Dan Stapleton's Reviews
It's one of the best games available today.
Half-Life: Alyx has set a new bar for VR in interactivity, detail, and level design, showing what can happen when a world-class developer goes all-in on the new frontier of technology.
The world, exploration, crafting, atmosphere, and story of Fallout 4 are all key parts of this hugely successful sandbox role-playing game. Great new reasons to obsessively gather and hoard relics of happier times, strong companions, and sympathetic villains driving tough decisions make it an adventure I'll definitely replay and revisit. Even the technical shakiness that crops up here and there can't even begin to slow down its momentum.
Beat Saber should be the go-to for introducing people to the potential of VR gaming. Its simple to learn, damn near impossible to master rhythm gameplay is outstanding.
Civilization VI will go down in history as the most fully-featured launch version in the series. Many of those are smartly revamped versions of Civ classics, buy it finds its own identity with great new ideas like spread-out cities, customizeable governments, research boosts, and leader agendas. And even though the AI has some improving to do, it can put up enough of a fight to make world domination a challenge.
Civ VI is a fantastic strategy game that, for the first time, has been successfully adapted to a console in a way that controls well.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's great action and dynamic enemies make both victory and defeat an amazing experience.
With a focus on variety and replayability, this sequel has an answer to most of my complaints about 2012's excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and aside from some mostly cosmetic bugs, it comes together brilliantly. Thanks to a new spin on the same great tactical combat, plus unpredictable maps and randomized objectives and loot, XCOM 2 is an amazing game I'll easily put hundreds of hours into.
Batman: Arkham Knight is an impressive game on almost every level, with non-stop variety and great action.
Darkest Dungeon is a grim and merciless tactical strategy game whose great tension comes from its many layers of complexity, unpredictable randomization, and willingness to put our fragile characters in mortal danger if we dare to venture into its depths in search of treasure and glory. Brilliant narration and stiff yet surprisingly expressive animation make it easy to be drawn into its vague but tantalizing world, though the end feels artificially out of reach.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a fantastic single-player shooter, but what really got me invested was the brilliantly written characters and the performances of its cast. BJ and his crew are full of spirit and personality, and General Engel is as memorable a nemesis as you're likely to find in games. Machine Games has once again turned the well-worn act of mowing down Nazis into something to get excited about.
The creepy-cute dungeons of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth are amazingly different and challenging every time.
New abilities, tough enemies and more maps make XCOM: Enemy Within a superb expansion, but the ending needs an upgrade.
Gearbox gives Homeworld the respect it deserves in this impressive refitting of Relic's classic
After spending many hours in virtual reality, I believe the launch of the Oculus Rift is the start of a new era. The first time you put it on is the closest thing to real magic you’re likely to experience anytime soon. It’s true that VR has a lot of maturing to do, but this amazing headset is a front-row seat to watch gaming history being made. Its current lack of motion controllers means these enticing experiences are mostly “look, don’t touch,” but even though it can’t live up to its full potential quite yet, the ability to so easily immerse ourselves in a game world or other virtual environment is worth every penny.
Superhot VR's fantastically clever time-manipulating concept empowers you with the superhuman reflexes of a slow-motion action hero. Shattering waves of glass-like enemies while moving your face out of the path of incoming bullets is a thrilling challenge in both the cryptic story mode and the endless mode that follows.
Similar to the way Batman: Arkham City built on the foundation of Arkham Asylum, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is bigger and more ambitious in scope than Shadow of Mordor, with great results. The way it expands the Nemesis system with far greater variety and fortress sieges makes even better use of the stand-out generated characters, and its battles with memorable uruk captains remain challenging all the way through the campaign and into the clever asynchronous multiplayer beyond.
The wide variety of mech and pilot abilities make Into The Breach's tactical combat deep, satisfying, and replayable. Every turn creates a new complex puzzle, and though sometimes there's no perfect solution, finding the best way to minimize damage creates frequent eureka moments as you learn to make the most of the abilities you're given to work with. It's a small-looking tactics game that's kept me playing more intently than most big ones.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order makes up for a lot of lost time with a fantastic single-player action-adventure that marks the return of the playable Jedi.
Mass Effect 2's Legendary Edition upgrades the graphics to near-modern standards and lets us immerse ourselves in the best game in BioWare's epic RPG trilogy all over again.