Hardcore Gamer
HomepageHardcore Gamer's Reviews
Castle in the Darkness knows what it wants to be and succeeds marvelously. It's a smooth-playing action platformer that meshes a variety of genres together nicely.
It'd be easy to overlook the The Lost Lords' myriad issues — the awful presentation, the lack of true divergence, the general lack of polish — if it weren't for its biggest problem: it's boring. Even for diehard fans of the show or books, there's little to glean from these first two episodes so far.
It's a testament to sound design when the worst aspect of a video game is indeed its actual title. Even with it, though, Grey Goo is a stand-out RTS that has found an expert way of blending old with new to create something familiar but fresh.
There’s no end to the criticisms that can be leveled at Fahrenheit, but it’s hard to deny the game’s eminent playability.
Beyond Apotheon's amazing presentation and story is a clunky, combat-heavy Metroidvania that rarely ever pushes players outside their comfort zone. The controls are already weak and frustrating, but even they pale in comparison to a combat system that can be easily abused.
The reworked zombies mode is just one reason to get the Havoc DLC pack. The best reason to get it lies in the four new maps, which have a lot of replay value not only for team deathmatch, but the other modes as well.
Fortunately, it falls apart in a semi-entertaining fashion; not in a "so bad it's good" way but rather a "can't look away" way. For all the well-deserved kicking I've given Zombeer, I also pushed through to finish the game not because I was obligated to for the review, but because I was morbidly curious as to where it was going.
It's very tempting to dismiss Life is Strange out of hand as the same pretentious pabulum that it emulates, but the affectations of hipster cinema prove essential to its narrative goals. DONTNOD's sophomore effort aims to capture the voice of today's youth, and outside of a few heavy-handed moments it succeeds.
Techland's latest title is by no means perfect, nor is it one of the best zombie games, but it's solid enough to warrant a playthrough. Even though its story will leave most players unsatisfied and its open-world design is questionable at best, its phenomenal side stories and often entertaining gameplay will prevent distaste.
Splice is a well-conceptualized puzzle game, but it's not as well-executed as it ought to be. Its minimalistic sensibilities end up leaving some important rules unexplained, and they don't quite gel with the type of game Cipher Prime has created.
The entire adventure genre owes a debt to Grim Fandango. It pioneered the immersive, cinematic gameplay that would later be used by the likes of Telltale and Quantic Dream, and its quality writing and puzzle design set a high bar that almost every adventure to follow would strive to meet.
Despite effectively being a game from 2011, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 still provides an enjoyable experience today.
Taking a bizarre concept and cranking it up to eleven, Saints Row IV is still one of the best open-world games ever made, a landmark in creative freedom unbound by the narrow halls of logic or coherence. Delivering a near-endless supply of side-content and addictive combat, Saints Row IV is ridiculously easy to recommend, but Re-Elected's limited enhancements and unwelcome technical issues keep this version from being the definitive version that it should be.
If Earthbound is a Japanese interpretation of Americana as seen through a filter of sitcoms, b-movies and news reels, then Citizens of Earth offers a Canadian take on the country we see through The Daily Show and the front page of Reddit. But where Shigesato Itoi displays deep fondness for his source material, Eden Industries is clearly more attached to the games that inspired them than they are to their game's setting.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell captures the madness and destruction that made the series so fun, but even as an expansion pack, there's not much new here. So much of it is cut from the same cloth of Saints Row IV that the nuances end up meaning much less than they should.
If there's one game that deserves the remaster treatment, it's Resident Evil. The thirteen year old remake is arguably the best game in the long running series, not only staying true to its source material, but expanding upon it greatly with new content directly built into the core story.
Those in the mood for a fast-paced experience that won't require a massive investment of time for a play session should give Funk of Titans a shot.
The Witcher Adventure Game takes everything from the tabletop game of the same name and digitizes it, with a great deal of attention paid to aesthetics. Unfortunately, the board game being emulated here is poorly-designed, and the gorgeous visuals sometimes get in the way of its functionality.
Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse works just as well on a console as it did on a handheld.
NEKOPARA is a light and fluffy visual novel that fans of catgirls will enjoy their time with.