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Dead Rising 4 is a defanged sequel unlikely to satisfy fans of the series or appeal to new ones.
Figuring out The Last Guardian's puzzles—like the one in which a broken wheelbarrow must be used as a makeshift catapult—isn't nearly as difficult as getting Trico to cooperate.
Based on its turn-based combat alone, Dragon Ball Fusions distinguishes itself from other roleplaying games.
On paper, Dishonored 2 is a marked improvement on almost everything the original game brought to the table.
Watch Dogs 2 not only represents a massive upgrade over its predecessor, but over similar open-world titles.
The game’s best moments use the story’s futuristic and space-bound setting to find new dramatic opportunities.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, at its most well-executed, is a grueling slice of a very real nightmare.
The multiplayer doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the single-player levels are delirious in their verticality and spectacle.
The Batman: Return to Arkham collection is the video-game equivalent of that old “You Had One Job” meme.
There's an odd dissonance found in the five social games that make up Jackbox Party Pack 3. With each new Jackbox Party Pack release, the included games increase in production value, but diminish when it comes to actual substance. Scripting is at an all-time low for the franchise, replaced by the unevenness of a book of Mad Libs.
The player has full control of each character, but not their fate, and so the senselessness of war always sticks out.
The material grants a depth and poignancy to Lara’s zealous chase across the globe to finish her father’s work.
The game is a bloated monolith that, much like the WWE itself, is due for a much-needed shake-up.
Exist Archive is bound to end up as a footnote, perpetually overshadowed by the titles that it so earnestly emulates.
The game's successes as a continuation of Gears of War's narrative falter in the face of stubbornly archaic gameplay.
It lacks for the two things Destiny has never been short on from day one: personality and imagination.
Even when the stories drop the ball, the allegories make them invaluable parables for this year in particular.
In a world of all-too similar platformers, Hue is a literal palette cleanser.... We may never be sure that we're seeing the same blue, but it's hard to imagine anyone not being entertained by Hue.
Checkpoints are frequent and the Game Over message keeps comically cycling between nostalgic pleas to “Insert Coin” or puns based on your method of death (“Kentucky Fried Pilot” if blown up, “What the Hell?” upon burning alive). These grim jokes serve to reassure players that Rive knows exactly what it's emulating (“Cool, a rising lava level” and “That AI activated my auto-scroller somehow!”), and that each scenario, no matter how ludicrous, is beatable.
Players are offered no real choices within this tersely edited walking simulator, and yet the contemplative nature of the game keeps things feeling unusually satisfying. That’s because you’re given the imaginative freedom to engage with what they’re seeing, more so than in Dear Esther, such that the game feels like an interactive studio tour through a detective’s dreams.