Despite catering to a slightly wider audience than previous entries, the fact remains that if you didn't really enjoy the Soulsborne games before then Dark Souls III won't go any way towards changing your mind, as most of the barriers of entry still remain – Vague storyline, esoteric puzzle solutions, high difficulty and an overall lack of direction.
Trackmania Turbo combines the thrill of arcade racing with the addictive short-form challenges of games like Trials. The track design is exemplary, if seemingly intentionally designed to elicit the maximum possible amount of frustration from players, and the pick-up-and-play nature of the game makes the barrier for entry incredibly easy.
The storyline can be a little underwhelming and some can argue that once you reach the end game there's not too much to do besides run the same few mission types over and over on higher difficulties. Whilst this is true to a degree, the sheer addictive thrill of increasing your weapon accuracy by two points well and truly sucked me in and I found myself finally understanding the draw of MMOs and games like Destiny.
Despite some interesting ideas The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition ultimately fails to engage. The plot is surprisingly dull despite letting you take a walk on the dark side and the combat soon becomes chore-like as you diligently spam square until your reach the next area.
Honestly, I'm surprised that The Following wasn't pushed as a genuine sequel, such is the robust nature of the new content, environments, missions and upgrades that are on offer here. That Techland decided to honour their fans by releasing such a massive expansion rather than nickle and diming players for superfluous costumes or whatever deserves commendation and generates a sense of good will, in me at least, that makes it easier to overlook the occasionally rough edges of the DLC, such as the extreme difficulty spikes during certain missions.
Capcom have committed to ensuring that Street Fighter V is the only version of the game that will be released this generation, meaning there won't be a slew of the traditional Super Turbo Hyper Mega Street Fighter V – Street Harder versions following in its wake; this bodes well for the game's future but, as it currently stands, it's hard to recommend Street Fighter V to any but the most ardent of Beat-Em-Up fans.
Rainbow Six: Siege has a lot of enjoyment to offer but it's hamstrung in some ways by a lack of variety. With only three gameplay modes on offer – one of them barely qualifying- and 11 maps at launch, I imagine that things could get stale pretty quickly despite the dynamic quality of the Siege multiplayer matches.
Personally I think that The Crew is underrated and Wild Run simply adds more content to what is already a pretty solid package.
The Old Hunters effectively enriches what was already an astoundingly accomplished title, offering up a wealth of new challenges for returning players to overcome. Journeying through the environments and watching a battle between blood lusting Hunters and cowering beasts is an amazing sight to behold and the selection of new enemies rank up there with the game's very best. Sure, some of the areas and enemies are reused from the base game but From have added enough of a spin upon them that they somehow feel fresh and new.
I used to hear that Treyarch's efforts with the Call of Duty series were inferior to that of Infinity Ward, and that may have been true in the past, but here Treyarch has really put their stamp on the game and created what is, in a nutshell, the game that made me come back to the series after such a lengthy time away.
It's too early to call at the moment, but Minecraft: Story Mode looks set to be shaping up to be another fine effort from the folks at Telltale Games. Combining their narrative excellence with the insanely popular Minecraft franchise has created a unique beast all of its own that takes the best elements from both parties in order to create an engaging and, above all, fun playing experience.
This inspired pairing of the Warhammer universe with American Football works surprisingly well, although it has to be said that fans of more straightforward sporting sims may not take to the game as well as those who prefer tactical, turn based titles, as Blood Bowl 2 definitely leans towards the latter.
I went into NHL 16 expecting yet another generic sports simulation and instead found a deep and engaging experience that, above all, was a blast to play.
With no visual upgrades, additional areas or missions, the main purpose behind this release seems to be keeping the franchise in the public eye until the announced sequel drops, but if you've never played Dishonored before then definitely try to pick this up.
It's not a perfect game – There are some cheesy, overly melodramatic scenes that border on Soap Opera-esque levels of ridiculousness and the resolution will most certainly be unsatisfying for some – But it's almost a perfect experience.
The thing about Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment is this: The game has a lot of flaws.
The stripping of established features and modes is a curious decision on EA's behalf – You'd think that, as with most other yearly sporting iterations, that the focus would be on innovating and building upon a proven foundation rather than unnecessarily streamlining the experience.
Heavy on fan service, J-Stars Victory VS + is going to sell to its core target demographic regardless of what score we afford the game. The ability to play as so many characters is a unique selling point on its own, and the fact that the game behind this crossover of universes is relatively solid will just be a bonus.
It's a sad state of affairs when your current gen release is bested by the last gen iterations in almost every way, and although only the most hardcore of fans will notice most of the changes and little tweaks to the gameplay, there are still undeniably some major issues that need to be addressed, hopefully with a patch in the near future.
If you enjoyed Wolfenstein – The New Order then it goes without saying that you should give The Old Blood some of your time. A fine example of a DLC offering that enhances its source material as well as giving gamers a solid and rewarding gaming experience for their money, the inclusion of the original Wolfenstein 3D levels are just the icing on the cake.