IGN's Reviews
We Happy Few's focus on story over survival is a good choice, and at its best when dropping bombshells of truth that the drugged people of Wellington Wells have tried so hard to ignore. In its Early Access, I felt like wandering between procedurally-generated islands to stay alive wasted the intriguing setting and premise of its opening act. Now, exploring segments designed to reveal We Happy Few's secrets are both fun and rewarding. Although survival and crafting are fairly manageable, running through randomly generated towns, streets, or abandoned fields unfortunately shows that We Happy Few can't hide from the ghost of its own past, no matter how much Joy you take.
If you like your games with an offbeat sense of humour and plenty of personality, Flipping Death comes recommended. Its central game design hook of flipping between life and death makes for an interesting world to navigate and puzzles to solve, and its characters are so oddball and endearing you'll want to hear every conversation in full, not to mention find out how it all ends.
Stardew Valley is a beautiful, fun game that, when all of its parts are pulled together, make for a wonderful countryside adventure.
Overcooked 2 serves up a great balance of hilarious chaos and strategy alongside meaningful improvements over its predecessor. The kitchens have more moving parts, the recipes are more varied, and the ability to throw ingredients fundamentally changes the arcade cooking formula. It's still ideal when played on the couch with friends, but solo play is much improved, and online support adds versatility.
This beautifully implemented port is a perfect PC introduction to the joys of Monster Hunter.
Madden 19 returns the primary focus where it belongs: that moment-to-moment gameplay between the end zones. It's only true stumbling point is the lackluster story mode that fails to recapture the magic of the first, but that's entirely offset by the new player handling that once again leverages the power of the Frostbite engine. Most importantly, Madden 19 has finally cracked that slightly repetitive feel that can make it tough to go on, game after game. With Real Player Motion delivering a fluid on-the-field experience, and Franchise mode customization offering another level of realism, Madden is in a great place.
Chasm is a lovely and fun Metroidvania with a lot of cool new ideas, even if its randomized maps are uninteresting.
Marvel Powers United VR makes me feel like a superhero, but fails to give exciting or varied enough missions to put my skills to the test. While the characters and environment successfully showcase the personality of Earth's mightiest heroes, repetitive gameplay and lackluster rewards stop Powers United short of being marvelous.
Like the gaming equivalent of binge-watching a playlist of the funniest Vine videos, WarioWare Gold provides some enjoyable short attention span shenanigans, particularly for newcomers. But in the absence any substantial new additions and a paucity of worthwhile extras, WarioWare Gold is more like a runner-up silver for long term fans of the series.
Flying from planet to planet in search of the universe's rarest materials and technologies in No Man's Sky NEXT scratches an exploratory itch. It still carries a lot of caveats: It's mechanically repetitive no matter what planet you're on, the dull combat should be avoided whenever possible, and bugs are plentiful. But buying new ships and building new things is enough motivation to make it entrancing – for a while, at least.
The Banner Saga 3 offers the darkest entry yet in this beautifully animated tactical RPG trilogy. Choices matter and come fast and furious, making this journey a thrilling roller coaster from the opening moments to the ending credits. Combat can be a bit of a chore once you find your footing, and the story ends all too quickly, but The Banner Saga 3 is a rich and powerful experience and a worthy end to a breakout trilogy.
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 makes the best of the material it's given to work with. Regardless of each game's quality, steps have been taken to clean them up to allow fans the option to relieve both the moderate highs and the very low lows of this era of Mega Man's history. It's disappointing that the X Challenge recycled some boss battles from the first volume, though, because experiencing these games in a new way would've given us a bit more to enjoy.
Capcom may have inflated the value of this collection by making some of these games so hard to come by up until now, but it still earns high marks because of the high-quality emulation for four classic platformers and plethora of extras. As a fan, I'm very happy to have the Mega Man X Legacy Collection in my library, and I enthusiastically recommend it to newcomers looking to get in on the fun. You really can't go wrong if you're a fan of the man. Mega Man.
High seas RPG Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion brings some of the joy of the TV show to a kind-of open world RPG. It's a good game for beginners, and we get a small taste of how great exploring the show's world and quirky characters could be. but the lack of challenge and options will probably bore veterans. The sad thing is that Adventure Time is a special show because its humor appeals to fans both young and old, but this game seems made exclusively for the former.
Lost On Mars is a strange choice for a Far Cry 5 expansion, and this risky change of scenery doesn't pay off. While it does feature a hilarious fan-favorite character, I just wish the gameplay was as inventive as the dialogue and gun nomenclature. It's too bad Ubisoft couldn't find a way to make an alien world feel more interesting than the Montana countryside. Even with the addition of a jetpack, lasers, and alien bugs this planet feels dull as red dirt. If you didn't buy the season pass, the trip to Mars hardly seems worth it.
The Culling 2 is nothing more than a weak imitation of PUBG and H1Z1.
Parts of Earthfall present a certain charm, and the co-op shooting experience could certainly be fun with the right group of friends. But it's hard to get away from the fact that Earthfall is a lesser incarnation of a decade-old game, with fewer modes and missions, at a higher price.
Danger Zone 2 is exactly what I wanted the first Danger Zone to be: the true follow-up to Burnout's classic Crash mode that EA won't give me. It's not as fully fleshed out or polished as my dream game of this type would be, but as a self-contained and one-note smash-up it shines like a spectacular fireball explosion. Now how about reviving the rest of Burnout? Road Rage mode, anyone?
Octopath Traveler is a JRPG dream come true.
Treasure Tracker still feels close to unique, and gains new life on both of Nintendo's current systems. Switch is very much the better choice, but 3DS is by no means a bad option. Still smart, prettier than ever and, in retrospect, genuinely important as part of Nintendo's modern history, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a rare example of a game that actually feels better for being a few years old.