Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 1: Order of the Stone is a lacklustre start to Telltale's latest series. While it's certainly not bad, it's not exactly good either. A great performance from Patton Oswalt and some fun sequences aren't enough to cancel out the wonky pacing and bland narrative, while the ensemble cast mostly falls flat. This instalment is inoffensive enough, but it never really provides enough for you to latch on to. There's still plenty more to come, of course, but the jury's still out.
When you come right down to it, NHL 16 is an improvement over last year's release in virtually every department. Unfortunately, that isn't exactly saying a lot.
The plot is compelling, the presentation is generally very good, and the conclusion is outstanding. But all of these achievements will be tempered if you're looking for the kind of scares that defined Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Really cool art and a great score pair to ensure that Mike Bithell's latest is worth a shout – but we'd advise proceeding with caution, because there are still kinks to be worked out.
Outside of the irritatingly expected technical hiccups, Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 4 – Escape Plan Bravo is brilliant. Creative, heartfelt, and fittingly ludicrous, it's represents Telltale at its best, in what is quickly becoming the most consistent series in its portfolio. When this was announced, we never thought that we'd ever write that sentence.
Episode four of DONTNOD's Life Is Strange continues the exceptional level of quality that episode three delivered. It even goes so far as to surpass what came before in a variety of ways.
The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones is a bit of a mess. While there's a lot of meat in this instalment, it still ends up tasting a bit bland. Between oddly behaving characters, technical issues, and poor plotting, this feels like Telltale's least inspired release in some time.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was already great when it released on the PC in late 2014, and the PS4 version succeeds in re-purposing that same experience for a new audience. While reworking the title in Unreal Engine 4 hasn't brought about a drastic number of changes, it performs adequately barring some framerate hiccups. For the most part, though, this game delivers an intriguing and thought-provoking detective experience that – in its own words – doesn't hold your hand.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a solid game. Inoffensive gameplay and a light challenge paired with pleasing retro art and music blend to create a thoroughly pleasing experience. The game isn't particularly innovative or surprising, but at the end of the day, it's good fun. Given that this is a slow period for new releases, you could do much worse than shaking your booty to this.
Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 3 – Catch a Ride starts to get to the meat of the plot, but it still leaves a lot of questions. This is fine – we're only halfway, after all – but it does seem like the story's heading in more directions than it probably should be. Nevertheless, this instalment falls somewhere in between the first and second episodes in terms of quality – and when all is said and done, that's not a negative thing.
Game of Thrones: Episode 4 - Sons of Winter doesn't hit quite the same highs as its immediate predecessor – but it's likely to prove the most impactful instalment to date. The decisions made this time around reek of future importance, and the impending doom for House Forrester seems closer than ever before – even if the overall story's pace has, once again, slowed just a tad.
We weren't particularly sold on the first two episodes of Life Is Strange, but we could see the kernel of potential that was hiding beneath the surface. Episode 3 – Chaos Theory is where that promise finally bursts to the forefront, delivering an almost perfect balance of tense storytelling, organic dialogue, and improved gameplay – all while setting up a potentially brilliant follow-up episode. This series is finally delivering what we always thought it could, and that makes us hella happy.
Terrible textures aside, there's a beauty to Toren's art and audio direction that's worth beholding. The problem is that outside of these assets, Swordtales' two hour adventure falls short. A plethora of technical problems and uninteresting level design win out over the positive aspects, and this experience is below par as a consequence. Listen and look at it by all means – just try to avoid actually playing it.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood has its fair share of problems – but it's still worth playing. With an enormous amount of content available for such a slender sum, fans of The New Order shouldn't hesitate when it comes to this alternate history treat.
When all's said and done, Broken Age makes an excellent case for why the adventure game genre deserves to exist in this medium. Indeed, it's a wonderfully charming title that really feels like a celebration of the point-and-click format. Sure, it doesn't necessarily do anything ground breaking, but it doesn't really need to. If you're a fan of Tim Schafer's previous work, then this is unmissable.
At the end of the day, we're not entirely sure why R.B.I. Baseball has been revived. A full-on, retro styled game would perhaps be a reasonable alternative to MLB The Show, but this game ventures way too closely to Sony's series without having the budget to compete – and it makes a poor connection as a consequence. Bench this one, and get your baseball fix elsewhere.
Life Is Strange: Episode 2 – Out of Time has an excellent ending, but it's letdown by pacing issues that make the events leading up to that point feel inconsequential. There are a lot of interesting and engaging elements working in this release's favour, but it's yet to really pull them all together in a fulfilling manner. In some ways, this is an improvement – the dialogue's better for a start – but it really needs to step up soon. To use a tired baseball analogy, it's had two strikes now – one more and it's out.
Now that we've made it to the halfway point of Telltale's Game of Thrones series, it's really looking like it's going to continue improving as the season wears on. Through three episodes, the developer has shown that it's more than up to the task of delivering a story worth residing in George R.R. Martin's world, and this latest episode is a shining example of where things could be heading moving forwards.
Short of the performance and presentation improvements, this is the same survival horror game that you've probably already played. It functions fine now, and is perfectly adequate if you're in the market for a cheap and cheerful blast of terror – but don't expect much more. Small in both scope and budget, Slender: The Arrival is little more than a rest stop on the way to something bigger and better.
With the surprise of the debut now a distant memory, Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 2 – Atlas Mugged needed to be something special to beat expectations all over again – but despite the delay, it doesn't really hit the same highs as the opener. This instalment feels like it's treading water, waiting for future outings to move things forwards. The humour and characters carry things a bit, but Episode 3 will need to be much better.