DualShockers
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Lichtspeer won’t have the mass appeal of the AAA games coming out this Fall, but it is more than worthy of your time. With a fun and over the top aesthetic mixed with simplistic game design, Lichtspeer is pure arcade bliss with all the hooks I’ve been looking for in an indie title.
I wanted to enjoy Virginia, but the nonsense ending left me annoyed and puzzled as to its meaning. Even playing a second time, I still am not sure what really happened. Some aspects I understand, such as a scenario in which the player character ascends to her bosses rank and basically becomes him down to both the smoking and tossing a file to the person at your desk. I had someone else play for any insight, but the continual edits and metaphysics left them confused as well. There may be something there for others, but for me it was simply a good mystery gone wrong, and not one I enjoyed upon completion.
I very much enjoyed all of my time with Jazzpunk. Slowly understanding that a character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had made its way into the tropical resort level was one of my favorite realizations while playing. Jazzpunk knows its all about the joke and never spends too much time on one singular scenario. Due to the speed of which these are thrown at you though, you may lose your place or forget what exactly you were supposed to do and how to do it. Despite that I still find it recommendable to almost anyone who can appreciate absurdist humor and a irreverence for logic when it comes to comedy.
With that said, Harmonia is wonderful story that suffers from a not so wonderful cast. The second half of the story does well in capturing the readers attention and offers a strong conclusion. Fans will appreciate Key’s newest story, but I’m left with wanting more.
Even so, what game is here is rather enjoyable. The fast combat is refreshingly different, there’s tons of character development and dialogue, the visuals are gorgeous and there’s plenty of fan service, which is a plus in my book. That said fan service had to be censored is a tragedy (if expected), but genre fans should still find enough for a pretty good time.
Through the majority of its running time, The Bunker provides a tense ride that those looking for brisk horror experience may genuinely enjoy, though repeated trips back into its post-apocalyptic world may not be quite as fresh or horrific as the first time.
While I enjoy the arcade flavor of gameplay with high score chases and B-movie acting, all three Dead Rising games are not suited for the current generation. Zombies are played out, well beyond their shelf life and now devoid of any interesting storytelling. Beyond the zombie genre, the loading times and hard save system can’t help but show this series’ age. Some off-the-wall characters keep things engaging, as does the curiosity of seeing what weapons are most effective against crowds, but overall they are best left as fond memories than contemporary experiences.
Forza Horizon 3 is an unstoppable force of adventure and fun. Throughout my hours and hours of gameplay, I explored desserts, beaches, and festive cities, demolished my fair-share of farms, and blasted Beethoven over the speaker system, all with a goofy smile on my face. This isn’t a game to be missed by Xbox One or PC players, regardless if you are new to the genre or a Motorsport pro. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the Outback.
Developer The Chinese Room is capable of capturing many highs and lows of human emotion through both their sound design and storytelling. With that said, Dear Esther: Landmark Edition feels more like a lukewarm experiment — a legacy precursor that paved the way to their more successful titles - an experience that is both significant, while also being entirely out-of-date by modern genre standards. Dear Esther was the baby step that aided in the creation of the genre — while you have to learn to walk before you can run, Dear Esther’s modern competitors have been sprinting for years.
Brennan Dyal lives in Baltimore, and actually likes it. When he's not playing games, he's disappointing his teammates on the basketball court, or going to Popeye's in disguise so they don't ask "Weren't you just here yesterday?"
While not without a few minor sound problems, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is the definitive evolution of the Pac-Man series, adding enough new mechanics while improving the main game so much that the title is worth a purchase from any arcade game or Pac-Man fan. While some series veterans might not be a fan of the radical changes to this game’s gameplay, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 shows that there is still a lot of life and innovation to be found in this 36 year old series. This game was truly the power pellet that the entire series needed, and now that it has been rejuvenated, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pac-Man sticks around for another 36 years.
Though it may not quite hold up anymore as the prettiest or most innovative title nowadays, Resident Evil 4‘s current-gen ports are still suitable releases for one of the best games in the last decade, and make returning to Resident Evil 4 for the second (or third or fourth or fifth time) just as rewarding as that memorable first experience.
Despite that problem, and the overall roughness of Verdun, I still find myself enjoying it. I can’t stand to play it for more than an hour or two per night due to the default match length currently being thirty-minutes. Sometimes it can be a very boring or frustrating game — one where I die much more often than not and barely get to engage with the enemy. Other times I can pull off a long distance shot to take down an enemy or make it through the enemy trench unscathed. Those moments are great, but it doesn’t make the lack of a large player count or the lack of teaching its mechanics any easier to deal with. Verdun is at its core a good game, but one that is hard to recommend beyond a niche audience who enjoy punishing and somewhat accurate World War I shooters.
However, for those with just a little bit of patience, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is an immensely rewarding title that will occupy you for many, many hours on end. It may take a while to get going, but those willing to hear its tale told will not be disappointed.
The various gameplay components combine to make this into a satisfyingly addictive title that you can and will sink dozens of hours into. Whether it was witnessing the dark and compelling story and events, devastating enemies with my unique demon and skill combinations, exploring the varied dystopian setting, fusing better demons, completing side quests or customizing my character’s apps, skills and appearance, I was always engaged while playing this game. It doesn’t improve on SMTIV in many fundamental ways but it doesn’t need to; Atlus is wise enough to not try to fix what isn’t broken. This one is sure to please series fans.
ReCore is a title that, ultimately, rises and falls in crafting an experience that we don't normally see too often on Xbox (and frankly, in this generation of gaming). Harkening back to platformers like Jak and Daxter with a little bit of the flavor from Metroid titles, ReCore's strong aesthetic and style give way to some technical flaws and repetitive design. Much like the design of Joule's band of Corebots, the exterior of ReCore and its gameplay show signs of age and may not be the most appealing from a first glance, but inside there's still a core of unique qualities to make it stand out as one of Microsoft's most interesting (though flawed) exclusives.
NHL 17 is a very good hockey simulation game. It’s gameplay works well, it contains a plethora of well executed modes, and has a stable online experience. Sadly, some issues with the menus and on-ice trainer, along with long loading times, can cause frustration, especially when new players are still trying to understand the NHL 17’s controls. While newcomers may be a bit off-put by the game at first if they don’t invest a lot of time with it,those who stick with the game and fans of the series will have a great time, even though there are still a few things that need to be improved on in the future.
In short, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is as amazing as any other title in the series. Great for newcomers (who should still highly consider picking up the Ace Attorney Trilogy beforehand) and fans of the series alike, Spirit is consistently a pleasure and deserves a spot in your 3DS library.
It hit me the first time I reached the 1000km mark. I looked back at all the mistakes I made in past lives and couldn’t help but laughed at who I was back then. I drank a potion and raised my lance to charge forward into a crowd a of lizard knights that happily took my life from me in a matter of seconds.
Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness tells a gripping and immersive story that any fan of the series would enjoy.