Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is among the best fighting games ever made.
As tired as the series can often seem, these games still shine.
When I play #IDARB, I don't feel like I'm trusted. Hashbombs are a neat idea, but they come when someone else wants them to. Playing with others is amazing, but #IDARB doesn't help me out if I don't have quite that many friends available. Instead, it's watchable. It can be hard for the untrained eye to grasp everything that's going on in Smash, but #IDARB is easy, it's digestible. Unfortunately, that means that for all it gets right, #IDARB can be a lot more fun to watch than it is to play.
Apotheon builds a wonderfully modern game upon classic Greek tragedy.
Instead, there's disaster and disappointment at nearly every turn. With a team that wanted to put the effort in, that had the time or the money to build on this, we might have had an interesting game. Every time I was able to sail to a new island or port, I found myself excited. I wanted to probe around and see what wonders the locale held, but every single time my curiosity was met with tedium and mediocrity. I want to think that my eagerness to explore was a sign that there's something interesting about this setting and this world, but now I think I may have been projecting my own hopes onto a broken, buggy lump.
That distinction between the two doesn't retroactively make SimCity a better game. A failure is still a failure. It does, however distinguish a visionary-but-broken game and one that works enough to please an itch without pushing boundaries. Skylines is a merely competent game that's smart enough to let the community innovate for it. All its problems and all its genuine innovation will come from the creative ambition of its players. It's comforting in a way, because with that you feel that you share your struggles with a larger community, but there's still the nagging feeling Cities: Skylines lacks a magic of its own.
Worlds of Magic is the spiritual successor to the 1994 game Master of Magic, but it disappoints even by 1990s standards.
With the move to current-gen consoles and a few new levels, horror hit Slender continues to offer up scares, but at the cost of its own mystique.
The Galactic Civilizations series has returned with more ships, bigger maps, and new ways to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.
Van Helsing III is fun, but its reliance on old assets and disappointing brevity make this action role-playing game less than incredible.
Shadowrun Chronicles is a bad use of the Shadowrun license, and a bad tactical RPG.
Together, these pieces come together to create a great twist on the classic 4X formula.
It's rough, it's incomplete, it's awful in places. But it's also raw and decadent. Soaked to the core in that quintessentially nineties cocktail of cynicism and an exultant love of violence, playing Act of Aggression feels like going back in time and returning to a home that only exists in your oldest memories. And that's special, even if it means dealing with some obtuse design issues.
As time went on, I didn't get the sense that I was becoming better at the game so much as I was smashing my head into walls until they relented. And that's a shame because Grand Ages has so much potential, and it does one thing--trade--really well. But there's nothing to support that core, and the more you play, the more you run into roadblocks.
Read Only Memories is an eye-catching, cyberpunk-themed adventure that cleverly presents and explores important societal issues.
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void is an excellent follow-up to 2013's Heart of The Swarm, even if it doesn't quite match the brilliance of Wings of Liberty.
Anno 2205 wears a distant future sci-fi aesthetic, but does nothing of substance or import with the premise.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a prequel to the famed Homeworld Strategy series. It follows its inspirations closely, but adds its own touches to create something new and wonderful.
A richly satisfying and wonderfully executed masterpiece.
Mercenaries is a disappointing expansion to last year's Galactic Civilizations III that limits your freedom on the battlefield.