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While it's a bit slow to start, frontloaded with tutorials and exposition, and generally muddled at the outset, Rage 2 shapes up into an incredibly fun time and a natural evolution of a franchise I was worried Id had written off as a dead end.
Team Sonic Racing does a pretty good job with the new team mechanics, but the difficulty can still be a tad rough at times. While not as bad as prior entries, it can be easy to fall behind after you've spun out, only to catch up again using a Team Ultimate, only to drop back a few spots when the opposing team does the same thing and cost you the race. Still, Sonic Team Racing is enjoyable alone and even more with friends or while playing online.
Even skippers used to playing the PC version might want to give the PS4 version a look. It has been built from the ground up in order to leverage the processing and graphics power of modern consoles, and far more content is available from the get-go. If you want to skip the process of upgrading your ships and waiting to unlock more of the fleet that the free-to-play version has, you can opt to just buy the entire fleet all at once for a fixed price.
Saints Row The Third is the same riotous good time it's always been, except now you can take it anywhere. Some performance issues hold the experience back, but with any luck the instability will get patched out.
World War Z doesn't hide its intentions. It's not a layered, in-depth survival sim. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. It's built around the horde effect, which it nails. They're like train wrecks: you can't stop watching them—except the train is headed straight for you.
Mechstermination Force feels like it comes very close to having a manageable learning curve. Quality-wise, it's great, and a good homage to its boss-filled predecessors. However, there's nothing more game-ruining than, you know, not being able to play the game. There's hard, and then there's hard hard, and then there's Mechstermination Force. It can be done. It can be beaten. I just hope you have a spare hour or two for every boss, and some throat lozenges and ice water nearby.
Endlessly stylish, emotionally gripping and deceptively addictive, VA-11 HALL-A is the pure essence of a visual novel: a digital page-turner filled with unforgettable characters and set in an infectious cyberpunk noir that will live in your head for weeks after you've put the game down.
Silence is a great game with some quirks. The artwork is beautiful and the animation is pretty good for the most part, and the story definitely takes center stage for me. However, the puzzles are rather simple, most of the dialogue (and puzzles for that matter) have no real consequence for choosing a wrong option, and the forty dollar price tag might be off-putting to some, especially since you can find it for half of that on other platforms. Silence is definitely worth checking out and it makes me want to play through The Whispered World, but I'd recommend waiting for it to go on sale.
Assassin's Creed III Remastered is a mixed bag. It's repetitive combat and lackluster visuals, strung through with a few bright spots of naval combat and exploration, and unique displays of combat. Narratively, the game is as weak as they come. There's no mystery. Just an obligatory plot to finish the fight between the Assassins and Templars. Not to mention the mumbo jumbo with the First Civilization. The game is frustrating and not worth another look.
It took a few hours to get under my skin. But now that I've gotten into a rhythm with its post-apocalyptic horror-survivalist aspects, Days Gone puts on a good little self-serious road drama.
A good game with a lot of depth – just what one would expect from Paradox. Play it through once or twice just for fun, then grab one of the strategy guides that will be popping up to more fully appreciate the mechanics.
Mortal Kombat 11 is a nice send off to the 25+ year story of the series and it's NetherRealms best fighting game to date. It's just unfortunate that almost all of the single player content had to be filled with ridiculous amounts of grinding, RNG loot drops and unfair, unbalanced challenges.
Katana ZERO is a game I've been interested in from the moment I saw the trailer for it and once again Devolver Digital and Askiisoft didn't disappoint. From the nice graphics and awesome music, to the fluid controls and the engaging story with different ways to respond to dialogue and take out enemies in each area, Katana ZERO was an enjoyable game from start to finish, even with the story getting a little bonkers after several stages. Then again, it's that bit of craziness that kept things interesting throughout the game and I'm perfectly okay with that.
It had been several years since I had played Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon so I was a tad worried about doing the series justice in this review, but I can definitely say that outside of a couple of issues with giant insects blocking my camera view, repeatedly getting knocked down when surrounded by the critters, and the sensitivity of clicking L3 to turn around when moving backwards, Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is a solid entry into the EDF series and one that anyone wanting to blast the heck out of giant insects should enjoy.
This isn't Call of Duty in the land of Swedish meatballs, it's Boston Dynamics in an IKEA-effect hunting sim. Come for the difficult robot fights, stay for the Arctic Circle sunsets. The technical issues will make you rage quit one day and then bring you back the next.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has FromSoftware's typical brutal difficulty, but honestly that's beside the point. What matters is the thoughtful, precision-based combat, smart use of stealth, and a skill tree that's trimmed of fat. This game shows what you can do with game design if you dispense with the extraneous and focus on strong core mechanics. It's a punishing, rewarding, and beautiful experience.
The Division 2 takes a step forward on the original in just about every area.
The Prometheus Secret Noohra is an interesting mix of ideas and concepts, but it kind of falls flat a bit.
Tropico 6 brings a lot to the table. It is pretty to look at, easy to get started with, and offers hours of play time with its generous depth and breadth in multiple categories of human life.
Windscape has its rough edges, but the scope, ambition and heart of this one-man passion project help it to punch above its weight class. If you want a Zelda or Skyrim-style game that's great for relaxing after a long day, Windscape fits the bill nicely.