Andrei Dumitrescu
- Football Manager
- Baldur's Gate 2
- Total War: Rome
Andrei Dumitrescu's Reviews
XCOM 2 is a great turn-based strategy experience that delivers plenty of tension, a wide range of ways for gamers to navigate missions and choices and enough procedurally generated maps to keep engagements interesting even after 50 hours or more of play.
Playing SUPERHOT is fun even when I constantly fail because I know the game is now cheating in any way and that next time I have a chance to be more stylish, better prepared, smarter and faster to reach a new high score in Endless Mode or deal with another of the challenges.
This is a game centered around learning, and even if the teacher can sometimes be punishing in its approach, I like encountering the challenges that From Software has created and then working through them, even if it takes time, tears and frustration, because there's no better feeling than to see a boss falling, cheer and then prepare for the future knowing that the next one will be even harder to deal with.
Tchia has heart, a beautiful world, and some cool gameplay concepts. The story is filled with emotion but also grounded. Exploration is easy and rewarding, with a lot of great sights to see and interesting characters to interact with. Even the ukulele mini-game associated with musical numbers works.
FIFA 15 feels like it introduces less innovative elements than last year's installment, but the development team at EA Sports knows what its audience wants and manages to improve the core gameplay and the presentation in interesting ways.
Madden NFL 15 is a great game for fans of the sport it is depicting and there's no reason for a player who picked up last year's version of the title to skip on the one that is now arriving in stores.
Pillars of Eternity is a must-buy for anyone who has played classic titles like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Planescape, and it will certainly deliver the story, the conversations, the companions, the combat and the big themes that they are yearning for.
South Park: The Stick of Truth is not the greatest game that Obsidian could have created, but it is so faithful to the universe on which it is based that any fan will be delighted to experience the new stories, the new gags, the new take on familiar characters, and the impressive way in which the quiet mountain town is brought to virtual life.
This War of Mine is challenging from both a gameplay point of view and a philosophical one because it asks gamers to survive and then confronts them with the compromises and outright betrayals of their principles required to reach that goal.
Galactic Civilizations III is a great game, containing a mix of familiar mechanics and new ideas that can keep both fans and newcomers occupied for a frighteningly long period of time.
The Homeworld Remastered Collection offers players access to two of the best space-based strategy titles ever created and allows them to do so on modern machines, with no worries about compatibility or other hardware problems, which means that the fan community should be grateful for the work Gearbox has put in.
Sunless Sea is a great video game and the team at Failbetter Games has clearly invested a lot of love and attention into its development.
FIFA 16 manages to reflect how important both planning and chance are during matches, rewarding gamers who tweak their team and execute complex moves with cool efficiency, while finding spectacle in mad scrambles in front of the goal and fun in goals that are scored after ping-pong-like changes between defenders and attackers.
The new Hitman carefully mixes drama, comedy, action and a well-designed location to create a world that the player will enjoy discovering and a variety of systems that are great to interact with and even break, and we can only hope that the other coming missions deliver on the promise of this first episode.
NBA 2K16 is a great sports simulation, a title packed with content that will allow basketball lovers to live out their fantasies, create some impressive matches, and experience presentation that rivals real-world broadcasts.
The Banner Saga 2 is a great purchase for all those who love complex storytelling or turn-based battles, and I cannot wait to see how Stoic Games tweak the formula of the game in the final title of the trilogy.
Many gamers will love or hate the game based on how they feel about the two dimensional combat and the unique way it challenges players to be aware of movement, shields, disruptor, boost and weapon fire at the same time.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 could have tried to be a little more accessible for those who are not yet in love with the Naruto canon but even they will be impressed by the combat sequences and intrigued to find out more about the main cast of characters.
Insomniac Games has done a great job of taking the best elements of the original while upgrading both the gameplay and the graphics in order to appeal to modern players.
Nuclear Throne manages to walk a fine line between challenging, with options for the player who wants to succeed in the post-apocalypse, and unfairly difficult, filled with obstacles that will induce frustration for even the most hardened fans of the rogue-like genre.