Chalgyr's Game Room
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Damaged Core supplies an outstanding overall FPS experience that provides fast and furious combat, excellent visuals and a clever movement scheme that helps prevent the kind of VR sickness an action game might otherwise be prone to causing.
What really stands out to me after these first two episodes is how Telltale has managed to take such a popular, well-established character and world and yet manages to make the experience feel both fresh and interesting. That is a tall order, as a narrative heavy game like this could have easily gotten off of the rails when trying to deviate from such familiar source material, but kudos to the team for stringing together two really solid episodes to open this series up.
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors is an excellent Dungeon Crawling RPG with depth of character and a lot of accompanying Fan Service. While there is a lot of that, the rest of the systems and the interactions with and between the characters adds much more that makes Criminal Girls a worthwhile experience that makes it so much more than its outward appearance.
Outside of the wonky difficulty issues, NHL 17 is a fantastic hockey game that is able to brilliantly straddle the line between arcade game and hockey simulator. While the step up from NHL 16 might not be all that impressive, for those like me that skip years, there are a wealth of new and improved features. From the new World Cup of Hockey to a new Franchise mode, NHL 17 has literally everything you could need for a solid Fall/Winter epic hockey shut-in. NHL 17 is a must have for any hockey fan out there.
Normally marketing will begin pushing hard right from day one on a title that is well received, and ReCore was. Instead the marketing and news about ReCore stayed relatively quiet up until it released, and even then it released to little fanfare which is a downright shame because ReCore could be so much more with a little push from the folks at Microsoft and/or Comcept. There are plenty of little moments, like the loving relationship between Joule and Mack, or the overall mission for the game, that really shine and could draw in a lot of gamers, if only it was talked about and highlighted. My biggest fear with ReCore is that if falls into obscurity because nobody seems to be talking about it.
Sad as I am to say, NASCAR Heat Evolution is one to stay away from unless you are the most die-hardiest of NASCAR fans and are quite apologetic for its dismal online play, bizarre progression system (level up by unlocking tracks, and vice versa), and stale audio.
Zenith is more than worth sitting down to for multiple laughs and great older schooled gameplay. The developers and the writers have really hit gold with the balance of the two and the sheer hilarity of the dialog. Breanna can attest that I had to put the controller down more than once because I was crying from laughing so hard.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 is an excellent follow up to Trails of Cold Steel. With many improvements to the core system both subtle and brand new elements to grace the field of battle with, this “sequel” is the perfect continuation to this already epic series of JRPGs from Nihon Falcom and XSEED Games.
If you played the game originally, there might not be much reason to come back to Dear Esther, though the most loyal of fans may get enough mileage out of the Director's commentary I mentioned earlier. In this case, you play through the game with the narrator being swapped out with those of the artist, composer and writer as they discuss various decisions that went into the design. It is a nice touch for a game that has a lot of artistic value and it is interesting to see some of the thought that went into some of the game's more memorable moments and scenes. All in all Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is still an interesting experience, though its release around four years later does show the game's age a little. There are better examples of the genre out there now (including The Chinese Room's own later release Everybody's Gone to the Rapture), but Dear Esther still deserves a look if you haven't seen it yet.
To its credit, Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found gives the player a ton of different things to do and the sends of progression, steadily scaling difficulty and procedurally generated levels give the game incredible amounts of replay value. Toy Odyssey is not a perfect game, but the good does outweigh the bad overall.
Visual novels have rallied hard over the last few years, not only showing up in North America but also having moved from PC exclusives to showing up on consoles more readily. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness is the latest such visual novel from NIS America and 5pb and it delivers exactly what you would hope for from the genre: stylish visuals, excellent voice acting and most importantly an engaging story.
I found The Witness to be a fascinating idea that shows an incredible sense of scope. Solving the game's myriad puzzles almost always delivers an incredible sense of satisfaction - an impressive feat when you consider just how many there are to tackle. The island is a truly interesting place to explore and the vast majority of the puzzles work incredibly well with one another and the environment to create a unique if methodical experience that I can easily recommend to fans of puzzle and exploration video games.
Quirky. Entertaining. Challenging. These are all words I would use to describe Namazu Studios' release Nebulous. It is a lightweight game that reminds me of the mobile hit Cut the Rope, but with more sophistication. The end result is a decent game that will chew up a few hours of your time here and there, but is never what I would consider a great or memorable experience either.
There is something fundamentally creepy about Event[0], which is an adventure game with a first person perspective. It is very narrative-driven and also quite short, which may have some people scratching their heads at what the fuss is all about. The thing is, it offers you a connection to a character and the way you own the relationship that is built is both unique and deserves the time to properly explore it.
Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas is a title that has come a very long way. Originally releasing as an App on Apple's iOS, it has since seen releases on the PC, the Mac OS, and most recently both Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's XB1. Using both a game play and visual style that pays homage to a few of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda games, you are tasked with searching the seas for a way to defeat the mechanical sea monster known as Oceanhorn.
Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet is an interesting mashup between two genres I had never really considered mixing before - bullet hell and fighters. The idea is certainly interesting, and some of the concepts work well while some other mechanics are less effective.
God Eater 2: Rage Burst was a surprisingly well-ported and robust action RPG that contains an interesting story, plenty of mild fan service, and some stunning graphics. Add to it the robust voice-over and solid background music that mixes well with the mission-based style of gameplay and the light crafting and RPG features, and you have a faithful port that does not exactly feel like a port at times. Snappy action with plenty of options, even if it is lacking a lock-on, yield hours of Aragami-devouring fun while not being a tiresome slog.
There is a certain charm to a board game; whether that is the feeling of the dice rattling in your hand, the subtle plastics and resins of the miniature units, the detailed boards, the fact that you actually play it with real people, something. While I was excited for a go at Armello, I was also apprehensive; board games are like couch co-op, better with company. Digitizing the experience, I feared, would lesson the impact of a story, the tense nature of a close game, or the excitement that comes with an excellent roll of the dice. Fortunately Armello and the great folks at League of Geeks laid my fears to rest as the board game experience is translated quite nicely (minus the shouting and making up of house rules) to the Xbox One. In reflection I think that the reason it translates so well is because of the little things, like the idea that you use the left analog stick to rock back, then forward, to roll your dice for combat, or the hex-based overworld movement; tied that into an intriguing and genuinely interesting premise and it really is a winner.
Star Hammer: Vanguard Prophecy is easily on of the best console ports ever, sitting up there with Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, and Diablo 3 (the crown jewels of PC-to-Console ports). With an utterly brilliant remapping of controls, Star Hammer's deeply tactical play-style is easily approached and managed through such a smooth and simple control scheme. Sure, there are a few things, like voice acting or hiding of the HUD during setup, that I would like to see, but in truth? Those are minor wants; Star Hammer is the complete package and is spectacularly satisfying on the Xbox One.
As of the 6th of September, the Necropolis has become more Brutal. Having gone back and re-designed a variety of elements from its original debut release, Hairbrained Schemes has released a variety of updates taking into account community and reviewer feedback alike to create version 1.1 titled Brutal Edition. Not only making improvements, the Brutal Edition introduces the Brute which is very fun to play as He or She is Big, Bad, and packs one heck of an epic punch.