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The Solus Project is poor survival game that plays far better as a walking simulator. The lack of any guidance in controls and direction will leave you feeling clueless on how to proceed throughout. The environments are bland and barren, and although the weather and day/night cycle offer some positives, they're all ultimately overshadowed by the game's negatives. To top it all off a below par PlayStation VR option and a large number of bugs turn what could have been a good survival title into a disappointing one.
If you're in the market for an effectively twisted dark fantasy roguelike adventure coupled with a functional turn-based tactical strategy combat system, a walk down the Plague Road might be in order. But be warned that despite it's distinctive art style, there isn't much to recommend this against the less sick competitors out there.
What you end up with is a sci-fi exploration title that is, ultimately, dull. There's barely anything going on in Morphite. Once you've beaten the story and upgraded your equipment, there's very little reason to go back to previous locations, and new ones are too similar to offer any meaningful extended play. Myrah's adventure may pique the interest of genre die-hards, but the limited scope of the game makes it difficult to recommend.
If you're already invested in the Zen Pinball games, then Pinball FX3 with its roster of new gameplay options is an essential upgrade. It's a shame that licensing issues mean that some tables have been left behind, but the new progression system adds replayability to every other table that you already own. The user interface is disappointing, but it's feature packed, and depending on the number of tables you've bought, you could quite feasibly spend thousands of hours trying to dominate the leaderboards in this game.
Overall, the release proves to be a fitting, brutally brilliant finale to Hideo Kojima's beloved saga.
Not all aspects of Final Fantasy IX hold up perfectly in 2017, but the PSone swansong is still a stone cold classic. Although you could argue that the PS4 port should do more to enhance the experience, the adventure's core strengths in world building and storytelling remain, and they're as flawless as ever. When all's said and done, masterpiece is still a word that we'd use to describe Final Fantasy IX.
In a year crowded with incredible titles, Ruiner manages to be a standout anyways. The red neon-plastered world presented by Reikon Games is beautiful, brutal, and terrifying. With some impressive art direction, great music, and a wealth of immensely satisfying combat systems, Ruiner offers essential top-down gameplay, and comes highly recommended.
Blue Reflection has a lot of interesting ideas, from its plot to the core gameplay, so it's unfortunate that these ideas are left to fester in a pool of mediocrity and drowned in an adventure that feels boring and stale before it's even really begun. The opening scenes show a lot of promise, but none of it is built upon as the game develops. Blue Reflection feels like a tutorial for JRPG beginners - one that even the most inexperienced player would get bored with.
Mary Skelter: Nightmares has some really interesting features and an impressively dark atmosphere. While a lot of the mechanics within the dungeons will feel familiar to genre fans, the levels themselves are very well crafted. There's also a unique battle system to master and the random element of Nightmares chasing you down dark corridors will definitely get the adrenaline pumping.
Jailhouse Block is a big step in the right direction for Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two and is far better than the first two episodes with a really well-paced and fast flowing plot. The more impactful decisions and a humorous appearance from a well-known artist keep your attention from start to finish – although that's not saying much with a running time shorter than an hour.
Happy Dungeons is worth a download. Its quirky style and accessibility make it a good on-and-off experience -- especially with a few friends by your side -- but weak dungeon design and poor presentation holds it back from being anything more than that.
Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash can be a romp in more ways than one. It's a decent third-person shooter with fast-paced, vertical gameplay, and there are some quirks here and there that make it stand out in its market. However, its single-player content can get noticeably repetitive and one-note amid a lot of the fluff that you'll unlock. If there's one thing the game owns with style and confidence, it's the overall presentation. We're pretty sure it's the most important part anyways.
Hidden Dragon: Legend is an indie title that offers an initial burst of satisfying combat, but that quickly devolves into a tedious stream of identikit encounters coupled with platforming that feels like a tacked-on afterthought.
Despite its standard platforming interface, Planet of the Eyes makes for an enjoyable break from the daily grind of your current favourite title. With its colourful expression and quirky art design it manages to charm its way through start to finish, though its length means that it's over all too quickly.
We wish we had more positive things to say about Maize, but unfortunately, it just doesn't have much going for it. The story and writing are atrocious, the characters are forgettable, and the puzzles themselves are too easy. The game is honestly quite boring, despite its bizarre premise, and the attempts at humour are ham-fisted at best and excruciating at worst. If you're after something different, Maize is certainly that, but be warned that it may leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a fantastic sequel which will have you thinking about various plot points long after the credits roll. There's a great new cast of characters as well as five new adorable little bundles of mono-craziness to get to know. School life has never been so deviously deadly.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is more complete than Street Fighter V, and its accessible bouts fare favourably – even though they're likely to divide long-time franchise fans. But this package lacks the polish that you'd expect from such a high-profile title, and even accounting for its forgettable story, it still winds up feeling light.
With its peppy presentation and new lick of paint, Konami has breathed even more life into PES with its latest instalment, a celebration of everything thrilling about football. Gameplay is exciting and technical, and the selection of modes varied and replayable to the point where it's hard to see where the franchise will go next - except for fixing some major flaws in Master League and adding some more licenses. Fans of the series need not Pjanic: PES 2018 continues the series' goal-den streak.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is another solid adventure that's just as generous and involving as either of the main games. It's a shorter experience, but everything you love about the series is present and correct, and as always, replayability is extremely high. Billie is a great character and inherits some cool abilities that allow for multiple approaches to missions. Some narrative niggles let the game down a bit, and it feels a little rushed at the end, but all told, this is every inch a Dishonored game, which can only be a good thing.
Project CARS 2 gives you loads to do and the incentive to experiment with all of its content, too. The title manages to tie together a dizzying number of vehicular disciplines, and it's a lot of fun flitting from one to the next. A tight handling model and the freedom to explore all of the release's content freely means that you'll lose a lot of time to this motorsport marvel, but presentation shortcomings do take the polish off this package the teensiest bit.