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I'm so happy that Ubisoft remembered to put the fun back in Assassin's Creed. The series just turns out so much better with witty protagonists and lots of room for creativity. If you enjoyed Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood and Black Flag, Syndicate will be right up your alley. It doesn't deviate enough from the formula to pull in players who don't enjoy the series in general, but it does evolve and polish the base systems considerably. The fun times greatly outweigh the occasional frustrations, and I can only hope that Ubisoft can be convinced to spread out series entries a bit more so that every Assassin's Creed game can be as good as Syndicate.
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is a game that leaves you wanting more, for better or worse. You want more loot, or at least confirmation that when you go through the same tedious level again, you'll find exactly the item you need waiting at the end. You want more of a balanced challenge, with a single player that feels like it could be handled alone or a multiplayer that performs perfectly under any condition and is worth replaying. Most importantly, you want a real reason to keep returning to the game and not just a prospect of a pretty new look for the Link-alike. As is, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes feels like something you play, beat, then only return to if you're certain two people you know genuinely need aid to acquire necessary materials.
Though I was a bit disappointed by the Guitar Hero Live portion of the game, Guitar Hero TV is onto something special with a lot of potential longevity. I've scored the full game just under a "must buy" because players who mostly enjoy a beefy single-player campaign will find it lacking. However, I encourage fans of Guitar Hero to check out this package for Guitar Hero TV. It's both a blast from the past days of music videos on television, and a step into the future of interactive entertainment. I'm looking forward to seeing where Activision and FreeStyle take GHTV in the future – things like a more formal vocal competition or user-curated channels are all possibilities for this new format. I'll be watching and waiting to strum along.
Welcome back, Yoshi. Come give us a snuggle!
Transformers: Devastation pays incredible respect to its source material, and yet that esteem could have easily been marred by poor gameplay had publisher Activision not chosen PlatinumGames, a heralded producer of quality action titles, to develop their game. Though a dedicated fan of the original series, I do feel the $49.99 price tag is about ten dollars too steep for the amount of content the game provides. However, the heart-pounding rush of playing iconic Autobots in their classic form is real, and very hard to resist for a fan, either old or new.
The accommodations made to ensure the inputs are perfect for your setup, the ability to customize everything right down to the vocal parts, and crisp presentation make for a game that people will want to keep in their living rooms and enjoy for weeks, rather than play once then pop into storage.
Prior to Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, each Uncharted game was already a technical masterpiece, and Naughty Dog did an excellent job of making it enticing to me to marathon through the series. Fans who have already played the PS3 games will be pleased with the improvements, and newbies interested in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will have the perfect place to start.
I know it's tempting to give this one a go, especially after the years of awesomeness the Pro Skater franchise has provided in the past, but it doesn't match up to today's standards. Avoid this one like the Black Plague.
Needless to say, NBA Live 16 has a lot of promise but only comes in a little bit above average at its current state. Hopefully EA Sports provides gamers with an October patch or else the game will fall well below the ranks of its highly touted expectations.
Visual Concepts continually makes improvements with every new entry in their basketball series. NBA 2K16 tugs heavily on the Spike Lee promotion to sell its improved story mode. Beyond that, the upgrades are more on the technical side. There's still a ton of content to keep any fan of the franchise busy until next year's offering. Whether the investment is worthwhile depends on your commitment to enjoying every small enhancement and always being on the current leaderboard roster for the new season.
When all was said and done, I truly enjoyed what FIFA 16 brought to the table. Yes, my soccer knowledge is about as good as my knowledge of cricket or astrophysics for that matter, but the game was fun, enjoyable, and provided much more value than the price tag suggest. If FIFA 16 can turn a hardcore fan of hockey into a newly minted fan of football, then you know the game has something special to offer gamers, regardless of their previous experience with the franchise.
Skylanders SuperChargers is a situation where everything seems promising, but one major element doesn't live up to its potential. Regular adventuring is fun, but the second a player has to hop into a vehicle, it's a gamble as how good or bad the experience will be. If the vehicular elements were separate from the story and entirely optional, this would be the best entry in the series. But they're not and bring the rest of the game down.
Providing that the upcoming raid is strong and we see good support and content-rich expansion during Destiny's second year, we could see this MMO-shooter go from a game beloved by a dedicated core of fans to one that excites the mass market for years to come. It got this RPG fanatic invested in a shooter for the first time since Hexen, and it might just hook you, too.
NHL 16 clearly out did its predecessor in just about every facet and gamers world-wide should be excited to scoop up this years version of the revitalized franchise.
Forza Motorsport 6 is the game everyone was hoping to have when they purchased their Xbox One the day it released. It took an extra two years for Turn 10 Studios to deliver the right product, but boy did they deliver. It is by far the most content-rich racing simulation game ever created, with enough vehicles, modes, and progression incentives for fans of the genre to lose hundreds of hours with.
For me, the monotonous grind is satisfying because each small measure of success reaps a tangible reward in the form of a personal or vehicular upgrade. This may not grant each player the same pleasure, thus I would recommend Mad Max to fans of the series and those who enjoy what fruits and failings an open-world action game offers.
Super Mario Maker plays a Warp Whistle directly to the right hemisphere of the brain. With fond memories of Mario platforming and an ingrained understanding of its elements, whether you're piecing together a masterpiece on the GamePad or concocting design ideas when not playing (which will happen, I guarantee), it's hard not to imagine yourself as the next Shigeru Miyamoto.
It's a shame that this will be Kojima's last MGS game, but for what it's worth he set aside whatever ill feelings he might have against Konami to create one of his most ambitious games yet. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the best entry in the franchise, and you should enjoy it while the franchise still has a solid reputation. Thanks to the open-world gameplay, Kojima has given you dozens of hours to remember him and his work.
I'd definitely recommend Disney Infinity 3.0 for families with kids who adore Star Wars, as well as for gamers of all ages who love Disney and enjoy creating their own games and levels. If you don't fit into either of those categories, I'm not sure that the game holds its appeal past a few hours of play set fun, and that's a shame considering how much money you need to sink into the game's starter set and any additional characters and play sets you might want to buy. Though I enjoyed my time with the game, I couldn't entirely get past its bugs and quirks. Disney Infinity 3.0 is still leaning on the many possibilities of community-generated content and endless opportunities for customers to empty their wallets for plastic doodads, and not everybody is going to be willing to prop it up.
As I have reviewed every Madden game these last few years, I saw systems get more and more complex, making the game feel like it was out of my reach. Madden 16 feels like it is geared around simplicity. None of the systems from other Madden games were taken out, but the core of the game has been shifted toward simple mechanics interacting with other simple mechanics. This is a breath of fresh air to me. It makes Madden NFL 16 a fantastic place to start playing Madden, as well as being different enough to warrant a follow up buy after 15.