Cubed3's Reviews
Anyone that played and loved them way back when, this is the definitive version of both, and makes reliving the journey through Spira extra special; they are worth replaying all over again.
For Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight is one heck of a game to start its new studio with, so here's hoping it can keep up this high level of quality and polish with future titles!
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is a phenomenal game, taking the spectacular original and giving it fresh lease of life. Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki's grim and beautiful world is truly a wonder to behold, and this new journey into that world is filled with fresh challenges that will test even the most experienced Souls players. You will die over and over and over again, but the key thing is that you will love every minute of it.
Just past its two year anniversary, the Wii U eShop is already home to a vast number of heavy hitters, and Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones stands amongst the best of them. With a subtle yet engaging plot device and atmospheric environment, dastardly devilish challenges, and a shelf life of features beyond many other games, this stealth puzzler is an easy sell.
Challenging, creative, and endlessly endearing, Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition is the best take on the Metroidvania genre in years.
The Sword in the Darkness truly lives up to the first episode after the exposition-filled second and goes to show fans of the Song of Ice and Fire universe that this story is truly worth a place alongside the canon of the series. Now exactly halfway through the season, there's a ton of promise and a lot of foreboding for the remainder of the series. So far the Foresters are getting knocked down and kicked harder and harder and harder… which, much like the Starks, will make it all that much sweeter when they finally have their revenge.
It will intimidate with monstrous foes and unimaginable horrors, but the satisfaction that is felt when they are overcome is quite real. Is Bloodborne a reason to get a PS4? Maybe. This game will keep people talking about it for a long time.
If players are seeking a big and deep adventure that is truly theirs and that they can share with their friends, then Terraria is the game for them. Terraria offers hours upon hours of content for gamers of any taste. Casual and hardcore, competitive and social; everyone will find something to enjoy. Few will, however, enjoy the whole package, but that is fine. This is a game where players themselves decide how it should be played. After the initial barrier of learning the game, a big world opens up and an unending adventure starts.
There's little more that can be said; Bioware seems to have taken every negative thing said about Dragon Age 2 on board and improved upon each and every one of them. This is a real love letter to its fans and one of the best games to hit in a long time. Now about that next Mass Effect game… and the ending of number three...
This year's edition of the Just Dance series lifts the game beyond its former releases thanks to its focus on treating players to various extras the more they play and integrating the online component so smoothly into the regular play. There will always be a tendency to jiggle the Wii Remote randomly in the hope of getting a good score, but that is the player's fault, not that of the game. Just Dance 2015 on Wii U is as close to perfection in the genre as possible, also allowing for extra points to be accrued by singing along via the GamePad's microphone for good measure.
This is a masterpiece, raising the bar higher than ever, and is truly rewarding for those who have completed the original and kept their save files. The question was asked, and Telltale answered. If it continues in this way, then Season Three could very well break a man emotionally.
If some of the technical issues could have been ironed out, such as the choppiness of the cut-scenes, clipping, or when the HAVOK physics engine goes berserk, this might have been a 10/10. As it is, Alien: Isolation is a very pure gem with some minor hairline fractures. This is a worthy game and comes highly recommended to anyone who enjoys excitement or is a fan of Ridley Scott's Alien, or for fans of survival horror in general.
Taking many tropes from the Metroidvania sub-genre of games, and adding a mechanic all of its own, The Swapper succeeds in creating an interesting world to explore and challenging puzzles to conquer amidst one of the most atmospheric backdrops ever put to a video game.
Is Another World a perfect adventure platformer? Who knows! It is, however, the best example of its kind and has served as a blueprint for any designer who has every considered to make a cinematic style game.
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is a well put together piece of software with a great attention to little details, set in a universe of folklore and culture which is exotic enough in the video game industry to feel highly original, and with a huge deal of humour thrown into the mix for good measure. The tough to master yet easy to understand gameplay, coupled with the many challenges to overcome to fully complete everything do extend the play life into "decent" territory, as it is otherwise a rather short experience for those who will rush through it. Guacamelee! clearly takes a leaf out of a lot of different books in gaming, Metroid being the most obvious, but Castlevania, Megaman, and Zelda are also other clear sources of inspiration, yet it manages to blend it all into what is now its own thing. It sure bases a lot of its appeal on nostalgia for those other franchises and the crowd of references to them thrown all over the place, but this never overshadows its own intrinsic qualities, which are clever design, good production values, great writing and, most of all, a clear love for video games from its creators, which does transpire through their work. Guacamelee! STCE for the Wii U eShop is certainly not a perfect game - it has its couple of minor faults - but never are they detrimental to the overall experience, and this is still a must-have for any fan of the genre.
Utterly addictive and packed to the brim with what is currently months' worth of content - with years' more of it guaranteed in regular updates - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn absolutely deserves taking that leap for both MMO and Final Fantasy fans alike. Just be prepared for something very different if not coming from an MMO background, and to say goodbye to whatever free time there once was.
Sucker Punch has struck gold once again with Second Son, putting the PlayStation 4's power to good use and providing gamers with a rich, satisfying experience. Slow start and samey missions aside, the spectacle of the main character's arsenal alone is reason enough for new PS4 owners to put this at the top of their shopping list.
The comedy, the story choices, the setup - it's all done well in Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One - Zer0 Sum. The next episodes can't come quick enough! Grab the season pass and enjoy waiting with baited breath for each episode to be released. The team here at Cubed3 certainly will be!
What more can really be said? Everyone was expecting a nice and self-contained story at best, a bit of a romp, and nothing exceptional. Getting a well-crafted story, developers learning how to up their game to create intense battles from their prior experiences, and so many other improvements, was simply not expected. There is a distinct rift in quality between the base game and this expansion, and considering A Realm Reborn was already very good, this new rift showcases just how great Heavensward is.
Minecraft is still, without a doubt, one of the best games available on the Xbox One, even after the ridiculous number of hours most will have invested into it on every platform under the sun. It contains an unbelievable amount of content and it's only going to get better over time as more features are added. The simplicity of Minecraft: Xbox One Edition's gameplay constantly brings players back for more, and inviting a bunch of friends into the game at any time to help on a creation never gets old as the only limit is the imagination.