Steve Wright's Reviews
Even with the weakest on-disc tracks to date, Just Dance 2017 is a massive step in the right direction. While last year’s entry was a massive miss, this one’s a definitely buy.
What follows next is lacklustre. Predictable jump scares, ringing telephones, spooky notes, guys in animal masks humping things and malfunctioning flashlights litter the landscape, and with each new instance, you’re left less and less impressed. Take your pick; this could be a result of mickey mouse writing or because you’re more concerned with how much game you can take before you need a sick break.
With a range of brain-taxing puzzles, it’s hard to go wrong with Tumble VR.
RIGS: Mechanised Combat League is a good start for PS VR, but it’s clear there’s a long way to go. Offline balancing, virtual reality image shift fixes and a rejig of pre- and post-match presentations should be high on Guerrilla Cambridge’s post-launch support list. Even then, it’s a fun little sports game that provides something other than horror or walking simulators for PlayStation VR. It’s worth checking out if you’re into sports or competitive shooters.
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is a great little title that makes great use of virtual reality. It’s not as terrifying as you’ve been lead to believe, especially against the likes of Resident Evil 7. This is one to grab if you’re a fan of the franchise, or if you’re open to a jump scare here and there.
All up, the disc is forgettable and not worth your time, unless you’re keen to have a showreel of VR’s greatest hits for visitors. Move on to Until Dawn: Rush of Blood or Batman: Arkham VR instead.
This is the best use of PlayStation VR that I’ve seen currently available. The other, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, won’t be available for a bit. Their common denominator is an easy one – who wouldn’t want to be an actual part of a lifelong love? Batman: Arkham VR is a must-have for any Bat-fan with a PS VR system.
All up, The Coalition’s multiplayer offerings make up for an inconsistent campaign in Gears of War 4. Even then, and as much as I hate to admit it, what’s been presented has me eager for more – even though I would have preferred some resolution in this title, thank you very much. Gears fans will love it and newcomers should find enough to get them geared up – pun intended – for more.
Even then, this is an extremely solid bundle worth your hard earned. Grab it. Relieve some great gaming moments of the past and be thankful that your nostalgic memories aren’t tainted with expectations that can’t be lived up to today. Bioshock‘s still got it — even if you can’t use current-gen OS to actually capture any of it all at present.
In all seriousness, you’re better off skipping the Triple Pack and getting Dead Rising 3 instead — and for the same price. Or, just saving your cash for Dead Rising 4 and (hopefully, a less assholish) West.
NHL 16 saved the franchise from utter ruin, but NHL 17 shows you just what developers who love hockey can do when given ample time to work on a product. This year’s result is polished and bursting at the seams with care and love. With more modes than you can shake a stick at and niggling bugs of the past destroyed — I couldn’t find a single glitch over a marathon play session while preparing for this review — this is the best version of NHL to date. Grab a copy, some beers and a friend and show each other what you can do.
Federation Force isn’t bad — especially when you factor in Blast Ball — but it’s not going to fill the hunger felt by most franchise fans. It doesn’t work as a single-player offering, and those who want to play with friends will need to exert ridiculous levels of willpower and patience to get games in. If you’re willing to give it a go with mates, synch things up ahead of time for the least amount of stress.
Its gameplay loop means you’ll be able to have an entirely different experience with each playthrough
I’m a die-hard fan of the game and have loved jumping back in to Resident Evil 4. I have a feeling others who feel the same about the franchise will as well, as will Achievement and Trophy addicts, enticed over reasonable simple lists. For everyone else, it’s a harder sell at $24.95 AUD — while greatly improved over last-gen’s release, it’s still the same game on yet another platform.
Fallout 4 was an epic game, very much deserving of the 10/10 rating we bequeathed upon it, but its DLC offerings are another story altogether. If you have the game’s “Season Pass”, you might as well grab a couple extra new Achievements or Trophies. If you’ve been buying DLC piecemeal, leave it alone – unless, of course, you’re very much into crafting.
That’s really it — you draw Disney characters. As such, this will work for die-hard adult Disney fans, but is best suited for children with long car rides in their future. It’ll be engaging and involving childhood heroes, making it hard to fail.
7 Days to Die is awful. I’d imagine this is how the PC release initially played back in 2013 as part of Steam Early Access; I’m utterly confused as to why there’s no polish at all on this new console release. There’s no excuse for such a flimsy mess, and I’m quite surprised Telltale Games would permit its name to be associated with such tripe. Avoid the game at all costs.
All things considered, “Underground” is a true evolution of the MMO, provided those who had a passing interest in it can be bothered jumping back in.
The Chris and Jake campaign should have been less of a testosterone fest, instead playing more like Leon’s campaign instead. Or, better yet, Resident Evil 5‘s “Lost in Nightmares” DLC. Sherry and Jake’s campaign has a nice balance between tension and action that should have been fleshed out to a far greater degree. The problem that Resident Evil 6 has is that it’s three — or four — games squashed into one, desperately suffering from an identity crisis. With such an emphasis on choice and variation, it does nothing well. We get suspense with Leon, a thriller with Jake and action with Chris, but by the time you get into the groove of each campaign, it’s over. Capcom has tried to do a far too much with just one title, and the franchise moves backward as a result.
Resident Evil 5 was released to the market in 2009 with a lot to live up to; RE4 took the “survival horror” genre the series was so famous for and introduced so many different gameplay mechanics that it was thought of as an “action horror” title instead. The series was flipped on its head; old fans either loved it or hated it, but a new group of gamers found the series for the first time and fell in love. In 2016, this game still holds its own, a refinement of the franchise rather than the train-wreck, ‘everything including the kitchen sink’ mentality that befell Resident Evil 6.