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Randal's Monday might not be the next great adventure game, but by focusing on the same humor and style as Clerks, it has a charm to it. The animation and voice acting is superb, channeling the spirit of Sunday night animated shows without being edgy for edgy's sake.
Rarely does a game deliver everything its players could ever ask for, but Halo: The Master Chief Collection does just that. Everything is here that should be here: the campaigns, the multiplayer engines, the maps and the visuals.
On the whole the team at Red Thread Games has done an incredible job updating The Longest Journey for the modern era. With graphical fidelity to match any AAA game and a strong aesthetic sense informing its visual direction, Dreamfall Chapters is one of the few games this year that I'd call beautiful. But underneath those modern trappings lies the same foundation of smart, profound storytelling that made the series so great in the first place. Unfortunately, this first episode ends a little prematurely, and it feels like we've yet to reach the real meat of the experience.
The first Call of Duty built for the current console generation, Advanced Warfare is a leap in the right direction for the series. The exoskeleton power doesn't change "everything," but it creates a fresh experience.
Cosmophony blends the runner and shooter genres together just about perfectly. When it comes to finding actual fault with the game, its small level count is the only issue.
Race the Sun was a load of good arcade-style fun on PC and the PS4 version is a near-perfect port. The heart of the game made it intact and, while it's a shame to be missing the player creations, the daily challenge is always worth returning to.
Some parts of Lords of the Fallen are surprisingly enjoyable, but many weigh it down.
Pix the Cat continues PastaGames' reputation for making incredible bite-sized gaming experiences. There's even a surprising amount of depth here thanks to its multiplier and variety of game modes.
Just Dance is a series that's hard to hate as it genuinely wants players to have a good time, but 2015 is a misstep. Hardly anything has changed and practically nothing has for those who don't partake in the online functionality, some features are missing and the interface has become too basic.
There are few games like Sunset Overdrive. It's a comical, highly diverse shooter that has a strong focus on being fun rather than realistic.
Even though Shadow Warrior has minor technical imperfections and runs about two hours too long, it's nothing short of a blast. Those seeking a break from deeply emotional narratives and overly serious gameplay should find a nice pallate-cleanser here.
Samurai Warriors 4 is the best entry into the franchise, and is the one most mechanically sound Warriors title available, but there are still some drawbacks. Even with the diverse cast, the level-specific combo system is something that may turn people off at first as it requires a grind of thirty minutes for each character before the experience gets any better.
Despite a poor use of its license, The Legend of Korra still provides some fun for its price. It might not live up to Platinum Games' sky-high pedigree, and you might be compelled to call it their first misstep, but The Legend of Korra is a good starting point if you want to see what Platinum Games are all about.
It must be an interesting challenge for developers of a series so focused on history to tackle questions of humanity's future. Obviously both subjects tap into many of the same sources, but where most Civilization games explore who we are, Beyond Earth systemizes who we could be.
The magical combination of two creative powerhouses in Disney and Harmonix has produced one of the best Kinect rhythm games to date. Like no other to come before it, Fantasia: Music Evolved combines the required accuracy of the best of the genre with wholly enjoyable remixing tools that allow players to create new compositions on the fly merely with their hands.
Wasteland 2 Kickstarter backers will get what they paid for plus a few glitches they didn't. The game doesn't live up to its ambitions in a number of places, most notably the dialogue system.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a good point and click adventure game, and its 20th Anniversary Edition is a very bad port. Technical issues abound, the high-definition graphics look far worse than their DOS forebears, and nearly every change that's been made is for the worse.
The Evil Within marks Shinji Mikami's triumphant return to horror, cementing his status as a mastermind of the genre. Smartly aiming for psychological horror over cheap jump scares, it gets under the skin and effects the psyche. Unfortunately, it falls into the modern trappings of boasting too much firepower at the cost of stealth and intelligence.
It's hard to follow-up on what Gearbox Software has created over the last two iterations and what The Pre-Sequel brings is nothing short of a letdown. While 2K Australia were able to replicate certain parts of what made the Borderlands series fun, the frequent bugs, dull script, short campaign and repetitive world design will leave fans disappointed.
Final Fantasy XIII has its own set of problems, mainly consisting of a mediocre story and incredibly linear progression for the first forty hours, but the poor PC optimization puts it over the top.