David Lovato's Reviews
Of all of Cities: Skylines' DLC, Concerts adds the least to the experience. Perhaps the price tag went into audio licensing, but Colossal Order and Paradox should have come up with more content to package with these songs to justify making this a paid DLC. As it stands, barring a huge price cut or sale, or just requiring the full Cities experience, there's no reason to pick up this DLC.
If this game were released in 2001, it would probably be hailed as one of the above-average games of the time period. By today's standards, it's a bit of a mess; no soundtrack, no physics, players are pigeonholed into playing a certain way, and things are just unpolished overall. That aside, it's clear the team at Nano Games has originality and some good ideas, and where the game does work, it works well; in particular, the management features and driving mechanics. It has a severe lack of polish and freedom, however, which, on the whole, makes it feel less like playing a game and more like doing work, but it'll be interesting to see what things this team can come up with and implement (hopefully better) in the future.
Eternal Hope is reasonably well designed in terms of gameplay, even if the controls feel sloppy and some puzzles do not always make much sense. It is difficult to make puzzle games last very long, but this one definitely has enough length for its low price point. A stronger story or tighter gameplay would have made this game into a great one, and the team behind this adventure certainly has the potential to do it, but as it is, Eternal Hope just lacks focus.
The downsides aren't enough to outright ruin the experience, and instead make this a bad port of a wonderful adventure.
As with the DLC before it, Mass Transit brings very little new to the table, feeling less like an expansion and more like a minor content injection. It's a little worse here than before, as this one doesn't even bring the heavy visual overhaul that After Dark or Snowfall had. Still, the buildings and scenarios present are well-made, welcome additions to a game already rich in content and endlessly fun to play, making Mass Transit another solid addition to the already fantastic Cities: Skylines—but one fans will likely find themselves waiting for a sale to pick up.
Problems with graphics and controls are hard to overlook, and there's no denying that this feels less inspired and more lifted from other series, although fans of those might still find it fun to play. Its gameplay elements are solid enough, despite being unoriginal, and overall the game does run and play well. There's nothing special about it, but besides the resolution and maybe the dungeon design, there's nothing unforgiveable about it, either. Mind Zero doesn't fail, but it also doesn't exactly try to escape the shadow of the titles it was clearly influenced by.
Cities: Skylines - Snowfall adds some features that make sense and look nice, but for the price, there's just not much content here. The graphical updates are beautiful, but the content is severely lacking—those loading an existing file are likely to just dump all of their money into new pipes, while players starting anew can just build hot water pipes from the gate and might not know anything was even added. The changes make sense (excluding locking weather to certain maps) and they work well enough, but are so slight as to be almost offensive for their price tag.
Anyone who loves city-builders and doesn't own a previous entry in the series will likely find a solid, valuable title in Cities XXL. It's not as snappy or attractive, or even as engaging, as some of its competitors, but it's a worthwhile endeavour in its own right.
HyperBrawl Tournament plays like a big-studio freemium title, but without any of the big studio polish… and it isn't free. It might work well enough within its own context, but the player base is non-existent, plus the AI is too frustrating to make bot matches fun. There seems to be plenty of content to unlock through ranking up, but frustrating matches offer little incentive to do it. If the developer can build up a player base, this might offer a bit of fun, but as-is there's just not much to keep people coming back to this Switch version.
Röki is a lovely game with strong characters and a fun, whimsical story. It shakes up its genres enough to be unique, but doesn't try to fix what isn't broken, and doesn't push itself past what it sets out to accomplish. Environment and creature designs are superb, while their human counterparts (of which there are very few anyway) leave a little more to be desired. It's a game just about anybody can pick up, play, and be immersed in a world they're likely not too familiar with, unless they grew up with the folklore this draws inspiration from. A few graphical glitches crop up here and there, but otherwise this is a solid and a fun adventure filled with puzzles, action, and intrigue.
Little Big Workshop's biggest flaws are its generic character designs and a few control issues, but these are greatly overshadowed by how fun this is.
In the end, Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII is a rock-solid title, but it could have been so much more. Forcing it to fit under the Black Ops moniker was a mistake, and comes across as forced, given its very light relation to the previous three titles. The whole thing smacks of Treyarch wanting to take risks and go in new directions, but stopping just shy and instead tacking older characters or ideas. Longtime fans of the franchise won't want to miss out on this - especially those who love the Zombies experience - but those who checked out of Call of Duty before likely won't find enough here to bring them back.
Samsara Is a solid effort and a fun puzzle game.
Beautiful music and cute, unique visuals aren't enough to save Mushroom Wars 2 from its flaws.
Final Fantasy XII is a good game that broke a lot of ground upon release, as an RPG, as a work of fantasy, and as a Final Fantasy entry. With that said, The Zodiac Age feels like a bare-minimum up-port, with little besides the textures being improved.
I Am Setsuna is a solid title. The story and gameplay both have their moments, even if they feel a little too reliant on nostalgia, and the wooden battles don't stop this from being something JRPG fans will still enjoy. A gorgeous soundtrack accompanies a beautiful, if not repetitive, snowy landscape, and the game holds its own and should feel right at home to people who like mobile RPGs.
Genre clichés and visual glitches aside, this is a solid visual novel. It isn't likely to appeal to a wide audience; fans of BlazBlue (and fans of graphic novels or anime in general) will enjoy it, but it's hard to imagine that anyone else will. Still, there's something to be said about making games specifically for the fans, and Xblaze Code: Embryo performs solidly on that front.
The price might seem high for how subtle or cosmetic these additions are, but many will likely find enough value in the overall strong developer support and thriving modding community to justify the cost, if the new layers of depth aren't enough for them.
What replay value it has is dampened by how slow-moving Graham is and how cutscenes and bits of dialogue can't be skipped, but King's Quest begins a story anyone who plays it will want to follow through to the end.
The Division is a solid shooter, but there's nothing compelling about it, either in terms of story or gameplay. Those playing with others will likely have a lot more fun than those playing alone, although it's safe to say anyone who likes a decent shooter will probably want to check it out. Like Destiny, there's sure to be a dedicated following of players for whom the game simply clicks, and the endless grind is reason enough to keep coming back. For the rest, it will probably disappear to their shelves after a few months' time - unless Ubisoft comes up with some compelling post-launch content to keep them holding on.