The Lord of the Rings: Gollum could have ushered in a new era of The Lord of the Rings-based games. One that had the daring to fill in Tolkien’s gaps, but still showed respect for the source material. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t that game. While the story is compelling with a great performance from Smeagol/Gollum, the remainder of the game is a woeful mess. While Daedalic’s vision for Middle-earth is filled with artistic beauty, it’s altogether let down by a terrible technical presentation that’s far behind today’s standards. Ultimately, though, it’s the lack of polish and jankiness that is its undoing. From the myriad gameplay issues that bog down the simple mechanics to the mind-numbing crashes capable of hampering progression, there is little about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum that’s polished or enjoyable. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum crafts a compelling story around Gollum and Smeagol, but it fails to craft a polished, stable or enjoyable gameplay experience. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t the Precious we’ve been searching for.
Finally, as a DC title, you may get to play as iconic characters, but Suicide Squad never delivers the fantasy of playing as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League works on a surface level, but look beneath the surface and there isn’t enough for story, live service, shooter or DC fans to properly enjoy long-term.
In the same year we got great expansions like The Frozen Wilds for Horizon Zero Dawn, Defiant Honor for Nioh and In The Name of the Tsar for Battlefield 1, it's amazing how dull Destiny 2 – Expansion I: Curse of Osiris is.
Ubisoft’s attempt to blend two disparate genres together backfires, creating massive balancing issues and diluting both experiences. Its lack of polish on the server side leads to outright aggravating and uneven experiences. Finally, while XDefiant is free-to-play, the fact that there’s little earn and outright unlock leaves little incentive to stick with the game beyond a couple of matches occasionally. XDefiant provides that solid, fun FPS action in small doses, but is sorely held back by a lack of focus, polish and earnable content.
At their core, both Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront II remain fun to play even with the remaining jank from the era; it's just unfortunate that the collection they're in lacks polish. Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection scratches that nostalgia itch but doesn't elevate itself beyond that.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a beautiful game to look at that occasionally delivers moments of excellence, but it lacks the depth underneath to deliver a mesmerizing and unforgettable experience worthy of its technological prowess.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has its moments of triumph, but they are few and far between. There’s still fun to be had in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, but this year’s entry feels like a stopgap while we wait for the next major release.
Crash Team Rumble builds out a fun and engaging skeleton for a Crash-inspired multiplayer game; it just doesn’t have enough meat on those bones to keep the experience engaging. This is one Bandicoot you may not want to unleash.
Strand is fabulous, some of the campaign missions are truly masterful, and the game remains genuinely fun, but these can’t offset Destiny 2: Lightfall’s shortcomings. Destiny 2: Lightfall is just another filler expansion on the pathway to the final showdown.
Korme Studios' original take on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Wii was a noble effort back in 2008.
The Ninja Gaiden franchise has been sorely missed.
It's been six years since the original Destiny was released and every year it feels like we're getting closer to finally facing off against the Darkness. Every year, however, we're told it'll happen later.
Console launches are notoriously difficult for developers as they work to get a grasp on new technology.
Marvel's Avengers clearly wants to be something great, but it can't answer what that something is.
Once upon a time, it was impossible to run Crysis without melting your PC. Sure, you could play it on PS3 or Xbox 360, but hardware limitations handicapped the experience.
In 2016, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XV. Like Kingdom Hearts III, XV launched with obviously missing content, plot holes and features.
The cycle of Destiny whiplash continues with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Like during the Destiny 1 era, we started with a lackluster opening, then got two awful expansions, got our significant overhaul, and now we're at the stopgap.
Bethesda Softworks has done great work reinvigorating its library of IPs over the past few years.
Just Cause 4 is a tale of two games.
As the successor to the PSP hits, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT does a lot of things right but gets a lot wrong.