Dan Stapleton's Reviews
Do you like Slay The Spire? If so, you should absolutely try Monster Train's more tactical spin on the deck-building roguelike, which literally layers on new ideas and has every bit as much depth and variety.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is a major leap forward from atop the shoulders of its surprisingly smart and charming predecessor, bringing a wonderful amount of flexibility to its turn-based tactical battles.
If Respawn makes a third game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, it'll complete the best Star Wars trilogy in 30 years, hands down.
Lone Echo and Echo Arena are the rare games that demonstrate the true value of VR and hand tracking. Its sense of movement feels great, and it couldn't exist in any other way. Lone Echo's well-acted story and interesting environments move at a slow enough pace that you can soak it all in and appreciate the sensation of virtual weightlessness before jumping into the fast, sweaty, competitive action of Echo Arena. The fact that you can experience the multiplayer without even buying it means it's one of the first things any Oculus Rift owner should download.
Lone Echo and Echo Arena are the rare games that demonstrate the true value of VR and hand tracking. Its sense of movement feels great, and it couldn't exist in any other way. Lone Echo's well-acted story and interesting environments move at a slow enough pace that you can soak it all in and appreciate the sensation of virtual weightlessness before jumping into the fast, sweaty, competitive action of Echo Arena. The fact that you can experience the multiplayer without even buying it means it's one of the first things any Oculus Rift owner should download.
War of the Chosen is a wide and deep expansion for XCOM 2 that improves variety in mission objectives, tactical options, threats, and strategic map activities. The Chosen are worthy adversaries who advance along with you to put up great fights without feeling cheap, and the new elite soldier classes add opportunities for interesting gameplay earlier in the campaign. Some significant balance issues show up, but especially for the first two-thirds of a campaign War of the Chosen restores the fear of the unknown to a game I know well.
Invisible Inc's randomized and repeatable sci-fi heists create one tough, risky tactical decision after another.
Cities: Skylines is all about building huge, bustling cities, but they don't need us to save them from disaster.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole is another epic-length episode of the humor that's kept fans of the show laughing for 20 years. The Marvel vs DC parody delivers regular laugh-out-loud moments with only a few faltering gags, and the combat soon evolves into something much more complex and interesting than The Stick of Truth's simple system.
Watch Dogs 2’s distinctive hacking and puzzle mechanics do a great job of reminding you that you’re not playing just another Grand Theft Auto clone as you tear through it’s beautiful Bay Area map. Marcus is a bit too friendly of a guy to be believable as our instrument of mayhem, but the flexible missions let you get through mostly non-violently if you’re good enough at stealth. And when it works, multiplayer is good unconventional cat-and-mouse fun, too.
Robo Recall is an excellent demonstration of what a VR shooter can be on Oculus Touch. Thanks to highly physical action and tons of options for smashing a bunch of great-looking robots with both magically replenishing guns and your bare hands, the three available maps feel like plenty.
As such an atmospheric, exploration-focused game to begin with, it makes sense that LA Noire would fit in well with VR. But Rockstar's done a great job of retooling it to make LA Noire: The VR Case Files feel less like a port and more like something that was always meant to be played this way, and the effort shows. There's not a ton of content in this version relative to the original game and some of the controls feel imprecise when trying to zero in on the part of a crime scene you're trying to investigate, but it has fun with it despite the deadly serious subject matter.
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is a strong expansion that turns disaster into opportunity.
With The Outer Worlds, Obsidian has found its own path in the space between Bethesda and BioWare's RPGs, and it's a great one.
Watch Dogs is an excellent open-world action game with some unique hacking-magic that makes it a memorable experience.
With zombies, more is better. Dead Rising 3 delivers the undead and great tools to kill them with by the truckload.
With zombies, more is better. Dead Rising 3 delivers the undead and great tools to kill them with by the truckload.
Fallout 4: Far Harbor adds a large amount of great quests and content within its gloomy but distinctive island setting. Thanks to some well-written, morally ambiguous characters, its choices are as gray as the weather, and much more interesting. Though the new companion isn’t the strongest and the supposedly ruinous radioactive fog is more annoying than threatening, all of the adventuring and new gear absolutely made it worth my while to return to Fallout 4 for Far Harbor.
Game of Thrones: Episode 4 - Sons of Winter delivers a dose of of the action we've all been waiting for.
The prospect of playing such a lovingly crafted tribute to the vintage heyday of Konami's seemingly abandoned Castlevania series more than makes up for a few out-of-place boss fights and a slightly too punitive death penalty. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon delivers a brief but effective burst of nostalgia, and thanks to its many creative modifiers it contains enough replay value to engage (and challenge) anyone who pines for gaming's bygone days. And this isn't even the "real" Bloodstained! As appetizers go, it's substantial — nearly satisfying enough to be its own main course.