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Heavy Rain is very much the kind of game I like to play; it's smart, interesting, different and highly focused. Cage might be a one-of-a-kind game director and thinker, and I do wish more developers paid attention to how he approaches his storytelling.
Rainbow Moon is not a good choice for people who are looking for a narrative, but for fans of the old school, punishingly difficult, hardcore JRPGs, this is a nice throwback with an awful lot of raw gameplay behind it. It's not so much a weekend buster as an entire holiday to work through, and as such, for its specific niche, it represents enormous value.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 manages to bottle up something magical and succeed a second time in a row.
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae has all the makings of a game that I would love to play, but it's only halfway there.
E.T. Armies is a well-made indie FPS with a few caveats that occasionally detract from a mostly enjoyable experience. The narrative is pretty forgettable and the lack of controller options may put some unsuspecting players off, but the moment-to-moment gunplay is the real draw here and it shines through brightly. If you're in the mood for some mindless, albeit budget, action then E.T. Armies has got you covered. If only it had a catchier name.
I have a real soft spot for The Witch and the Hundred Knight. I find that the complexity of its systems add a nice layer of strategy that most "Diablo clones" could benefit from. More than that, though, I find the narrative to be delightful in the way it revels in the Grimm Brothers' sense of villainy, and then sticks you right in the middle of it and left to figure out for yourself if you're comfortable helping a monster that completely evil.
I cannot resist contemplating what the women will say next or what party I will form while humming the music mindlessly in the middle of the day. My admiration of the game comes from its self-aware humour, traditional gameplay, and surprisingly unique story.
No Pineapple Left Behind isn't made for your enjoyment though, and Subaltern Games makes that perfectly clear. This is a game designed to make an important point about education. If a player who stumbles upon this title on Steam becomes inspired to make serious educational reform after watching their students get dehumanised into tropical fruit, No Pineapple Left Behind will have all been worth it.
Minor issues aside, I do think this is the best Far Cry game. Far Cry 4 did a lot to refine the formula and make it as enjoyable as possible. Stripping back the game to the fundamentals, limiting the resources and focusing the action does wonders for a franchise that was in danger of becoming too sprawling.
Fire Emblem Fates still approaches war from a largely idealistic standpoint, but it makes a quantum leap forward by representing a broader range viewpoints along the way. For a series that has changed incrementally over the last 25 years, this latest entry is a refreshing reinvention.
Fire Emblem Fates still approaches war from a largely idealistic standpoint, but it makes a quantum leap forward by representing a broader range viewpoints along the way. For a series that has changed incrementally over the last 25 years, this latest entry is a refreshing reinvention.
Fire Emblem Fates still approaches war from a largely idealistic standpoint, but it makes a quantum leap forward by representing a broader range viewpoints along the way. For a series that has changed incrementally over the last 25 years, this latest entry is a refreshing reinvention.
Street Fighter V looks and plays exactly like how you'd expect any instalment in the series to, but there's something unfinished about it, something that makes you feel the series has taken a giant step backward.
I have a lot of time for Deadly Tower of Monsters. More than Diablo, more than Fat Princess Adventures; this is the grindy, top-down action 'crawler that I am going to come back to over, and over again.
I really enjoyed this game. It's not quite on the level of the fighters I really love (that being Dead or Alive and BlazBlue), but I can see myself coming back to this one fairly often. And, unusually for me, I'll be coming because I enjoy the combat system; usually I'm looking for character, personality and even narrative in my fighting games. This one doesn't do any of that particularly well, but that combat is just too satisfying to resist.
ADIOS is a game I think many people can enjoy. I also think each individual will get something different out of it, as long as they stick with it and get a feel for the inner workings of the game. The fact that it exudes loneliness as a central theme is a unique enough idea that games like ADIOS are very few and far between. It certainly caught me off guard, and I tip my hat to Cosmic Picnic for reminding me of the important things in life.
If you enjoyed the original title, then Project X Zone 2 should appeal because it does everything the first title did but better. If you are new to the series but a fan of some of the various franchises represented here, it is also worth a look.
Unravel is truly something special, and full credit to both the developer, and indeed EA, for stepping back from the blockbuster nonsense to back a more personal, artful project. It's a beautiful game about human emotions and memories, and while I hope there's never a sequel, I cannot wait to see what this team comes up with next.
Being completely new to the series, I have to say that Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth was a surprising treat for me. I love the JRPG genre, and while the turn-based and slightly grindy nature of the combat likely will not bring new fans to the series, I found it comfortable and accessible to play. On top of that, the cute nature of the critters was not the deterrent to my interest I had always sort of expected, because I enjoyed the virtual world of EDEN and the core story around the game's events.
It's different, it's creative, it's stark, and I loved every second of it. I do hope that the trilogy has been enough of a commercial success that Climax can be recruited to build more of these, because I do love the modus operandi; taking more "obscure" periods of history and then using them to frame Assassin's Creed games that simply wouldn't happen otherwise is something that I think is very worthy.