Aaron Riccio's Reviews
Temple of Osiris is best when it remains focused on the action-oriented gameplay, shining brightest in boss battles that combine puzzles and gunplay.
For those desiring a more focused approach to gameplay, Far Cry 4 offers a lengthy campaign with over 40 missions.
If there's a single downside, it's that with a cast of over 16 characters, only five of whom can physically be in your party, there's very little reason to play around with your party's composition.
It's more interested in showing off just how beautiful (and deep) the multilayered design runs than it is in really elaborating on it
The consequences of brash actions are glossed over, and the last three sequences of the game feel redundant, with back-to-back assassinations occurring first at public guillotines and then private dinner parties.
In short, Advanced Warfare advances every single aspect of the already impressive Call of Duty series.
Lords of the Fallen is trying to Goldilocks it, neither being too hard nor too soft, and that lands it in the rather generic and unadmirable position that last year's Bound by Flame found itself.
The essential gameplay can be reduced to a series of shoot-'em-up fetch quests through hazardous landscapes, but even veterans will have to adapt their FPS techniques to make it through.
GTA may be more graphic, but I'd rather have kids play in that fully realized world, with the wealth of side-missions, beautiful views, and more authentic vehicles, than in this dumbed-down cartoon catastrophe.
There are too many dings on the chassis, from the constant inability to activate promised features and occasionally glitchy effects of current and standard modes.
Over the last decade, Frogwares has been steadily eliminating the impossibly bad elements from their games, and what remains is the closest anyone's ever come to an authentic Baker Street experience.
If you embrace the tactical nature of its combat, which is rarely resolved on a single battlefield, then Shadow of Mordor stands largely without flaws.
Once you crack the 20,000 rhythmia mark, Curtain Call interrupts whatever you're doing in order to introduce one final medley that celebrates the history and evolution of the series.
[P]laying through all of The Walking Dead at once makes it clear that, perhaps for the sake of the various properties in this franchise, there's no real beginning or end to this saga; it's just one infinitely echoing middle.
As in Bastion, you'll gain the option of increasing the difficulty in exchange for more experience, and the soundtrack and narration is surprisingly on par with the previously high bar set by Supergiant Games.
All the requisite violence of the genre is there, but there's a well-considered style and grace that elevates it beyond its mindless, dime-a-dozen brethren.
The game appears to be a product of magical thinking, as if throwing together watered-down tropes from games like The Witcher might somehow yield a finished product.
Reaper of Souls improves so much, so quickly, that gamers may too engrossed to remember to resent Blizzard's requirement that players remain connected to the Internet while playing.
[T]he game itself is far from a fully realized one. Its main mission can be completed in an hour, tops, and the story does little more than bridge the gap between 2010's Peace Walker and the upcoming The Phantom Pain.
Even basic exploration quickly becomes more trouble than it's worth, thanks to a scarcity of waypoints, overly lengthy transitions between areas, and the lack of an overall map.