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IBTimes UK

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136 games reviewed
73.5 average score
80 median score
52.9% of games recommended

IBTimes UK's Reviews

Feb 9, 2016

It's a testament to the quality of XCOM 2 that despite performance hiccups on a mid-range PC I have been unable to put it down. It's at once radically different and reassuringly familiar, improving what needed to be improved and refining what needed to be refined without losing the core appeal of the series. XCOM has once again proven itself to be the strategy king.

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Feb 15, 2016

Street Fighter 5 has a great, newbie-friendly fighting system that retains the depth of its classic predecessors for players to master. In many ways it's the best Street Fighter yet, but launching with the netcode in such a state can't go unnoticed, especially when it impacts such an important part of the multiplayer. The core of Street Fighter is still there, and is as good as ever, but unfortunately these problems - plus lacking options in single player - mean there's not a lot else.

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Feb 16, 2016

Unravel is an ode to cherished memories, but doesn't create any of its own. It is gorgeous to look at and listen to, but its repetitive, sometimes laborious and frustrating, puzzles undermine the game's relaxed tone without offering much in the way of a challenge.

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Feb 29, 2016

It would be difficult to call Far Cry Primal a bad game, but it would be just as hard to recommend it with anything other than a thousand and one caveats attached. While it presents itself as something new, different and vital, the truth behind this absurdly shallow veneer is that you've played this game before − at least if you've touched a Far Cry game since its third instalment.The amount of traction you get from that fact will vary, just as the enjoyment of Ubisoft's other big series, Assassin's Creed, wavers from person to person. A victim of Ubisoft's mass homogenisation techniques it might be, but Far Cry Primal is still fun, solid and the kind of thing you can lose hours to, given half a chance. Problem is, that half-chance is getting harder to come by. Why give it that amount of the day when you've already given nearly exactly the same thing your time before?

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After a decade of uncertainty for the Hitman series, and one sizeable misstep, Hitman 2016 is nothing short of a triumph in terms of being a course correction. Purely in terms of gameplay it is perhaps the best the series has ever been, so what will define this latest Hitman is how IOI handle the remaining episodes, and smooth out the glaring problems with server connectivity and load times.

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If The Division was without its Dark Zone, it would be an ignorable, banal experience - a soulless grind in a game created by committee. It's to the credit of the game that this one additional section elevates the experience from this, to something actively great. Contrary to advice The Division might give you, stay out of the Dark Zone at your peril.

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Apr 1, 2016

What may seem like an ambitious project is in the fact the combination of a standard third-person shooter and the kind of cheap sci-fi drama you might find in the darkest corners of Sky TV. Visually tepid and filled with abortive gunfights and platforming, Quantum Break also struggles to contain its plot, while at the same time underselling its characters. Remedy's previous games have been characterised by a distinctive tone and knowing humour. By comparison Quantum Break is a glossy, charmless, wholly moderate outing.

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When Star Wars Battlefront first launched it was criticised for lacking maps. DICE has done a great deal to address this in free updates (to date, three new large scale maps and one small), putting rest to any notion that these paid expansions are a cynical cash-in. It may not be exactly what people want – that's sure to come later – but the Outer Rim DLC offers a good package for fans of a game once criticised for not having longevity, but which on this evidence has a bright and long future.

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Apr 25, 2016

While the game is an absolute masterclass in action RPG design, there is an inescapable sense that old ground is being re-tread. A reliance on geographical call-backs, stock-enemies and series in-jokes muddy the tone and mystique that made its direct predecessors such a joyfully bleak experience.While the superbly visceral gameplay, intense boss fights and improved online features mark FromSoftware's latest out as one of 2016's best, Dark Souls 3's flickering fire is ultimately engulfed by its own bright history.

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Apr 29, 2016

Neither evolutionary nor revolutionary, Ratchet and Clank is gorgeous trip back down memory lane that reinvigorates a passion for a genre which never really should have gone away. Hopefully it paves the way for the future of the series on PS4, even if the film proves not to be successful.

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May 3, 2016

Once free of the arduous and obnoxious trappings of its main mode of play, Superhot is nothing short of a delight. At its core is a gameplay mechanic that deserves to be revisited, only next time we hope it's all held together significantly better.

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This fault only prevents Hitman Episode Two from achieving near-perfection, it is still an exceptional example of the series at its very best.  IO's strong start is becoming a hot streak, and all eyes will be on the third episode, set to be released in May.

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- Doom
May 17, 2016

Intelligent, fresh and endlessly enjoyable, Doom is more than a tribute to its beloved progenitor. Taken in its own right, this is the most finely crafted, technically impressive pure shooter in over a decade, proving that id Software, even after 26 years, is an adept, sophisticated game-maker.

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The best in the series, and another Naughty Dog classic.

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May 31, 2016

Overwatch is a great package: fun, accessible and extremely well-made. It's a shooter as much for those pledge their lives to online play, as those chiefly interested in the occasional fun foray. It's an instant classic that, with the kind of good post-launch support Blizzard is known for, could prove the go-to shooter for an entire generation of gamers.

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If you loved the original Mirror's Edge, or enjoy the concept of free-running around a beautiful city without the fear of falling off a skyscraper or crotching yourself on a railing, Catalyst is most definitely right up your alley. As an open world adventure game however, it has some way to go. There are too many elements in the mix, and not all of them pan out.

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Jun 28, 2016

Inside is a worthy successor to Limbo, that improves upon it in many ways. It's visually richer, less obtrusive with its puzzling elements and tells its evocative, grim fairy tale with a greater panache.

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Battlefront's Bespin expansion is let down by some functional but uninspired map design, inhabited by the location of choice. New mode Sabotage also feels like a misstep. DICE's next expansion will finally take Battlefront to the Death Star – and the developers will absolutely need to up their game to match what will be very high expectations.

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Aside from these bothersome technical hiccups and an overall feeling that what's here would possibly be better suited to a trilogy-spanning release (or at least waiting to include content from the upcoming Rogue One film), Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an infectious joy. The franchise-in-Lego concept is a little long in the tooth at this point, but for those who have taken a break from TT's nostalgia-baiting charm-fests or anyone who classes themselves as an ardent Star Wars-aholic, there is more than enough block-busting action and nudge-and-wink chortles here to please both young and old alike. May the force be with you Timmy, this one's for you.

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- Furi
Jul 14, 2016

Furi is an eye-popping, neon-bathed gauntlet which, in its best moments, is an adrenaline rush of lightning-fast, blink-and-you'll-die combat. At times, the delicate juggling act between bullet-dodging defence and stylishly-animated offence is undeniable, but as the game's frustrations begin to creep in it becomes impossible to maintain the kind of singular focus its stern difficulty level demands. There is no room for error, no lucky escapes, just an input that is right or wrong which leaves a sour taste. For all its intermittent brilliance, Furi too often lacks a key ingredient that will keep it from ascending beyond cult curio status: fun.

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