Enemy Within adds a ton of new maps, mission types, and soldier abilities without losing the balance and unrelenting tension that make it XCOM.
The distinctive parts of NBA Live 14 are buried deep and difficult to understand. The rest is hamstrung by overwhelmed player AI and underwhelming visuals.
This is the first time since Madden NFL 10 where I've had that a-ha moment where all I want to do is go play Madden, and it's not because of some role-playing device in the career mode, or a nifty collection of throwback uniforms, or the fact there was a military flyover before the Super Bowl...It's because the gameplay is focused to raising my knowledge and skill rather than accommodating or minimizing the lack of it.
FIFA 15 is what fans have come to expect, but it wears its changes well
If the guts of the game are available, NBA 2K15 is the best sports title of the year, by a New York mile. The design choices at its edges — either needlessly making offline features dependent on online access, or insufficiently supporting the dedicated online modes — stain what is otherwise a role model for all sports video games.
At least it no longer plays or looks like an experiment gone wrong.
I would much rather play soccer in this game than in FIFA 15.
An arcade sports video game for the ages, worthy of the likes of Tecmo Super Bowl, NBA Jam, Mutant League Football and Backyard Baseball. No sports video game of 2014 approached its subject with as much imagination as Super Mega Baseball. In such a rigid genre with high barriers to new ideas, this game is a legitimate breakthrough.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour falls far short of its predecessors
Madden 16's hard-earned successes feel that much more satisfying.
This sequence is the story of FIFA 16, from its participants, to the tools used to deliver the goal, to the cathartic payoff that sent me leaping from my seat. Sports video gaming is at its best when you're fighting your ass off and the miracle comes through. And when it does, no game rolls out the TNT like FIFA 16.
EA Sports UFC 2 is easier to understand without being easy
MLB 16's appeal lies mainly in tried-and-true features
Madden NFL 17 does so much it's hard to speak of all its appeals and improvements
NASCAR Heat Evolution brings the white-knuckle last lap, even for 24th place
FIFA 17 feels like a reintroduction to what makes this series great
Walking Dead fans looking to jump back into Clementine's story with this new game should temper their expectations. The player only takes control of her in flashback chapters that do not affect the overall arc of the story or any relationship with a character in it. Her retrospectives are nonetheless harrowing.
For Honor is worth the work you have to put into it
Time will tell if the changes to MLB the Show 17 establish a new foundation for what is enjoyed five years from now. In the present, though, it is still a richly illustrated, seductively appealing depiction of the National Pastime.
Drawn to Death fails the fundamentals