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They say time heals all wounds, but free DLC can't hurt either. Dead Kings offers much for those still enamoured by the series, and its offering as a freebie is a fine gesture to anyone left aggrieved by last year's failings. Still, time will tell whether it - or what Ubisoft has planned next - can convince those who have been put off by the series' longer sense of stasis.
It's a game that requires and occasionally enforces patience, but like all great road trips it's about the journey, not the destination.
The true power of the Inquisition may be illusory, but that doesn't stop it being satisfying to wield while it lasts.
Far Cry 4 is well worth a visit, but it's more a backpacker's delight than a five-star island paradise.
Add the graphical overhaul, refined handling and experimental modes together and you end up with a racer that feels much more competitive that its immediate predecessors. Milestone has a habit of releasing motorcycling sequels that hold little distinction outside of the yearly livery changes, but in MotoGP 14, it's not relying solely on the draw of the licence and the pull of its physics. That doesn't mean it's comparable to Marquez in terms of getting everything right, but if ever there was a game made by MotoGP fans for MotoGP fans, this is definitely it.
Shinji Mikami has yet to make a poor game, and The Evil Within does not blemish his record. But neither does the game enchant and disrupt in the way that Vanquish and the others managed. This is Mikami revisiting his past glories and, as such, it's both a delight and a disappointment.
A shorter, sharper campaign would condense the high points more potently, and some better characterisation would make the plot twists hit harder. But if you're looking for a game that really sinks its teeth into what makes this iconic movie monster endure, look no further.
There's plenty to see and do in Mordor when you're dead; all that's left, in the words of a wise old wandering wizard, is to decide what to do with the time that is given to you.
As someone that simply waits and arranges the location of towers, I felt as if I was incidental. Any other character in the game could just as easily have replaced me, and the plot would remain largely the same. Still, there's something special about waiting. About that patience. As I saw wave after wave of alien soldiers ground to shreds by my turrets, I was sad. I wasn't out for blood. I wasn't revelling in the destruction of my enemies. I was defending myself. I was waiting.
But in the white heat of the Strike playlists - or in Heroic mission runs with a friend, or in the unheralded arrival of a public event whilst tooling around in Patrol - Destiny blazes a clear trail through the middle of the desolate no man's land that, for years now, has segregated the bombastic emptiness of shooter campaigns from the frenetic slaughter of multiplayer. And it does so with a poise and depth that its few peers - games like the charming but scrappy Borderlands and Far Cry - cannot match; a poise and depth that will keep people playing it for years.
Despite the game's dipped-nose poise, its obsession with speed and clocks, it rewards those who take their time, who perfect their technique on each stage, and who savour an arcade game that's been lovingly embellished and expanded to its full and likely final potential.
It never hits the heights of Battlefield in its pomp, Call of Duty at its slickest or Titanfall in its explosive beta, but at its best Garden Warfare stirs the same emotions; the panic, the triumph, the tension and the elation. Whether anyone will stick with it once the Titans Are Ready is unsure, but PopCap has overachieved and delivered one of the most likeable games on next-generation hardware anywhere. Quite simply, I dig it.
The roguelike gets an inventive jolt of genetics in this gloriously witty dungeon crawler.
Child of Light stands as a wonderfully realised venture into unfamiliar territory for Ubisoft - and a welcome reminder that the industry's major players still have the creative flair to push beyond the lucrative safe ground that they so often favour to create well-crafted, highly-polished gems such as this.
Perhaps that was always likely to happen after a game as complete as Trials Evolution, and I have still spent a dozen hours enjoying everything Fusion has to offer and can't imagine anyone finding much fault with any of it. All the same, I hope that whenever RedLynx returns to the drawing board in future, it does so with more of a daredevil heart. We've had enough evolution - what Trials needs next is revolution.
Resogun really is that rare kind of arcade game that feels like an entirely different beast when played on the toughest setting. It's also the closest the PS4 launch line-up gets to offering a genuine next-gen thrill. Granted, Housemarque's not offering the shock of the new, perhaps - all of the developer's best ideas are actually reassuringly elderly - but it's working with energy, enthusiasm, precision and love. Oh, and voxels. Look at them scatter!
If you can look past that and get over the through-balls, though, FIFA 14 on next-gen is the best version of the game. Modes like Career, Ultimate Team and Seasons are well thought out and will happily consume many hours of your time as you tinker and experiment, and while matches often follow a familiar pattern, it helps that that pattern is fast, exciting and frequently spectacular. It would be nice to see changes that allow for greater variation in build-up play next year, but in the meantime FIFA 14 with better dribbling and nerfed headers will do nicely.
Consider this the last gasp of the old multiplayer model then. It's a fine swansong, especially when played on the most powerful platforms, and in particular if you treat the campaign as a free bonus feature. It's hard not to wonder just what DICE will be able to do when it no longer has to hobble its designs to suit ageing hardware, though.
These mostly minor issues aside, Wasteland 2 is a great sequel. It's very clearly made with love to be true to the original game while still learning from the games that followed. In going for something so unapologetically old-school it does sacrifice the ability to do anything new with the format, as Divinity: Original Sin managed to do in many ways; that game's flexibility does arguably make it the better of this year's two old-school, turn-based computer RPGs. This hardly matters, though, because if you like one you're almost certainly going to like the other. Both are great games that set out to stick their fingers in the same quivering part of your brain and make it throb like it's the 1990s. Choose magic, choose a shotgun, or better still, find time for both; computer RPG fans haven't had it this good in ages.
Unfortunately, as DLC, if you didn't buy Shadowrun Returns originally you have to do so now to play Dragonfall - effectively doubling the price. It would be much easier to recommend as a standalone expansion - both as a marked improvement on the original campaign and a refreshing break from the genre's usual fantasy worlds. It still stands as those things if you're willing to take the plunge, though, as well as being an excellent reason to give Shadowrun Returns and its community a second look.