Ben Kuchera
Dr. Luigi is content with safety over invention
everything in Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z shoves the player away
Trap Team will give your kids a crash course in gaming basics — and you'll get an enjoyable and surprisingly deep game to play with a wide range of age groups.
Everything I'd expected from Telltale's take on this franchise, executed with such skill that it's hard to find anything to complain about...It's an enjoyable, violent and well-crafted introduction to the series. Episode Two can't come soon enough.
'Iron from Ice' is a rocky start to a promising story
It's an enjoyable evening of gaming with a few hard decisions, but it demonstrates the hands tightening around the neck of House Forrester.
You can feel the creators of some games in certain details or plot twists, but Tales from the Borderlands Episode 2 goes further. It's as if everyone is dancing as hard as they can behind the scenes to put on a show, and you're experiencing the sweat as it drips from their brow. It's the sort of game that feels like a puppy dog desperate to be liked, and you can't help but pet it.
This episode did a great job of quickening the pace of the story while offering the player the sort of hard choices that make Telltale games such terrible fun to play.
'A Nest of Vipers' prioritizes the story over your choices
If you can judge a game based on the moments that make you put it down for the night, Just Cause 3 is hard to criticize: I only stopped when I needed to sleep, not because I wanted to put the game down. The "did you see that?!" factor seems unlimited here, and it kept me coming back to discover what unexpected domino of explosions I could start next with a single grenade. The formula of the Just Cause series hasn't been expanded, but it has been improved. And it's rare that a game is so comfortable in its own skin.
[F]or players with a strong stomach and a sense of adventure — not to mention large wallets — though, this is likely the best way to play the game.
Edge of nowhere is flawed and familiar but also a positive step for virtual reality games
Farpoint may seem basic in a few years, but it nails stuff a lot of VR games haven't figured out
And that's the strength of this sequel. It balances a steady stream of suffering and hurt with exuberant humanity. It deals with our darkest impulses and our best, and plays them both up to a ridiculous degree. There's nothing subtle about Wolfenstein 2, but it's all affecting in a way that makes the game feel special and coherent. There are moments in the game that made my heart swell, while others were so grisly I had to look away.
What's left if you have the stomach to ignore the story? A very enjoyable game with an immense number of things to do, a beautifully recreated portion of the United States, and a collection of missions with wildly varying tones and structure. It's a finely tuned open-world game stapled onto a story that's insultingly bad.
Nintendo's uncanny ability to offer experiences that are so strange while feeling so good has rarely been put to better use.
Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido is an instant cult classic
Lumines Remastered is a welcome dive back into this series, even if your favorite skin may have been left out. If anything, it left me wanting more.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus thrives on the Nintendo Switch
Perhaps my favorite part of the experience is how mastering the different systems let you slip into a state of flow. The game is never relaxing, but like driving in the real world you'll often find yourself zoning out with your thoughts as you use a variety of skills that begin to feel like second nature.