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Thronebreaker isn’t completely the Gwent I knew and loved, but after learning the new rules and ways I found myself having fun. For all about ten to thirty minutes before I was crashed back to the PS4 dashboard with a blue screen. Not in all my life had I experienced a title die like this before and actually make me worry about the health of my gaming console. Art design, voice acting, and the basic traversal around the world did a great job bringing a simple card game to life. It’s just that all of them were smothered by the color blue.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy offers great value for money with three fantastically presented remakes of classic games. The quality-of-life additions are a nice touch, too, as is the option for dynamic music. The performance could have been a little better, but if you played these games on the original PlayStation then you’ll no doubt be able to look past the very few shortcomings this collection has.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is an interesting game. Fun is pushed to the background in place of realism and a dedication to keeping the world grounded in reality. You’re a guest and you have to play by the rules, and Rockstar lets you know this by dictating everything and putting a limit on what you can and can’t do.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider has some of the best visuals and sound of any game this year. This last entry in the trilogy has improved every aspect of the previous two games while adding some new ideas. Exploration is both thrilling and satisfying, and the excellent tombs are enormous puzzles waiting to be discovered and conquered. Other than a few minor audio and video flaws, the story and characters fall just a little short of greatness, but that won't keep you from enjoying an amazing game. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara finally realizes her full potential, and it is quite the ride.
Marvel's Spider-Man leans heavily on the tried-and-tested open-world formula, to its benefit and its loss. While it apes those that came before at every turn, it does so in such a way that it doesn't even matter - it's a beautiful Spider-Man game that tells its own story while delivering gameplay that's familiar but fine-tuned. Spend a few minutes swinging around and you'll barely care for the game's shortcomings. This isn't just the best Spider-Man game to do - it's the best super-hero game thus far.
The American Dream is silly from start to finish. Its over-the-top commentary will no doubt rub some the wrong way, but for those of us with a modicum of intelligence, The American Dream is a silly gallery shooter that just happens to mock American gun culture.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is a solid entry in a series that manages to perfectly balance between its goofy, intense, and sometimes sad scenes. The battle system is revamped, and punching someone's face has never felt better. The visual and sound improvements are fantastic, and the game is stuffed with fun things to do at every turn. If you are a fan of the series, this is an incredible experience. This is also the last journey of one of the gaming's toughest characters, and he could not ask for a better farewell.
Surviving Mars has its flaws, sure, but they're inescapable when you're dealing with complex RTS systems on a console that doesn't allow you to use a mouse. Once you've got the controls nailed down and you've started building your colony, everything just clicks into place. It's a deep, rewarding time-sink of a game that should keep RTS fans happy for many, many sols
The cake might still be a lie but Q.U.B.E. 2 is no joke featuring well crafted and clever puzzles that will inspire both rage and happiness as any good puzzle game should. At times the control mechanics are a bit off, and puzzle difficulty progression could be tweaked a little but overall the game is definitely worth your time.
The Council offers gamers a tension filled journey purely fueled by character interactions and mysterious circumstances. Best of all is the evolved gameplay mechanics from what we're used to for an episodic endeavor. I truly felt that I had control of every situation from an ability standpoint and a cleverness one. Wrap up an amazing RPG progression mechanic into a great looking voyage on a mysterious island and you have an incredible start to a game. The seeds of a secret society's leader gone missing have been expertly laid and I can't wait until Episode 2 comes about. Here's hoping this first one isn't the end of where the title shines.
Pure Farming 2018 isn't going to change the genre in one go, but it does a good enough job to stand out from the current leader in the farming sim space. It's welcoming to newcomers with an extensive campaign, but it doesn't shy away from the hardcore micro-management that proper farming nuts crave.
Timothy vs the Aliens is a game that seems to be targeting two different audiences. The jazz and the gangsters are undeniably cool to this "older" gamer, but the simple and short gameplay seems to be designed for a younger game player. As it turns out, there might not be enough here for either party. Sadly, a unique and shiny veneer can't hide this simple and repetitive platformer.
Burnout Paradise Remastered brings me back to the happy times of teenage gaming. Being able to play one of the greatest racing titles again, on the PlayStation 4, is a delight. I realize being a major fan of the original release skewers my perception slightly, but I am aware my nostalgia plays a role in my enjoyment. As I mentioned, the only positive things here in terms of a remaster are slightly improved textures and playing a beloved racing game again that holds up amazingly well. There’s no new content of any kind so this experience falls into the slight upgrade category. Here’s hoping Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry over at Three Fields Entertainment can come up with something brand new in the true Burnout spirit.
Bravo Team was supposed to be the next big thing for PSVR. A tactical shooter that you'd spend hours of time playing with your mates. Instead I'll probably spend more time telling people about how bad it is than I'll ever spend playing the damn thing. It's that bad.
It's definitely rough around the edges and it's not comparable to FIFA or PES, but that's not a terrible thing at all. It's a completely new way to experience the beautiful game from the comfort of your living room, and new things always come at a cost. If the player base for VRFC can stay alive, I can definitely see VRFC being a permanent weekend fixture in my house.
Mulaka has ambitions. It has potential. Neither of them have been fully realised in this outing, but there's something there. If it released a generation ago, it'd have been a decent offering. As it stands, there are plenty of better-made indie games in the same vein of Mulaka. Give it a shot if you're genuinely interested in the cultural aspects and don't mind a bit of naff gameplay, but avoid it otherwise.
Blasters of the Universe brings something new to the PSVR with its VR bullet hell concept, and the game works well. The guns have plenty of customization options, enabling you to adapt your weapon to your personal style. Grand Master Alwyn and his forces are challenging in casual and hell difficulties, and the extra modes give a shorter game a little replayability. If you are looking for something a little different and have some extra room to move, give Blasters of the Universe a try.
Bridge Constructor Portal is an enjoyable physics puzzler that mixes the irreverent world of Portal with Bridge construction - a sentence that I never thought I would type out but that works surprisingly well in practice.
Suicide Guy is not about suicide or depression. It's a lighthearted game about a guy who has to wake up from a dream to keep his beer from spilling on his floor. Although the levels are varied, the unreliable physics and frustrating platforming kept me from enjoying this game more. If you like the so bad it's good genre, this may give you some enjoyment. Otherwise, it is not the worst game that will be released this year, but it has too many negatives to overcome for me to recommend it.
I know many likened Apex Construct to Horizon: Zero Dawn in some capacity and I’m here to tell you that notion needs to be ripped, stomped on, and thrown away. There’s too many problems that gradually grow to the unforgivable sort. A game can’t succeed when shooting and picking things up are hardcore victims to lag and registration errors and performing the same requirement to progress the story. There are small glimmers of light that shine in this title except it’s like looking for a hay in a needlestack. You may be proud once you find it, but there’s much pain to go through first.