Shadow of Mordor is a conventional open-world action game with very cliched mechanics, but if you approach it conventionally, it might bore you to tears. Break away from its path, experiment, and find your own fun. Tackle story missions only when you want some new abilities or a new map to toy with, and you will definitely get your $60 worth.
It's a solid foundation, and if Adventures of Pip proves to be as financially successful as it deserves to be, I would like to see a sequel that promotes more exploration, ala Super Mario World. Branching paths, secret exits, "expert" levels. You know the drill. Adventure of Pip is a wonderful little platformer and further proof that Kickstarter can help fund some of life's more pleasurable joys. $14.99 is a steal for one of my favorite games so far in 2015.
Platinum Games is the master of a dying art of Japanese action games, and Bayonetta 2 is a celebration of all it has achieved in its short life.
Square Enix had the gargantuan task of reinvigorating the series with a game 10 years in the making. Final Fantasy XV succeeds.
A very simple action game that feels natural and satisfying.
I don't enjoy rating a game by the price, but I'll step in to say that this is definitely fair. SteamWorld Heist's main campaign only lasts about 10 hours, but thanks to five different difficulty levels, plenty of "rare" weapons to seek out, randomly generated dungeons, abilities tucked away at higher levels, the reputation and other New Game+ options, Image & Form's latest provides the bang for all those bucks.
Overall, this package is just great.
If you didn't get the idea, I love this game. It is a marvelous addition to the open-world genre and another one I can add onto the short list that I love. I think I need to use my left hand now if we are counting. It's also a great addition to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, portraying it in ways I didn't believe possible until now.
On my own experience, I played a majority of this campaign on a 13 hour flight from New York to Tokyo, and I didn't put it down once!
Square Enix has another winner of a spin-off this year.
Deep down, the only crime that I Am Setsuna commits is that it can’t quite match the high standards of the masterpieces it was created to pay homage to.
Chase: Cold Case Investigations -Distant Memories has great style and all the reason in the world to be expanded into an excellent, episodic franchise.
Axiom Verge comes loaded with this feeling. It might have been a revelation if Happ released it within a year of when he started development, when the indie market was still fresh. Nowadays, it's just a solid game. Nothing extraordinary, making me wonder if the extraordinary $20 price, a few dollars on top of typical PSN indie releases, is worth it.
My emotions towards DmC Devil May Cry are a mixed bag. It frustrated me. It made me roll my eyes. It made me tense. I would say the highs and lows were about even, but as I wrap up this review, a part of my brain is nagging me, telling me that I am not quite finished with this game yet.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse is a light-hearted fighting game that will serve fans of the anime, but the customizable avatar gives it that extra edge to set it apart as "more than just another licensed game."
The Evil Within is by no means a perfect game. The give-and-take of this love affair with the olden days is sacrificing Resident Evil 4's perfect level design, weapon choices, and tension for The Evil Within's better graphics, a better story, and more streamlined, modern controls. It's a balancing act that still sees Resident Evil 4 coming out way on top. There's no shame in coming up short on one of the greatest games ever made though. Mikami does his inspiration justice with this game, and any fan of his from the peak of his career can't go wrong with The Evil Within.
I think what works against the game more than anything is a simple matter of time. Alien is a sparse movie, carefully crafted to show us as little of the alien as possible, both to hide the alien costume and as a way to keep us in suspense. By the end of the game, you've spent more time looking at the alien than every character in the movies (I'm including Aliens 3, Resurrection, and Prometheus here) combined and somehow come away intact.
The whole thing looks like Dragon Quest, but it's not. Just like how Hyrule Warriors looked like The Legend of Zelda, but it's not. It might be the best of its kind, but in the end, it's still just another Musou spin-off. Hype that lead to believe otherwise fell deaf onto my soul.
As for established fans, it is a solid game. If you are willing to adjust your gaming posture and stretch your back a bit, you'll find a nice package here. The new ideas can be a bit gimmicky, but they all work together nicely. It's the controls, both the motion and dual-analog, that are what hold it back from a full recommendation.
I wanted to like Persona 4: Dancing All Night a lot more than I do because this might be the last we see of these eternally memorable characters for a while. I really wanted to enjoy the time I spent with them like I did in Persona Q, where they were mere caricatures of their personalities, or the Persona 4 Arena games, which kept the cutscenes to a slightly more tolerable level, but the script and its length are just too impenetrable for anyone looking to actually enjoy the gameplay.