Luke Lawrie's Reviews
Dead Rising 4 is a lot of fun. The removal of the timer might not bode well with fans of the series, but it does allow a sense of freedom to move within the game at a player’s own accord. That all said, there just isn’t enough to keep you engaged apart from the main storyline; killing zombies with crazy theatrical weapons is fun, but after a while it just becomes too much of a grind.
When Dead By Daylight was first launched, it was a flawed but fun game that needed a bit more work to tighten things up. Since its release, Behaviour Interactive has spent the last few months doing just that; it’s in a really good place right now. It has a healthy, active community where the player base can also go and interact with the developers on a weekly basis. All in all, Dead By Daylight is an amazing survival horror experience and my favourite indie game so far this year; you’ll sure as hell see this one on my list of top 5 games of 2016.
Visual Concepts continues to set the benchmark for sports titles with NBA 2K17. My very few gripes with the game are small compared to hefty amount of content that is on offer, and for all the different things this game does right. It’s hard to pass up NBA 2K17 if you’re looking for an amazing video game; it’s even harder if you’re a basketball fan.
While Battleborn is a fun game with a lot of depth, there are a few things in the game that are currently problematic and will hopefully be resolved soon.
Dark Souls III is not for everyone, but for those that do give it the time required that it takes to learn, they’ll hopefully walk away from the game satisfied like I did. Because what they’ll end up playing is one of the best games of this year.
Just Cause 3 is purely an entertaining game; it’s not trying to tell a complex story with plot twists and deep characters. It knows it’s ridiculously over the top and it has fun with that. If, in your video games, you like explosions and causing serious amounts of destruction, you’re not going to find a better game this year to do so.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a great addition to the series but it does feels more like a very big DLC game because it doesn’t bring in anything substantially new. Where it does pay off however is the humour in the writing and the story arc for the main antagonist – it is amazingly fleshed out to where you see this interesting character transition throughout the course of the game. But in the end there’s loads of content packed in and you’ll have a lot of fun smashing your way through the missions while we all wait for the next act in the Borderlands series to make an appearance.
It’s disappointing that NBA 2K15 isn’t currently up to the standard we’re used to. As the modes have started to come back to life it has definitely smoothed out, but there is still a little way to go. Hopefully this is a lesson learned by Visual Concepts and next year’s launch doesn’t have so many headaches. The core game is amazing, but with so many of the modes relying heavily with online connectivity, which hasn’t worked, it’s just dragged the experience down a notch for me.
It’s not its appearance that lets Driveclub down, it’s the racing and all bits in between. The handling of the cars feels solid but the racing aspect is overshadowed by the frustrating A.I. opponents. Its main draw is supposed to be playing the game while online – but this is far too annoying as you get flooded with notifications. Ultimately there are games out there that have done a much better job with asynchronous multiplayer like Need For Speed’s Autolog system. When you sit down and play Driveclub you can see that it had potential, but it still feels like its missing too many components. In the end Driveclub is an incredible looking driving game, but it’s not a good racing game.
The fact that Watch Dogs has come out as second-best against the juggernaut that is the Grand Theft Auto franchise doesn’t mean it’s a bad game; it’s quite the opposite. It’s quite a great achievement for a brand new IP to come out and be as good as it is and to also try to do some new things on such a large scale. Its multiplayer is by far one of Watch Dogs‘ stand out components and this is where you’ll start to see some great videos floating around online from the community as they invade your game. Watch Dogs has dozens of hours of content and will certainly keep you entertained its world and what’s on offer.
Diablo III was a bit of a miss, but Blizzard has spent time refining and streamlining just about every aspect of the game. Along with a very fulfilling new Act, updated loot system, and the addition of Adventure mode, Blizzard continues to show that when it comes to delivering content to their games they are still one of the best. Reaper of Souls is fantastic and is a must have for Diablo fans.