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For all of the expectation, all of the hype, and all of the anticipation, The Last Guardian is a wonderful game. Infusing the best elements of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Fumito Ueda and his team have created something gloriously unique, with unparalleled ambition that has been realised almost perfectly. If you don't find yourself falling head over heels for Trico, then there's something wrong with you. Whilst there are a few moments in the game that do make it feel slightly dated, and the frame rate dips here and there, the scope, narrative and sheer beauty elevate this above anything that Team Ico have put out before. Does it live up to the impossible hype? To me, it comes exceptionally close.
Hitman's debut in 2016 is a fantastic starting point for this franchise reboot. Shaking off the mis-step that was Absolution has clearly not been easy, but Io have managed to create a brilliant sandbox that will allow you to dispatch of your target using methods from dropping a chandelier on their head (Del Boy would be proud), to blowing them away with an AK47, to making them throw up thanks to rat poison and then drowning them in the toilet bowl. Despite a particularly odd subplot that has almost literally been taken directly from the script of Zoolander, this first section of Hitman is the start of something beautiful. If Io can keep this up with the rest of the missions, then they've got a special game on their hands. Who's up for a trip to Sapienza next month?
The Witness, then, is an exploratory puzzle game with very limited mechanics and has the tendency to make you pull your hair out in frustration as you begin to reach the limits of your own comprehension. In spite of this, it is an excellently crafted world, with a huge amount of brain teasers to attempt. Some people may not like the lack of immediate feedback when making your way through some of the areas, but the varied nature in solving the puzzles that ultimately combine with each other in such a way make figuring out The Witness an experience without parallel.
If you're going to pick up XCOM 2 having never touched Enemy Unknown, then beware. It's not the happy-go-lucky strategy experience many games will offer, in fact I'd probably say this is the video game equivalent to S&M. It is brutal. It will raise you to the peak of mental ecstasy before your attempt at humanity's redemption comes crashing down around you in only a few turns, your squad returning to HQ a crippled, shambling mess, if they do indeed return at all. XCOM 2 will make you its bitch. And the best thing about it? It'll make you want to come back for more. And you'll love it.
After thirty or so hours, I am still no where near finished with Mankind Divided. I have spent so long completing side missions and basically just breaking into peoples homes, lockers, garages, vehicles, pants… just to hack their computers to read their emails. I have met some very interesting characters, culled a religious fanatic, raged against man, accidentally stunned naturals for calling me a "clank", accidentally stunned police officers for calling me "clank", accidentally gassed myself to death before I found the respirator augment, accidentally gassed naturals to death for calling me a… well you get the picture. I am having difficulties picking faults with this game, but if I had one tiny criticism it would be the aforementioned lack of urgency to rush into the campaign, but I suppose that's not really even a fault in itself. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is quite possibly the best in the series so far and most certainty fills those boots I mentioned earlier.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a simple game, yet at the same time an incredibly complex coming-of-age story about fraternal love, loss, the conquering of fear and the importance of family. It's the kind of game that will leave you wanting to go and find someone you love, hug them and never let go. It's not perfect, and the control system will irritate at first, but it's worth persisting with it for the chance to roll with the punches that get thrown all around at the end of it. If you've yet to play it, it's impossible not to recommend it, and if you have then it all comes down to whether you want to experience it all over again.
Hands down, this game is absolutely brilliant! I had lost all hope in re-kindling my love for this type of game and can wholeheartedly say that The Magic Circle is a true testament to the story-driven puzzle game genre. There are only two things that stopped me from giving this game a well-earned 10/10. The first being the length of game only lasting approximately 4-5 hours depending on whether you plough through or not like I did the first time around and the second was the lack of the sprint function. There is a hell of a lot more to this game than meets the eye and for me to go into any more detail; it would honestly ruin the fun. The story is gripping and makes you think differently about the game development world and all of those games that are stuck in development hell that we just want to see released.
Building on practically every single area of the Paris level, Sapienza is simply breathtaking. A living, breathing seaside town, it’s a beautifully crafted arena for precision strikes from whatever weapon you decide to use. A neat secondary objective to bring in a fresh gameplay element, and the sheer variety of methods to dispatch your two targets is simply mind boggling. A delightfully twisted sense of humour ties the whole package together, with some of the approaches to assassination proving to be genuine laugh out loud moments, Sapienza is a fantastic follow up to Paris, and I can’t wait to see what happens next month.
I’m not the sort of person to throw cold drinks at small children, and I don’t imagine you are either. I would never see how many parts of someone’s car I could remove before sending them on their way or photocopy my bum in the real world, but here you have it; a game that finally gives you the chance to do all this and more without serious repercussions. Aside from all the silliness there is indeed a great game here too; I’d wager if you had an attention span better than most of the NGB writers you could spend hours doing the tasks as they were meant to be performed and enjoy it enormously. But VR is about offering new ways to play, and new opportunities and possibilities to the player. And Job Simulator is a bright, cheerful and great way to remind us all of that.
I seem to be saying this more and more these days but I honestly can’t tell whether I am just terrible at games now that I am getting on a bit or whether playing games on nightmare mode is probably a bad idea… never-the-less, taking all of the above into consideration and the fact that I didn’t encounter any game breaking bugs – Deadlight: Director’s Cut is pretty damn awesome. It’s got everything that a zombie survival game needs and tonne more spoiler related hidden gems to offer. Deadlight’s story has a couple of cliché moments and was a little short for me, but the game is absolutely stunning and controls beautifully!
Titanfall 2 builds on the very strong foundations laid by the original, improving the multiplayer by improving the progression mechanics and introducing some fun new mechanics. This feels like the freshest and most interesting multiplayer game of the year, and it’s capped off by a wonderful single player campaign that ticks all the right boxes. It’s just a shame that it’s releasing when it is, as this is a game that deserves, if not demands, that any fans of the FPS genre should play it.
In essence, this is the same Battlefield you’ve being playing for a while except that it has remembered what it does best and ran with it more often than not. The risk of taking on a World War I scenario has been tackled excellently within the single-player and multiplayer modes, leaving a refreshing experience that sees Battlefield return to its absolute best. Throughout the entire time I’ve been playing Battlefield 1, the series’ arch rival didn’t come into my mind once – and that’s probably the biggest compliment I could pay it. Battlefield is once again comfortable in its own skin, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.
Forza Horizon 3, then, is an incredibly fun racer with a wealth of content for you to dive into. Whilst some of the progression races feel a bit too familiar as you go on, there isn’t much negative that can be said about the game. Taking what makes the Motorsport series enjoyable to driving game fans, and throwing a healthy dose of Burnout Paradise infused nostalgia into an open world as beautiful as Australia is, Forza Horizon 3 is the most fun racing game you could hope to play in 2016. Fantastic stuff.
A magnificent technical achievement, Horizon Zero Dawn mixes up the open world style in all the right ways, with an intriguing premise that kept me entertained, and which dug its hooks into me the deeper I got into it. A stunning game that deserves your attention. Plus, it has robot dinosaurs.
Overall, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is a worthy successor to the series and the game we have all be craving if you’ve been a fan since the original game. It’s incredibly scary, creepy and chilling and yet I cannot stop playing, opting to face my fears than run away. The game gives me no excuses to stop playing and I love it. While there isn’t much longevity past the story I truly believe that this is one of the best Resident Evil games since the original
Overall, NBA 2K17 is a brilliant replication of the sport and even with its issues, it still plays a fun and engaging game of basketball. As long as the development team keep tweaking and adding better mechanics to the gameplay, then the series will keep taking the strides in the right direction. Its a shame that the NBA 2K series doesn’t have any competition these days as when theres competition, it pushes the best to get better but even without it, the series is going in the right direction and not only giving us the best representation of the fast and dynamic sport, but also the most polished package of a sports title that we have ever seen.
The addictive one-more-game hook, the chance to prove your smarter than your favourite team’s manager and a mind-blowing database that’s still utilised by many professionals in the real-life footballing world. If that doesn’t tell you anything, nothing will. But if you’re only interested in knowing if it’s worth upgrading from last year’s version, then the answer is a resounding yes.
Yakuza 0 still won’t be to the taste of everyone, what with its pretty misogynistic view of life and very Japanese sensibilities. It doesn’t provide the perfect fighting experience, the best open world adventuring or the strongest writing we’ve ever seen in video games, but it does a great job of combining all of these elements in a really fun and entertaining way. Although the main story is very po-faced and violent, the side quests and diversions keep the atmosphere from getting too heavy. You always have a different choice as to what you turn to next, depending on your current mood, and the options don’t often disappoint. Yakuza 0 should be the game that finally allows the series to breakout with Western gamers, but I sadly won’t be holding my breath.
After the huge letdown that was Absolution, iO Interactive have emphatically delivered by returning to their most successful formula – giving players the choice to kill however they want to. Cinematic gameplay and complex plots work well for some games, but Hitman certainly didn’t need it and the overall experience was diluted by it. The Complete First Season of Hitman successfully reboots the series by going back to its roots, but also by making it at once both more accessible than ever to newcomers and also a deeper and more challenging experience for seasoned fans – a thoroughly difficult balance to strike. The fact that the missions are constantly evolving and growing with added content and variations only expands its appeal further and provides hour upon hour of murderous play. This silent assassin has returned with a bang.
A more accessible yet still challenging take on the tried and tested Souls-like Action RPG, Nioh adds enough nuance and depth to the formula to make it feel fresh and provide a new challenge for players coming out of the back of last year’s Dark Souls 3. With a compelling story, bright visuals and new and interesting locales to visit, Nioh is a must have for Action RPG fans.