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Forza Motorsport 6 is what I always wanted a next-gen driving game to be. It offers beautiful visuals, a wide variety of options, and uses real-world physics to dictate how vehicles perform. I could easily see myself playing Forza 6 for several months, or even years. I've never experienced a driving game with this level of polish, and it's unlikely anything will unseat it in the near future.
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide cleverly combines two different strategy games, but it also loses something along the way. It took me a long while to grow accustomed to the Regicide rules, and I still can't honestly say that I like having my Librarian shot up by a bunch of pawns. Or how a laser toting Loota can kill my Assault Marine in one shot. Sure, Regicide takes strategy to an all new level, but this level is a tad too brutal for me.
Shacknews travels the world with Renowned Explorers: International Society, the adventure strategy game that requires intelligence along with might in order to succeed. See what it takes to become the best explorer in the world in our review.
Nintendo is known for being conservative and protective of its properties, and it's taking an uncharacteristic risk by giving players this much control over its most iconic character. We're already seeing creativity flourish. I can only imagine what will happen when we're all Mario's caretakers.
Playing is both a joy and infuriating, depending on your back stabbing/stabbed ratio. In either case, I found myself wanting to go back for more.
All taken together, getting through Satellite Reign can be a painful and slow process until you can amass enough tech, skill and firepower to repel waves of soldiers. It wants to be a game that gives you different choices, but the stealth gameplay wears thin so quickly that the game just gets boring.
While I wish the combat had undergone more dramatic changes, better combos do help it inch its way towards a more naturalistic feel, and the achievement of combining it with a flexible platforming engine makes any omissions pretty forgivable. The Inside Out and Toy Box Takeover sets are the standouts for me, and show a promising future for this series.
Artifacts of Power hits most of the right marks. . . . At the same time, there's a feeling that the game lost something when it went fully 3D.
While the inclusion of all Xbox 360 versions of the Gears of War series could be seen as a sweet deal, I'm certainly torn by Microsoft's decision to do this. It's a nice touch to allow Xbox One owners to be able to play any Xbox 360 Gears of War game through backwards compatibility, but I feel this to be more of a cop out as The Coalition really should have offered the complete collection in what they consider to be the "Ultimate Edition" of the game.
There's a decent collection of unlockable challenge missions, but game loses some of its charm when a mission forces too many criteria, like time limits and crew selection. Still, this is a game that ended up totally getting under my skin, and I couldn't help coming back to prove myself as a criminal mastermind.
Everything from the menu presentation to the game emulation is crafted with such care that its developers clearly understood the subject matter. It's the best Mega Man game collection to date, and shows how a classic series can be revitalized in the right hands.
Until Dawn kept me intrigued from start to finish. I came for the campy teen horror movie feel and left extremely impressed with how well rounded and influential an experience Supermassive Games delivered. This is a game that you'll be talking to your friends and colleagues about for years to come as you'll find no two experiences are alike no matter how hard you try.
Smite has officially launched on the Xbox One today and if you're a fan of MOBAs, you'll want to check it out as it has great controls, a long list of Gods to play as, and multiple game modes that will please most.
Beyond Eyes uses a gorgeous and inventive visual metaphor to emulate the feeling of being blind, but the high-concept idea fizzles as it fails to sustain interest throughout the short playtime.
Volume is a fantastic experience that I highly recommend to any stealth-game lovers. It's a unique twist on the Robin Hood story, and while the game's main storyline might not have been as strong as I hoped, I think it is definitely a great follow-up to Bithell's success with Thomas Was Alone.
Fans of slower-paced story games will enjoy it, but others may very well lose their patience.
Sorcerer King has a lot of great ideas, but they don't necessarily come together well.
After only ten minutes in the game you've already experienced everything that Submerged has to offer. It's a rather dull and shallow title in what could have been an exciting and scary world. There is no combat, no urgency, and no chance of failure. The gameplay is boring, the landmarks and scenery are mediocre, and the story is almost nonexistent. Submerged is a rapidly sinking ship that never even left the harbor.
Rare Replay is an easy recommendation for value-conscious gamers, but it has a surprising amount of historical heft as well.
The story laid within the game doesn't drive the game, but that's okay because there's plenty of rogue-like goodness waiting to be found inside of Size Five Games procedurally generated steampunk heist simulator.