Digital Chumps
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Destiny - Rise of Iron is a worthy addition to the Destiny expansion family. It brings more fun, better balance (risk/rewards) and a tough raid. Definitely a step up, but still contains some old caveats that the series can't quite shake in PvP that hurt it just a bit. Overall, it's a great expansion for the series.
The complex nature of videogame creation usually precludes exclusive compositions. When allowed, however, you're likely to find a piece of the designer's soul buried in the experience. Memoir En Code: Reissue embodies this sentiment with its delicate recreation of tense and peaceful moments of its author's life. It's funny, painful, relatable and, unfortunately, a little heartbreaking.
A perfect enigma is a perpetual struggle between tenable doubt and informed speculation. This is difficult to produce in any creative medium, let alone one that relies on personal interaction. Videogames almost never attempt to do this. Virginia does. The fallout could have been an obtuse curiosity, but it succeeds in throttling tension through subdued parlance, laying out a series of clues and challenging the player to organize them into a cogent (and personalized) picture of the story.
Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice is more positive than negative. It is developed to tap that deep nostalgia that Sonic fans have for the series, while bringing in some new elements that make it more than just an arcade platformer. While it isn’t perfect, especially the controls, it’s still a very entertaining experience that should satisfy the Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase. Sanzaru Games did a fabulous job with it and I hope they continue to make more Sonic games in the very near future.
It would be easy for an observer to write off the Horizon flavor of Forza as a campy, amateurish, uninspired offshoot. Turn 10 and Playground's partnership has consistently worked to thwart these potential worries with solid mechanics that tweak certain aspects of Motorsport to be a touch less sartorial. It's a delicate balance that the two teams have gotten correct twice previous. Things are reliably no different this time around. Everything that gives driving the festival its own identity is here again, with just a twinge less sophistry in racing environments. The slight changes make competitions more prim and proper without having an overt effect on free roaming joy rides. A dizzyingly expansive event list tandems with a solid online component of good range. The Blueprint system is a respectable attempt to add more community interaction that should beneficially evolve in post launch weeks and months. Another awesome selection of four wheeled creations get to speed, skid, and slide along in stunning backdrops with a refreshing soundtrack to boot. Everything we've come to expect from the Horizon festival is back in spades, which is motor music to every virtual gear head's ears!
An old classic revitalized and modernized in the right ways, preserving its core and best features while streamlining other elements to make it not only more enjoyable, but also more penetrable for the average player. Highly recommended.
If I were to sum up ReCore in one word it would be 'fun' -- it's absolutely worth playing, especially at the low MSRP of $40.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a tough, uphill experience that might have a few things going against it in terms of frustration, but the game also has a lot going for it in terms of challenge. Gamers generally cry about games being too quick and easy, so Bandai Namco Studios has created something that goes against that grain. Certainly this is the Dark Souls of the Pac-Man series.
What was once an assembly of divergent systems is now a finely tuned machine, one that enables a man to combine a bull skull with motor oil and use it to liquidate scores of zombies. Dead Rising 2 brought focus and direction to an experience that used to be defined by chaos and disorder. Pandemonium isn't completely wiped out, but this time it works with, rather than against, the player's objectives.
In 2011, a faintly redressed model of Dead Rising 2 and a replacement hero in Frank West may have seemed crass. Now, with both Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record released simultaneously and priced identically, it's a simple matter of choice. Do you want Dead Rising 2 as it was conceived, or a genetically modified clone that's less inspired but, technically, a lot more fun?
In 2006, Dead Rising's clever assembly of ideas rampaged against comfort and cohesion. Time has been kind to Dead Rising's sharp edge of nonconformity, though some of its quirks feel frustrating after two (and a half) sequels provided a better defense of its thesis.
Finally arriving on the Wii U, Axiom Verge still packs a mighty punch long after its initial release.
A beautiful game in several ways, Jotun is a treat that Wii U owners should not pass up.
NHL 17 is a game that overwhelms you with variety of play as well as feedback aimed at making you a better, happier player. Outside of a collection of new game modes including Draft Champions, Franchise Mode and the World Cup of Hockey, everything here is largely the same. The game still looks great. Still feels great. And most importantly, it still plays great. Little refinements throughout yield small but noticeable improvements on the experience.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice has an even balance of good writing, new gameplay design and fantastic presentation. Bringing back familiar faces to push the story and containing a healthy dose of difficulty, which is what most fans of the series adore, only helps its overall case. Definitely a worthy addition to the Phoenix Wright family.
Resident Evil 4 does indeed make a perfect 2005 appearance on the current generation consoles, which is a huge plus. It’s such a significant game in the series, so much that it helped the name Resident Evil become more than just a linear zombie shoot ‘em up with jump scares. Its impact can not be understated. With that said, the lack of tweaking and adaption with the controls made the 2016 experience on the PlayStation 4 a bit tough to love. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s tough to recapture RE4’s magic when you’re fighting with the controls. In the end, a classic is still a classic, despite its flaws in this generation.
In sum, Hue presents an accessible, familiar, yet unique-enough experience that is absolutely worth checking out if you're a fan of this genre. I would even suggest that if you got burned out by similar games that got too hard too fast to give Hue a chance.
Alone With You sometimes suffers inside of its medium, an understandable impedance of a small project that simply can't be good at everything. Its eagerness to sidestep conventional challenges with singular objectives, however, will last longer than some of its prosaic mechanics. Valuable science fiction maintains a crucial element of humanity, a facet of storytelling Alone With You embraces with, of all possibilities, relatable human beings.
Annual franchises can be tough to get excited about and to differentiate, but Codemasters has made some great decisions with F1 2016 to make it a clearly superior version to last year's, and quite possibly the best version in the franchise to date.
It may not be the Metroid Prime sequel you were looking for, but if you keep an open mind and give it a shot, you're likely to be pleasantly surprised overall, especially if you have some friends to play co-op with.