Digitally Downloaded
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Yonder is a game that matches is aesthetics, design, and vision in a way that very few games could even hope to achieve; even those games that end up with astronomical Metacritic scores and GOTY awards from every corner. It's a beautiful, clearly heartfelt masterpiece, and if more games were to follow this one's lead, I would have a great deal more faith in the emergence of video games as an art form.
Do this game again, but shift the focus so that everyone can enjoy it without relying on others being online, and then we'll talk.
Get Even may not be the best looking game on the market but with a story as well written as it has and with an atmospheric sound design it is hard to remember that you're playing an indie game.
Finnish studio Housemarque have produced in Nex Machina another game to sit alongside its well-received titles of Alienation and Resogun, and that showcases the serious pedigree it has built since their start in the early nineties with Stardust. It is a rush of colour that delivers a satisfying experience that'll steal your calm and let you imagine a future where the robots don't wipe us all out.
Flip Wars' problem is that it has no depth whatsoever. That silly, simple, chaotic, and utterly pointless button masher that you had a quick laugh at when you play it for the first time really is all that's on offer.
In general, I like what The Golf Club 2 has to offer. It is a really solid representation of the sport both in terms of mechanics and the overall aesthetics.
While it's not to the standard of its rhythm games, Rayark did well with its first RPG. Implosion looks gorgeous and is a very slick production.
Shephy is mechanically sound and intrinsically fun, but it's also a harrowing experience if you think about it hard enough.
There's room for Ever Oasis to further refine its basic formula, but its vision is a refreshing one that indulges the strengths of the video game medium.
Final Fantasy XII's willingness to be different and innovative has left it feeling every bit as modern and poignant now as any new JRPG on the market, and it remains my favourite game within a series that I hold very precious to me.
Damascus Gear is fun. It's clean, well-playing fun. It could have been an awful lot more, and it's a little frustrating that the game didn't make better use of the opportunities that the setting provided it. It's also not a game that you'll remember a year down the track, let alone feel nostalgic for in a decade. But it's, again, good clean fun, and if you've got a weekend to kill, this one will do it.
Chess Ultra is as good as I can conceive Chess actually getting.
As with most Falcom games, the game feel is straightforward and kinetic, paired with a vanilla aesthetic that's more inoffensive than groundbreaking. I can't fault a game for not being ambitious enough when it's following a tried and true formula and does it without any perceivable blemishes at all.
Pixel Heroes is some good old classic dungeon crawling action. The lack of narrative context makes it a tough, but not necessarily rewarding game, but putting that aside, the endless gameplay loop is simple and clean, and there's a fun combat system to make it all worth at least a little of your time.
Ultra Despair Girls might be an outlier, and even a game that only the most hardcore Danganronpa fans will ever truly appreciate, but underneath that hood, it's a smart one, and has a wicked sense of humour to boot. [OpenCritic note: Matt Sainsbury separately reviewed the PS4 (4 stars) and Vita (4.5 stars) versions. Their scores have been averaged.]
DiRT 4 might not be my kind of racing game normally, and nothing will ever compare with the thrill of weaving in and out of a clustered mass in an F1 game, but I genuinely enjoyed everything the game offered, and on that basis I know that it must be something special indeed.
Valkyria Revolution is an intense, special, and downright important game, with a powerful message to share not just about war itself, but also how we also talk about, and share stories about, war.
Perception was an opportunity. It was a real, genuine opportunity to do something remarkable with the horror genre, and join a couple of other experimental 'walking simulators' such as Layers of Fear, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, and the recently-released The Town Of Light, in proving that the horror genre in video games can be cerebral, rather than visceral, but this one largely misses the mark.
The general ignorance of the west towards Japanese folk stories and philosophy mean that this is a game that a lot of people will scratch their heads over. This includes those that generally likes the games that Japanese creators make with the western market in mind. But I hope it's a game that others embrace as a stepping stone towards understanding a history and culture that too many are too eager to dismiss as "weird" or different.
Victor Vran is a cut-price Diablo clone that has a really delightful sense of humour, superb production values, and genuinely entertaining gameplay.