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Each Dead Rising is an interesting experience on its own. While these three titles do in certain cases show their age, and don't really work as a collection as they are too similar to one another, individually they are all worth diving into as they are a lot of tense fun to play around with.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is frustrating on one level because it’s so completely in thrall of the blockbuster system that you can feel the creative frustration on several levels through the game, from its storytelling through level design. That frustration has resulted in a blockbuster that almost breaks free of its limitations at times, and it’s certainly an enjoyable game. It’s just that it would be interesting to see what the developers could come up with if they had a more limited budget (and thus lower sales expectations, allowing them to go after a more specific audience with a more focused game).
Without a doubt NBA 2K17 is the best basketball game on the market so far. There are a handful of flaws, but when weighed against everything that Visual Concepts got right, they are pretty insignificant. I have always felt that basketball is probably one of the most challenging (if not the most challenging) sport to represent in a video game, but as a lifelong fan of the NBA this is as close as the medium has taken me to enjoying the sport.
Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity doesn't merge its two genres as seamlessly as its recently localised sibling, but it’s still an exceptionally fresh curiosity buy. Though ultimately not quite as polished as either Ys or a main-series Touhou outing, the underlying gameplay is so clever it elevates the whole experience. The adoption of bullet-hell mechanics by classic genres continues to pay dividends.
ReCore isn't perfect - but that doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable experience.
The game is about as long as a movie, making it short at three or so hours in length, but I enjoyed the ride. The gameplay is a tad weak due to the puzzles being very easy to figure out, but realistically you are in this one purely for the storytelling. Also, the game has a satisfying ending which a lot of games seem to be lacking these days.
Mount & Blade Warband is a really entertaining premise, and one that’s quite unique to boot. An RPG that is more about building an army and then leading it into battle is in many ways so much more interesting than an RPG where you’re in control of a one-man army and in pursuit of personal power. I only hope that the release of this game, now, means that there is more Mount & Blade coming, because there really is nothing else like it out there.
While I certainly respect Minecraft, I prefer Dragon Quest Builders. It doesn’t offer the sheer depth that Minecraft does, of course, and there will be no “educational edition” of the game being sold into schools, as there is with Minecraft. What it is, however, is a down-to-earth and genuinely entertaining little game that shares far, far more in common with its JRPG roots than even the game itself wants to admit. And as a long-suffering Dragon Quest fan, that makes Builders special indeed.
Gears of War 4 is the best game in the series so far with more likable characters and a better and more well-written story. The story of friendship and family fits well with the summer blockbuster style that the series has always strived for. Full of action, some humour and maybe even a few scares thrown in with the mix, more than anything else it looks like The Coalition is determined to mature the Gears franchise, and that is hardly a bad thing at all.
Virginia is a fantastic piece of interactive fiction, and a fantastic videogame. It’s rare to see a game that truly innovates on the way a story can be told through this medium, and to have something that doesn’t only push those boundaries but does so this effectively is a real treat.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 isn’t necessarily a bad game. The original and the DX versions were just about perfection, and you just can’t improve on perfection. It is simply a case that Bandai Namco needed to make it different enough to set it apart from the other Pac-Man games. On that count I have mixed feelings. The ultimate success story is that Bandai Namco can take Pac-Man as it is in its basic form and still find amazing new, and very modern, ways to apply that formula.
Event[0] succeeds because of that last line there: my relationship with Kaizen. The entire experience hinges on your ability to form a relationship with this character at the heart of the story, an AI of all things. The best books, movies and video games try to make you feel something, and to that end Event[0] is an interesting experiment and a worthwhile experience that stands out as very unique game despite its humble roots.
All in all Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found works because the game tickles our minds based on a time when our imaginations were their most fertile: childhood. I know my toys often waged large-scale war with one another all over the living room and this game captures that in its level and character design as well as the central narrative revolving around a young boy and his nightmares.
EA Sports’ premier title remains the most refined and well-produced sports game out there. There’s something for every sports game fan in there, and the overall package is of immense overall value.
I hope the next Ace Attorney game has more structure in its overarching narrative and the developers actually have the cases flow naturally from one to the next. Even with its flaws, Spirit of Justice is good fun, through, and another quality example of a narrative from the ever-growing stable of visual novels we are now getting translated into English.
More than anything, the pacing of Sega Hard Girls is so incredibly spot on. It’s a game that’s easy to play for short bursts of time, as missions and dungeons tend to be compact, and there aren’t the long cut scenes to sit through.
NHL 17 is a very good game of hockey that has not really grown much since last year. Tweaks and improvements are there, certainly nothing feels worse about the title than last season, but there is still room to innovate.
While Hailstorm Games does at times get carried away with moralising, the overall story is effective and comes with enough twists and turns to cover the admission price.
While I don’t think Criminal Girls 2 goes anywhere near far enough to be the extreme Sadean experience that it clearly wants to be, at least we have a game that achieves something down that path.
With plenty of activities to do and the option to engage in them with friends online, I can easily say that Forza Horizon 3 quickly succeeded in becoming my favourite title in the Forza series to date.