Darksiders III's shift to a more Dark-Soulsy experience seems to fit perfectly within the Darksiders universe. The third outing in the franchise is a solid effort by Gunfire Games – one of my favourite gaming experiences of the year, in fact – let down only by some shaky traversal mechanics, a dodgy compass and some downright unpleasant frame-rate issues.
While not as an impressive leap forward as FIFA 14 on next-generation consoles, FIFA 15 is still a solid package. The gameplay might have taken a sideways or even slightly backwards step, but at the moment, this is the closest to the beautiful game we have in terms of presentation and delivery. For now.
Despite its slow and dreary start, Thief builds to deliver an experience that most stealth fans will lap up. However, most Thief fans will mourn the loss of the reboot's freedom and choice. That said, Thief is ultimately a game that delivers epic highs and mediocre lows, and for the highs alone, I have no issues recommending it to anyone.
Zoo Tycoon's biggest crime is its lack of ambition. With all the power behind it and a renowned sim-orientated brand, it's as if family specialists, Frontier, wasn't sure which crowd to cater too. Despite that, the pseudo-deep sim game is feature-heavy and an ultimately enjoyable ride.
Guitar Hero Live is maybe a change too far for the Guitar Hero revival. It's two facets, Guitar Hero Live and Guitar Hero TV, are wonderfully crafted and superbly engaging, but the fun factor seems to have been zapped from it somewhat. Maybe it's a little too serious, maybe it's hard to accept change, but that spark that we felt when we played Guitar Hero II for the first time… it's just not there.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is a solid little point-and-click adventure that's let down by its clunky controls and its sometimes nonsensical puzzles.
Jurassic World: Evolution might not be the deepest RTS out there in terms of options and mechanics, but as far as Jurassic Park experiences go, this is probably the best one that exists out there.
On the pitch, as always, Konami almost gets it bang on with eFootball PES 2020, but off the pitch it's seriously lacking in the balance and depth department.
While Persona 3 Portable’s monotonous slog through Tartarus might not have aged all that well, its narrative, characters, and soundtrack most certainly have. It’s great to finally experience the roots of the Persona franchise and the birth of the Social Link on Xbox.
If you'd have asked me after hour five what The Crew was, I would have said a solid 50% score. Hour ten? 60%. Thankfully though, the home straight is what saves The Crew from being just another average racer and with its incredibly game world, it's worth dipping your toe in. Just don't expect it to get decent for a long time, but when it does, it's almost worth the wait.
For what it is, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a charming, yet rather restrictive 2D, puzzle-platformer. Despite its limited scope, lack of replayability and depth, there's some fun to be had here, if only for a while.
The term 'more of the same' is bandied about a lot in this industry, but when it comes to Crackdown 3, it is absolutely more of the same. With a few tweaks here and there, and a new city, there's no doubting that the gameplay still absolutely holds up. The structure and busywork tasks issues still persist from previous iterations though, which is perhaps the most disappointing aspect. Fun but repetitive best sums up Crackdown 3.
Sea of Thieves has the potential for some great tales, cruising the high seas, following the wind with them sails. Its lack of content and things to do hold it back, but at no point is the game totally whack. Arrr!
'Anime Dark Souls' was its billing, but it's not until Code Vein breaks free of the tried-and-tested formula that it shines brightly. With a difficulty balance that stretches from a leisurely stroll to hair-tearing madness, it's hard to know who this game is for. Code Vein is fun, though. Really, really fun, and a great place to start for anyone keen to dip their toe into a more chilled and relaxed Souls-like title.
The Bradwell Conspiracy is a game whose lofty concept doesn't quite match its execution. Its light, fairly arbitrary puzzles aren't particularly challenging, but its strong narrative is deployed almost perfectly throughout to weave them all together. The Bradwell Conspiracy is still an enjoyable journey, however, and certainly worthy of your time.
Bleeding Edge is a fun game, but one that lacks any real content and depth to keep players interested for the long-term. You'll be entertained for a few hours, for sure, but if you're looking for a multiplayer experience to invest in over the coming months, you might want to look elsewhere.
If you can get past all the issues that The Sims 4 has on consoles, it's a ton of fun. That's a pretty big 'if' though!
The Crew 2 feels like a missed opportunity for Ubisoft after what was a decent start for the franchise in 2014. It's a racing game with some interesting ideas, but the new main additions frankly aren't entertaining enough and there's too much of a focus on quantity over quality.
Fallout 76 is effectively about base-construction, survival and world-building, not the story and your part in it, which isn’t a bad thing. The execution is though.
Anthem is a game that despite poor optimisation, agonising load times, bizarre design decisions and an unbalanced loot system, can actually be a lot of fun to play. The open-world, story, characters and combat are all solid, the rest, not so much. Anthem has potential to be a good game, it just isn’t right now. It could be one day though.