Ars Technica's Reviews
Abzû is a beautiful audio-visual treat that's light on challenge but big on wonder.
Syndicate is a step in the right direction for the series. It's not as innovative as it could be, but it's an entertaining adventure worthy of the name Assassin's Creed. Buy it.
Night in the Woods wastes just a little too much time before getting to the heart of a story about the value of life when life doesn't seem worth living. Buy it.
Maiden of Black Water polishes an old formula almost perfectly, though the game itself isn't so polished in spots. Buy it anyway.
With its reliance on deeply confusing fluff and numerous bugs, Space Hulk: Deathwing is only for fans of Warhammer 40,000 who absolutely can't wait for a patch.
If you ever had a good time with a previous Rock Band game, buy it and remember what you've been missing.
Despite the weak career mode, the depth of Planet Coaster's tools and the strength of its community make it a thoroughly engrossing experience. Old-school PC gamers can rest easy: this is the theme park game you've been waiting for.
Those with a high tolerance for repeating difficult 2D shooting challenges should buy it. Everyone else should try it in Simple mode or just by watching on YouTube.
Buy. Buy the heck out of this game.
e told, we took a few extra days to finish this review in hopes that we'd beat the "normal" difficulty's 10 rounds even once. As of press time, we've yet to get past round 8. That is a huge asterisk for this game's appeal; the overwhelming role of luck rarely presents a clean feeling that you've accumulated real skill or progress. As a result, you'll quite honestly need at least two dozen sessions before you come to grips with a range of successful strategies, and therefore, the feeling that this isn't just a fancy-looking exercise in just rolling dice and dying. (We're hopeful that the upcoming free "missions" mode will offer these exact kinds of progress morsels, but Choice Provisions hasn't announced when we should expect those to launch.)
Until Dawn is entertaining in all the ways it needs to be, even if it isn't perfect in all the ways I'd like it to be. Try it, or wait for a discount.
Spend this game's five-hour runtime catching up on a better story game you might have missed.
Buy it if you're an Xbox One owner who could use a deep dive into classic, super-hard games.
There's a heartfelt story here, but it's one you can watch just as easily as you can play. Try it.
Far Cry Primal is video game aspirin—numbing and nondescript but basically pleasant. Try it.
Life is Strange makes some odd design choices, but its ability to make your choices feel important to its strong leading protagonists more than makes up for it. Buy it.
This is the most complete version of Football Manager yet, offering up something new for both seasoned veterans and newcomers alike.
ll shows a worrying lack of polish in spots. The UI is often too small to hold all of its own information. Sometimes my health bar just outright lied to me. It's often unclear which gaping holes in the ground are part of a texture and which will instantly kill you if you fall through them.
Unravel wastes little time and offers a lot of satisfaction. Buy it.
Buy it if you want to take a relaxing trip to the great outdoors without ever leaving your home.