Hitman: Episode 4 - Bangkok isn't bad, and it certainly isn't worse than the "just good" third one, but, it feels so… déjà vu! It's as if IO Interactive took the first episode and gave it a Thai skin, but, while the Parisian level was fun and all, it was just the first, the introduction, the beginning. In other words, while fun in many ways, this episode hasn't… evolved. It offers the same things all over again, when it should not.
This educational video game is certainly far better than most Sometimes You titles, but it's also an average one. Note, however, that it's not average compared to "the real deal," but to similar material, because there are games, novels, toys, and TV shows that are far better company to a three or five-year-old… It's not like they have a long attention span, after all.
Sun Dogs has many flaws. The main one, however, is that this isn't a game - it's an unfinished, badly written sci-fi tale. Actually, it isn't even that! A tale has a beginning, middle, and end. This is just a series of semi-randomised, and very disjointed, pieces of Arthur C. Clark-esque text. Apologies to the late great futurist!
After playing Hitman: Episode 1 - Paris, it's easy to reach the following conclusions. #1: instead of any new innovations and ideas, this new addition to the franchise just takes what made it great in the first place, and improves upon it. #2: although this is just the first step of many, it somehow feels that the complete package will be the best yet, and, #3: exactly because of this, IO Interactive must surely smooth out the many rough edges of its, otherwise, great product, especially the - currently - lukewarm plot, and, even more importantly, the many flaws of its online content.
For the time being, Hitman: Episode 2 - Sapienza is probably one of the best experiences the Hitman franchise has yet to offer. The beautiful Italian seaside town is gargantuan, and offers plenty of ways to have fun (in other words: assassinate). Some of the flaws, like the insufficient plot bits and connection issues, persist, and yet it feels as if Hitman is generally on the right path.
Far from bad, or even mediocre, yet even further from being awesome, Hitman: Episode 3 - Marrakesh is just… good. It's playable, it's fun, it will manage to please fans of the series, but it's inferior to the previous chapter in almost every aspect, and, most of all, it feels rushed. Hopefully, the same won't happen with the, still yet to come, fourth episode.
The problem with Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus isn't its questionable, sexual hormone-fuelled visuals, but the fact that there's nothing more than that. Those seeking to see the girls of the - equally devoid of actual entertainment value - anime series fight, bounce, and get undressed, will have a blast. Unfortunately, those seeking a great hack 'n' slasher wrapped up in some cute girly underwear will be quite disappointed… and not from the underwear.
The few good bits of Stranger of Sword City, like its immersive atmosphere and beautiful 2D art, amongst others, get drowned in a sea of problems.
Shadwen's first few levels will surely give some amount of fun to those who like this type of games, and the fact that the main character has to keep a little girl out of sight will, initially, feel like quite the exciting concept. Unfortunately, gameplay-wise this is quite a flawed product, with its main problem being the fact that it requires doing the exact same thing for more than 10, almost identical, levels.
Californium is a labour of love that didn't even try to do a fine job at using the thing it loves the most. It makes promises of offering a plot-heavy adventure that is heavily inspired by Philip K. Dick, when it's just marginally influenced by it, and, even worse, gameplay-wise, it is a frustrating hidden object game, which becomes less so due to its gorgeous, wallpaper-worthy visuals.
While the minimalistic and allegorical storyline isn't a traditional one, Yarny's fairytale-ish adventure will surely touch the hearts of most people, and the audio-visuals will leave them breathless, since they aren't fantastic just when compared to the indie gaming world, but fantastic, period. Unfortunately, and although Unravel has a couple of good things going for it, the element of gameplay didn't receive the same love as the rest of the package, as it constantly goes from fun to boring, and from boring to irritating.
Besides its lack of a unique angle of its own and a heavy "sandbox" approach, Project CARS will please those into sim-racers, since it is, undoubtedly, the most beautiful and realistic one ever made. Unfortunately, and despite adding lots of great, classic to modern, racing cars, as well as a few new tracks to try them out, Game of the Year Edition still hasn't ironed out some problems, like the extremely annoying controls and AI.
Why have simple videogames like Pac-Man and Tetris stood the test of time, while other, more innovating titles have been disappointing at best? The answer is because the potential of these otherwise great ideas has been thrown out of the window and High Strangeness is such a failure. The notion of mixing Zelda-esque puzzle-solving, with the ability to go from an 8-bit world to a 16-bit one could rock the indie community if it was used correctly, but, unfortunately, it wasn't.
It's hard going back to the real world after a few hours with Doom. It will feel slow and mundane when compared to the experience of being an over the top, badass action hero, who destroys Hell one demon at a time; half the time with his cool arsenal of weapons, the other half with his hands! Sure, it won't create a revolution like the 1993 original, and some of its aspects (like the multiplayer) are flawed, but id Software's newest creation deserves carrying its heavy name, and is one of the few triple-A titles worthy of a full price-tag.
Corpse Party will be a fascinating experience... but only for those who'll come for the story, the characters, and the spooky atmosphere, because, as a game, it's somewhat flawed, and even boring at times, since it focuses around "randomly" searching for objects, or going back to certain areas, for no other reason than to set an event in motion in order to move to the next one - and then repeat this a couple of hundred times. Finally, and as a side note, console users have had a far better version on their hands for quite some time now.
The indie community has frequently favoured original and innovative concepts over standard formulae, but there's another side to this world; the side with the heavy hipster-esque, artsy attitude, which creates video games the same way a post-modern-anti-conformist-whatever "sculptor" puts a glass of water on an Ikea shelve, and calls it "high art." Like so, Bacteria tries a lot to be an innovative puzzler, but the only good thing about it is the fact that it will introduce the Game of Life to more people.
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is a great fighter. It's fast and in-your-face, it has a wonderful depth, and, as a cherry on top of this cel-shaded anime cake, it looks beautiful and has a kick-ass metal OST… but, judging from the lack of new material, it can't really be counted as a "true" new entry into the main series. Let it be said once again: this is great. However, it would probably be better to wait for the upcoming Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- instead of spending any money on this one.
The Collider 2 is, undoubtedly, superior to its predecessor in all ways, yet those willing to get it should know what it is, and what it isn't. It's a super-fast, reflex-based endless runner that is as simple as it is enjoyable, as well as easy to learn, hard to master, and even harder to stop going back to the fray for "one more try," and yet, it's also disappointingly low in content (even for an indie title), something that severely hurts the replay value, no matter how fun playing this can be at times.
Despite nothing new or innovative, since this basically recycles past titles and just covers everything with a wild boar's hide, [i]Far Cry Primal/i] can be very entertaining, and the repetitive/simplistic task of crafting, upgrading, collecting, and capturing, can be very addictive and even cathartic. To put it another way, this is just a casual experience, but a very good one at that. It's all about having fun and getting engulfed in the magnificent primeval landscape while at it… as long as you can stomach the lack of any gameplay depth, the zero challenge, the generic, placeholder plot, the current price… and the need to use the very problematic Uplay client.
Why exactly did Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak get so many favourable reviews? Sure, it has some interesting mechanics, like the mobile base, and, yes, it's not horrible, but it feels incomplete and… bland. The campaign is easy and short, the skirmish mode doesn't give enough things to experiment and try different strategies with, its two factions are almost identical, and the AI is quite stupid, to say the least. Want a good Homeworld game? Try out the previous two in the series.