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Players may feel like a change of pace, and driving headlong into traffic is always fun in video game land, but quite how the developers managed to make something like this so lacking in excitement is quite beyond me.
If you've somehow missed all the other Harvest Moon games on the 3DS, then you could get a real kick out of Skytree Village, but at this stage the only people in that position will be the people that either don't own a 3DS (and this game won't be enough to buy one for, that's for certain), or people who aren't interested in Harvest Moon in the first place, and this game won't turn them onto the series either
Empathy wants to be a narrative-first game, that much is clear. But the constant distractions, menial busywork, and tedious puzzles constantly distract from the pacing that's so critical to a story like this, and the end result is something that doesn't really work well as either a puzzle game or a narrative experience.
It might not have the charm of Harvest Moon, but there's a purity to the experience in Farming Simulator 18 that also means it avoids the irritants.
I cannot thank the developer enough for The Town of Light. Not only are we beginning to acknowledge the injustices our ancestors committed, we are exploring how to prevent it from happening again by telling these important stories instead of burying them.
If you come at Lethal League looking for a smart, well-designed, quirky, deep, creative fighting game that cuts right to the core of what makes the genre so exciting, you'll find it in spades.
It might look like Civilization on the surface, but once you realise it's actually a hybrid of card game, gamebook, RPG, and strategy game you'll be hard pressed to think of anything that you've played this year that's more fundamentally fascinating than this one. [OpenCritic note: Matt Sainsbury reviewed both the PS4 and PC versions. Their scores have been averaged.]
Conarium overall captures the mood of Lovecraft, if not the more extreme bizarreness present in his stranger stories. If you want a game that plays like a Lovecraft story, Conarium is probably the most accurate, accessible option available.
I can see people who enjoy the aesthetic and the intensity of the battles spending a lot of time in playing this one, and it will sit with Splatoon as Nintendo's quirky, creative, fundamentally different take on competitive gaming. I just don't think I'll ever play it again, having now wrapped up the review.
Chroma Squad is a fun little RPG that doesn't take itself too seriously and is happy to be silly nonsense. It's not the most lasting of games, and some glitches to wear the experience down, but I think Behold Studios could really turn a sequel into something special - and I hope they do!
I love this game. I really, truly love it. It's the realisation of a genuine fantasy, and, as I said at the start of the review, this is the kind of completely immersive experience that is exclusive to VR that makes for the most compelling argument for the technology.
It's an interactive metaphor for grief, and all those strange, complex emotions that all seem get balled into one when you're grieving. RiME is a beautiful game in so many ways, but this is what makes truly special.
Impact Winter is a beautiful and thoughtful game, and at least initially, it ticks all the boxes in terms of emotional delivery, narrative execution, and sheer atmospheric mastery. However, the mechanical flaws are an unfortunate counter to the ambition and care that has gone into the title.
The Fidelio Incident is a game that tries hard to tell a tale of guilt. It mostly works, but unfortunately, it tries a little too hard, with the end result lacking the genuine emotional impact that the work and material deserves. The way The Fidelio Incident approaches the traditional tale of loss and guilt – but importantly not redemption – through the largely unexplored lens of the Irish Troubles is fresh, and the fundamentals are strong enough to make the two hour experience worth the price of admission, if not a necessary investment.
Could you argue that not enough of this game is new for fans of the series - especially when Sony has the VR headset now and a speedy racer would be such a great thing for it? Probably. You probably could argue that. But this is still a package of three of the best twitch racers out there, and given that we need to wait for Sony to find a new home for the WipeOut series, this will keep us going just fine in the meantime, you'd think.
I hope it's clear by now that Rive is excellently made, and I had a great time flying through space alongside Roughshot. It's clear that the developers behind it were passionate about making the best experience possible. Rive holds its ground among the best 2D shooters available on PSN – it's a title which I would readily recommend to anyone with a free afternoon and an affinity for twitch gameplay.
This game manages to mix some quite serious themes in with its plentiful fanservice and Compile Heart trademark sense of the ridiculous. That it manages to do both successfully makes this a really special game. Yes, this is a game that was produced on a budget, but then, if it hadn't been, it would have been deemed far to "odd" and "risky" to have been greenlit.
I came away from Tekken 7 with a greater appreciation for the series than I went in. I enjoyed my time with the story mode, and it did help me to better understand the unique flow to combat that the game has. I also really enjoyed some of the newer characters; this game has a more rounded cast than previously. But I still struggle to get along with the approach to presentation.
Spellspire is good enough to play for a few hours, good enough to talk about a bit, good enough to praise for the developers' understanding of game progression... but also easy enough to forget about in a week or two when something new and shiny comes along.
Cladun is, at core, a lot of fun, and manages to take the most basic of gameplay loops that you could imagine in a video game, and make something eminently worthy out of it.