Daily Dot's Reviews
The variety and quality of stories written by the community playing Elegy for a Dead World demonstrates the game's success at enabling its players to write effectively. Writing is so much more difficult than waggling a joystick or pressing buttons, and yet Elegy for a Dead World makes writing accessible to just about anyone who has the heart, and the courage, to try.
In the end, I think I wanted to like Dying Light for its flashes of brilliance more than I actually liked the overall experience of it.
Endless jogs through and hiding in forests and combat that wasn't satisfying for all its vagaries made Evolve palatable for me only in small doses. It was nothing I wanted to play for extended sessions.
The Order: 1886 is more cohesive than the 15-year story arc of Quantic Dream's last effort, but cohesion doesn't automatically result in a compelling experience. It succeeds so well in playing out like the middle episode of an unmade series that it forgets to delve deeper into the otherwise fascinating Arthurian lore and its 19th century context.
Screamride is an odd case of a game where I enjoy it while I'm playing it, sinking hours at a time into mastering a screamrider track, finding the perfect pressure point to detonate a demolition level, or tweaking a roller coaster of my own creation for the best balance of speed and excitement. But the hooks aren't fully there, and when I step away from playing I'm neither eager nor excited to return.
Cranking up the difficulty in Starships and thereby eliminating the margin for error can address shortcomings of the tactical mode, but the strategic mode will always remain simple. Hence the feeling that Starships is more like a mini-game than a fully-fledged title, an observation held up by the game's low asking price of $15.
I have no doubt Hardline represents the best efforts of two talented studios, Visceral and DICE, to cough up a satisfying cops-and-robbers Battlefield. Despite best efforts, the pairing doesn't work.
I was excited to get back to Yharnam, despite all the lives I would soon lose, let alone all the Blood Echoes I would waste. And I was also sad upon the realization that I haven't felt this kind of impatience and excitement in a game in a long time, not since my initial playthrough of The Last of Us. That was two years ago.
Paperbound does a lot of things well, but mechanically it's a bit too shallow when compared to the more hardcore arena fighters out there. The concept is cool, and has a unique enough twist, but it is a game that will work best in more casual environments.
NetherRealm wisely (and unsurprisingly) responded to Mortal Kombat's critical and sales reception with Mortal Kombat X, a fighting game that has just enough new features that it's hardly a more-of-the-same sequel.
The folks over at Slightly Mad Studios should be proud of what they have accomplished. Project CARS may not quite live up to the hype, but considering it has outdone its competition in some critical areas, it should be applauded. It may not be a perfect sim racer, but it's pretty damn near close, and for those willing to put in the time, can be incredibly rewarding.
Splatoon proves Nintendo has the chops for online shooters
Toy Soldiers: War Chest is a delightful take on tower defense
In The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions have pulled off the rarest kind of balancing act, delivering a story that will satisfy many franchise fans while also being the most beginner-accessible Metal Gear game to date.
The story feels as confused about its direction as Until Dawn feels confused about its identity.
The idea of Super Mario Maker continuing into the future is wonderful, because this is a game that can bridge generations. When I was a kid, my dad and I had no idea how Nintendo created a Super Mario Bros. game. Now, I can sit down with the next generation of my extended family and not only show them what Super Mario Bros. is through Super Mario Maker, but also peel back the curtain and figure out together how video games work.
If you're willing to do the social networking and accept the time commitment that Destiny requires to reach its endgame content, you'll be treated to the first massively multiplayer online game built around the core of first-person shooter gameplay, a unique entry in the world of video games, and a growing universe where you and your fellow Guardians are all that stand between the Light, humanity's last hope, and the Darkness that threatens to wipe us out forever.
[I]f you're deciding whether or not to buy Rock Band for the very first time, I wish I could convey just how much I wish the instruments had been this high-quality and the song library this deep when I first started playing Rock Band eight years ago.
The new, ocean-based mechanics breathe some fresh life into Beyond Earth, but perhaps not as much as the new diplomacy and affinity systems introduced by Rising Tide.
If you're a Transformers fan who grew up with the original 1980s universe, Devastation is gold. Everyone else should take this game under advisement.