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It looks nice, and it's fun to play for a short while - but it's such a pallid production that it just feels like a shadow of the game it could have been. Micro Machines deserves better.
Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness is a sub-par JRPG that has a list of problems as long as its name.
In trying to re-invent a classic that was never really any good to begin with, Shadow of the Beast becomes a cautionary tale about how nostalgia is sometimes better left in the past.
Sacred 3 is a complete let down for fans of the franchise, departing from a formula that has somewhat worked in the past in the hope of attracting a wider audience. Instead of building on features, and borrowing some from games that pull off the action RPG genera to a tee, Sacred 3 is disjointed, boring and just downright bad.
Over the years, Spider-Man has been amazing, sensational, spectacular and superior. This year, he's just plain terrible.
A title like The Crew has to be more than a glorified "Google Earth" simulator or a VOIP chat client - especially if it's advertised as a "revolutionary action car and driving game".
In the end, Shadwen is a game that I so badly wanted to love but even with all its quirks and interesting mechanics, I couldn’t get past its bland levels, disappointing story and odd gameplay hiccups. A shame, really, as it could’ve been something special. Instead it’s nothing more than average, at best. The interesting gameplay mechanics found in Shadwen do little to hide the fact that the game is pretty boring and has a story that hardly amounts to anything.
If you can look past the terrible controls, barely optimised visuals, useless trick system and erratic frame-rate issues then MX vs. ATV Supercross Encore might appeal to you.
WWE 2K15 is a slick product, but on closer examination it hides numerous problems and flaws. It's the game of tomorrow with the problems of yesteryear, a transitional game between platforms that feels like very little care has gone into crafting the ultimate simulation in sports entertainment. And that's the bottom line.
A half-hearted, boring attempt at a farming RPG, Harvest Moon: One World does nothing especially well. Even though it does show some initial promise, it quickly squanders that on poor farming mechanics, a bland open-world and lifeless characters.
Fascinating for 15 minutes and boring for ten hours, you'll be howling with frustration at this missed opportunity for full moon madness in Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.
Boring, generic, uninspired and every other synonym for painfully average, The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines isn't worth the time it takes to say its name.
Someday You'll Return is an occasionally pretty game with a splash of interesting ideas and visuals that are unfortunately let down by shoddy performance, abysmal storytelling and an overall lack of care placed into its presentation.
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels was shaping up to be a fascinating advert for Netflix's hit series, but the overall quid pro quo bend of strategy ultimately makes it the shallowest of tie-ins. This is one Search Bloc party that you can count me out for.
Daymare 1998 is a competent survival horror game that borrows too heavily from its influences to do anything interesting or unique and thus suffers from poor writing and uninspired gameplay
The Wizards: Enhanced Edition wrestles with the limitations of PSVR and never wins, deeply undercutting its enjoyable spellcasting with inaccurate motion tracking. These issues are only made worse by uninteresting missions and repetitive combat, making the initial splendour of this spellcasting adventure fade very quickly.
A new twist on the old formula, The LEGO Movie 2: The Video Game offers up some new mechanics and gameplay but fails at delivering an experience that is either memorable or fun
My Time at Portia wears its influences on its sleeve but fails to build both a compelling world and charming inhabitants to engage with when reaching for the same lofty heights. Its loop of resource gathering and intricate building is implemented well, but it lacks the charm to make it all cohesive enough to be alluring.
Rage 2 tries to do so many things in such a small timeframe that it forgets to do anything original or inventive with its many unfocused components. Its combat alleviates these issues in short spurts, but it's not enough to weave a cohesive thread through this confused trip through a familiar wasteland.
In the end Call of Cthulu is a deeply disappointing game, because those opening hours showed such promise. If developer Cyanide had just stuck to the bits that work – the investigation – we'd have ended up with a better game. Instead of descending into madness, it descends into tedium.