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MLB The Show 17 is the only AAA baseball game in town, but the series is clearly not content resting on its laurels. With notable improvements in several areas and increased accessibility to try and hook newcomers, baseball fans should find a lot to like about this year's release. Play ball!
It's probably just as well Sony gave this thing away for free with PSPlus memberships. It's the only hope the game has of actually keeping an audience (because it's a multiplayer-only game, it needs a large and sustained community).
Andromeda is still Mass Effect, and for some that might be enough, but this avenue needs more to be held in similar esteem. It does reach a satisfying conclusion, at least as far as the buildup warrants, but it takes the long way around. It does hit something that feels like a fresh, Mass Effect-patterned beginning, but a lot of the sophistication in plot that's alluded to is left up in the air.
Perhaps it is the requirement of balance that made me love a game with such randomness behind it, as balancing my turns or the cards made me feel powerful in a world of beautiful chaos. I think Loot Rascals actually taught me something, which isn't something I say often about video games.
Taking over the role of police chief to run Freeburg would have been a great simulation/management game on its own, but then add layer upon layer of villainous folk and reasons to go over to the dark side, and the game becomes a fully immersive experience that requires great difficulty to put down.
A Rose in the Twilight is, in its entirety, a metaphor for the rose itself; it's a truly beautiful masterpiece, but it's also a gothic kind of beauty, in that it's more than happy to stab you sharply, even as you appreciate everything about it. It's a ravishing, masterful work, that will be played by just a handful, but hopefully remembered for a long time to come.
It is strong at establishing an atmospheric story, aided by outstanding graphics and a highly talented, very natural voice cast who know not to over-act. It falls short on some technical fronts (translation, some over-familiar tropes and cumbersome narrative viewpoints), but these do not decisively mar the enjoyable experience.
It's crushing that Yooka-Laylee does not reach the heights of brilliance of the game it clearly draws its inspiration from. On its own, it is a decent game that is playable, but we were promised characters as delightful as in Banjo-Kazooie, and gameplay as slick and joyful to back those characters up.
The Franz Kafka Game is an interesting attempt at representing Kafka's narrative style in an interactive medium. It's not always going to be fun to play, but it's a memorable experience which relies upon witty writing and clever design rather than technology or rewards systems.
Molemen Must Die! is a pretty solid action title, especially given its low price. Certainly it is a shallow game, but at a price point of three dollars, it's not hard to get your money's worth out of it. If you like a good laugh at the expense of an overly sensitive man who wants to build a wall... erm, drop a bomb, then you will likely get a chuckle out of the premise here. However, other than a few bits of background signage and the wordless introduction that quickly plays out at the start of each game, the political tongue-in-cheek is quickly forgotten in favour of the frantic action.
Issues with keyboard controls aside, it's a sexy and smooth hybrid of slashing and dashing, and it's best enjoyed when you cast aside any preconceptions about what the ecchi exterior might mean for the meat of the game. Yes, it's incredibly provocative. Yes, it's incredibly satisfying. Yes, it's titillating, but in no way does it sacrifice the importance of mechanical mastery for shock value. Takaki has created a beast that caters to some pretty specific tastes, and the unapologetic delivery of the franchise's latest offering should be admired regardless of whether or not your idea of a good time involves busty Japanese girls.
Fans of survival horror should give this title a go, and this is especially true if you have the opportunity to experience it in virtual reality. It may not have ghosts and goblins, but Narcosis still provides a suitably haunting experience worth undertaking.
Ultimately, this is a game anyone that loved adventure games will enjoy, and find entertainment in. There are quite a few nods to the Lucasarts/Lucasfilm stable, cameos and a continuation of jokes that have been there since the first Edison encounter. In terms of where it would sit alongside the earlier adventure games, it's definitely a B-side, but being a B-side to the likes of Monkey Island, Zak McKracken and Day of the Tentacle is still a pretty mean feat.
Aside from a few annoyances and occasionally unfair difficulty, I found myself always coming back for more with FlatOut 4, and one hour would often turn into three-hour play sessions. It was just plain fun to play, and sometimes a game doesn't need to be more than that.
I don't think I've ever played a more pointless game than R.B.I. Baseball 17. Yeah, sure, you can argue that it's cheaper than the MLB The Show games, but surely if you're enough of a fan of baseball to want to buy a video game take on the sport at all, you'd be willing to spend that extra money for a game that you will actually want to play, and a game that will actually do your favourite sport justice. I just don't see how anyone, anywhere, could possibly want what this one is offering.
If you're like me and do take game narratives seriously, then these two are right up there with the best in the industry, and sticking them together into a single package makes them completely essential.
The best way to describe Everything is that it's a game that lets you play as everything. I don't mean that in the sense that you can play as anything, though you can do that (at least, any of roughly 1000 different things coded into the game). Rather, I mean that it's a game that lets you play as a conceptual Everything – that one grand, all-encompassing thing that we are all part of, that binds us together, and that exists within all of us.
Despite these issues, Out of the Park 18 is a competent entry in a legendary franchise which offers management enthusiasts a staggering about of depth. Whether you already love baseball or you're yet to discover what truly makes the sport great, OOTP's robust engine and deep customisation options cater for the needs of any player. It's a fairly steep learning curve starting out, but once OOTP hits its groove, it's sure to captivate your attention for years (or at least until OOTP 19 rolls around).
I want to see more Siralim, but if there's to be a Siralim 3, I do want it to be something different this time.
For some reason Nintendo insists that Mario Sports games should be vapid experiences that insult the intelligence of the very young children that they seem to be pitched at.