Gaming Nexus
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A good game marred by bugs and lack of documentation. Once it is fixed it should be back on top but it does not justify a higher score.
Jumpjet Rex is a great game but it can often as frustrating as it is fun. As long as you pace yourself, especially when things start getting difficult and your progression slows, you will find it to be an extremely enjoyable trip down memory lane and a great reminder of how challenging 2D platformers can be.
If you ignore the insipid faux-noir dialogue, you'll find that White Night is a pleasing old-school survival horror gameplay experience with a sharp visual style and an intriguing story.
The Weaponographist is a decent mix of Roguelike and arena brawler, but the controls are a bit stiff and there just isn't enough content or personality to put the game above its similarly-priced competitors.
Splatoon has a huge amount of potential wrapped in an addictively bizarre visual style. That said both the solo and multiplayer aspects are relatively simple and have a lot of room to grow with DLC and updates. Hopefully Splatoon will get better with age but for now its inky competitive action should keep you busy for a month or two.
Simply put, if you liked The New Order, you'll like The Old Blood. The more than competent shooting, likable protagonist, writing, and gameplay choices make up for some small issues and a few static characters.
Slender: The Arrival is more frustrating than scary. The atmospheric locations are wasted in this boring survival-horror game where players do little more than search around for numbered items. The game goes a long way to flesh out the story and mythology, but it never makes a convincing argument for why Slender deserves to be a franchise.
Republique Remastered is an effective, modern point-and-click adventure, and one of the few good mobile-to-PC upconverts. The controls and gameplay take some time to get used to. But it's well worth it to explore the lovingly realized world of conspiracy and paranoia.
The premise behind Nom Nom Galaxy wears thin after a can or two. Its neatly focused premise and evolving puzzles don't progress at a rate to keep things stimulating for more than a few planets' worth of corporate conquest. The minimalist art is, at times, print worthy. The music makes me want to move back into a dorm room. But Nom Nom Galaxy doesn't often inspire the sense of exploratory wanderlust that should underpin Terraria-like worlds such as these. And the narrow gameplay and tightly wound clock makes everything feel like too much work, not enough play.
This is the type of game that needs two scores. One for the diehards of the genre and one for the newbies. The development team catered to their core group, and I feel they made the game that they wanted to play. But ultimately I also feel I have to hold them responsible for making a game that feels inaccessible in so many ways. Once you get over the learning cliff, there is a better game out there than this score represents. Pillars of Eternity is like a speakeasy. If you know the dirty, dark alley you need to go down and have the password for the doorman, there is a wonderful, vibrant, and robust world on the other side filled with dancing girls, jazz music, booze, and cigarettes.
Goat Simulator is a great time for the first few hours when you're seeing everything for the first time, but once you've seen everything, there's no reason to keep playing.
For the uninitiated, Total War: Attila does a good enough job introducing a very detailed world and mechanics. What it does best is allow a player to get right into the meat of combat and enjoy orchestrating campaigns across gorgeous battlefields. While micromanaging the war effort and empire can be detracting, there are enough game modes and variety in the campaign to ween someone into the thick of it. At the end of the day, the battles are satisfying and the AI is good enough. It is not without it's problems, but it's as good a strategy game as you'll likely to find.
Gamers shouldn't be fooled by the lighthearted premise of I am Bread as both difficult controls and gameplay mechanics result in continual frustration. I am Bread would have been better off as a funny, short gimmick and not a complete game focused around the premise of being a bread slice.
Shadow run is a campy romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Its fun to play through, but only mimics (and doesn't quite stack up to) the exceedingly excellent XCOM. There is better weapon class variety, character customization, and a few other points where it might exceed its muse, but it measures up just a shade below on most other occasions.
"Epic" is a criminally overused word these days, but Xenoblade Chronicles deserves no other descriptor. This existential saga of man vs. machine is finally available to the masses and on a portable to boot, with some graphical sacrifices. If you have a couple hundred hours to kill, I can think of few better ways to do it than with this JRPG masterpiece.
Project Cars delivers a solid racing sandbox that is both entertaining to play and stunning to see in action. Unfortunately, the game's career system lacks proper progression and any incentive to complete its races. Racing enthusiasts are sure to enjoy all that Project Cars has to offer, while those looking for a game to compete with its console competition will have to keep waiting or look elsewhere.
Crypt of the Necrodancer is an awesome rhythm game you don't want to pass up if you're into the genre. It solidly blends dungeon crawling with moving in time to the rhythm and the soundtrack is great. Putting in your own soundtrack is a huge plus for me as well as I have a lot of classic NES music I can use to match the retro-style look of the game. If you like rhythm games, definitely pick this one up.
Titan Souls is a pretty solid game, but I can see where it may not gel with some players. There is quite a bit of difficulty to it as you have to learn each titan's patterns and figure out how to expose and attack their weak points, and others may just see this as a rip-off of Shadow of the Colossus. If you can get past that, Titan Souls provides quite a bit of challenge, but admittedly could have gone on a bit longer for a $15 price point.
Sid Meier's Starships provides a simplified, portable gameplay snippet of the series turn-based gameplay that ultimately makes it a difficult recommend for Civilization fans. While the game was clearly designed for a tablet, there is still some entertainment to be found in brief gameplay sessions. Yet, it's impossible not to take into account there are far superior strategy games on PC that make Starships an even less-desiring title to play.
Marvel's Avengers–Age of Ultron looks like a 10-car pileup glued together with overly looping dialogue and a few forgivable missteps. Even without prior existing knowledge of these superheroes' thoughts and motivations, it's still a challenging table with subtle rewards.