Stefan L's Reviews
Super Mario Odyssey is bursting at the seams with creativity, as Nintendo play with new ideas while also paying homage to their long history. Cappy's abilities are a perfect compliment to Mario's own, and there's a wonderful silliness and humour to their adventure as they visit a string of contrasting kingdoms that just beg you to find the secrets hidden around every corner. Simply put, Super Mario Odyssey is a masterpiece.
Transforming into a bird and soaring through skies and between the floating islands of AER Memories of Old is simply fantastic, and you'll be easily drawn in by its vibrant yet minimalist art style. It doesn't quite make the best use of the shattered world they've created, but for a few hours, it's a gorgeous game and an intriguing story to explore.
Gran Turismo Sport is a near essential purchase for PlayStation 4 racing fans. There might be a few disappointments in some of the limitations and regressions, but the brilliance of the game is in the small details that combine to enable willing players to become better drivers and racers and the implementation of multiplayer. Underneath it all, this is still a very familiar feeling Gran Turismo racing game, but it's also one that's set to grow and evolve over time and looks set to herald a new era of competitive online racing.
Despite showing its age in some places, TickTock Games have done a great job of revitalising a cult classic such as this. Rogue Trooper Redux is a fun cover shooter action romp and worth picking up if you fancy being a big blue badass.
I'm really enjoying The Enemy Within so far, after a strong opener and now a second episode that drags Bruce further than ever before, and strips him of any real sense of control over the situation.
Project Cars 2 is a game that doesn't manage to capitalise on a lot of the enthusiasm that was generated for the original. Too buggy and not as accessible for newcomers as it should be, a lot of the genuine improvements are lost behind a veil of annoyance and frustration. Hopefully Slightly Mad Studios stick with it, because the wider range of racing disciplines, the refined career, and the improvements to LiveTrack and weather are all fantastic and deserve a better, more polished product to bring them to as many people as possible.
Destiny 2 is a fantastic new beginning for one of the most popular online shooters out there, and I can't wait to see how it grows and evolves over the coming months and years.
Despite many expectations, revisiting a younger Chloe Price and Arcadia Bay is very rewarding for fans of Life Is Strange. Deck Nine have found a story of discovery, growth and friendship that's well worth telling, and doing so in a delightfully unexpected manner. Especially if you're already a fan of the series, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is easily recommended and I'm eager to see what's next.
F1 2017 is more than just a steady continuation of Codemasters' racing series, it's a major step forward that isn't content to simply rely on this year's new cars and regulations. From adding more R&D options to the career to having classic cars and invitational events help break up the long racing calendar, there's a lot to keep you engaged here. Not only that, but you can see that Codemasters have plenty of ways to continue to grow the series over the next few years.
Batman: The Enemy Within opens with a fantastic episode, turning the world of Batman on its head once more with new foes and new allies that you'll have to work with. It drags Bruce and Batman further down into the murky grey area that he inhabits, keeping players constantly guessing as to whether or not they're doing the right thing and bringing relationships new and old into the foreground.
Overcooked and the Nintendo Switch are really a perfect match of frantic co-op cooking and a games console that's all about taking games on the go and sharing them with people. Right now it's difficult to wholeheartedly recommend this version though, given the widely reported frame rate issues. Here's hoping they can cook up a fix sooner rather than later.
The first impressions of Aven Colony are great, as you build your first colony, finding your way on this alien world. It doesn't take too long before you start to see the limitations, whether by design or by mistake, leaving this as a city builder that's easy to pick up and play, but one that could do with a little more depth.
Once you get the hang of Tiny Trax, it's a fantastic little racer that demands you learn the tracks, perfect every corner, and know exactly when to boost in order to win. Some people might stall while getting over the initial hump of learning the handling, others when contemplating the amount of content in the game, but get past that and you'll find a slot-racer for the VR generation.
Supergiant Games continue to burn brightly as an independent studio, with Pyre being their latest imaginative and fantastical adventure. It casts aside many of the trappings of an action RPG from Bastion and Transistor in favour of something more akin to a real time tactical game, wrapping its fast paced and often fraught battles up in a world and cast of characters that gradually draw you into its cyclical tale.
A fairly straightforward sequel to one of the Wii U's best games, Splatoon 2's unique take on the online multiplayer shooter is as fresh as ever on Switch. Nintendo still have one foot in the past with online functionality, stubbornly sticking to their (paint) guns when they should be learning from others, but these flaws are easily covered up once you get into a game. At its heart, Splatoon 2 is a second helping of one of the most inventive shooters of the last decade.
Minecraft: Story Mode gets its second season premier starts off by showing our band of heroes growing up and apart. I'm sure they'll reunite, but Jesse and Petra get to embark on a new adventure with a range of new characters added to go with them on an enjoyable new adventure. It's a shame that some of the new gameplay elements don't quite fit together, but on the whole, Season Two is off to a solid start that will likely hook those who enjoyed the original.
Cleaning up someone else's mess has never been this much fun, and that's saying something when said mess includes pieces of evidence, corpses and more than a little bit of blood spatter. Serial Cleaner is easy to recommend as a quirky and fun stealth 'em up with a somewhat macabre sense of humour.
Through the stylishly muted visuals and the trappings of a Communist state on the brink of collapse, Black The Fall challenges you to escape its series of perilous puzzles in a bid for freedom from oppression. Though it will live in the shadows of its critically acclaimed peers and has a few rough edges, Black The Fall is a great addition to the puzzle platformer genre.
Mixing the old with the new, it's clear that Codemasters have tried to bring Micro Machines up to date in World Series. While there's plenty of charm to the classic racing and elimination mode, I feel they could have gone even further with the ideas in Battle mode and the variety of vehicles and weapons that it contains, bringing these back to the classic modes.
Ancient Amuletor is actually fairly close to being a hidden gem for PlayStation VR owners, with fun gameplay across four characters and motion controls that work rather well, but there's simply not enough levels at launch and only vague promises of more in the future. As they add more worlds and characters, TiGames can hopefully make this shine.