USgamer's Reviews
Practically oozing fan service from every pore, Burial at Sea is both as glorious and as imperfect as Rapture itself. The visuals are sensational, the combat a reasonably healthy marriage between Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. Booker and Elizabeth both take well to their detective noir roles. Yet, like the promise of Rapture itself, Burial at Sea's splendor doesn't last forever. Things go unexplained, shrugged off as the too-short DLC rushes towards its conclusion.
Enemy Within doesn't fundamentally change the XCOM experience, but it does add a number of new challenges and strategies for veterans of Enemy Unknown. This expansion may be a little too much to handle for newcomers, but the XCOM faithful will find a whole new series of important decisions to obsess over.
Battlefield 4's below average campaign is once again disappoints, but the excellent Conquest mode and large-scale combat is enough to carry the series for another year. Pretty much status quo for EA's top multiplayer shooter.
Despite the nagging feeling that something's missing, Pokémon X and Y make some huge leaps forward for both the competitive and casual crowds. I just wish these games felt as complete as their predecessors.
Ironclad Tactics is a mean old coot beloved by Lady Luck. He fights fair but your hand of cards may disagree. Seemingly allergic to the very idea of tutorials, Ironclad Tactics has an incredibly hands-off approach to player guidance and a no-holds barred attitude when it comes to battles. It will smack you around. Hard.
Square Enix has pulled off the seemingly impossible: rescuing a disastrous flop of an online game without going free-to-play, and creating an incredibly addictive, satisfying experience for both MMO and Final Fantasy veterans in the process. A Realm Reborn is a triumph for Naoki Yoshida and his team.
I really wanted to like Rayman Legends -- but all the pretty art and good intentions in the world don't make a great game without a touch of restraint. Legends doesn't lack for neat ideas, but it needs more polish to be truly entertaining. And I certainly wouldn't complain if someone dropped the hard disk containing Murfy's stage data onto a bulk eraser.
Essentially the same game as last year's Xbox 360 rendition, Spelunky takes on a new and better life on Vita. Its tragically brief play sessions fit perfectly in a portable format. Just don't throw your system in anger, OK?