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If you've got a hankering for a game with a stamina meter, sword swinging, and pot smashing, there is at least one other better title on the Nintendo Switch that I can think of, but Oceanhorn is an alright little throwback to retro Zelda titles that could help you bide your time between Nintendo's slow trickle of AAA games this year. Now, when do I get to play the sequel?
It's a shame what happened to Crash Although Naughty Dog moved on to bigger things, I wouldn't necessarily call all of them better. The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy serves as a time capsule of sorts before the series was ran into the ground, and my only major regret is that I wish it had CTR as the cherry on top.
The combat here is good, really good, and for some, that may be all they need. For you, that may be enough to convince you to plop down your $40 for this game. For me, the fun in Tokyo Xanadu is buried beneath so much unskippable, unpauseable, and unmemorable story I can't in good conscience give it my full support.
If you're new to the dungeon or it's been a long time since you ventured into its depths, do yourself a favor and get your sea legs ready before wading into the bloody pools of The Crimson Court. If you're an experienced delver looking for a new challenge, then by all means, step into the moonlight and find out what the night has in store for you.
Really though, if you're playing this, you're doing so for the satisfying shooting and VR immersion (and because you probably sorely need something new for your PlayStation VR). It is what it is. If you've got the setup needed to make the most of this game, you could do a whole lot worse.
But that level of sensibility doesn't come front and center enough. Valkyria Revolution is constantly at odds with itself. It tries to be an action game, but at the behest of fans, more strategic elements were shoved in. You'll go into an action-packed warzone full of enemies to slice up, then you'll be rewarded with a seemingly endless amount of cutscenes lacking sound and fury and signifying nothing. Sega shifted its direction many times during its development due to feedback, and I'm not convinced it was the right move. Maybe if they had just stuck to their guns and made it a full action romp it would have turned out better.
Hover ends up as a game that's a blast to maneuver around and explore but becomes at odds with its own design. There are a lot of peculiar decisions that make everything much more frustrating than it needs to be. Hover is something I desperately wanted to fall in love with, and although I'm happy to have been acquainted with it, we'll be headed our separate ways moving forward.
By the time Final Fantasy XV is fully finished, most of its mysteries and interludes will have been explained. It's up to you if you want to discover them individually or all at once with the eventual Game of the Year edition (which might come a full year after XV's November 2016 release, given that Episode Ignis isn't dropping until December). For me the main story juice has been worth the squeeze, but the DLC has not.
It's bittersweet to get the culmination of good role design in a pricey DLC. I'm the kind of person who maxed out every single character in two weeks of Diablo III's launch, then moved into Inferno and Hardcore runs -- also known as the target audience for a character drop. Every time I boot up D3, whether it's for a new season or a new group of friends, I have the option to level up a new Necromancer, and that's going to be invaluable down the line for me. But for everyone else who only dabbles in dungeon crawling, wait for a sale.
For fans of the Danganronpa series who've never experienced Another Episode, I can't recommend it enough. The shooting gameplay may be stiff, but the world draped around it is more morose than much of series past. Yet despite these darker visuals, there's an even more lighthearted tone than ever before. Komaru and Toku are a delight, and have a witty banter between the two even while trying to survive a death game.
While other game packs for The Sims 4 introduced new gameplay elements into the mix, The Sims 4: Parenthood sets out to enhance existing parts of the core Sims experience and does so in a way that meshes surprisingly well with what was already there. If the next few game packs and expansions can manage to do the same, The Sims 4 might be able to live up to the standards set by past games in the series.
Ultimately, while it's a little bit disappointing to see Kadokawa go with such a "safe" design for its return to the tactical RPG battlefield, there's enough in God Wars: Future Past's narrative and atmosphere to recommend it to someone on the lookout for a new Tactics-style title.
This just feels like an all around sloppy port that was quickly pushed out to try to score some cash off of Friday the 13th's bungled release. The console version doesn't even include all the download content released for PC, including the Halloween DLC with Michael Myers. The mouse-like controls in the menus, coupled with the fact that most all the actions are mapped to the triggers and shoulder buttons, makes it feel like whoever ported this doesn't play consoles to begin with (thankfully you can remap the controls). The bugs and ugly graphics might be excusable if the game were fun to play, but to me, it just isn't due to a lack of balance and the need to work with your team in an era where no one talks to strangers in online games anymore.
It takes a special type of high-score game for me to want to actually stick with it and start rivalries on the leaderboards. Pac-Man Championship Edition was one such game. Trials HD was another. Now, Nex Machina is my new obsession.
There are issues with the game, but honestly, I think Ever Oasis is a blast. Building up my little spot of heaven, running errands for the residents, and venturing out into the great sandy plains outside my garden gate provide equal thrills. The longer I play, the more I enjoy it and that is far more uncommon than it should be. If this game is to be the first of a new franchise, it's a damn good starting point.
The Mage's Tale represents an early experiment for VR RPGs -- a minor milestone. There's still a long way to go until people are "jacked-in" for hours at a time a la Sword Art Online, but with projects like this leading the way we'll get there sooner than later.
I can see myself picking up Mighty Gunvolt Burst every now and then, especially since it's so easy to do on the Switch. If Inti Creates goes the way of DLC or a full sequel where the universes are flipped, I'm already in. They clearly still have it while Capcom and Comcept struggle to get a firm hold on the genre.
There is more to this game, a lot more, but I just don't care. Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! can be played for hundreds of hours, but these are hours I want to spend with something I actually like. There are a lot of facets here, including quests I can take, a bizarre Fortify feature, an art studio where I can customize characters and gear, and time challenges for each of the dungeons that make up the story mode. Again, all of that I should enjoy, and yet it just does nothing for me. If you can get into this game — and I recommend you play the demo before you buy — you'll probably have a lot more fun than I did. Which is to say you'll have any amount of fun at all.
But what a platform, though! Star Trek: Bridge Crew is a brilliant VR experience, and pushes the technology to emphasize social interaction and cooperation in a way only a handful of other titles have been able to realize. Beyond that, it's fine slice of Star Trek fan service, as well. There's plenty more new life and new civilization to find in Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and I'm hoping that it'll be able to boldly go and realize the rest of its potential.
With better care given to the other modes and maybe some concrete rally tracks, this could have been the definitive rally racing game. As it stands, though, DiRT 4 is a hardcore simulation with limited appeal beyond a specific audience. Those fans will absolutely love this game, but any newcomers should try to cut their teeth somewhere else.