Weird West is a fun, but awkward game. The aiming and gun fighting mechanics often lead to frustration and make it almost unplayable at times. The story is interesting and different and the characters are fun to get to know, but the weapons aren’t very diverse and the armor and clothes are a minimal addition. It’s one of those games, that if you can master the mechanics of it and like this type of camera angle, you’ll probably enjoy it, but still find it lacking in overall depth. Personally, I love Diablo-type games and found Weird West to be enjoyable, but often tedious. Luckily, there’s a quick save and quick load feature for those untimely deaths and missteps. Trust me — those will happen often.
The Gran Turismo franchise has always impressed me, from 1997 until today. Kazunori Yamauchi had a vision in 1992 of a game that would look and feel just like real life. Gran Turismo 7 hits that mark dead on with the sights, the sounds, the physics, and the animations of real-world driving and real-world racing.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is an impressive addition to the series that not only looks stunning on next gen, but also plays out in multiple player controlled scenarios, than can vary from triumphant, to downright heart breaking. It's a dark journey through horror and blood, with only you (and maybe a friend in co-op) to determine who makes it out the other side.
Developer Clever Beans started with a great idea in Gods Will Fall, it just doesn't seem like they fully worked it out. The game could have been more than what it is, and right now it just felt like a simplistic dungeon crawler that would feel right at home on a mobile device. It played well, it looked fine, it just could have been much more.
Developer Eko Software has done a decent job with the 4K graphics and textures for Warhammer: Chaosbane Slayer Edition and an even better job of utilizing the powerful PS5's SSD to almost entirely eliminate load times. Traveling between the home castle and the many dungeons that are now included in the game is incredibly fast, and you'll be hacking and slashing through the bad guys of Warhammer in no time.
Godfall is a beautiful game with a shallow story, but could have been so much more had someone taken the time to really hash it out and tie each Valorplate into a different character and expand on the realms. Instead we are given a confusing story that doesn't fit the equipment and realms that really don't care which suit you are wearing. While the weapons and armor gave the game a serious chance at success, I'm afraid the storyline and repetitive gameplay will doom this game to the bargain bin. It is beautiful, though, and that is its greatest achievement as a launch day PS5 title.
Developer Milestone S.r.l. has been making racing games for so long, it comes as no surprise how nicely Monster Energy Supercross turned out. From the detail in the dirt, to the details in the bikes, this is not only a great looking game, but a great racing game too.
Codemasters created a great foundation for themselves when they made F1 2015. It wasn’t the greatest F1 game ever, but it looked and ran great. Building upon that foundation, F1 2016 adds quite a few bells and whistles, along with a meaty career mode and an unforgiving Pro Career mode that is as much fun as it is difficult.
Fast loading, fast hitting, and ready to rumble, EA Sports UFC 2 is ready for the octagon.
Madden NFL 16 truly is more than just a roster update as EA added enough new features to kick the game up a notch to another level. The question now is: what can they do for Madden 17?
NBA Live 15 brings the franchise back onto the court with authority and takes the game successfully into the next generation of gaming. While the game isn't perfect, it is clearly ready to take on all comers and creates a firm foundation for EA to build upon for years to come.
While NBA 2K15 is not perfect, it's still a playable NBA game that does a lot of things well.
While have always enjoyed making my march to the majors, there is another mode that I try to jump into at least once a day and that is The Show Live. Baseball is a marathon of a season and each and every game, right down to the proper line-up and pitching match-up, is replicated daily and each game can be played in this mode. You can also use this screen to check real game times, live scores, and live situations. You can exit out of the mode and re-enter to refresh the games if you want to use it as a real time score tracker. Pretty nifty and the mode is available for the PS3, the PS Vita and the PS4.
To be able to pause a battle, and take over on the Vita when someone decides they want to watch something on cable, is a great way to continue your battles without creating a battle in your living room. The combat controls transfer over nicely and the game still looks fantastic on that little screen. Those cutscenes are more watchable that way as well.
Warframe is a fun free-to-play game that fits in with the launch line-up of the PS4 nicely. It's not a groundbreaking game, and it's not in contention for game of the year, but that doesn't mean it's not a fun. Find you a group of gamers that are willing to work together, and you can easily spend hours traveling through the solar system, taking out aliens and bad guys right and left.
While I haven't had the chance to play the final release for NBA 2K14 on the PS4, I did review NBA 2K13 for the PS3 and would strongly suggest, if you are in the market for a great NBA game and haven't bought a PS4 yet, forgo NBA Live 14 and just pick up NBA 2k13 used somewhere. NBA 2K14 released for the PS3 already, and our staff review lets you know it's really just a season refresher without much for new bells and whistles. Stay tuned for our PS4 NBA 2K14 review as that version should feed your need for a slam dunk for the next gen.
So, how do you make a series still feel fresh after twenty titles? By listening to your fans, knowing what works and what the fans want, and by delivering a game that's more than just a seasonal refresher. Need for Speed Rivals is clearly ready for the next generation of gaming, and so are we.