Adam Beck's Reviews
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD contains highly enjoyable combat that's unfortunately limited by its design. The repetitive nature of how the missions are structured damages the overall experience, not to mention it isn't until roughly halfway through the campaign before a meaningful plot is established.
Most of what made DmC Devil May Cry so enjoyable has been altered; some of it for the better, some for the worse. While the fluid and highly enjoyable combat remain intact, the restructuring of collectibles and scenarios such as the final boss tarnish the experience.
Resident Evil Revelations 2: Judgment is, at least thus far, the best episode Capcom has offered. While Barry's campaign starts off a little mundane, breaking Natalia off to do tedious button mashing tasks, the rest of the episode makes up for it.
There are certain elements to Contemplation that have been improved from the first episode, namely the more open environments and the new enemy types, but there are still apparent flaws to the story and combat scenarios. Claire's campaign once again trails behind Barry's, including a more direct conflict structure with no real puzzle solving elements to be found.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires has all the entertaining, albeit repetitive combat the series is known for, but lacks the features to back it up. While this is par for the course for an Empires game, it's still hard to recommend as little has changed over Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires outside of some insignificant updates to the highly strategic politics that go on outside of battle.
It's always scary to try new things, but what Capcom has done with Penal Colony helps relieve some of the concern fans may have had going in. While it's not the most innovative Resident Evil to hit the market, the new episodic format is a breath of fresh air, especially with Capcom following through with the weekly schedule.
If you're still playing Dead or Alive 5 after three years on the market and have the desire to continue on a new set of consoles, then the price of admission shouldn't mean much to you. Even then, it's difficult to recommend only because of how little Team Ninja has added to the overall experience.
If there's one game that deserves the remaster treatment, it's Resident Evil. The thirteen year old remake is arguably the best game in the long running series, not only staying true to its source material, but expanding upon it greatly with new content directly built into the core story.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a nice bite-sized piece of content that will help players get a good grasp on what to expect when The Phantom Pain is released sometime next year. It retains the stealth features hardcore fans have come to enjoy, while at the same time implementing various modern mechanics that will appeal to an even greater audience.
The Crew can be fun under the right circumstances, but unfortunately those are too far and few between. It's not a bad game, as there's a lot to like in this package, but there's also a fair amount holding it back
While BioWare is well known for their strong role-playing games, it's perplexing how they were able to reach this level of quality with Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's one of the most overwhelming experiences on the market, containing not only the best character development found in any RPG, but an open world that's actually polished.
Tales of Hearts R is a straightforward RPG with a heart of gold.
Some parts of Lords of the Fallen are surprisingly enjoyable, but many weigh it down.
There are few games like Sunset Overdrive. It's a comical, highly diverse shooter that has a strong focus on being fun rather than realistic.
Samurai Warriors 4 is the best entry into the franchise, and is the one most mechanically sound Warriors title available, but there are still some drawbacks. Even with the diverse cast, the level-specific combo system is something that may turn people off at first as it requires a grind of thirty minutes for each character before the experience gets any better.
It's hard to follow-up on what Gearbox Software has created over the last two iterations and what The Pre-Sequel brings is nothing short of a letdown. While 2K Australia were able to replicate certain parts of what made the Borderlands series fun, the frequent bugs, dull script, short campaign and repetitive world design will leave fans disappointed.
Final Fantasy XIII has its own set of problems, mainly consisting of a mediocre story and incredibly linear progression for the first forty hours, but the poor PC optimization puts it over the top.
For those who missed out on Sleeping Dogs two years ago, the title is correct: this is the definitive version. Unfortunately, those who already visited the compressed streets of Hong Kong will have almost no incentive to go back.
If you played Ryse: Son of Rome on Xbox One, there's little reason to return on PC. It may contain higher resolutions and a more flexible frame rate, but otherwise it's substantially the same game.
Dark Souls II: Crown of the Ivory King is arguably the best of the Lost Crown Trilogy, but it's not without its faults. The main complaint revolves around the conclusion not having a big pay off, despite sinking ten to fifteen hours into the entire set of quests.