Matt Gardner's Reviews
Not much has changed off of the pitch, EA Canada still can't seem to work out how to create stable netcode at launch, and goalkeepers still make hideous errors in spite of their obvious upgrades, but ultimately FIFA 15 is a fast-paced, thrilling triumph where it counts. It's frustrating at times, but it's also the most rewarding FIFA in years.
Infamous First Light packs a whole bunch of content in at a decent price, and fleshes out Second Son's most interesting character in fine fashion, with a sibling story that tugs at the heartstrings thanks to another great performance from Bailey. It's an extension, perhaps, more than an expansion -- more of the same sort of thing, but with a slightly different flavour -- but given how much fun Second Son was, that's no bad thing.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch is an absurdist delight. It only has one joke, but it's a damn good one. Though the game itself falters perhaps towards the end as Young Horses try to force things a little too much, it is to be hoped that the creation tools and the Workshop included with the game extend its lifespan. A brave and bonkers game, for the most part Octodad lollops along the fine line between fun and frustration with gloriously haphazard aplomb.
In many ways, inFamous: Second Son is a lot like its sales rival Titanfall -- it doesn't do much that's new, but rather refines and polishes and balances everything that came before in expert fashion, providing new little twists and expanding in areas that had the scope for it to deliver a blockbuster experience that rarely lets you down.
Stood against the best SHMUPs of this passing generation, it's not necessarily as special as it seems, helped along by being the first and only current game of its kind on the PS4. But it's a great little PS Plus pack-in for new adopters, and will no doubt please genre fans immensely on the harder difficulty settings with a purity of purpose and execution that makes for a deliciously balanced and focused slice of SHMUP action.
There's still room for improvement, but Visual Concepts have created a truly next-gen instalment for this year's iteration of NBA 2K. Everything, from the furrowed lines on LeBron's brow to the engaging back and forth between your MyPlayer and their agent in MyCareer mode, oozes personality like never before. Probably the best sports game on the planet right now.
Imagine Game of Thrones crossed with a dark, brutal, bleak Disney production that Disney would never dare to make, and you're pretty close to The Banner Saga. Stoic have delivered a cracking tactical RPG centred around an impressively elegant combat system and a peripatetic adventure that never lets up with tough choices and decisions to be made, letting the burden of leadership weigh heavy on players' shoulders. Engrossing, challenging, and aesthetically striking, The Banner Saga is a crowdfunded triumph.
I'd never have pegged the folks behind Bulletstorm to craft something like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but I'm very glad that they did. It has a few niggling issues, but ultimately this is a brilliantly subtle, imaginative and thoughtful game.
Jazzpunk is a wonderful blend of spy-spoof, exploratory adventure game that actively involves you in the jokes it tells. Inventive, stylish, and downright hilarious in places, it's basically the lovechild of a three-way between The Meaning of Life, The Naked Gun, and Thirty Flights of Loving. An utterly absurd treat.
Hyrule Warriors doesn't pretend to be anything that it isn't. It does exactly what it says on the tin, producing what is probably the best Warriors game to date, and doing so by taking many of the best aspects of The Legend of Zelda and successfully incorporating them into the classic 1-vs-1000 gameplay. The fan service is astonishing, the level of detail very welcome indeed, and the action can be truly satisfying, with the various bosses going a long way to making the repetitive action seem quite refreshing at times. A triumphant mash-up indeed.
Slick, stylish, sweet, there are probably more superlatives beginning with S that I could use to describe Superhot but I think you get the idea.
An offbeat twist on a gameplay classic, Clustertruck is brilliantly bonkers, and a lot of fun.
Aragami might have its foibles, but this purist take on stealthy puzzlers is a shadowy delight in places. Despite the patchy execution, the great ideas on show here suggest that Lince Works are definitely a studio to watch for the future.
Watch Dogs 2 is a well-made game that tries hard to (over)compensate for the dour mood of its predecessor with a peppy script and a vibrant game world stuffed full of life and colour. But the game's ever-changing tone, confused narrative, and undercooked gameplay elements still leave room for improvement. It's a solid open world game, but rarely spectacular. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kw1dK-st_O4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Dying Light is a game best experienced on your own terms and at your own pace. It eschews the excesses of its sibling franchise, Dead Island, but is no worse for it and if you can get past the clunky storytelling and the repetitive missions, you might a diamond in the rough that really empowers you to revel in the design aspects of its zombie-infested sandbox.
Make no mistake, this is a content bundle rather than a generational upgrade, but that's sort of okay. How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition presents a solid content package, but it is disappointing that technical hiccups of last year's version still remain. Still, if you're looking for some pick-up-and-play, zombie survival action, this is a pretty good shout, and the new modes are ace.
The Evil Within is a good game, an assembly of Mikami's best work and a rather pointed lesson in classic survival horror that Capcom would do well to note, but it's also unashamedly rooted in bygone years. As such, it'll pleases nostalgic fans yearning for a shinier, bloodied love letter to the creepy classics of yesteryear, but it doesn't really deliver anything particularly new. Greatest Hits albums are usually stuffed with goodness, and The Evil Within certainly has its moments, but they're also usually put out by bands with nothing more to say, I can only desperately hope that's not true of Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is big, dumb, fun no matter how much MachineGames might have tried to force it to be otherwise. The alternative history explored here is fascinating, if a little under-explored, but it's the boom and the blast that'll keep FPS fans coming back. A respectably lengthy game with modern looks but buckets of old-school spirit, The New Order is a silly, inconsistent, overblown treat. But give it a couple of weeks.
It's the fourth-best game to bear the Thief name, but it doesn't trample on Garrett's legacy as some might have predicted. The story is utter balls and the game as a whole isn't as cohesive as it could be, but when Thief remembers its name and has you working out the best way of breaking into a place and picking it clean, it does a damn fine job.
A whimsical, living sketchbook of self-realisation and a quirky look at what it means to be human, Doki-Doki Universe guides players along its absurdist, surreal journey with a cast of weird and wonderful characters, warm storytelling, and offbeat humour. You won't find challenges to beat or puzzles to really solve here, and the game perhaps doesn't do enough to break up the repetition at its core, but Doki-Doki Universe is a strangely uplifting game, one that might just put a smile on your face even as you ponder the definition of love while hurtling through the stars on a flying poo.