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GTA may be more graphic, but I'd rather have kids play in that fully realized world, with the wealth of side-missions, beautiful views, and more authentic vehicles, than in this dumbed-down cartoon catastrophe.
There are too many dings on the chassis, from the constant inability to activate promised features and occasionally glitchy effects of current and standard modes.
Missions have unclear objectives and way too much backtracking, made more frustrating by doors that go from sealed to open for no good reason and checkpoints triggered by obscure means.
Over the last decade, Frogwares has been steadily eliminating the impossibly bad elements from their games, and what remains is the closest anyone's ever come to an authentic Baker Street experience.
If you embrace the tactical nature of its combat, which is rarely resolved on a single battlefield, then Shadow of Mordor stands largely without flaws.
The initial joy that comes from mashing buttons and watching Link and his cohorts slash down mindless scores of imps, goblins, lizardmen, wizards, and dragons gives way to a steadily increasingly pile of nitpicks when repeated over several hours.
Playing around in Bungie's galaxy for its own sake is still just so undeniable and compulsive a draw that the disappointingly threadbare "why" starts fading into the background.
Once you crack the 20,000 rhythmia mark, Curtain Call interrupts whatever you're doing in order to introduce one final medley that celebrates the history and evolution of the series.
This is the truer definition of a mature title. This is what happens when first-person shooters strive to be more than a vulgar display of power.
[P]laying through all of The Walking Dead at once makes it clear that, perhaps for the sake of the various properties in this franchise, there's no real beginning or end to this saga; it's just one infinitely echoing middle.
The fundamentals of Second Son are present, obviously restricted to Fetch's flashy Neon abilities, which is fine since Neon was the most free-flowing and fun of Delsin's stolen powers to begin with.
If one is really so inclined to play the game, this Ultimate Evil Edition isn’t even the best version to take on. Despite the smart design decisions made porting the typically PC-based game to consoles, the interface makes it more complicated than necessary to find numbers and statistics, digging through menus that lack the finesse of the original PC version, and Adventure mode remains locked until the campaign is complete, a frustrating decision considering how many may have already completed the now two-year-old game on original release.
While it's to The Room's credit that the graphics and sound design remain impressive with the transition to PC, and able to compete against other PC titles, the gameplay does not, and without a compelling story the experience ends up being sadly forgettable.
A next-gen playthrough reveals a game that doesn't break new ground, but very much tries to reach perfection with the tools Naughty Dog and the industry as a whole, really, are all very well aware of.
Valiant Hearts isn't necessarily lacking in quality or polish, just that perhaps we're looking at one game that feels like it wants to be three.
The game's 30-character roster has its pros (all hail Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach) and its cons (too many babies, and the Koopalings aren't all that special either), but there's enough dissimilarity in weight classes that there's always a suitable option in any versus situation.
We're meant to believe that solving the mystery of the Bell Killer would redeem Ronan and allow him the peace to move on, but nothing about the game gives the impression that he deserves it.
The profiling system isn't as deep as expected, but still offers remarkably strong and subtly creepy world-building away from the main plot.
There's not a shred of innovation or much of a concerted effort to evoke terror in players throughout the entirety of Daylight.
As in Bastion, you'll gain the option of increasing the difficulty in exchange for more experience, and the soundtrack and narration is surprisingly on par with the previously high bar set by Supergiant Games.