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Davey Wreden's follow-up to The Stanley Parable attempts to loosely tie together disparate game sketches, but fails to live up to its predecessor.
My coworkers were little help. Lottie, who started every single day telling me to do my best, became my personal kitten poster. Hang in there! Another had set up an Amiibo phone, to call Amiibos, you see. What if you want to call anyone else? Too bad, he said. This is an Amiibo phone. I used the Amiibo phone once, using an included Amiibo card. The client, a pink otter named Pascal, told me to design him a house, and gave me no criteria. What little structure the game had somehow became even less so.
While the Uncharted series does have few bumps and bruises, and Drake's wrinkles have deepened over time, fans of the Drake's story, and action adventure games alike, couldn't have asked for anything better. The collection highlights everything great about the Uncharted series, and offers up a sizeable, and thrilling adventure for those willing to brave the wilds.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is not only the worst game in the franchise's history, but it may very well be the worst game to be released this year. Yes, worse than Hatred.
Heroes 7 does have that "one more turn" quality that eats away the hours, but the game-breaking bugs, along with cheap cinematics and sound effects, ruin the experience. Also, since the stories take place in the past, there's no sense that players are impacting Ashan's fate until they unlock Ivan's campaign. Perhaps Heroes 7 will meet its potential after a few patches and expansions, but for now, it's tough to look past its flaws.
The addition of vehicles in Skylanders: Superchargers isn't the most creative new gimmick in the franchise's history, but it's well-implemented enough to make this a solid series entry.
Even with a few missteps, the presentation for Persona 4: Dancing All Night is as colorful as it gets and a beauty to behold. The anime art style remains crisp and if there's anything better than seeing the Persona characters in prime form, it's watching them get their groove on. Ultimately, a rhythm game like this is only as strong as its soundtrack, but fortunately for Atlus, there are some truly enjoyable tracks to be found, including a few remixes of some old favorites. All of those earworms can easily be accessed through Free Dance mode, which is good for anyone that just wants a few quick sessions aboard a plane or in line at an amusement park.
All the stumbling around trades away any sense of suspense. It's hard to feel scared of monsters after you've walked circles around them several times. Not even tricks like suddenly switching off the lights saves the mood. Soma does a great job of making me feel lost and frustrated. Perhaps too good.
Despite a wealth of new ideas, some of which really push the franchise forward, a series of bugs make Madden NFL 16 a disappointment.
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.