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In the end, Death's Gambit resonates as a flawed gem, one I'm happy to have played. It's an uneven experience bogged down by technical woes and stilted combat, but if you can enjoy less-than-pristine games in spite of rough spots, it's worth taking a chance on. Just hold out for a few patches first.
It doesn't make the games feel modern, but that likely isn't the point. This HD remaster is mainly here to provide fans with a new way to play some of their favorite games. I can't fault Sega too much for wanting to stick true to the original vision of Shenmue. If you were worried about compatibility issues or crashing, then you can rest easy. These ports are fine.
For my money, it is the best way to experience this particular story and improves enough of the game to make for a great time sink. Maybe certain aspects could have been tweaked to be more faithful to the source material, but the worst thing that could happen is you end up wanting to play the original to see the changes firsthand. That isn't such a terrible outcome.
Little Dragons Café is the type of game I walk away from feeling more hopeful in the world. Each chapter ends on such an earnest note that it raises my spirits. Sure, it doesn't have the deepest mechanics, and it's not the most polished title I'll play this year. But it has a soul and a kind heart that uplifts the basic gameplay to a place that makes Little Dragons Café an easy recommendation to anyone looking for a soupcon of positivity in their life.
Call of Duty: WWII - Shadow War is the strongest pack to date, but given what we've had so far that isn't a major accomplishment. As Activision continues to forge on with Call of Duty and weighs the needs of myriad fans, more exciting DLC needs to factor into that assessment. I don't envy the task but with $50 Season Passes something has to give.
Not once during my playthrough of Guacamelee 2 did I feel bored or look at the clock, and once I was done, I felt compelled to hunt down everything I'd missed. It's yet another triumph for DrinkBox and they probably have at least one or two more of these in them.
Battle for Azeroth isn't my favorite expansion but it's definitely up there.
It's hard to complain about new free stuff in a game I still enjoy, but I'm hopeful the last expansion for the Year of the Raven will have a better single-player mode.
I thought the game looked kind of silly and fun when I first saw it, but I honestly didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Sure, it was frustrating at times as I ran around the town with each character trying to trigger the one specific thing I needed to do to advance the story, and yeah there are some minor bugs that cause your characters to freeze or disappear behind some level architecture. But after the game was over, I had forgotten most of my previous complaints and found that I had legitimately enjoyed playing it. This has somehow become one of my favorite games, and I couldn't be happier about that.
There's a cute little story about rewriting the past at the heart of Tyler: Model 005. It's a shame those robots can't revise history and trim this game's excess so that it can focus on what's important.
It's problem isn't even that it's poorly made, or that it's built on a faulty premise. Indeed, I feel bad to be ambivalent about this game, because it sounded cool on paper. It just misses the balance, leaning too heavily on the side of frustration, with too little to show for all the hard work a player could put in. Really, when I realized playing it was work and I felt relieved to end a session, that's when I knew I ought to just stop playing for good.
If you believe you're ready to take the plunge on a journey that just might end you, La-Mulana 2 is highly recommended. Just be sure to look out for false tablets…and don't stand still too often…oh, definitely listen when the game tells you to stop reading.
It kept me engaged and having fun throughout, apart from when I was skipping dialogue trees as quickly as possible to preserve my own sanity. It's a great blobber despite a dull story, and was fun enough to warrant hitting the “skip” button several thousand times in order to get back into the action.
Now a young woman, wise and self-sufficient beyond her years, Clementine has reached the end of her story where, alongside AJ - a young boy she rescued during previous seasons - she will finally face her fate.
We Happy Few is unique. It features gorgeous environments, great music, twisted humor, and a magnetic story. It deserves praise for those aesthetics. But the game is what matters, and it is sadly lackluster in that regard, with bad combat, mundane stealth, and endless, frivolous mechanics. By choosing the fastidious "micro-management" path, We Happy Few distracts far too much from its true potential as a dystopian gaming classic. And that's the biggest downer of all.
However, it had some pretty big shoes to fill, and it left me slightly wanting. I really hope this isn't the last we see of this universe, and I'd love to eventually get a direct sequel to Ray's adventures from the original, but this serves as a wonderful appetizer in the meantime. If you're looking for some low stakes, goofy fun, you could do far worse.
If you enjoyed the original or skipped it purely because you needed online multiplayer support, Overcooked 2 should be a no-brainer. While the sequel runs the risk of being slightly too familiar and lacks any big surprises, it's still a winning formula. Co-op gaming doesn't get much better than this.
Then it's time to repeat the process again, experimenting with a wild newfound power that's unlocked after completion and items I've never used before. I'll probably be doing that for longer than any roguelike in recent memory.
My main concern with WarioWare Gold, exacerbated by the lack of download play and only one real multiplayer gametype at that, is that it doesn't really have legs. Many of the extra modes are homogenized to the point where if you've played a few of them you've played them all, and it only took me a few days to unlock every game and peruse them individually. It's a step down from the Wii U's Game & Wario; a flawed but creative romp that I still play to this day.
State of Anarchy: Master of Mayhem is a decent twin-stick shooter that more or less works in function and fun, but has many setbacks that prevent it from being anything other than a middling affair. It's certainly not a bad way to get some light arcade action, but you'll hardly feel like you've mastered any mayhem by the end.