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Despite the odd frustration, Yoshi's Woolly World is an incredibly fun romp. It has been a long time since the world got to see a console Yoshi game, and the fact it hearkens back to its SNES roots better than the recent handheld attempt is a joy to behold. This is one of the best platformers I have played in a long time.
Despite some questionable use of characters, the narrative in Batman: Arkam Knight is engrossing. The city of Gotham is appropriately sprawling with a great deal to do. Combat is smooth and fluid, even if driving the Batmobile is not, and there are several good hooks for progressing Batman's character that reward you for the time invested in the game. The voice acting, music and visuals are all outstanding and the end result is a fun, polished final act for Rocksteady's Arkham games that fans of the series will absolutely want to play.
Adventures of Pip is a solid platformer with a clever little gameplay mechanic, but ultimately doesn't do all that much with it. That being said, away from the mechanics, it was also good to see one of these retro-themed platformers do something more with the art style than simply have it as window-dressing. Adventures of Pip actually turns pixels into part of the gameplay, and that's neat.
While it seemed a bit weird that Capcom had not originally included Devil May Cry 4 into its HD Collection a few years back, the Special Edition is worth a look for fans of the series on the PlayStation 4 as a stand alone game, thanks to the visual upgrades and new character scenarios.
Payday itself has become a very influential game, with other titles, such as Ubisoft's upcoming Tom Clancy's The Siege clearly cribbing ideas from it. I'd be cautiously interested in seeing a third Payday somewhere down the track, as I do think there's room for the developers to build a greater degree of narrative context into the action, and perhaps a touch more variety wouldn't go astray. For now, though, this is a fine multiplayer experience to have sitting on the PlayStation 4.
There's something quite mesmerising as to how such complexity can be played out almost effortlessly by people who practice enough at the game to get good at it, but, frankly, everyone is better off waiting for next year's Street Fighter V.
Overall Kholat is an atmospheric adventure game that is creepy but really should not be labeled as a horror game. With a wonderful art style and amazing sound effects, Kholat should still please horror fans and adventure game fans alike.
Handholding aside, and beyond failing to offer something truly above and beyond its predecessor, the multiplayer offerings are superb, and Swords & Soldiers 2 is good, reliable fun. It won't likely be a game you'll remember a decade from now, but as a weekend buster, you could do far worse than this one.
Despite these irritants, The Escapist remains light-hearted fun. It's not an especially meaningful or rich gaming experience (and of course, it doesn't try to be either), and it won't be remembered a decade from now as a classic, but it's honest entertainment that does on some level tap into one of the more enduring subsets of the crime fiction genre.
There clearly is a market for games like Sparkle Unleashed, but what's sad to see is that there was a lot of effort put into the game. There are animated cut scenes and visually appealing visuals, but the raw lack of innovation in a kind of game that is rapidly showing its age really does let it down.
Splatoon is almost endlessly replayable, and it effortlessly my favourite Nintendo game so far this year.
Dirty Bomb is fresh and fun with fast paced team-oriented action, but is lacking in some of the areas that modern FPS have matured into. But it's a good start to the franchise, with opportunities to expand upon the world there, add some story context and hopefully flesh out the experience further.
But to go back to my original question; what is left when you're playing a humour game that you're not finding very funny? A very competent, but ultimately unremarkable game in this case. In terms of scoring Schrodinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark, it's a tough one, because it's one of those odd games where I can see where its appeal would lie for others, but on a personal level, like the most boring of science experiments, I struggled to stay awake through it.
With just two episodes left, the stakes are higher than ever for House Forrester. There is plenty of political intrigue with the balancing of political and diplomatic might to consider. Still, if the books and show have taught us anything, there are precious few happy endings in this world, and I suspect the narrative of these next two episodes in this game will have its share of triumphs but also unexpected, darker surprises.
Nero is a beautiful contrast between light and dark, love and pain. It's not a fast-paced game, but rather a reflective, insightful, and emotional experience that is a very different kind of game that what we're used to. What starts as nothing more than a simple story of a woman and the man she loves, it quickly transforms itself into a heartfelt and wrenching story of a mother and her husband who go through one of the most wrenching, desperate series of emotions that a human being could experience.
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M is disappointing because it could have been a far better game. With a developer with such experience in tactical games as Intelligent Systems has, there is no excuse for a game that is this limited, this garish, and this incohesive. If this is to be built into a franchise, it's going to need a dramatic improvement by the next game.
Ultratron is a good arcade game with the simple goal of surviving as long as possible in order to avenge the human race and earn a good score to brag about while doing it. While it might not do anything we haven't seen before, it is a fun time for those that love the retro style.
CD Projekt Red's game is a blockbuster in every sense of the word, and it's hard to imagine a world where there's a bigger or more impressive blockbuster at work in the background that hasn't even been announced yet but will still release in 2015. With that in mind, while I'm sure that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed title is going to be a big improvement on last year's, and EA and Activision both have excellent shooters to release by Christmas, with Zelda on the Wii U being pushed to next year I'm quite comfortable with calling this now: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is going to be the blockbuster game of the year. It's not the most artful, the most intelligent, or the most important, but it's certainly going to be the most spectacular. And I know for a lot of players out there, the spectacle is all that matters.
That said, Axiom Verge is a near-flawless indie game that is sure bound to entertain you with its wide array of creative weapons and deep exploration that, at the end of which, rewards you handsomely. You bet I'll be re-visiting this game for many, many years to come.
Despite that, Toren really is about its narrative, and that is arthouse gold. Like the finest of foreign cinema, this game challenges how the wisdom behind blockbuster design would dictate a game should be put together. It's constrained by budget and, perhaps, a lack in confidence to go all the way and risk complete innovation, but it's a beautiful, emotive, and powerful experience, and it's going to be one of my games of the year. If not one of my favourite games ever.