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The Mean Greens has a strong core concept, but wrapped around it is a game that feels a few major patches short of its potential.
Surprisingly, however, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam dishes up an interesting take on the Mario RPG formula without wandering too far from its roots. Some may scorn the lack of drastic change in the gameplay and while it's fair to conclude it is more of the same in most parts, Paper Jam is — at its heart — a solid RPG with plentiful personality. It may not be the RPG we had sought at the beginning, but it's one that marries together most (though not all) of what makes this Mario spin-off so immediately engrossing.
Fat Princess was subversive, politically incorrect and unexpectedly complex in its strategy and depth.
When viewing the vaporized remains of what Sony has pushed out to the public, one can just make out what could have been a great game. Since the heyday of Rollercoaster Tycoon and Theme Hospital, it's not often that lite-management sims get a chance to strut their stuff. This was not originally meant to be that game, but it could have been with a change of the business model. Instead this is a title that is balanced for tedium.
It would be easy to blow off Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair as just another HD remake, but that wouldn't give it credit for how much better it plays now that it's got appropriate processing muscle behind its enemy-packed levels. Simply put, Earth Defense Force has never looked or played as good as this, and while the framerate still drops a bit when the action gets particularly intense, it's never anything but playable.
Is it so wrong to expect more from video games? Is it asking a lot for a game to have polish and substance around its cool central idea? These might seem like questions with obvious answers, but this is what we need to ask when titles come out that feel more designed to print cash than they do to sustain a player base.
DariusBurst Chronicle Saviors is a massive shooter with seemingly endless gameplay in its multiple sections.
Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 3 is a mixture of humor and emotion, but never loses itself as being an addition to the original game.
Whether you can enjoy Chivalry: Medieval Warfare depends on how low you are willing to lower your expectations for what a current-gen console game should look and feel like.
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The adjective "ridiculous" has been used several times in this review as it's the most apt available. Just Cause 3 is a ridiculous, over-the-top experience that wants so hard for you to blow it up. Playing around its 400 square miles, it's almost as if the game can be heard yelling "OH MAN, THAT WAS SICK" in the background. It's hard not to feel like a complete badass as you fly around the island dropping grenades and vaulting enemies into the air; in fact, you basically have super powers.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is epic in scope. Most of the time, it's better for it; other times, it's clear that the developers didn't have a golden thread sewing together all of its various parts.
Fans of Warhammer-related products and turn-based game aficionados will enjoy City of the Damned. It isn't a casual experience and mastering the many systems — as well as the flexible combat — will take dedication and time. It needs a little more technical polish and a much smoother learning curve to be considered for real mass-market appeal, but Mordheim: City of the Damned is a rewarding game for the right player.
Having missed this title the first time around, there was no small amount of glee at the prospect of jumping in with the gussied up version. It is with profound sadness that it must be reported that this is a barebones port of an already middling game.
Judging a primarily multiplayer title always comes with a caveat. Chainsawesome has developed a game of excellent fundamentals that, under ideal conditions, could provide endless hours of fast-paced, chaotic fun. The lack of meaningful content for the single player is not a major issue – this is not a title meant for gaming's recluses. With already shaky matchmaking, and the chances of regularly rounding up four or five spare Xbox controllers (let alone willing playmates) in the same living room rather slim, however, some of Knight Squad's potential is sadly squandered.
Telltale's original story pales in comparison to the source material and it's not an especially satisfying adventure game, either. Your choices matter about as much as the points in Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the game's action scenes barely register whether or not you're even holding the controller. Even if you're a fan of the books or HBO show, there's not much incentive to play Telltale's Game of Thrones.
The Match-3 genre is one of the stalwarts of the casual game space, but all that means is that there are plenty of bad products trying to grab the attention of unwary gamers. With its depth of gameplay systems and huge amount of single and multiplayer content, Gems of War is one of the best across all platforms and one of the few high-quality casual games on current gen consoles.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song has so much going for it. The battle and flight systems are top-notch entertaining time sinks, the artistic style is nothing short of gorgeous and being able to hang out with characters from the show, with dialogue written by the creator, is an engrossing experience. The issue lies in how Bandai Namco did not take full advantage of the talent available to them. This title is simply hamstrung by a lack of investment. The decision was made, for better or worse, to not create an experience that lives up to its true potential, instead recycling assets and hoping for the best. The end result is a title for series fans only. Those who are not invested in the universe already would be better off moving along.
If everything about Hard West was as great as its combat and strategic layer, it would easily sit near the top of a list of memorable Old West-themed games. Take away the cowboy costumes and it's still an excellent turn-based game with some clever mechanics to mess with. A kind of bland overworld game experience combined with a hokey story arc bring Hard West down just a couple of notches. Still, it's a Western, and a great turn based strategy game, and we need more of both.
Bloodborne: The Old Hunters is a solid add-on to an already outstanding game. While it fails to try anything new and is relatively short, the bosses make this something worthy of trekking through, especially for existing fans. There's a bevy of weapons to add to your arsenal, additional lore to accumulate in your journal and luscious environments to keep your interest. It's a shame the majority of the new areas are rather straightforward and the standard enemies don't really offer much of a challenge, but there's something about figuring out the strategies of each boss and exploring every nook and cranny of the world that will leave you satisfied. There's a masochist in everyone and Bloodborne: The Old Hunters helps bring it out in people.