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This War of Mine delivers a setting that is depressing and unsettling. It's a slow-paced resource management strategy game that will hang over you long after you walk away from it. Admittedly, it tip-toes into being melodramatic at times, and the controls could benefit from some hotkeys to back up the point-and-click interface. But the mechanics and setting are so well done, it's an absolute must play for anyone looking for an example of how all the different parts of a game can come together to create an affecting and immersive experience for a player.
While not as ambitious as recent Marvel or Star Wars tables, South Park: Super-Sweet Pinball is a solid collection with a great sense of humor. The two tables are radically different and the objectives are a lot of fun to complete. Fans of the long-running TV series will get a kick out of the cameos and inside jokes, but everybody else will be left scratching their heads.
Project Spark won't have you churning out incredible games like a development powerhouse. It will, however, provide you an accessible set of tools and assets to begin the process of bringing your dream games to life. This won't happen overnight, so plan on spending a lot of time here if you are ever going to make something memorable.
After the success of MotoGP 14, MXGP: The Official Motocross Videogame left me cold. While the racing mechanics are fine, the boring progression is made worse by a number of questionable design decisions. Worse yet, none of the real world tracks stand out and the graphics aren't very good for a PlayStation 4 game. MXGP is a big disappointment.
Sportsball is a fun and fast paced game…when played with friends. Sadly there's very little single-player content to be worth the ten dollars if you rarely have other people to play with, and there's also no online play at all, but beyond that Sportsball can make for a fun afternoon of soccer with a bit of Joust thrown in.
Tiny Troopers: Join Ops is a fun, little twin stick shooter that you can play on the go. While it can get repetitive at times, it provides enough enjoyment that you will probably come back to the game in short sessions. There are some things in the game that do get extremely annoying at times but I think the positives certainly outweigh the negatives here.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the biggest "pleasant surprise" of 2014. A solid side-story from an established universe with spot-on gameplay makes this a surprise contender for one of the year's best games.
Like hidden treasure, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker packs a lot of value into an unassuming package. With a supremely addictive set of charming, brain-teasing levels, stellar production values and a budget price, Captain Toad is the perfect way for Wii U owners to wrap up 2014 after indulging in Smash Bros.
Minimum is an entertaining online shooter that perfectly employs a texture-less and block-filled visual style. With a wide assortment of maps and various items to craft, Minimum is recommended to multiplayer shooter fans who've been looking for their next online addiction.
As far as introductions go, Zer0 Sum gives us a hell of a welcome to Tales from the Borderlands. The aesthetics and writing are true to the source material, the humor is on point, the characters and voice acting are great, and the story is entertaining and engaging. Since they're turning a traditionally FPS series into a point-and-click adventure, it heavily relies on quicktime events and action sequences, but it does a good job of mixing objectives and pacing to keep it from getting stale. "Zer0 Sum" sets up a lot of exciting possibilities and daunting mysteries into motion, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
A standard space-based RTS. Short, but also cheap, worth picking up if you are a fan of the genre or are just itching for some old-school RTS action. Otherwise, you won't miss anything.
After six long years, Geometry Wars has finally returned. Now set on three-dimensional stages, this sequel delivers a host of fun game modes. Unfortunately, the level designs sometimes make seeing enemies difficult and the single-player campaign is more frustrating than it needs to be. Regardless of whether you like the three-dimensional shift or not, there's enough content in Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions to warrant a look.
Far Cry 4 doesn't differ from Far Cry 3 greatly aside from it's obviously brand new story and setting and that's just fine for me. The series has become the first-person shooter for a fan of singleplayer-geared first-person shooters like me. Simply setting off into the bush on foot is as thrilling and fraught with potential as any game I've ever played. Every second really is a story, as per the game's marketing tagline. For once, the suits got it right.
Even if you're addicted to rhythm games, Kickbeat is a hard pass. It gets almost nothing right. Stick to your old copies of Rock Band and Guitar Hero and get your fighting game needs met with an actual fighting game.
Heavy Bullets encourages smart, slow, and steady tactics instead of jumping in and unloading in every room. It lets you be a bad ass one man army, while still keeping you struggling and hungry for more. Outside of a few ergonomic missteps, especially with the controller integration, it delivers an intense and immersive experience that rivals a lot of AAA FPS titles.
WWE 2K15 wins my award for the biggest disappointment of the year. This game is a mess. I believe that 2K had good intentions and believe that the have created a great foundation for future games, but 2K15 is not great at all. The gameplay is slow, sluggish, clunky and terrible. My Career doesn't feel like a career mode at all and all of the gutted creation modes and match types really just sealed the deal for me. I understand that 2K may be starting from scratch, and I'm sure they have huge plans for the future of the franchise, but unfortunately, I can only review what I have in front of me and what I have is not good. WWE 2K15 really feels like WWE 2K16: Prologue.
Super Smash Bros for Wii U fixes everything disappointing about its predecessor and is a phenomenal game in its own right. While I miss the Subspace Emissary story mode and the Amiibo feel a little underused, the rest of the game is exploding with content and the core mechanics are near-perfect. Get this game at the earliest opportunity and gather your friends—Smash Bros on Wii U is now the undisputed king of party games.
Having never played a Persona RPG, I enjoyed Persona Q: Shadow of the Layrinth. The fact that it resembles the Etrian Odyssey series in terms of gameplay is a plus and as a person new to the Persona series, I feel that this is another solid RPG from Atlus.
What feels a lot like the spiritual successor to Haunting Starring Polterguy, Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror is a clever puzzle game that puts players in the shoes of a ghost trying to scare away unwelcome guests. The gameplay may be simple, but the level design shines and the 16-bit visuals are charming. Glitchy Pixel's new game proves once and for all that it's more fun to be the ghost.
If you can get past the stupid name, you'll find that #killallzombies is an exciting dual-stick shooter with a number of fresh ideas. Sure, you've likely seen this type of zombie game before, but the perk system and constantly changing stage sets this apart from similar titles. It makes a terrible first impression, but #killallzombies ultimately proves to be worth your time.