Guardian's Reviews
Intuitive controls, beautiful circuits, and a perfectly realigned power-up system – Mario Kart 8 has set out to top the 1992 original
Video gamers may wonder why they would play a card game when their medium has moved beyond such limitations; tabletop gamers may bemoan the fact that people are getting excited about the wrong card game. But if you fall awkwardly between those two groups, Hearthstone will keep you hooked for some time.
Inconsistent Kinect controls dampen the fun once again in this latest attempt to compete with the masterful Wii Sports
Sweet hand-drawn aesthetic and cute Yoshi sounds, but lacks any challenge.
The latest internet craze lets you experience life as a goat. It's the gaming equivalent of a novelty single
A likeable lead character and some beautiful visuals do their best to make up for an empty and frustrating world
It is surprising, and not a little depressing, that all people want to talk about with this game is the running time.
Titanfall stamps one gigantic robotic leg into the future; it has ripped off the door and the void is open. Others will come through behind it and change everything.
Nick Cowen: Thief feels unwieldy at times, although it's not the travesty some reviewers are making it out to be
The fighting, all live online, is generally fast, furious and terrific fun and while some of the early vehicles available represent clunky first world war relics, after levelling-up better models become available for purchase having acquired the necessary experience points and in-game currency.
[I]t's a great game – exactly what we expect from Nintendo. But in a way, that's also its problem: anyone with a Wii U would be a fool not to buy it, but so few people have committed to the Wii U, and in order to rectify that, Nintendo needs to woo the unconverted with all-new gaming experiences. And the gaming experience that Tropical Freeze provides may be rich, enjoyable, challenging and frequently hilarious, but it isn't anything conspicuously new.
Slow animations make these already mundane board games not worth a purchase
The designer Sid Meier famously said that a game is a series of interesting choices. It's a maxim fully embraced by The Banner Saga, which stitches those choices into its very fabric to form a tapestry that is wholly your own.
In Bravely Default, developer Square Enix has recaptured what made its earlier Final Fantasy games so wonderfully absorbing, while addressing many of the flaws inherent in the genre.
With the second part added, Broken Sword 5 could certainly reach beyond three stars – but, until then, it's wise to remain agnostic about Charles Cecil's latest offering.
There's no doubt that Killzone: Shadow Fall is far and away the best PlayStation 4 launch title. It feels fresh and innovative throughout – after playing it, we checked out Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS4, which felt one-dimensional and strangely old-fashioned – looks stunning and through its beautifully fettled multiplayer side, offers infinite replay value. It towers above previous versions of Killzone in terms of quality and taking a much more interesting approach. All of which makes it the one must-buy exclusive in the PS4's launch line-up.
This cute action-adventure effort adds a non-hardcore dimension to the PS4's launch line-up, but its graphics and gameplay fail to convince
Dead Rising 3 is still one of the strongest titles in the PS4/ Xbox One launch line-up, but that's more down to a lack of sharp competition than any peculiar brilliance. A more forgiving proposition than its forebears, this is an enjoyable zombie romp that's lost some of its character in the lurch onto the next generation hardware.
Motorsport 5 often feels like a warm-up rather than the victory parade. It may not be introducing us to the future just yet, but as Xbox One's best launch game, it's giving you an exhilarating tease.
The game struggles a little over the mid-to-long term: the difficulty doesn't fluctuate much and, soon enough, you're merely turning the cogs rather than responding to thrilling challenges, but Zoo Tycoon is pleasant and engaging, even in its absence of spectacle.