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Inside is an incredible sophomore swing from Playdead, as the atmosphere, aesthetic and gameplay meld into one glorious experience that demands attention. Don’t read about it, don’t seek more, don’t ask questions — just clear your afternoon schedule and experience it.
The Dark Brotherhood is now arrived, and the clean and “safe” Tamriel we all knew in Elder Scrolls Online is changed for the better. With the addition of the guild proper, assassinations, and the familiar Gold Coast, Dark Brotherhood is the most exciting update yet for ESO, and a great sign of things forthcoming.
The Technomancer is an enormous open-world RPG with 40+ hours of content that has an expertly-crafted world at its center. Unfortunately, it’s held back by technical issues that are hard to overlook, poor narrative, and unoriginal design.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a mash-up made in JRPG heaven. While combat and gameplay will feel by-the-numbers for Persona fans, the style, soundtrack, characters and overall levity of this game is endearing, and makes for one of the most engaging, fun RPGs in recent memory.
Zero Time Dilemma takes some bold strides to tell the series’ final chapters, but even when it falters, it’s never slow to catch back up and deliver. Through well-designed escape rooms, brilliant writing and narrative decisions, and a more relatable cast than ever, Zero Time Dilemma puts the most deserving and exceptional final touches on this excellent trilogy.
Uneven in tone and execution, Mighty No 9 is equal parts fun and frustration. Inafune won't reignite the fire of his famed franchise with this initial effort. We can only hope that subsequent attempts to reboot the blue bomber turn out better.
Guilty Gear Xrd: -Revelator- is a nostalgic look back on the golden age of fighting games that also manages to wrangle a ton of modern digital beauty and function into the mix. The result is a top notch fighting title that begs to be mastered. That mastery will not be an easy ride, but with the gorgeous design, heavy music, and plenty of fun, it will be easy to overlook the very frustrating, but minor control issues. Lay off the junk, and run to the sexy rock- and- roll violence of Guilty Gear Xrd: -Revelator- instead.
Though the visuals sparkle and small improvements have been made, overall Dead Island Definitive Edition isn’t different enough from the original to be worth a purchase. In fact, it seems worse in some ways. Only give it a buy if the arena mode sounds appealing, or if you want to show off how powerful your new graphics card is.
Bursting with sophomoric charm and absurd sexiness, Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus will provoke either cringing or laughter depending on who’s playing it. What it lacks in maturity it makes up for with a refreshing lack of seriousness, and it presents it all in a content-laden game filled with easy, straightforward 3D ass-kicking.
The Sims 4 Dine Out is a great game pack that doesn’t offer a lot outside of running restaurants, but it does that extremely well and can be a great deal of fun. Don’t expect much outside of that, but the way it incorporates content from the original game and other expansions, it truly adds dimensions to business ownership, and a great new element to the game overall.
Kirby: Planet Robobot isn’t too deep, but it doesn’t need to be. It captures the fun, jovial nature of its titular character, and breathes some life into an otherwise tepid formula. It’s brief and hardly earth-shatteringly unique, but it’s fun in the way a Kirby game ought to be.
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is a nearly flawless sendoff for Geralt of Rivia, and the world of The Witcher.
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir is the remake this story justly deserves, marred only by slight signs of age, and a time capsule that perfectly preserves the magic of Odin Sphere, for the many years it's lost and the many years to come.
Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book aimed to be the best of the series with its PlayStation 4 debut and found great success. With highly expanded and perfected scavenging, item creation, and battle systems, Atelier Sophie is a top-notch JRPG experience and might very well be the best of the year so far in the genre. Surprising, fun, and challenging, Atelier Sophie is a must own in the PlayStation 4 collection.
Marrakesh is a much different beast, and while it lacks the nuanced complexity of Sapienza or the gaudy flash of Paris, it has a flavor all its own that highlights aspects of Hitman in challenging ways. Another solid entry in this series.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a gorgeous game that nails the free-running experience that fans want, but lacks an interesting narrative, compelling combat, and a fast travel system that will likely leave many fans disappointed.
TurnOn is an enjoyable and heartwarming little game. With electrical wires instead of platforms, it offers gameplay that feels fresh, piquing your interest at every turn with whatever new adventure or obstacle you’ll face next.
Shadow Blade Reload is a fun game, but it’s not an interesting game. It has several things going for it, like the striking visuals, quick gameplay, and the level editor. But mostly it falters as the distracting voice acting and low-level difficulty hold the game back enough that it can’t be considered all that impressive of a title.
Kingdom Wars 2 is a solid real-time-strategy game that hits the bar squarely in the middle. It’s a fun experience, but in the most predictable of ways, and while that may bore some players it doesn’t change the fact this title is extremely well supported and under constant evolution. Although some of the visuals can become a slog, the music, voice acting, and play controls are on point. This is a good game, all that’s left is to see whether or not it’s your style.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan’s charming visual style doesn’t make up for repetitive level design and combat that would leave even Master Splinter frustrated.