Christian DeCoster
Easily this summer's must play game, Overwatch has something for everyone.
Complex puzzles and a tense atmosphere make this a definite must-buy for escape the room fans.
Fans of Zero Escape, you're in the right timeline: the one where the series gets the spectacular ending it deserves. Violent, tense, and thought-provoking, this is a game that will keep you up for days while you finish it, than days more while you process what you just saw. If you haven't picked it up yet, you owe it to yourself to do so now.
DreamBreak is a short, relatively easy trip down memory lane for anyone who grew up playing point-and-click adventure games. While it has plenty of rough edges and won’t hold your attention for much longer than the end credits, it’s a good game to play through in an afternoon, with well-designed puzzles and surprisingly engaging combat. Just be warned that there are a lot of bugs near the end.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is an old school roguelike JRPG with a ton of replayability and a great visual style. With its randomized levels, densely related mechanics, and deceptively simple combat, it’s a game that still manages to be fun even twenty hours in.
While Master of Orion probably isn’t going to satisfy fans who crave the most complex civilization building games, it’s easy to pick up and fun to play for anyone new to the genre. The level of personality and attention to detail really set it apart from the competition as well.
Slain is a fun retro platformer with a slick combat system, great visuals, and a killer soundtrack. While its difficulty feels unfair at times and the Castlevania-inspired levels and enemies may be a little too close to the source material for it to feel totally original, it’s still a blast to play.
Despite superficial similarities to classic Nintendo games like Super Metroid, Axiom Verge isn't afraid to bring a lot of new ideas to the table, and is all the better for it.
Depending on your preferences, God Eater 2: Rage Burst is likely going to be either everything you love about JRPGs or everything you hate about them. While it sports an incredibly deep combat system, fun and complex hunting gameplay, and a lot of personality, it suffers from a lot of technical issues, repetitive grinding, and a cliched story that follows a two dimensional cast.
Conclusion: Clustertruck is an addictive, fast-paced parkour platformer with great controls and a ton of challenging levels to race through. While it lacks a polish in some crucial areas, it’s easy to recommend this game due to how simply fun it is.
Rez Infinite is a treat for the senses, and while there might not be a lot in the way of content, you’ll surely come back for more several times. The simple but addictive gameplay will draw you into a musical neon trance that you won’t want to leave, and it’s the perfect length for sharing with friends.
Overall, Titanfall 2 takes the great ideas of its predecessors and expands upon them to create a far superior experience. While the campaign is a little short, it’s still a lot of fun and incredibly replayable.
While Dragonball Xenoverse 2 has plenty of content based off of the franchise’s long history, the gameplay will most likely start to feel stale long before then.
While the core gameplay is at least somewhat solid, Blue Rider doesn’t have a lot of content or any particularly nifty features to help it stand out amongst its competitors. Unless you love Twin stick shooters and are really, really itching for a challenge, give this one a pass.
Amnesia: The Collection proves why it’s one of the most imitated horror games of all time: it’s also one of the best. While there’s not a lot of new content for any returning players, if you haven’t played Amnesia, now’s the perfect time to change that.
While Killing Floor 2 doesn’t offer a lot of content, especially compared to many other multiplayer shooters out this year, at the end of the day, it’s still fun to shoot some Zeds with your friends. If you’re really looking for some quick, challenging multiplayer action, Killing Floor 2’s a pretty good place to start.
Super Mario Maker 3DS is a subpar port of a great game. While a lot of the fun is still there, the lack of sharing and search features make for an overall inferior experience.
The Ties that Bind Part 1 is a great start to a new entry in Telltale’s excellent series, one that does just enough to feel fresh.
Yakuza 0 is a great entry into the series, with plenty for old fans and newcomers alike. Its story is cheesy and melodramatic at times, and the graphics are a bit outdated, but between a nearly perfect melee combat system and a city bursting at the seams with activity, anyone looking for a sandbox crime game should definitely pick this one up.
Nioh is easily the best action RPG I’ve played in some time. It may take some time to get into the swing of it’s melee combat, and the first level doesn’t make a good impression, but anyone looking for some engrossing hack-and-slash combat should pick this up with Nioh hesitation.