Mortal Kombat XL is a fantastic addition to the base game, adding characters that somehow fit extremely well in the roster. If NetherRealm Studios can make smart choices like this, perhaps we should hope for Mortal Kombat XXL.
It’s not that Gears of War Ultimate Edition for Windows 10 is a bad game; it’s just that everything good about it is what’s good about Gears of War for any other platform. It adds nothing that can tangibly enhance the experience, and with a litany of technical issues and ignorance of its own virtues, Windows 10 gaming has not put its best foot forward here.
That's what is really at the core of the discussion on Snowfall—not simply if it added enough, but if it added enough for its asking price. At $13 on Steam right now, Snowfall is a difficult case to make for bang-for-your-buck, even while recognizing the amount of work I'm sure went into this expansion. Still, I'm left with a positive takeaway because Colossal Order never seems content with its already-enormous amount of moving parts. They continue to add more factors and more elements if only to show that they can juggle as many objects as you want to throw in their path. It's truly an impressive circus act, both playing and developing Skylines, and Snowfall is yet another example of Colossal Order flexing its muscles.
Overall, what we have here is your standard mixed bag. While people with patience for repetition without innovation or increased challenge, such as the audience of Cookie Clicker or Assassin's Creed, might see nothing wrong with Arslan, the truth is it could be a hell of a lot better, because the seeds of greatness are all here just waiting for something, anything, to help them sprout life.
In a game that has a lot of fresh ideas on how to build suspense and let your mind do most of the work, it's disappointing to see frequent usage of those tautologies (it's scary because it's scary).
However, what the developers are doing with a remaster is not simply to squeeze more money out of the consumer; Gravity Rush: Remastered is giving people the opportunity to experience what is genuinely an interesting and entertaining game, one that they might have missed because of the platform on which it was released. Now, with a shiny new entry on the PlayStation 4, Gravity Rush can reach a wider audience, and if Gravity Rush 2 improves at all upon the first, that's ultimately more of a benefit to the gamer, rather than the developer.
Guilty Gear Xrd is back to its challenging but entertaining roots, managing to be a happy medium between casual fighters like Mortal Kombat and longtime competitive titles like Street Fighter. It's not without it's plot-related flaws, the result of misplaced ambition, assuredly, but Xrd enters the generation as the go-to change-of-pace fighter that's nearly impossible to put down once you get started.
Escape Dead Island squandered whatever opportunity it had to make a compelling story, while offering only sub-par gameplay to tide you over in the meantime. It has no business being a game, rather than a one-shot graphic novel for dedicated fans.
Despite having a few superfluous levels, Alien: Isolation ends up being a game Alien and survival horror fans can hold in high esteem.
A game with the mechanics of both Total War and Sim City can be good, but Stronghold hasn't executed the core mechanics of either well enough to fit the bill. Taking the magic out of an often-fantasy-filled era is not the true crime here; it's that Stronghold fails to improve upon the formula of its previous titles.
Gauntlet delivers a fun and challenging dungeon crawling experience that manages to avoid repetitiveness. Although it has some minor launch bugs to work through, they are easily overlooked.
While McDroid shoots for the stars with these additions to the tower defense genre, it mostly ends up flaming out in the atmosphere.
Sacred went from a varied Diablo clone to a Gauntlet clone, but doesn't live up to either. While it may be a good hack-and-slash appetizer to tide gamers over, it never manages to distinguish itself in the genre.
The problem with Vertical Drop Heroes HD is that it's not very fun.
Offering up a new experience every time the mice finish their well-deserved cheese, Mousecraft is a refreshing experience for those in need of a complex puzzle game. It may not be has light-hearted as it could have been, but Mousecraft succeeds by making the player think instead of laugh.
Munin is a successful addition to the genre and, few issues aside, a largely entertaining experience. All a game like this has to succeed in is being innovative and challenging, which Munin has by the bucket, but buyer beware: this is not your typical fun-time brain teaser.