Ryan Esler's Reviews
Master Chief returns to Xbox with an amazing soundtrack and enough tweaks to rekindle any Halo fan's love of the series. While the ports of Halo 3 and 4 suffer ever so slightly, Halo 2 makes up for those dips in performance tenfold.
After some frustrating delays, Dontnod more than deliver on the promise displayed in Life is Strange Episode 1.
Titanfall 2 doesn’t just improve on the original, it leaves it in the dust as it speeds ahead laughing. Leaps and bounds ahead of its competition with a brilliant story to boot. The only thing holding Titanfall 2 back is the release date, it feels like were this released in the summer it would have just a few more players online.
The Witch Queen offers Destiny 2's best campaign to date, an exciting new weapon archetype in the Glaive, and takes its first steps in revitalizing the Light Subclasses in line with Beyond Light's Stasis Subclass with Void 3.0. It also adds the enticing prospect of weapon crafting, which is unfortunately hampered by extremely grind-y requirements to truly experience the most weapon crafting has to offer as well as a raid that could be the most convoluted yet.
If you were ever curious about Destiny 2, Shadowkeep is the perfect entry point. If you are a reneged player that struggled with content doubts, there’s no better time to come back. And if you are neither of the aforementioned, you probably should be. Shadowkeep is everything every player wanted from Destiny 2, and in true Bungie fashion, it was delivered with a bang – which presumably emanated from the servers as they exploded on launch night.
One of the most ambitious and diverse fighters to deliver on everything it promises. Mortal Kombat X takes series staples, combines them with a stellar story, and gives you enough variations on fighters to give infinite depth. People will talk fondly of MK X for decades to come.
From Software turn expectations of a "soulslike" on their head with this fast paced and visceral approach to combat and Lovecraftian horror. Bloodborne isn't just a game you can justify buying, it's the type of game you justifies buying the console too.
Donotnod venture into episodic territory with Life is Strange for it and produce one of the year's most promising titles in doing so.
Lucid Games have literally added new depths to a frantic and ever so satisfying series with Geometry Wars 3. You'll fall in love with the speed of the wonderfully fluorescent design and fall in to a vortex of bettering your scores long in to the future with this one.
A love letter to both Batman and the DC Universe that builds upon the expectations of the LEGO games while adding enough to justify returning to yet another installment in the series.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a must have for Xbox One users. Ori manages to cptivate players with gorgeous environment design and a heart wrenching story.
Sunset Overdrive is an energetic, hilarious, and colourful entry in Microsoft's ever growing collection of exclusives.
Dungeon of the Endless is absolutely gorgeous to look at and even better to play. Combing tower defence and dungeon crawling is a stroke of genius. With various difficulties and modifiers available these dungeons truly are endless.
If Street Fighter IV were to be described as looking to the past to understand what made the series so great, Street Fighter V could be described as looking to the future to ensure it stays on top for the years to come, welcoming all the new comers along the way.
Transformers: Devastation is a fully realised and unbelievably accurate adaptation of the autobots. It feels exhilarating to dart about the world and even better to destroy it.
The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition is unreasonably fun with a truly interesting story and cathartic gameplay with enough spice to make you consider the best option for every scenario.
It's odd to think that in game in which you never meet any real humans face to face that you never feel alone, and that's part of the magic of Firewatch. Firewatch is a must have for all PS4 owners.
Without any connection issues, Absolver sings as one of the most promising indie titles this year. There is so much to do and the variety of different attacks on display is astounding; it might take some time to unlock them by fighting others, but it is time well invested. It might only have 3 basic Styles, but you can make the complex and pay homage to some of your favourite martial artists with a variety of form defining attacks, like massive flying knees, low sweeps, or spinning backfists.
A fighting game that packs a punch and is worthy of the series’ name. Once you see past some questionable animations you’ll find countless hours of fun mixing and matching teams on and offline.
DmC Definitive Edition lives up to its name and corrects many of the wrongs that were present in the original. With faster gameplay and a load of replay value you, it's hard to argue that it isn't Capcom's best port in recent memory.