Brian Connor
There's definitely a strong core game principle here, and all my problems with it are ones that can be solved with some continued developer TLC. Flying your ship feels good, the galaxy accurately conveys an immense sense of scale, the use of real life stars and planets adds an amazing sense of wonder, and the trading and combat systems have strong cores. Overall, Elite: Dangerous is really cool, but mostly as a tease of what it could be. I genuinely hope the developers continue to support it as they have thus far, because this game is just a few more levels of progression away from being truly incredible.
Scoring Valkyria Chronicles is really difficult for me. On one hand, I didn't necessarily enjoy the gameplay. On the other hand, the story was enjoyable and this really is an excellent PC port both visually and how smoothly it runs. For a game that came out in its original form so long ago, I tend to place more value on how well they ported the game to PC than how much I personally enjoyed it
In terms of gameplay I found This War of Mine a little tedious and slow. I mostly wanted to hustle through the gameplay parts so I could see the story and my characters develop. It's not an amazing GAME, but it's an amazing experience.
There is no question people enjoy playing mobile games. Seriously guys, put this game out on mobile! A simple platform change would change my impression of Sneaky Sneaky from shallow but well made and affordable PC game to fantastic, engaging, and addictive mobile game. Make it happen, Please!
BUT when a game is walking a path this well-trodden it needs to be better than pretty good. We have "pretty good" rogue-likes coming out monthly. We have "pretty good" pixel-art games coming out weekly. That doesn't make this game any less good, but it certainly does make it much less likely to garner any attention or acclaim, and deservedly so. Dungeon of the Endless lacks that one thing, the element that pushes it over the top into the exceptional. That piece that sets it apart from the pack just isn't there. That's my endorsement of Dungeon of the Endless. Is it good? Absolutely! Is it a must-play? Probably not.
Civilization: Beyond Earth does essentially nothing new, but you know what? That's probably fine with most people who have experienced the franchise before. It still does what it does incredibly well, and every new campaign in a Civilization game brings originality and variety on its own. I thought the extra-terrestrial setting was badly wasted, but even without any real innovation it's still a very solid game, just not one that's much different from Civilization: V.
Styx's stealth is less "Master of Shadows" and more like the lyric from his namesake band "This jig is up. The news is out. They finally found me."
Fenix Rage is a fantastic inspired speed-platformer, with just enough uniqueness to make it a definite play for fans of the genre.
Daunting to an almost discouraging degree at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll get sucked right in, and afterwards you'll probably need a cooling off period before trying again. But you WILL try again.
There's very little Minimum does wrong, and quite honestly I really look forward to convincing a few more of my friends to pick it up so I have more excuses to keep playing.
Overall, Heavy Bullets didn't really click with me. While I enjoy the odd FPS and rogue-like game, Heavy Bullets never really managed to grab me like I hoped it would. Do not get me wrong Heavy Bullets is a competent arcade shooter and rogue-like rolled into one. The cheap price is another bonus. Yet there are just a few too many aspects about the game that I didn't find entertaining at all.
Dead Rising 3 is funny, and more importantly a riot to play. New players will enjoy the standard mode while classic players will get their fix in Nightmare Mode. It really is just a shame there are quite a few issues with performance on PC. Let's hope the modding community can work their usual magic with this one.
So overall, I would say 95% of this game is pure excellence. I had an absolutely fantastic time playing it and it was surprisingly long (I thought I could finish it in one sitting, but it actually took me two full nights of playing). It's just a shame that one teeny tiny detail took my impression of it from great down to good. It's still well worth playing even with the frustration, but without that minor detail it could have been one of the best.