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There's a solution [to my issues with the game], I guess. It would be to recruit my team of five and play with people I know. It would be to vet the world and close myself off from the weird chance of playing with randos. Lots of people have no choice but to do this for various reasons. I understand that's a solution, but it isn't a road I want to go down. I want to be open to the clever teammate. I want to be open to the all-star player who happens to queue alone. I want to be open to wonder.
Rocket League, besides being a game that's pure, unbridled joy to play, has gotten me curious after all these years about soccer again. I keep finding myself thinking maybe I'll watch the next World Cup, maybe I'll rent a FIFA game and give the series another try, maybe maybe maybe. Regardless, for now, there's the rumble of cars blasting across a stadium, their miniature flags wobbling as the crowd cheers, and that's more than enough.
Arkham Knight translates a very particular kind of Batman into a very particular kind of game, and when the developers are short-circuiting your play experience to tell a good story, there are some unthinkably good moments. When they are going through the motions of combat and high-concept comic bookery, there are some unbelievably terrible and laughable moments. Despite wading through the latter, my memories of the former are grand enough that I think they're worth getting to.
I have as much trouble evaluating Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition as I do categorizing it. I feel like the game should be so much more than it is, but what they did choose to add goes above and beyond what I expected. The new characters are such strong, fully-developed additions that I find it hard to be upset that the levels are still the same or that the textures haven't aged well.
Her Story wants to be different from every other game out there and in that it succeeds. I can honestly say that I've never played anything like it. It's not text adventure, it's not something I would call an FMV game or a point & click. It's in a genre all of its own and what a grubby, welcome little surprise it is.
Does The Escapists explore or expose anything the average person doesn't already know about prisons? I don't think so. It is a puzzle game, and if you enjoy puzzles and you have an extreme amount of patience, I would encourage you to check out The Escapists. If you're looking for a hard, or systemic, view on prisons, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Massive Chalice is about time, about heroes, and most importantly, it's about taking that deep breath before the strike.
Witcher 2 was a promising but flawed game. The seeds of a truly brilliant experience were there, but too often it turned into a slog. The Wild Hunt fulfills all of that game's promise and more. Some day, I even hope to finish it.
Splatoon is not trying to corral unearned cool points with obscenity. Splatoon does not push us to accept its weirdness. Splatoon merely opens its suction-cupped palms to the sky and says, "Here," and we graciously accept, parched by the years of dusty, war-torn, bone-dry purveyors of damage masquerading as games. Each waterfall was in fact an oasis. Instead, Splatoon showers us with a heavy goop that feels amniotic. We emerge, new and refreshed. We are all squids now.
Unlike Max, I can't see where this game is going. I think it's too late now for me to hope for a "less is more" level of storytelling or a take on teen romance that's grounded in characters and conversation rather than inexplicably overdramatic stakes. I don't know if Life is Strange can handle topics like rape, murder, suicide, homosexuality or disability in a responsible way—but maybe responsibility just isn't what Life is Strange is about.
Sunset is a gift, an all too rare kind of game that focuses on people loving and hurting in mundane but almost unbearable ways. I will return to Ortega's penthouse in San Bavón soon, I imagine; if not in person, than in fond remembrance. It is, after all, the home I never knew I had.
Project CARS is a racing game that simulates the act of racing lots of different vehicles in locations all over the world. It is very excellent at that, and if you like the idea of a racing sim you should give it a shot. I had a great time racing around the tracks, but it isn't something I am going to turn on very many more times. If a good simulation of driving cars at moderate-to-fast speeds is what really rocks your world, buy this game because I don't think it gets better than this. If you want something a little more exciting, grab the infinitely-excellent Blur or start rocking your Big Wheel again.
For those who have played The New Order, The Old Blood is best characterized as "more Wolfenstein." For those who haven't, The Old Blood is a great introduction to the best first person shooter in recent memory.
Broken Age's second act is kind of a slog, but it's possible I should take a lesson from its crying character: When I hope for something extremely strange and specific, I shouldn't complain if I actually get it.
Mortal Kombat X is fascinating in how parts of it seemingly want to get away from the nasty elements that made the series a household name and yet the gravitational pull of legacy and expectation is too strong. Mortal Kombat X is, in the end, no matter how much it wants to persuade you otherwise, just another Kombat game. It also happens to be one of the best ones in spite of itself but it's difficult for me to shake the feeling that Mortal Kombat has plateaued and that there's nowhere left to go without changing the fundamentals of the series in a radical way.
Pillars of Eternity is an epic that either meets or exceeds all of my lofty expectations. Minutes turned to hours, hours turned to evenings and evenings turned to days as I immersed myself in the wonderful world that Obsidian has created. You must gather your party before venturing forth—a dangerous and exciting world awaits you in Pillars of Eternity.
At the end of the day, The Handsome Collection contains more Borderlands than I would ever want to play, and the likelihood that you will enjoy it or not has more to do with your being a fan of the series already or not. It is an immense amount of gameplay "value" for what you will spend on the collection, and if you're looking for something to kick a few hundred hours into, there are less interesting games you could be playing.
Titan Souls is an example of a game that successfully uses nostalgia as a jumping off point and not as a central reason to exist. The name and art style might make it seem too familiar, but if you can play through that you'll see it quickly establishes its own identity. It's still a bit of a novelty, but at least it fully commits to that novelty, much like you'll probably commit yourself to defeating every titan once this game sinks its hooks into you.
I wish the developers had given the more interesting elements of the game more time to breathe. I wish Pneuma had been a little less hasty—a little more interested in conveying why exactly we should care about his rushed philosophical ponderings than racing to solve high school thought experiments. In a game about creation and existence and perception, I'd have loved some sense of what it would actually feel like to be birthed from the void into a world that was, for all intents and purposes, yours.
Paperbound's restrictions impelled me to seek out my friends and spend time with them and that is a worthy, if comparatively inconvenient, experience for a game to foster. If you can manage to wrangle up enough controllers and in-the-flesh human beings, a jolly experience awaits you. Otherwise—maybe skip buying the game and just go hang out with your friends.