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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Steep is an admirable effort from Ubisoft Annecy, one that is chock full of decent ideas, but held back by others. This simulation extreme sports title lays down the foundations for what could turn out to be another staple in Ubisoft’s ever growing catalogue.
An old skool RPG if ever there was one, Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition should be on your shopping list if you're a strategy and RPG junkie. It's as close as we're going to get to a new Baldur's Gate, and while it has its quirks and suffers from agonising load times on consoles, it's still a joy to play.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s true draw is Pandora itself, and while the gameplay can get a little repetitive and samey, there's enough here to keep you engrossed from start to finish. Come for the sights, stay for the sights.
Marvel's Midnight Suns is a strangely complex game to explain. It’s equal parts isometric turn-based RPG, social simulator, and deck-building card game. But you know what? It actually works! Sure, it’s not as tense and as gripping as Firaxis’ XCOM series, but this is a nice action-oriented offshoot.
Pentiment is an incredibly enchanting adventure game that really is like no other. It doesn’t quite have the same depth and ingenuity that Disco Elysium has, but what it lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in charm. After a slow start, this murder mystery really becomes the talk of the town.
A Plague Tale: Requiem is a mighty fine follow up to Innocence, and will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Sure, there’s the odd interesting design choice littered throughout and the game has the odd technical issue, but other than that, Requiem is a great way to spend a weekend.
A definite improvement over Steep, thanks to the Mass Races and the new bike discipline, but Ubisoft Annecy have still got a lot of work to do if they want to break into upper echelons of gaming. It should look to Playground Games and how they craft an elite open-world sports game if they want to reach that next-level, then maybe they too could be mentioned in the same breath as SSX Tricky. Fingers crossed, the potential is definitely there!