Battlefield 1 offers a mind-blowing, gorgeously rendered, large-scale raw war experience unlike any other shooter on the market.
Gears of War 4 brings the franchise forward to Xbox One and PC with new characters, new multiplayer modes, and a redesigned co-op Horde mode.
Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break delivers an epic time-travel tale thanks to brilliant writing and a smart use of live-action sequences.
Tom Clancy's The Division is a beautiful and addictive looter shooter that lacks depth and innovation in gameplay, mission design, and story.
A massive improvement over its predecessor but is held back by a grind-heavy progression system.
This exclusive reboot for PlayStation features all-new music and visuals, but fails to live up to the original.
An addictive tactical multiplayer shooter that suffers from over-monetization, occasional technical issues, and a lack of content.
Rico Rodriguez goes back to his homeland for a massive open-world killing spree but you'll get bored before seeing it all.
Beautiful and authentic sound and visuals of licensed materials fail to mask a shallow movie tie-in gaming experience.
A must-play action-adventure story that solidifies Lara Croft's position as one of the best video game characters ever.
Frontier Developments proves that hardcore space sims can deliver on home consoles with the Xbox One version of Elite: Dangerous.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's gorgeous visuals, intimate story in intense mysteries make it an easy recommendation despite some mediocre mechanics and voice acting.
'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' offers more story for hardcore fans but plays like a dated clone of the older games, trading polish for gimmicks.
DriveClub is easily accessibly and highly recommendable, even for no other reason than the simple fact that it's the only new racer available on PS4 this year. It's slickly designed and just plain fun to play. There's room for improvement on the car selection, progression and customization, but what's there is a fun racer with some interesting social options that dedicated racers can take advantage of.
'Destiny' is a beautiful and addictive shooter despite its punishing loot system, dated MMO inspirations and incomplete story.
Watch Dogs is an origin story of sorts for a vigilante killer. Aiden Pearce is to Chicago what Batman is to Gotham, or more a more apt comparison would be to describe Pearce as more of a high-tech Punisher. The story is adequate to pull players through to the end and you can play much of the game approaching situations in your own, non-violent way, but the campaign forces extreme gunplay more than we wanted.
At $14.99, Super Time Force is a great buy, and highly replayable as more characters are unlocked. There are badges to be earned for each stage (you can pick exactly what stages/segments of missions to replay) for picking up items and the sort. It's a unique, polished and challenging adventure that's absolutely worth your time. And the best part is, completing a stage and re-watching it in real-time. It looks like co-op multiplayer on crack, but it's all you.
'inFAMOUS: Second Son' is a gorgeous open-world super-powered adventure but one that doesn't innovate on the story or gameplay front.
Players looking for a co-op experience will find something worth playing with friends casually in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and it offers polished, harmless and simple gameplay that works for all ages but at a stiff price. The game as its currently designed however, seems to lend itself well to the free-to-play model, supported by microtransactions and we wouldn't be surprised to see it go that path in the future. Right now, there's only one barrier to entry and it's the price.
Killzone: Shadow Fall is the most beautiful next-gen console game on the PlayStation 4, and while it does wonders with its presentation value and impressive new levels of visual fidelity, it doesn't do enough to innovate on its campaign story and gameplay offerings.