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Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker falls under the umbrella of casual game, and that’s where its value inherently lies.
Omega Quintet is a game at battle with itself. On one end, its multifaceted battle system has the potential to make JRPG fans drool. The same is true of the excellent PVS editor which will satisfy fans waiting for anything of this sort to make its way west. On the other hand, its graphics in no way push the PS4 (and some aspects look downright ancient) and all this complexity seems to be at the cost of an awesome storyline
When we reviewed Shovel Knight at its initial release back in June 2014, we were amazed by its impeccable design, rock-solid mechanics and loving homages to classic games. All of those aspects still ring true on PS4, and Yacht Club Games has without a doubt successfully replicated one of 2014's finest experiences on Sony's flagship console.
I really want to love Broken Age Act 2 as much as I loved the first part. As a complete package, the game is beautiful, funny and well-designed.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a phenomenal dungeon crawler. It's loaded with personality, great music, fun characters and deep action that only appears simplistic on the surface.
That's kind of the crux of the problem: everything in The Charnel House Trilogy is too obvious. You see most of the scares coming a mile away, it's super easy to see through the psychological tricks that it tries to employ and once you understand what's going on with the train it doesn't feel particularly ominous anymore, no matter what tone the graphics and music might otherwise set.
The PlayStation 4 version of Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones is a great example of how not to port a game to a new system.
Overall, Affordable Space Adventures is a journey well worth embarking on, especially with a few friends.
Rockstar continues to improve upon one of the greatest games of all time, not to mention getting over the hump that haunted them for the past seven years.
Titan Souls is a quietly beautiful little epic. The contrast of the boss fights with the peaceful exploration works to create a world of contrasts, broken but not dead.
We Are Doomed was a great twin-stick shooter last year and it's only gotten better with the year's worth of upgrades. The enemy types and challenges are carefully tuned to allow massive destruction, but still require good planning and split-second decisions as the safe areas gradually disappear.
Bastion is an aesthetic dream, from the beautiful visuals that look like a painting come to life to the incredible soundtrack that breathes soul into that life. As a game, though, it could've been so much more. There's a great amount of replay value here, from the new game plus mode to the combat challenges, but that's only if the mechanics click with you enough to stick with it. Because of some frustrating controls and combat design decisions, Bastion is held back from being excellent, but remains great nonetheless.
I wanted to like I Am Bread. Heck, I thought early builds were surprisingly solid, but this full release didn't just avoid fixing many of the issues, but actually made them worse.
2011's Mortal Kombat reinvigorated the franchise by taking it back to its roots, retelling the story with a slight variation. Mortal Kombat X goes a step further and wades into uncharted territory with great results.
Now that the PS4 has been on the market for over a year, SD San Diego has had time to fine-tune the MLB franchise, giving it more sheen to the point that it's easily one of the most realistic sports games on the market. MLB 15: The Show doesn't bring any major additions to the table, but it does respectably tweak the most beloved modes to streamline the experience for pros and casuals alike.
Xenoblade Chronicles was an incredible experience on Wii and it has transitioned beautifully onto New 3DS. Some compression concessions were made in the process, but the underlying quality of the narrative, setting and mechanics ultimately mean the cosmetic blemishes make little difference. Once again cementing its status as a JRPG masterpiece, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is a game you owe it to yourself to experience.
Tower of Guns is a brilliantly-crafted game that is seemingly forged from the tears of the players who fall to its traps. Gunfire will come your way from every direction, while platforming perils send you to do your death thanks to massive fall damage totals.
Shelter 2 isn't a great game, but few games charge players with wrestling genuine emotion or real-world struggle, and in general the medium hardly demonstrates or encourages such circumstances. There's no complex mechanic or grand story to work through, but there's none that could easily capture "feelings" either.
Anyone looking to spend a solid 40+ hours on a roguelike should look no further than this.
It's still impossible to recommend this series to anyone but Telltale diehards; fans of the HBO show will find it supremely unsatisfying and dreadfully boring, and it's too steeped in lore for anyone else to jump in. The Sword in the Darkness does nothing to change that, but it does push the quality bar just a hair higher, elevating itself all the way into "I guess that wasn't terrible" territory.