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Give it a few patches and hopefully we'll have a must-have game on our hands, but even right now you shouldn't regret a purchase. Jolly good burglary, old chap.
Nevertheless A Nest of Vipers ups the ante considerably and makes for a fine build-up to the finale. I personally can't wait to see what will happen, and whether my prediction that it's possible to lose the whole game based on your choices pans out.
In the end, Traverser is a game that shows great a deal of promise in the early going, with its interesting setting and accomplished visual style making the game tremendously easy to get into. Once in for the long haul however, Traverser begins to reveal an affair less compelling than its first impressions would suggest. With shoddy controls, uninspired puzzles and frustrating boss encounters all detracting from an otherwise entertaining experience, the result is a title that is merely enjoyably average rather than truly great.
In those moments, it's easy to forgive the lack of polish. Vector Thrust is an enjoyable revival of a largely forgotten genre, and if you've been craving some rocket-fueled dogfighting action, you should definitely check it out.
A bold take on the long-forgotten FMV adventure genre, Her Story might be old-fashioned and light on what some might describe as traditional gameplay, but its sophisticated narrative and entertainingly novel take on detective work both allow it to soar far beyond the zenith of its seemingly outmoded remit.
More than anything else, from a technical standpoint Bladestorm: Nightmare is a disappointingly subpar port of what is effectively a last-gen console game. With the tremendous amount of grunt available to them, the developer should have produced the definitive version of the game, instead of the poorest which really, is a position that no PC gamer should ever find themselves in.
There are some balance issues to tweak, and the game's performance could stand to be smoothed out a little – I occasionally experienced some odd end-of-map FPS stutter – but those are relatively minor imperfections. Dirty Bomb is well worth your time already, and I'm excited to see what Splash Damage has in store as the game continues to develop.
Despite its issues I still feel Kholat is a genuinely disturbing experience, full of atmosphere, tension and visually impressive for an Unreal Engine 4 game. Its faults take it out of the really awesome category but I personally loved it and how it blended horror with unravelling parts of a real world mystery. As it is I believe Kholat is still worth playing but just be aware that frustration and tension will be present in equal measure.
Massive Chalice is lots of fun and highly addictive. Yes a lot of the best things about it come from it being highly influenced by XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but it not only captures a lot of the spirit of our Game of the Year 2012 but Double Fine also manages to provide their own unique spin on it with the Game of Thrones-style setup.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 3 is a good-looking game but the lack of features from the previous entries are a sore point. Allocating skills and levelling up are hindered by a very cluttered UI that would put any newcomer off and the range of classes feels a little false given how similar some are to each other.
Game of Thrones is really beginning to kick in to high gear as things start to possibly look up for the Forresters in Sons of Winter, but most importantly the characters start to get much-needed shots in the arm.
Magicka 2 offers a smoother, more comfortable experience than its predecessor, but that doesn't mean the series has lost its signature charm. It's still insane, madcap fun, that somehow manages to make an absolutely unintuitive control system into a strength rather than a weakness. Played as a drop-in multiplayer game, it's an entertaining, amusing hack and slash. With a group of friends, it's an absolute riot.
Technobabylon is one of the best adventures WadjetEye have ever published, and that's saying something. While the last two Blackwell games beat it by having slightly smarter and more realistic puzzles, Technobabylon still does them well and almost edges ahead by occasionally having multiple solutions.
Those niggles aside, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an absolute triumph and the best open-world RPG around, maybe even the best altogether. The main story stays interesting, the side-stories are better than the main plots from most entire games, the characters and writing are wonderful, and the acting is massively improved from the last two games.
Block N Load offers an intelligent blend of tactical play and madcap carnage that hits the spot in a way that Ace of Spades never did. Despite some matchmaking issues and a couple of slightly underpowered classes, there's a thoroughly entertaining multiplayer game on offer here, and one that has bags of potential once the modders get their hands on it (there's no map creation tools out there at the moment, which is something I think Jagex needs to work on).
A homage to retro classics is one thing but having gameplay that's both challenging and fun makes Axiom Verge special. If you grew up in that era, you'd be a fool to miss out on this and if you're new to the genre, I can't think of a better entry.
Unlike the game's release on consoles, the presence of mod support means that WWE 2K15 will actively evolve over time on PC. Until the mod community flourishes however and assuming the game's rough edges prove tolerable, WWE 2K15 remains an enjoyable wrestling yarn the likes of which PC players haven't been graced with in, well, forever.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is an incredibly fun standalone expansion to one of the Best games of 2014, and in plenty of places is tougher. Sometimes more frustrating, especially in places with respawning enemies, and the forced stealth section in the beginning is a bit of a misstep, but overall the Wolfenstein gameplay is just as great here.
Overall Broken Age is hugely fun game, but hardly the second coming of LucasArts as many backers probably hoped. Animation, sound, voice acting, dialogue, character, all of this is absolutely top-of-the-range, no game better in the industry, and it all makes the experience worthwhile.
Galactic Civilizations 3 is a constantly rewarding experience, a colossal box of toys with which you can create some truly memorable stories. It's the embodiment of the 'just one more click' cliché, a game that can have you jumping on intending for a few turns, only for you to come to your senses hours later, eyes bleary and unfocused, but that new armada of elerium-shielded warships ready to roll over your unsuspecting enemies.