Extinction is a good blueprint for a more interesting game. I came in excited to slice up some giants, but after the fifth rote exercise I was kind of over it. There are some flashes of brilliance every now and then but the over-reliance on the core energy meter idea keeps it imprisoned in the depths of repetitive arcade territory.
TERA is still absolutely worth trying out if you've never delved into it before. It's something I plan on sticking with on the side rather than as a main course, but those of you who are already chowing down on TERA should probably stay with the PC version.
NIS delivers the weird yet again with Penny-Punching Princess, a fun little arcade romp that just escapes the danger of staleness. Stretched a little too thin but a lot of people are going to be enjoying this one with a price drop.
I want to see a lot more of Detective Pikachu despite my misgivings with his 3DS debut. I just hope the next game is a little more fleshed out and doesn't tease us so heavily, but developer Creatures was able to build the skeleton of a low key adventure romp.
Level-5 is more than capable of dumping out healthy portions of its secret sauce on top of its games, but the combat of Ni no Kuni II and its attempt to do so many different things can hold it back. From the first hour I was mesmerized and captivated, willing to see its tale through until the end. While it does fall into some genre trappings and doesn't feel quite as epic in scale compared to the first, Level-5 has the uncanny ability to keep the memory and magic of the JRPG alive.
Burnout Paradise Remastered isn't really worth grabbing if you already have the original. Hell, said original is even backward compatible on the Xbox One right now. Without any prior experience though I would absolutely give Paradise City a spin -- even with its faults, it's still one of the most memorable and mild open worlds in existence.
Most of the stages aren't the only linear aspect of Star Allies, as the world map for each realm is fairly flat. It's always great to find a secret switch and unlock more extra stages to romp around in (something that feels distinctly Super Mario World), but more hidden secrets and an actual use for hub screen jumping would elevate the age old level-to-level feel a tad.I don't think HAL is very interested in drastically altering the Kirby formula at this point, and that's perfectly fine. Not every creation is going to be a masterpiece, but for the most part, all of the console iterations have a special degree of love and care that shine through. Kirby Star Allies is cute, gorgeous in its own special way, and fun to play. It's par for the course.
Fable Fortune doesn't offer much that hasn't been done better in the years before it.
A storybook comes to life in a meaningful way in Moss.
Although I came in rusty, DJMax Respect beckoned me to keep my fingers dancing and to further one-up myself. The more I did that the more fun it became, and I'm looking forward to enjoying all of the DLC to come, and potentially, the full-on resurrection of DJMax in the west.
Immortal Redneck's loop is dead simple: play some, upgrade, play more, buy the item that lets you skip past the mid-boss, play some, upgrade, then confront the final boss. But you know what -- it's a blast, and I never really thought of any of the above as work. While the roguelike setup will no doubt scare some people off (you do you, reader), anyone looking to temporarily transport themselves back through the ages of FPS-dom without making concessions should give it a chance.
Metal Gear Survive should have been a free-to-play game just like Grasshopper's Let it Die or an actual Metal Gear release. It doesn't accomplish either aim.
The Windows 10 restrictions simply do the development team a disservice. A lot of work went into Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and just enough tweaks were made to ensure that it's still relevant in 2018. I have an incredible amount of respect for the folks who brought this classic back to life, and for their restraint to ensure that this remaster doesn't abandon its roots.
You may as well just play the SNES version, even if it's the first time you're ever picking up a Mana game: the original spritework is able to pick up the slack of a few of its inherent shortcomings, which are only exasperated by the swap to 3D.
The hack-and-slash moment-to-moment action works in its favor even when transitioning to a new style of play, but Dynasty Warriors 9, like some of its predecessors, is clunky and unwieldy; hampered by the aforementioned bugs and performance problems. If you're into the idea of playing an open world game where its arcadey elements are entwined with therapeutic but sometimes dry exploration, maybe give it a shot.
Rise and Fall does exactly what an expansion needs to do, and brings the wayward Civ players back into the fold.
Barring some unfortunate bugs and one design decision that hampered my experience, Aegis Defenders is a smooth, well-thought-out ride. The original art, charm, and in-game universe only add to it, and I'd love to see more.
Despite the kick in the teeth, it was worth crawling back out of that hole and trying again. Any game where you're pondering the optimal setup for a chicken head that shoots egg bombs and a bee homing missile is a-okay with me. I won't be endlessly replaying it, but Octogeddon grabbed me hard for a good while.
Shadow of War had a gamey quality to it and a fanfiction plot that had some moments of surprise. Blade of Galadriel is much more to the point, without much of the same flair -- either the good or the bad.
Dissidia NT is fun to play, but it could use a few tweaks that could easily come as low-effort updates along with its existing premium DLC. More modes, some UI tweaks, and combat flow upgrades would go a long way.