USgamer's Reviews
Hatoful Boyfriend is a straightforward dating simulator where all of your suitors just happen to be birds. If you're not drawn to your potential boyfriends, the early game can be a bit of a drag. While the second half of the game is worth the price of admission, many players will have a problem getting there. Proceed with caution.
What could've been a simple cash-grab is a great mash-up of two great franchises. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright does its best to bring both sides together in a brand-new setting. More importantly, the game feels like it stays true to the core of both series while also setting a new high bar in presentation. The game favors Wright more than Layton, but fans of both will find something fun here.
If you're on board for another round of Dark Souls DLC, you know what you're in for: A few interesting twists here and there, and a revival of certain elements from the last game, but nothing revolutionary. If you simply want more Dark Souls 2, Old Iron King delivers just that, and with all the thoughtfulness you'd expect from its developers.
Infamous: First Light is a standalone title, but it's more of a companion to Infamous: Second Son than a full-fledged game in its own right. It focuses the best power set from the previous game and cuts out all the extras. The Neon-powered Fetch is a charismatic character, but her story is a standard tale of loss and revenge. If you really want more Second Son, it's worth a go; if not, you can skip it.
Madden NFL 15 is an enjoyable football game on the surface, but it's dragged down by a thousand little issues, including a poor interface, odd glitches, the inability to skip certain cutscenes, and more. As nice as it is to see it take a step forward in terms of accessibility, it still has a ways to go before catching up with the likes of FIFA and NBA 2K.
Perhaps the definitive version of Diablo III, Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition is streamlined, buttoned-down and an absolute joy to play - especially so when you start adding friends.
Hohokum is a different kind of game that prizes aimless interaction and exploration above completing specific objectives. It's a title that brings together a cute, minimal art style and a great soundtrack to create a zen experience. It's worth a play, but not everyone will appreciate its strengths.
Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited crams one of the best Disgaea games ever into a tiny package. The entire PlayStation 3 game comes along for the ride, with all of the levels, all of the graphics, and all of the content. There's some framerate issues here and there, but nothing that completely ruins the experience. A must-have for Disgaea fans who own a Vita.
Thought it shares some similarities with Telltale's The Walking Dead, Deconstructeam's Gods Will Be Watching isn't the same kind of game. Instead of a heavy narrative, the game is more of a resource management sim, with the resource being the other characters. When taken like that, it's a solid puzzle game with some rough, repetitive edges.
Wondering what this whole "roguelike" thing is all about? Then Abyss Odyssey could be the game for you: It's a fine introduction to the rules of the genre, with some helpful training wheels to prevent newcomers from being discouraged. If you've suffered the scars of past roguelikes, though, you'll find Abyss Odyssey's lack of challenge a significant downside.
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is what the original game always wanted to be: a truly cinematic platformer. It looks fantastic, sounds brilliant and is great fun to play, despite its occasionally clumsy controls.
There's not really enough distance between the PS3 version of The Last of Us and this new Remaster to make it worth double-dipping, unless you're simply that fixated on counting lines of resolution. If you missed out the first time around, though, you really shouldn't let it slip past again. While it often works better as a movie than a game, it still stands at the state of the art. And the writing is good enough to enjoy even if you hate zombie genre fiction (like I do). The Last of Us is about refinement, not innovation, and this version takes the art of refinement another step forward.
Wii Sports always felt more like a starting point than an endpoint, so it's kind of funny to be playing it again on the Wii U close to a decade later. It's an odd legacy for the motion control era, which once showed so much promise. But even if Wii Sports Club isn't apt to last solo players more than a weekend, it's a robust enough package in its own way, and its credentials as a party game are impeccable. If you're looking to play something with your parents, it's tough to go wrong with Wii Sports Club.
From Software went above and beyond with their Crown of the Sunken King DLC: invest in its tiny asking price, and you may find yourself getting just as much time out of it as you would a $60 game. But it's more than just the amount of content that makes this DLC irresistible—it's what From did with it. The amount of surprises and fresh ideas Crown has to offer should make any Souls fan salivate over the prospect of two incoming DLC packages developed (hopefully) with the same amount of thoughtfulness.
It's slow to start, but when WildStar finally kicks into high gear it throws a ton of content at you. Telegraphs make combat interesting and complex, some of the classes provide unique play experiences, and the Path system adds flavor to your overall quest. PVE, PVP, Housing, Crafting, Dunegeons, and Raids; if you want to do it, it's probably in here somewhere. Wildstar isn't perfect, but it's a great launch for an MMORPG.
As fun in this beefed-up incarnation as in its original release, Guacamelee Super Turbo Champion Edition offers one of the best-designed and most original takes on the well-worn metroidvania phenomenon you'll ever find. The new material may not quite bring enough to the table to warrant a second purchase, and the game doesn't exactly push PS4 or Xbox One to the ragged edge of their capabilities, but once again excellent game design has less to do with technical specs and more to do with creativity and thoughtfulness: Features Guacamelee possesses in spades.
Shovel Knight is a loving homage to an era we left behind long ago. The graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack are all pitch-perfect for an NES game... all you're missing is the original cartridge. Yacht Club Games has crafted an amazing experience from beginning to end.
Valiant Hearts works from a novel concept, and is loaded with brilliant ideas—hell, it's great just to see a war from the perspective of a country other than America—but Ubisoft's lack of self-control ultimately makes it less impactful than it should have been. It's still a worthwhile experience, though it could have been so much better if Valiant Hearts left us wanting more.
A genuinely disturbing and terrifying game that'll have you jumping out of your seat in fright. It's a little short at around six or so hours, but the experience Outlast delivers is well worth the price of admission.
I really wanted to like Murdered: Soul Suspect, but -- like L.A. Noire -- it's a detective game that manages to gets its most essential quality absolutely wrong. The backdrop of Salem lends a lot to its central mystery, but at no point will Soul Suspect ever put your deductive skills to work. That's fine if you're indulging in an episode of CSI, but I like my thinky games to require more than just passive interest.