedom fighters and overthrowing the ludicrously evil regime, but when taken as a refinement of that core formula then Far Cry 5 succeeds as the most streamlined and immersive entry in the series yet.
As cool as a concept a Time Crisis-esque shooter in VR would be, Bravo Team unfortunately fails to live up to expectations.
Even as someone who was unfamiliar with the series prior to this entry, I'd have to recommend Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on sheer virtue of being one of the best and most naturally designed open-world games I've ever played (even if it's not truly “open”); it certainly doesn't hurt that the developers also decided to chuck in a tight combat system, a handful of sweet classic arcade titles and a gripping narrative to sweeten the pot.
Once you master the fluid locomotion system and more advanced techniques, playing Sprint Vector is an exhilarating experience unlike anything else available on the VR format; indeed, a game like this could only truly work in virtual reality.
It was probably evident throughout the review but I'm not particularly a fan of party games; maybe this is because they're often intrinsically local multiplayer dependent and getting a group of friends together in the same place for a night of gaming goodness has become more and more difficult as the responsibilities and tufts of ear hair start to accumlate alongside the years.
Apex Construct is heavily flawed, with a fun and fairly precise shooting mechanic unfortunately not enough to make up for the dismal movement controls and derivative narrative. Simple tasks like switching out inventory items or hacking consoles are made enjoyable and, when everything's working in your favour, the battles can contend with the best of the best of VR shooters, but everything quickly falls apart as soon as you're forced to move about with any degree of accuracy.
With the advent of VR games, I assumed that the best experiences would, logically, be those with a first-person perspective, and as such wasn't all that interested in Moss when it was first announced. After all, how could a third-person platformer be any good when you can play games where you literally inhabit the main character?
At the moment there's a Resistance event running, with 24/7 moshpits for the DLC maps, unique supply drops and featured modes like Prop Hunt available for a limited time, so the community is pretty heavily active across the entire game at the moment, making it an ideal time to dive back in and take advantage of all the double XP.
Sometimes it's the simpler experiences that really draw you in, especially when playing in VR; that's not to say that I don't wish Cold Iron was a little longer and had a bit more meat on the bone, but for a compact budget experience it's well worth taking a look.
For my first playthrough I'd had a few tall glasses of water and the experience of stepping into the sanatorium was akin to actually visiting a real place rather than simply strapping on a headset; I felt like I was an actual presence within this world and, coupled with the voice commands, I found myself fully inhabiting my character. Subsequent playthroughs inevitably lost that sense of wonder but, in terms of narrative resolution, I found that my decisions led to a far more satisfying outcome than my first time through.
I've always enjoyed standing up and using the moves whenever possible with PSVR, but very few game offer the tracking and responsiveness necessary for a fully immersive experience.