The world built by 1886 is an engrossing one, and if nothing else the way it's presented is fantastic, especially when it comes to the strong vocal performances and beautiful character animation. As burly English people yell at each other, one could feel they were watching something from the Sharpe series of televised adaptations, even if the dialog is intensely cliched at times – for example, there's a cringeworthy "not so different" speech from an antagonist, including a bromide, "maybe one day you'll understand."
As an overall game, it offers a basic shooter with a nice gimmick, and I do think you can gather some friends together to get an afternoon's worth of laughs out of it. I don't believe there's enough mileage to have those laughs regularly, though, and certainly not enough to where I'd recommend rushing out and getting it so soon after launch.
While its intoxicated physics can lead to occasional despair, the overwhelming joy of the whole experience is a strong tonic, over the handful of hours it takes to get through, I couldn't help maintaining a smile.
I'm still waiting for things to kick into high gear and truly take hold of me, but chapter two of House Forrester's tale leaves me in no doubt that such a moment is coming.
As the series' opening gambit, it did its job. It didn't do much more than that, but it was a decent enough opener.
Parkour. Open world. Zombies. Online co-op. Crafting. Radio towers. Zombies. Collect-a-thons. Zombies. Zombies. Dying Light desperately tries to be all of the videogames in a bid to impress everybody. If only it had tried as hard to be its own thing, we'd have had an amazing horror game on our hands. Instead, we just have another indistinct jack-of-all-trades to throw on top of the ever growing pile.
[T]his expansion is pretty enjoyable, but not essential. It's got some great new weapons and provides an easy excuse to dip back into a world of shameless comic violence – it's also a fairly disposable adventure that doesn't offer much in the way of essential material.
It was something both nostalgic and fresh, instantly familiar but teeming with macabre surprises and twists, keeping veterans guessing while giving newcomers a terrific reason to dive into the Spencer Mansion for the very first time. Everything that made the original Resident Evil a success was kept in, while almost all of the dated elements were overhauled and improved. It's good enough that Capcom can actually get away with remastering it and only earn sideways glances from yours truly – and that's saying something.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is an accomplished update to a fantastic game, an experience as charming as it is sinister.
The Talos Principle may spend a bit too much time stroking its beard and showing off how deep it is, but the fact remains that it regularly deserves to posture. Not only is it a highly accomplished puzzle game, it's a genuinely fascinating collection of reflective notions.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is a fun distraction that, while not exactly gripping, will provide several hours of enjoyable loot n' shoot adventuring. Whether you play with friends or go it alone, you'll have a well polished puzzle-platforming, dungeon crawling, Tomb Raider spin-off that you won't be playing this time next month, but you won't regret giving a spin.
Assassin's Creed Unity is a beautiful game that's fun to play with friends. It's also an outmoded mess that incenses with its dated controls and shoves Ubisoft's executive-minded priorities directly in the player's face.
Iron From Ice is a strong start to the series, which some promising narrative setups, a believable atmosphere, and one particularly shocking moment that made my jaw drop.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker isn't going to blow minds with its humble presentation and laid back puzzling, but it's still got plenty of imagination and some really sagacious architecture in its level structure. There are moments that tread water, but overall this is a smart puzzler that ought to appeal to most folks. You can't really say fairer than that.
Zer0 Sum is a great start to the series. It brings Borderlands to life in promising new ways, it's genuinely funny, and it has a terrific cast. The choices one makes are naturally not as gut-wrenching as those found in Telltale's darker games, but that doesn't really matter.
What truly sets This War of Mine apart is its dignity. It doesn't trade in its message for cheap cry-bait, and it doesn't batter you senseless with its despondency. Don't expect to be presented two dramatically contrasting, woefully transparent choices and then watch the game preen itself over how clever it's been. You'll be dropped into a blighted world and be left to figure out your own path, making fatal mistakes and incurring tragic losses before coming to the conclusion that precious few videogames have ever had the nerve to draw…
For all its visual appeal, however, Far Cry 4 remains a shallow experience. It has loads of things in it, but having a lot of things is not the same thing as having depth.
It's all for nothing. It's all so very pointless. Sonic Boom exists because we're all going to die one day, and we don't matter.
It's packed with diverse content, can be tailored to suit anybody's needs, and most important of all – it's a ridiculous amount of bloody fun!
Well, I already reviewed GTA V back in the day, I loved it back then, and I love it now. Its attempts at clever humor can be embarrassingly misjudged, its content is often alarming, and I think those who point out the game's problematic elements are perfectly within their right to do so, and they're very rarely wrong.