Shaan Joshi's Reviews
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is the perfect example of a solid game that's brought down by how it looks and handles. If you can get over the paltry career mode, there is some fun to be had here, though a few patches and refinements would do a lot of good.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt manages to constantly excite and amaze, with sublime storytelling and engrossing gameplay that never leaves you wanting more.
A few design decisions aside, Splatoon stands not only as an excellent addition to the Wii U library, but one of the best online experiences in recent memory.
Its fast-paced action might take a little while to come to grips with, but once you do, Not A Hero is a non-stop action ride, filled with all the pixel violence and dry humor you can handle.
Despite a few disappointing technical shortcomings, Project CARS stands out as a best-in-class sim, both alluring to genre veterans and accessible enough for racing newcomers.
Against all odds, Broken Age has proved to us that adventure games are all but dead, and that Double Fine and Tim Schafer still have the ability to surprise, astound, and humor us.
Even on its third outing, Grand Theft Auto V continually manages to impress and astound, and the refinements made on the PC version are just the icing on the cake.
Bastion stood out as one of the best titles when it first released years ago, and it stands just as tall this time around.
Rather than offering up a bite-sized entry into the somewhat intimidating strategy genre, Sid Meier's Starships serves up a half-baked entry that fails to provide much in the way of strategy.
While it only lasted a handful of hours, The Assignment ended up being a refreshing counterpart to The Evil Within, rather than being labeled as 'just more of the same'. It's an excellent take on the original formula, blending the old with the new, and while it does end on a cliffhanger, I can only hope that it all comes together in the second DLC.
Shiftlings often ends up feeling like a by-the-numbers puzzle game, with its only redeeming factor coming in the form of co-operative play.
While the inclusion of permadeath and the lack of handholding might be a deterrent for some, the beautifully crafted world of The Deer God is more than enough to warrant a look, especially for those with a penchant for exploration.
With only a few minor additions, it's hard to recommend Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy+ to anyone but the most diehard of fans.
Despite its short length, Grow Home stands out as one of the most refreshing and original titles to have come out of Ubisoft in recent years.
I would have simply been content with Techland releasing another Dead Island game, as long as it came with some needed polish to help it realise its potential. Instead, we got Dying Light, a surprising mix of old and new, which has managed to once again rekindle my excitement for both the genre and the developer. It may stumble every so often, but Dying Light is still the most fun I've had in a while.
Unless you're absolutely dying for a local multiplayer racer, Riptide GP 2's barebones approach to jet ski racing isn't worth the time, even with the low price of admission.
While it may have flown under the radar for some (I imagine the last minute name change didn't do it any favours), you'd be doing yourself a disservice by dismissing Kalimba, even with its rather straightforward and barebones presentation. As great as it is as a single player outing, Kalimba really shines when you can bring a partner along for the ride.
If anything, the release of Captain Toad goes to show just how confident Nintendo is, and more so with how much it understands its audience. In a blockbuster season filled with plenty of firearms and fistfights, Captain Toad shows us more creativity and style than many new IPs out there.
Even with all of its Halloween charm, Costume Quest 2's greatest strength is that it knows its limits. It's a short experience, and it's to it benefit as it never feels bloated. It's the quintessential bite-sized RPG, wrapped in all the Halloween charm you could ever hope for.
Looking back on this review, I'm actually a bit depressed that the highlight of the game (for me, at least) was simply how good Ryse looked. It's obvious that Crytek is capable of so much more, but Ryse simply borrows the best that a few franchises has to offer, and instead chooses to cobble them together quite lazily with a few superfluous mechanics thrown in for good measure, rather than refining and building upon the core game. Granted, Ryse could have been doomed from the start, having started out as a Kinect-only title with a fairly limited control scheme, but I can't help but feel that a brand new IP deserved a little bit more than what we ultimately got. But hey, at least it looks good, right?