Rather than simply aping the superficial elements of its influences, Prey gets down to the core of what made them great and adds its own imaginative flare for good measure. While I may not remember its convoluted and potentially meaningless story, and can't forget soon enough its incredibly long load times on the PS4, I will always remember Prey's intricate level design, layered combat and the joy I got from exploring Talos I. Hopefully the day comes when I can say the same about Talos II.
Wwith a disaster scenario in hand, or perhaps one created with their easy-to-use scenario editor, you'll get more than enough enjoyment out of Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters to both consider it a true expansion and make it worth its asking price.
By not holding up Banjo-Kazooie as the last bastion of platformers, Playtonic was able to turn Yooka-Laylee into an overall improvement on the formula it so closely mimics. We’re coming up on a relatively dry patch of 2017, and, if I’m counting on Yooka-Laylee to be my own personal flying lizard to carry me, I don’t think I could be in better hands.
Utopia has given me plenty of reason to go back out into the far reaches of space, so much so that I now fear for the prosperity of my social life. With so many enticing updates rolled into Utopia and the Banks update, there’s even more to make me say “let me just do one more thing,” until it’s 4 a.m. and I’m out of luck. Thanks Paradox.
Be wary of this game if only for its propensity to hook you. Jason has sunk his pickaxe into me, and he's not letting go, ensuring I will be playing Friday the 13th: The Game extensively for the considerable future.
Colossal Order has given the Cities: Skylines community yet another exciting expansion with Mass Transit. While the new content may not be available immediately in every way you play, it's worth it once you get there. How you get there is completely up to you, but might I recommend the blimp?
Vanquish is likely one of the smoothest all-around PC ports in recent memory, limited framerate in cutscenes notwithstanding. Sporting features I wish similar modern games had, Vanquish now has a firm place in today's generation. Should Shinji Mikami and Platinum Games feel so inclined as to revisit this title and make it into a series, I would be the first in line.
Let this not deter you, though. If you're looking for an accessible, free-to-play MOBA that isn't trying to nickel-and-dime you at every turn, then MXM is the game for you. A few small flaws aside, MXM is a treat among free-to-play MOBAs that shows imagination and restraint not often shared among its peers.
If you've been following Everspace from the beginning and have just been waiting for the time when your PS4 can get it done, your patience has been rewarded. If you've never heard of Everspace and aren't sure if it will play at your speed, give it a shot. Dollar to donuts: you'll spend far too much time playing it.
With the stated commitment to continue to support Bombfest after launch, it is definitely a good buy for party game enthusiasts. Hopefully online multiplayer, more maps, and even more wild bomb types are on the horizon, so Bombfest can have an even bigger impact.
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.
Despite having a few superfluous levels, Alien: Isolation ends up being a game Alien and survival horror fans can hold in high esteem.
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.
That said, if you manage to pull yourself out, the sleek veneer of Stellaris' bright stars fades more quickly than you might expect. Three years later, Stellaris is showing its age, and its rocky port to the controller certainly isn't helping its case. You could still argue that Stellaris is the best console-version of an RTS game and you'd probably have a good case, but that isn't exactly a high bar to clear.
The Last Guardian is a frustrating experience, and I'm not talking about its difficulty. While the game is hard, that is more than welcome in a puzzle platformer, a genre no stranger to the easy, cinematic throwaway set pieces.
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).
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.
Still though, while I can’t find a reason for Siege of Dragonspear not to exist, and while it completely entertained me throughout its unbelievable 30-hour run time, it comes off more as wholly unnecessary.
Headlander also has an extensive upgrade system for your helmet, but I found myself only making use of a small percentage of them, but this might act as the perfect example for the game itself: a ton of great ideas without fully making use of all of them.
It's a really exciting time for the Sniper Elite. After three games of the same, generic third-person cover sniper nonsense, Sniper Elite 4 has put the series in a good position and showed a lot of potential for even more improvement, possibly elevating it to truly elite ranks. It's not quite there, yet, though. With no details you can boil down my review to "You're good. Now get better."