IGN's Reviews
Endless Space 2 is a beautiful and capable 4X game, with memorable personality that's seemingly calculated down to the pixel level. It doesn't deviate much from the genre's norms, but it delivers a generally satisfying 4X experience with only a few missteps in combat and diplomacy. Provided you're also okay with tackling a steep learning curve, it's also a satisfying entry point for the genre.
Farpoint is more than a proof of concept or another tech demo for virtual reality. Despite its predictable and unsatisfying story and hard-to-ignore bugs, it's a full-fledged sci-fi shooter that feels fantastic to play with Sony's high-quality PSVR Aim Controller (and slightly awkward without it). Several smart control options and design choices cater to a variety of different types of players, and the gunplay is second to none in VR. If I were to recommend one shooter to a PSVR owner, this would be it.
Injustice 2's fights improve on Gods Among Us in nearly every way, specifically addressing fan concerns about movement speed and giving you new ways to burn meter. Visually, the DC roll call shines even as they star in a flat and unnecessarily grim story. The unrivaled amount of single-player content to explore, especially the highlight Multiverse mode, and the height of Injustice 2's skill ceiling make it an easy environment in which to lose hours of your day without ever even challenging another human… or giant telekinetic gorilla, as it were.
On the battlefield, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shades of Valentia is a delightful look into the simpler combat of Fire Emblem's past. Elsewhere, it carefully guides the series forward into new territory. There's not as much depth as I expect from this series, but whether I was exploring 3D forests, shrines, and caves in a series first, or learning first hand why Fire Emblem's early entries are considered a formidable challenge, it was usually good old-fashioned fun.
The Surge struggles to present a compelling campaign, but delivers a fun new take on a familiar genre.
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.