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Reaper of Souls improves so much, so quickly, that gamers may too engrossed to remember to resent Blizzard's requirement that players remain connected to the Internet while playing.
ASW takes a chance on comprehensively reformatting BlazBlue's story progression, and the result is a bit of a mixed bag.
It's a shame Arzest routinely steps out of line when it comes to the visual and aural artistry of Yoshi's New Island, because the gameplay ushers the little spin-off that could into the current century.
The motion controls and the touchpad get a decent, well-integrated workout, world detail is staggering, and the particle and lighting effects of Delsin's powers are breathtaking.
The monotonous clear-this-room-to-move-forward progression speaks volumes as to how much thought went into the structure of Yaiba's core mechanics.
[T]he game itself is far from a fully realized one. Its main mission can be completed in an hour, tops, and the story does little more than bridge the gap between 2010's Peace Walker and the upcoming The Phantom Pain.
The graphics have received the expected uptick in resolution, but Square Enix has also given both games a decent once-over, adding additional environmental detail, effects, even facial animations for the main characters.
The game is as across-the-board demanding as its predecessors, functioning on an ever more grandiose scale, dishing out excruciating beatdowns like Thin Mints at a Girl Scouts cookies sale.
Year Walk is a minimalist point-and-click chiller that affectingly and disturbingly strains for meta-fiction.
The lesson to be learned from it is for anyone making this kind of game to find the beauty in simplicity. Also, to never, ever fart on another man's balls.
Even basic exploration quickly becomes more trouble than it's worth, thanks to a scarcity of waypoints, overly lengthy transitions between areas, and the lack of an overall map.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is the perfect antidote to Call of Duty and Battlefield fatigue, replacing the grim, decrepit, gray-and-brown battle zone with vibrantly colorful gardens and crypts, where unlikely nemeses face off in hilarious, and strategic, skirmishes.
The less resilient player can and will die more than they have in quite some time; the good ones will be just as excited going back for more after the hundredth Game Over as they were at the first.
If nothing else, Three Rings could have put in the extra man hours to salvage Romance Dawn from the germinating trash heap of poorly actualized One Piece games by at least paying tribute to Oda's spirited creation. Yet, since they abstain from doing so, apparently with almost every fiber of their being, they've put forth a product so systematically undercooked as to make even the most unflappable One Piece zealots question their faithfulness.
Although the Wii U GamePad doesn't receive its due of customary prods and blows akin to SM3DW, there's more than enough ingenuity, and thoughtful nods to gaming trailblazers of old, in Tropical Freeze to forgive its lack of novelties.
A mostly linear experience that shuttles the player from scene to scene, with the slightly more open hub worlds being there for random LEGO stud hunts and little else.
To dwell on the debacle that is Lightning Returns's ghastly storytelling is to deprive oneself of a rather fantastically constructed battle system, one that sporadically elevates the game from disastrous lows to dizzying heights.
As befits a game funded through Kickstarter, The Banner Saga doubles down on risk/reward mechanics throughout its rather lengthy journey.
Even ignoring its gussied-up next-gen clothes, the game's strengths outshine its weaknesses as an experience, though its flaws outside of the visual realm remain impossible to ignore.
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