Stefan L's Reviews
It takes a little while to reach its best, but Danger Zone takes the classic Crash Mode from the Burnout series, distils it and then finds ways to push it to new, even more ridiculous heights. Crash Mode is back, and despite a few flaws, it ends up being as morbidly compelling as ever.
MotoGP 17 could be seen as a last hurrah for Milestone's ageing game engine, but even with new modes and technical improvements, it feels more like they're treading water while waiting to revitalise the series next year with Unreal Engine 4. Get it if you absolutely must have 1080p60 MotoGP, but otherwise, there's something better on the horizon.
In the end, Dirt Rally was just a glimpse of what was yet to come, with Dirt 4 bringing this long running series back with not just rallying, but more full-on wheel to wheel action alongside it. In going for a more focused style of game and a more demure attitude, it's lost some of Dirt 3's hyperactivity and fun, but with a limitless supply of new stages to send you car hurtling along, Dirt 4 is a rallying game for the ages.
Playing Star Trek: Bridge Crew is every Trek fan's dream, giving you the opportunity to sit on the bridge of a Federation starship. It's a great co-op game for VR, but takes a few direct hits when played with AI and when you think about the balance between roles and the mission structure. Even so, with the Trek license lending this game an awful lot of atmosphere and the paucity of must-have VR games right now, this is still a near essential buy.
Tequila Works' efforts these past few years have delivered a game that's full of beguiling charm and beauty, one that can stand up to many of the comparisons with some of the most fondly remembered games of the last decade. It doesn't always meet those high standards, but Rime has been well worth the wait.
While there's a distinct appeal to Steel Division: Normandy 44, this is a game that caters to a particular niche audience of hardcore strategy fans. Its depiction of the Second World War focuses on realism, with a reliance on ambushes and weight of fire in infantry combat and a surprising fragility to the tanks, but this difficult to master game won't be for everyone. There's some clever ideas in the shifting front lines, the fog of war and Battlegroups, but there's problems with the presentation and some elements that feel unbalanced.
On the whole Mass Transit is a more than welcome set of additions and improvements to Cities: Skylines, but there's just that nagging feeling that it could have gone a little bit further in some areas and a couple of options could be a little smoother to use.
Writing over our memories of the Prey that preceded it, Arkane Studios' game is something new and yet strikingly familiar. There's a great deal of kinship to the likes of Bioshock, Half-Life and other classic games, but it's also broader and more expansive in what it tries to do. Regardless of its flaws and similarities, Prey manages to be an enthralling science fiction adventure.
Flawed and often out of touch, Syberia 3 only serves a dedicated clutch of fans that have spent the past decade looking for closure to a beloved series. To anyone else, it will come across as a bizarre and mostly impenetrable relic that feels out of place among 2017's slate of releases.
Symphony of the Machine is a pleasant enough puzzle game, with its laser beam manipulation requiring a little out of the box thinking at times. However, it's a concept that we've seen before in VR, and niggles with moving around and interacting with this 3D space left me feeling a tad frustrated and disappointed.
Sadly, Scanner Sombre never really attains the heights of Dear Esther and Gone Home, two games that Introversion site as inspirations. If you have an interest in that genre, it's still very much worth exploring the cavernous depths of Scanner Sombre, but more than its fellows, this is a striking idea that searches for a game and a story to make the most of it.
Where most game series can rest on their laurels, Dawn of War III is essentially the third reinvention of Relic's Warhammer 40,000 RTS. As the game captures a sense of grand scale, it loses some of the strategic nuance in changes to the cover system, and it's a disappointment that tried and tested multiplayer modes aren't included as well. That said, the campaign makes for an enjoyable and challenging romp through yet another crisis in the 40K universe, and while some gameplay elements have been simplified, the three deeply contrasting races offer plenty for players to sink their teeth into online.
Mario Kart 8 was already a simply sublime kart racer on Wii U, but Nintendo have managed to make it just that little bit better. From the new and improved Battle Mode to tweaks that add more depth for veterans and more accessibility for novices, a great deal of thought and effort went into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, beyond simply porting it to Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to be the best in the business, and now you can play it on the train.
Utopia and Banks amount to a significant improvement to Stellaris that rewrites and overhauls a lot of the game for the better, adding yet more ways to try and build your empire. However, it also feels like Paradox are still just getting started with exploring everything that the game can be. It might take time for them to get there, but it's a journey I'm looking forward to taking with them.
A few weeks after the console's release, you have to scroll a little way to reach the bottom of the Nintendo eShop's Recent Releases list to find Vroom! in the Night's Sky. Don't bother. It's complete bobbins.
Putting you into cunning espionage themed escape rooms, I Expect You To Die is a fun VR puzzler with a charming sense of humour and dozens of ways to die. Sadly, there’s only a handful missions to take on, making this yet another VR game that’s over before it’s had a chance to really get started.
Shards of Darkness could have been a big step forward for the series, giving you a more rounded set of gameplay possibilities, alongside the better looking environments and other areas. Alas it’s not as big an improvement as I’d hoped and is let down by bugs and inconsistencies. It’s a stealth game with one foot stuck in the past, and that remains both a blessing and a curse.
Fast RMX is practically a must buy, but it’s a purist take on the genre and damn difficult without many, if any of the bells and whistles of other racers. That said, if you’re looking to scratch a certain F-Zero or Wipeout itch on Switch it’s absolutely worth a look.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild dramatically updates this venerable and beloved series, bringing new ideas into the fold which, while seemingly taking inspiration from others, seamlessly adapts them to fit and never loses its own identity. It’s refreshingly new and familiar at the same time, making for both one of the greatest launch titles and the sweetest swan songs any console could wish for.
For all its good ideas, inventive uses of the Joy-Con and potential as a fantastic party game, 1-2-Switch has just as many fumbles that make it far from an essential Switch launch title. It can be a lot of fun, but it fails to keep you in the moment, takes too long to explain and set up each game, and no amount of immature giggling at euphemistic games can manage to rescue it from itself. It might be quick on the draw, but what follows is more of a confused fumble.