Scott Ellison II's Reviews
DiRT 4 has all the modes you expect to be present in a numbered DiRT game, but somewhere along the way, Codemasters didn’t give DiRT 4 a personality befitting for the series. Gone is the Instagram-filtered look and Mountain Dew spewing words from famous extreme sports celebrities of DiRT 2, and also gone are the slick and splashy menu transitions and career navigation of DiRT 3. Where DiRT 4 falls a bit short in presentation, it makes it up where it counts, in gameplay. DiRT 4 is without a doubt the best-feeling and playing game of the series.
Tekken 7 never ceased to amaze. For a “fighting game”, it has a deep list of features and characters that will have you busy for hours. Thankfully, the fight money comes quick and often to have you customizing your characters the way you want. The story mode is engaging and dramatic in ways it hasn’t been for years, and is almost sad to see this saga end. Tekken 7 embraces its history with humor, seriousness, and respect for all to enjoy.
Like Geometry Wars if it were made of flesh and bone, Tormentor X Punisher is an excruciatingly difficult, yet highly satisfying top-down shooter. It begs to be replayed but will beat you down for doing so. Yet like a masochist, you come back for more still thanks to the fast, frenetic, and fun gameplay loop. Tormentor X Punisher‘s vulgarity and brutality might not be for everyone, but it is one of the most clever and chaotic top-down shooters I’ve played.
Three Fields Entertainment has made a highly enjoyable game about smashing and destroying cars by utilizing the environment to the fullest to maximize your score. While they can’t call the game Burnout or “Crash Mode” they did make good one what made that game and mode such a huge success many years ago. The leaderboards encourage retrying to best that stranger, friend, or even yourself ad infinitum. Danger Zone re-creates that magic in a small, digestible way that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
STRAFE doesn’t quite do everything you expect, but being able to go into a game that looks like Quake that is infinitely replayable keeps the challenge up where memorization wouldn’t. I was never able to finish STRAFE, but that’s all well and good for its mindless and nostalgic return to classic-feeling FPS in the modern day era. STRAFE feels like a game that would have existing alongside Quake and Doom, but was accidentally sent forward in time and has learned the ways of 2017 gaming.
Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels is the best Forza has been, and that's saying something coming off of Blizzard Mountain and the equally amazing Forza Horizon 3, this game and its other expansion is unrivaled. Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels is a fever-dream of childhood fantasies come to life in the biggest and best ways
Saber Interactive plays homage to NBA Jam and even a little bit of NBA Street with NBA Playgrounds, and does so with enough changes to the formula to make it interesting, even if the attitude and enthusiasm is a bit subdued. NBA Playgrounds has some erratic difficulty swings during exhibition and tournament modes, but the arcade basketball is fun and easy to pick-up-and-play solo, local, or even online.
The simulation aspects of Bounty Train were really cool, and while I appreciate having a market that is constantly changing – unless you're going to be busting open an Excel spreadsheet to track market prices from one town to the next, then there's too many things going on here. Bounty Train has a wide array of gameplay mechanics and variety I liked, like its turn-based combat and challenges while riding the rails and managing fuel and speed to not derail. Bounty Train has some really interesting and deep systems, that are gated by its harsh difficulty and randomization. There are ways around it, thanks to Freemode, if only minimally.
Has-Been Heroes works for the Switch with its small and travel-focused design, but less so at home when there's other stuff on this console and other consoles to play. Has-Been Heroes could really benefit from an easier difficulty, because luck is just rarely ever on your side. There's some fun to be had, but it is far and few between each run you play. The tactics and strategy behind Has-Been Heroes is mostly satisfying, but is sadly undone by its difficulty.
The name of Slayaway Camp might be a bit on the nose with what goes on there, but this isn’t a movie, it’s a game – a gory and hilarious game. It features a classic horror movie visual style in voxel form, and sliding puzzle gameplay which works to its benefit. Slayaway Camp has been out for a while, and deserves a look due to its well-thought out puzzles and atmosphere that are like no other.
I enjoyed my short time with Little Nightmares, but I wish there was a bit more substance in its subject matter for me to care just a bit more. As it stands, Little Nightmares is a neat distraction, and I hope Tarsier Studios goes a bit further with the story and world they've built, because Little Nightmares goes in some interesting places. The fact that Six's hunger becomes insatiable by game's end raises a lot of questions, but the real hunger is that I wanted more that Little Nightmares wasn't able to deliver.
TumbleSeed was not kind to me at any point while reviewing it. It doesn’t seem like an especially long game, but given its nuance and demanding skillset, is a game you’ll be returning to often. It’s frustrating, beautiful, and unforgiving. There’s a good game here, but I feel it’s upfront difficulty is going to be off-putting for many. But by not playing TumbleSeed, you’re missing out on what is otherwise a unique roguelike that doesn’t shy away from its difficulty, but embraces it to the fullest and tasks you with a challenge you’ll want to overcome each time you play it.
Snake Pass is both a visual delight and a challenging platformer from Sumo Digital. The controls are unique and take time to learn the intricacies of moving a digital snake around as if it were real. The attitude to this platformer is nostalgic and refreshing in the same breath. Snake Pass will be referenced and remembered for years to come – it's quite the snake charmer.
The Signal From Tölva is a complete experience that makes this open-world first-person shooter a delight, and carefully places the world of Tölva onto your shoulders for an exciting excursion onto a foreign planet. The game hides its linearity well, but thankfully not at the expense of enjoyment because of rigidity. Instead, you’re free to do as you please, and by following the path laid out before you and are able to see the events unfold as intended and given story beats where necessary to keep you enthralled in this planetary mystery.
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a really fun first-person shooter, but I do not find there to be full value in what's on offer here for a several years old game. And really, the game's main issue for me is that the dialogue and writing have not aged well and it just comes off really insensitive and dumb in ways that may have worked in 2011, but just doesn't in 2017. The improvements, while mainly graphically still make for an exciting shooter that has yet to be repeated in the years since its original release, and Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is worth a replay if you can wait for a sale.
If Yooka-Laylee was made by any other developer who didn't previously work at Rare, this would be considered a blatant rip-off. But instead, Playtonic picks up where Rare couldn't. For whatever reason a new Banjo-Kazooie couldn't be made, and Yooka-Laylee takes its place. I'm looking forward to what's next, perhaps a new Nuts & Bolts-style game after this. Playtonic Games has captured a certain type of magic from 1998 and brought it to 2017 in spectacular form.
Steep is unlike other games of its ilk. It is a unique game that doesn’t get in its own way and lets you do what you want, how you want. I never felt forced to play an event that I didn’t want to just for the sake of progression. I never felt stressed, frustrated, or bothered by anything in the game. It is a relaxing experience that is worthwhile. Steep is a game that’s grounded in reality but not afraid to have fun while appreciating life and the things around us.
Diluvion is at odds with itself, and myself. I’m finding more fun to get lost in and traverse than to actually play. While those actions are similar, working towards that progression inserts the frustration of its difficulty. Perhaps Diluvion is brilliant in this regard, in that it is expressing that it is “more about the journey than the destination” approach. I far from hate this game, but there’s just a few too many issues that keep me from loving it. Despite that, I can’t help but recommend it for its unique approach to interactions, navigation, and overall gameplay.
Sniper Elite 4 doesn’t do a whole lot different than its predecessors, but the core gameplay of lining up that perfect shot and seeing the bullet delivered in gorgeous and gory detail is always satisfying.
The Xbox One version is easily the best version of the game to-date. The duo over at Tikipod Ltd. have crafted yet another fine version of the game with a new mode: Dreadnought, that freshens it up enough to warrant another purchase. For new players, the reasons have always been there, but now there are more reasons to purchase Aqua Kitty.