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Few mainstream video games have tried, let alone achieved, anything close to the emotional intensity that courses through this game.
"Tacoma's" core appeal comes from watching the characters behave differently as they move between areas and interact with each other.
Fun and well-paced, 'Pyre' is the rare game that wants players to embrace their slip ups
If too many games today entangle the mind with ceaseless complications, proliferating differences with only superficial distinctions in outcome, "Polybius" provides the feeling of having one's mind washed clean for a few moments, shaken free of clutter. Its biggest reward occurs in the moment when the headset is removed and the screen goes dark, a moment when it feels possible to see everything with what feels like new eyes.
Frenetic, hypnotic and seriously addictive
I was impressed with the overall design of the game. In its short playtime, "Lydia" covers a fair amount of emotionally treacherous ground.
I'm nowhere near ready to take on the game's hardest difficulty levels, but "Arms" is the first fighting game to pique my interest since "Super Smash Bros" in 2014.
A disabled protagonist creates interesting opportunities but 'Perception' falls short
At its core, "Rime," is really nothing more and nothing less than an opportunity to roam around a beautiful environment and work through its strange logic.
A reason to dust off that VR headset you got for Christmas
"Little Nightmares" is a taut game that is creepy and atmospheric. It doesn't extend the margins of video game aesthetics so much as grow the market for dark, video game fairy tales. At present, I'm fine with that. ==
While "Pinstripe" can feel uneven at times, there's talent, full-of-heart here that's worthy of nurturing.
"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" feels like the most complete game in the series, with 23 remade tracks from earlier games and 25 originals, yet the racing feels like it's been tamed by the mild courses and gentle drifting system.
A high-water mark of narrative video game design
I can only hope that "Everything," opens the door for more philosophical games; it is the rare game that may push you to want to lead a better life.
"Persona 5" is an absurdly imaginative game.
Another game asks players to re-attach the controllers to the side of the Switch console, remove it from its television dock and cradle it like a crying baby, complete with a crudely animated infant tossing its head back and forth on the console's portable screen. It was perhaps the most uncanny moment of all the experiences in the game — a human child used as a skeuomorphic wrapper for a software simulation.
During one sublime moment, after the visuals on the screen began degrading before my eyes, I really felt as though I didn't know what the game might throw at me. At that moment, I wondered if it might be right to call "Nier; Automata" an experimental action game. In any case, I can't wait to see what Yoko Taro does next.
What Nintendo has created is an all-encompassing mind-body possession in which you find yourself inside something unusually, hauntingly engrossing.
‘Night in the Woods’ is great, and a lesson for all game creators in how to develop characters