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Broken Age succeeds, however, in being exactly what it sets out to be: a tightly woven, succinct, pleasantly told fairy tale, full of enough brain prodding to begin it all over again. A huge endgame twist both satisfies and questions the full extent of the story, accomplishing the challenging task of leaving the player both fulfilled and wanting more. If this is what the Kickstarter revolution will yield—tightly authored works with immaculate aesthetics—then we're ready for much more.
Videogame reviews that fail at their description of the sublime often regress into a sort of buyer's guide. They tell you, in short, how far out of your way you should go for the game. But Samurai Gunn inspires just such a decree. If you don't have four controllers, a couch, and three friends yet, Samurai Gunn is a compelling case for making the investment.
There's a curve here; as in most games of Strike Vector's ilk, your blind spot will be your undoing. Go too long without checking it and at best you'll get a rude gesture, worst will find you busted up pretty hard. Being a bit rubbish at keyboard and mouse, I was rarely without someone's reticle on my rear, and in any given match it was highly unlikely that I would, you know, kill anyone. Even when I did those points were promptly negated by a crash.
Bravely Default is, for better or worse, a pretty good '90s RPG
This might be the central recognition that tips Jazzpunk toward working as a comedy. It's a ridiculous world, and we run ridiculously through it.
With NaissanceE, Limasse Five are showing us their finished work, and it's undeniably a unique take on those familiar forms.
As an action-adventure game, Tomb Raider needs to have you spend eight to ten hours shooting people in the face. That the developer at least tries to address this dissonance in earnest is perhaps commendable—so few games strive to account for the expected incongruities that even the ambition distinguishes the effort. And yet their attempt makes their failure more pronounced.
[T]hese enemies aren't simple stock obstacles, they are characters, and each has personality inscribed on its very design. There is no dialogue, no developing relationships, no other holding cell for these creatures' beings other than the way they look, move, and react. And yet each feels whole, even as it serves its sole function: to be jumped upon, avoided, or hit by a barrel.
For all its physical beauty, it can be an ugly game—remember that family-murder, remember that awkward, stilted script. How well can you look past this ugliness to find the redeeming qualities within?
Austerity, in Strider, has many benefits. But it also amplifies flaws—and this one may be too much.
The Wolf Among Us falters in episode two
A House Divided is more of a standalone Walking Dead episode than the first one was, drawing inspirations from the first game without being too reliant and mimicking, while also looking ahead to what's really in store for Clementine. It harkens back to what made the first game so special: the way seemingly small things have huge reverberations. While the first episode served as a loose prelude, the second episode serves as the real introduction. It's full, fleshed-out, and ultimately everything you would want in a Walking Dead episode.
While many new arcade games are built for spectatorship, they can be a little unwelcoming, full of secrets favouring someone who has survived a few rounds. That applies to most videogames, after all, but Smash Bros. found a middle ground, with enough combos and generally good ideas to feel rewarding, but none that can consistently overcome a monkey wrench. TowerFall Ascension, then, is the new arcade's Smash Bros.: an answer to a new genre that may be more alienating than it realizes, despite its inclusive agenda.
Except that it's just that core that has been ripped from the original game's chest. Garrett's plight and interaction with the olden days of The City gave an ephemeral feel to every jaunt into the darkness. What would getting caught or killed entail? What were the Hammerites up to? What was the great evil befalling the city? There is none of this left; the shadows in Thief hide not great, unspeakable mysteries but only more immaculately rendered cobblestones. Perhaps it's time for Garrett to steal this new vision of Thief a personality.
Ultimately, the title's strange machinations make it both compelling and hands-in-the-air frustrating. When you are frightened needlessly in life, time moves forward inevitably and brings daybreak even as you hide under your bed sheets. In Knock-Knock, you're not just battling your own fear; you're trudging uphill, woefully unequipped, against an opaque system of rules that never exposes itself. Look everywhere, listen to everything, study, document: It doesn't matter. You could still be left wide awake, perpetually replaying the same night over and over again—a true nightmare if there ever was one.
Titanfall, like my coach, was more concerned with fun than winning. This sense of dedication to a player's good time by offering several ways to contribute, along with the on-point distillation of decades of enjoyable game design, is why Titanfall is already spoken of so highly.
Windforge feels unnecessary and indulgent, with few, brightly shining moments of fun interspersed. Like those who consider steampunk to be nothing but a fashion aesthetic, the game exploits the genre simply because it can and because it looks pretty. Ultimately, you will sacrifice playability for art style and unfinished ideas.
There was a time, there was a time, I had never imagined the possibility of battling a phallic mouse on a computer, but I—we—can never have those days back again. We have to forge on into the filth.
Like any other element in a game, score contributes to its meter, its feel, its momentum. Luftrausers is still a good game, but there is something missing here. It is a symphony with the wrong conductor. A football game with no referee. Luftrausers is an arcade game that is not in the present tense.
[T]here's still something powerful about DS2's dogged preservation of old forms