I’ve got a laundry list of other minor complaints, like how dumb the “boss fights” are, but the randomness is my biggest issue. It turns what could be an interesting, thoughtful sort of puzzle game into a series of pulls on a slot machine. That’s not necessarily entirely bad, and you can get some fun out of it regardless, but it’s a mixed bag.
There's the seed of a good game here, but it's underdeveloped. Garage has style and wit to spare, but its cheap deaths, poor map design, murky graphics, and frequent bugs all add up to a frustrating experience. I'm usually willing to give any zombie game more credit than most sensible people would, and even I can't recommend this.
My complaints, it should be said, are relatively minor. Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a good, surprisingly polished callback of a game that replicates a lot of the feel of classic JRPGs without bringing along most of their flaws for the ride. I have no idea how appealing it is to anyone who didn't spend 40-hour chunks of his childhood on Final Fantasy III, but for me, it's a pleasant combination of modernity and nostalgia. That's a tricky combination to pull off.
Beyond that, however, I see Bleed's appeal, but it's a game that just isn't for me, at least not right now. It's a distinct experience in that it's a modern game dressed in a retro game's skin, with a substantial learning curve built into it before you're even competent. I don't think it's bad at all, but playing it feels like I've found myself in the cockpit of some vehicle that I don't know how to drive, five seconds before a crash. I figure there's a decent audience for this sort of game out there, but I'm not in it.
For the moment, I'm confident in saying that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite plays well, which is good, because everything that surrounds that base game is a hot mess. It deserves a lot of the initial terrible buzz it received because unless you have your hands on it, Infinite just looks like refried hell. The Vs. series has never exactly been known for its high production values, but for a major fighting game release in 2017, this borders on embarrassing. It's a fun game that's often difficult to look at, and more so than any balance patches or DLC, it could use a fresh coat of paint.
This is a short game, and at $20, it might be a little expensive for a single evening or weekend, but it's worth checking out. There are a few other games in its small genre pool, but Little Nightmares sets itself apart with its level design and surreal atmosphere. Set aside a block of time, try to go into the game as cold as possible, and be ready for a lot of deaths, some of which are gruesome and many of which won't feel fair. It's a sort of dark fairy tale, to go by my experience, and you'll get about 60 unhappy endings before you get to a slightly better one.
Off the Record is still Dead Rising 2, with the thematic dissonance that I mentioned in that game's review. It's even more pronounced here, if anything, as Frank throws out sly little side-long quips on everything like he's starring in both a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" episode and the movie it's mocking. I don't exactly mind Frank as a character, but you have to be a lot more of a fan of him than I am before this works as well as Dead Rising 2 did. Still, it improves on that game's basic model and adds the much-needed sandbox mode, so call it a wash.
DR2 isn't that old of a game and has been available on Steam for quite a while. If you only own a PS4 or Xbox One and you haven't played DR2 before, it's well worth your time. As long as you're willing to experiment, fail, and try again, you should get a lot out of it.
To my mind, that's what makes Dead Rising interesting in 2016. It hasn't aged well at all, and it's a sort of time capsule for late sixth/early seventh-generation design, but it still has a quiet intensity and sense of genuine dread that none of its more famous sequels even tried to match, and which in many ways stands alone in recent video game history. If you can come to grips with its relative user-unfriendliness, it's an experience worth having.
I would love to see a sequel that kept the Guild's basic premise and look but enabled you to keep equipment, sort your cards outside of combat, or hold on to character advancement. As the game stands right now, it kills time, and that's about it.