Daire Hardesty's Reviews
God of War Ragnarök weaves a great blend of fast paced, challenging combat, great characters and beautiful environments in the world of Norse mythology.
Thimbleweed Park is a classic point-and-click adventure about classic point-and-click adventures for lovers of classic point-and-click adventures who have played all the classic point-and-click adventures. If you belong to that rather tight target group, then this is a fantastic game.
Sundered: Eldritch Edition is one of the best platformers I've played this year, it has all the great platformer elements and entertains without fail. I feel like the enemies could have been improved as the balance just isn't there, but as a whole, it doesn't make that much of an impact against the overall experience. In terms of audio, the soundtrack is beautiful and Canadian film composer Max LL did a wonderful job.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a fantastic finale to an amazing trilogy! The game is graphically stunning and delivers a crisp and thrilling storyline that will entertain for multiple playthroughs. Few games this year have had me on the edge of my seat as much as this. If you like games with a great storyline and a constant thrill than this is the game for you!
Sea of Thieves is a great game to play on your own and an even better game to play with friends. The visuals are fantastic and the experience is unforgettable.
With The Hidden Ones, Ubisoft has already delivered a decent expansion for Assassin’s Creed Origins and hopes to repeat that trick with The Curse of the Pharaohs. This time around however the focus is on Egyptian mythology rather than the Creed.
As a video games journalist, I play hundreds of games each year, from big-budget AAA titles to small indie games with a tiny team of developers. Every so often I will come across a game made by a small independent studio that immediately captures me with its charm and creativity. Typoman is one of those games.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an amazing game. The unique Nemesis system gives us better world design and Orc encounters leading to a truly enjoyable experience.
A strange combination of both familiar territory and a fresh feeling, Gears of War 4 provides and enjoyable and robust experience. While there isn't much new ground broken in the experience, it does a lot to remind us what was so great about the original games in the first place.
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst could easily be my favourite game of the year. The whole idea of the game is what captivates me, it's sleek, fast and immersive!
Dark Souls III feels like the proper sequel to the first game
Dying Light really stands on its own as a game, and where it fell down with the storyline it made up with the rest of its features.
Far Cry: Primal offers a beautifully laid out and vast land crying to be explored. It has strong moments in its empty wilderness but is missing that final climax that keeps it from feeling like a complete, genre-defining experience.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a great shooter that surely sets itself apart from the rest of the industry thanks to its merge of co-op and competitive matchmaking.
Star Wars Battlefront is one of the best games I've played this year; the visuals were stunning, the audio was fantastic and the immersion was perfect! Whether you fight for the Rebel Alliance or you walk the path of the dark side, this game will keep you entertained for a long time to come. The force is strong with this one!
Fallout 4 is one of the best games I've played this year. New players to the series may wonder how they went so long without Fallout in their lives, but it is not for the faint-hearted. As Bethesda's "Welcome Home" marketing campaign teases, when fans of Fallout 3 or New Vegas enter this new world, it'll feel strangely familiar. As one of the top games of the previous generation, this isn't a bad thing at all. Fallout 4 has all of the trappings that can keep you engaged for days on end.
If you're growing tired of the franchise and were really hoping Microsoft and 343 would hold true to their promise to evolve the formula a bit, be wary that the newest stuff is where the game gets a bit shaky. However, if you've loved the Halo blueprint up to now and are looking for an updated current-gen version, there's more than enough here to offer a solid recommendation. It's not the best Halo game I've ever played, but it is good, delivering most of the Halo essentials without compromise.
The upstep in visual detail from the older console versions is a nice bonus, but Tomb Raider didn't need massaging. It's the same well-realised action reboot for Lara Croft that came as such a pleasant surprise last year. It's still well-written, sympathetic, exciting, beautiful, and just incredibly well-made.