IGN's Reviews
Prey's space station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies maintain tension when combat doesn't.
Back in 2011, pro racer, stunt driver, and X-Games gold medallist Travis Pastrana successfully launched his Team Hot Wheels trophy truck further than any other four-wheeled vehicle in history. He did it from a giant jump assembled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, built to appear like a life-sized length of bright orange Hot Wheels track. Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels is Pastrana's enormous toy ramp surrounded by a city-sized network of equally insane stunt tracks: a bedroom floor on an unlimited budget. What's not to love? A delightful, daring, and different expansion that reinforces Forza Horizon 3's reputation as one of the best racing games ever made.
When it works, Strafe is a generally entertaining retro-styled shooter that mixes procedurally generated levels into an experience strongly reminiscent of Quake. It's a great concept that usually comes together, but between the quirks of randomization, powerful enemies that run almost completely silent, lethal bugs, and hefty costs for vital armor and ammo powerups, a lot of the time it feels as challenging as rolling the dice and coming up with double sixes.
NBA Playgrounds isn't as deep as NBA Street or as beautifully simple as NBA Jam, but the gameplay is still well paced and the controls are still tight. It mixes this gameplay with cartoonish qualities and a retro style that fits an arcade basketball game, and earning new packs of random players is always rewarding. That said, I've taken some bad beats from the random power-ups system, and the online options are slimmer than I'd like. But as long as Saber Interactive delivers on its post-release updates, Playgrounds will have enough going for it to keep me coming back for more.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is by no means a great game, though its value is raised by short and varied missions, fun action elements, and an ability to make me feel like a legit action hero. Regardless of how much it borrows from other games, I can't deny that I had a good time blowing through missions and enemy troops. However, the poor graphics and technical issues like long loading times and crashes occasionally ruined the fun. And, minus any sort of multiplayer, there's not a lot of reason to go back.
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 3 is flashy and loaded with complex, micromanagement-heavy warfare. Its single-player campaign is long and challenging, but feels uninspired because it rarely makes creative use of the three factions' abilities. In multiplayer it's even more demanding and intimidatingly chaotic, but with only one mode and not a lot of maps, it seems limited. Relic deserves credit for not simply remaking the same game with prettier graphics, but this hybrid approach doesn't feel as strong as Dawn of War 2's memorable tactical focus.
Though it only took me just under two hours to complete, the second the credits stopped rolling I immediately restarted What Remains of Edith Finch. Each of the vignettes is so distinct and surprising that I didn't have enough time to absorb and dissect what I had just played before being whisked away to the next one. But after fully piecing together the threads of the family and sifting through the allegories of their final moments, I was left with a beautiful, heartbreaking mosaic that exudes life, even when mired in death.
Like Hide and Seek, Little Nightmares confidently captures the exhilarating fear of waiting to be found by something that's hunting you. But it also replicates the alien horror of being a child that doesn't understand what's happening to and around them, and of a seemingly familiar environment turned into a series of opportunities for safety and danger. Smart, grotesque and never-endingly weird, this is a very different, extremely welcome kind of horror game that left me wanting more than its brief five hours provides.
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 feels like a step forward in some ways, but a step back in others. The new additions to combat are nice, but the attempts to bring more RPG elements to the story missions don't always work out for the best – at worst, they wind up transforming an enjoyable action game into a boring slog. At least it shows that Omega Force is willing to try new things with their long-established formula. Let's hope that their experiments go a little better next time.
Mr. Shifty is an okay brawler that uses a stylish warping ability as a cool way to get the drop on unsuspecting foes. While it's fun to smack down security goons with quick melee skills, the horrible framerate of the final act will test your patience. If you do endure and manage to drop the final boss, Mr. Shifty doesn't present enough reasons to replay it.
"Thicker Than Water," other than its satisfying ending, is the season's weakest episode yet. Little that precedes the action-packed conclusion feels like it has much, if any, weight to the ongoing story I'm invested in — namely Javi's life and his relationships with Kate, Clem, and David. I'm absolutely on the hook for the season finale after that strong start and thrilling ending — I just wish everything before it hadn't felt so thin.
Outlast 2 is a terrifying sequel that builds upon the scares of the 2013 original.
The beautifully presented Puyo Puyo Tetris has a ton of content, a really fun multiplayer with a lot of variations, and is very easy to pick up and play with just about anyone despite the slight balance issues. The Nintendo Switch is a great platform for it too, with its portability and non-threatening Joy-Con controllers. This is the type of game that offers an adequate challenge for even the most hardcore puzzle players with its Challenge modes, but is inviting for even the smallest of children and gaming newbies.
Virtual Rick-ality does a great job emulating the dark humor of the source material, even if it occasionally overindulges in its self-awareness. Smart use of well-established VR minigame mechanics guides you through the experience, and aside from some slight issues navigating the space on a two-sensor Oculus Rift setup, these familiar and fun activities mesh well with the amusing efforts of the writing team and cast. Rick & Morty's first foray into virtual reality is not only a solid VR experience, but the duo's strongest attempt at translating the spirit of the show into a game yet.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an amazing game for all the same reasons I mentioned in our original review. It's still a gorgeous kart racer and every bit as addictive as it was in 2014. This is the best entry in the series so far, and it has all the content you'll need. Returning players have seen a lot of this game before, but the overhauled Battle mode and its five additional ways to play are a great reason to pick it up. Nintendo didn't do enough to make the online experience better, but the rest of this game holds up well.
Funny and fresh from beginning to end, Paradigm is a traditional point-and-click adventure game full of heart and decapitated heads in jars. The Eastern European setting, great voice acting, and confident comedy shine throughout its roughly six hours. Relatively simple puzzles aside, Paradigm offers a fresh and memorable entry in a genre that I'm happy to see alive and well in 2017.
With three hits and three duds from Capcom/Disney years that you might remember with varying levels of fondness, the Disney Afternoon Collection is clearly aimed at children of the 90s. I have trouble seeing its appeal to anyone else. But if vintage duck-based platformers are your thing, grab a Capri Sun and a handful of Gushers and invite your friends over to play.
From long-time Wonder Boy fans to platformer enthusiasts who've never heard of it until now, you'll likely be able to find whimsical fun and a neat bit of genre history in this charming adventure.
Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely starting off on the right foot, with a great script, great actors, and a universe packed with personality (and backed by catchy tunes) to explore. If it can continue to deliver the quality of dialogue and panel-perfect action over the course of the rest of the season, it may find itself seated in the upper echelons of Telltale's catalog. I just hope that now the series has introduced itself, the series gives its environments and characters just a bit more time to breathe in between speeding the plot along.
Full Throttle Remastered mostly succeeds on two fronts: As a fresh way to revisit an old classic, and as the ideal entry point for players who haven't yet smacked rival bikers with a two-by-four on the Mine Road or figured out the combination to Old Man Corley's safe. There are a couple of sticking points for both old and new players, including some technical issues and (especially for the latter) that questionable "adventure game logic" which is anything but logical. Nevertheless, there's never been a better time to hit the open road with Ben and his gang.