Digital Chumps
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Finding yourself is difficult. Finding someone else is complicated. Cibele bears both burdens in a candid and empathetic glimpse of burgeoning love in the 21st century. So many games either waste or misunderstand their medium as a storytelling device while Cibele thrives inside of its own technology. By no coincidence, it's one of the most human and relatable games, too.
In the days of third party sales supremacy and value added services, the impact of a singular title or franchise doesn't leave the same mark as it did two or three generations ago. But for 343's efforts, they made an excellent FPS that should earn them a good portion of credit they so urgently need from the fanbase.
Tales of Zestiria is a competent and quality JRPG that doesn't try to over-extend itself. It may have a lot in common with previous series entries in terms of design, but it has more than enough of an identity on its own to make it standout.
Sublevel Zero's novelty is how faithfully it resurrects concepts of a fallen genre. It's cool that Sigtrap Games made a game like Descent, but pressing those ideas inside the mold of a roguelike leaves a significant amount of empty space.
Guitar Hero Live is quite fun.
To the uninitiated, Soldiers' Soul is a bewildering amalgamation of expected clichés and probably not a fun thing to play. To Saint Seiya's audience, however, Soldiers' Soul is an impressive rendition of a respected series augmented with a glut meaningful (albeit mostly salvaged) content. For better or worse, the latter group is all Soldiers' Soul has in mind.
Excitement over the prospect of a new Fatal Frame game was quickly extinguished by the reality of a new Fatal Frame game. Rejecting genre conventions once allowed Fatal Frame to stand alongside Siren, Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but declaring antiquated ideas sacrosanct leaves it, ironically, in a modern version of the same company. Survival horror hit a wall, and Maiden of Black Water isn't the one to overcome it.
While Yoshi's Woolley World sometimes becomes stagnant from level to level, and the lack of chances the game takes helps push that along a bit, it does have some great things going for it to make the entertainment prominent. The challenges, the motivation to explore and the overall theme of the 'Woolley World' help to alleviate the shortcomings the game contains. Yoshi's Woolley World is fun, especially in terms of visuals and Yoshi's added personality, but it's not perfect.
Elite Dangerous is a very compelling and adventurous game. It's a story you get to tell based on your decisions. This is more than just a game. It's an ever-changing experience you get to participate in. Elite Dangerous is not for the Casual Gamer, and it's certainly not for everyone. If you're thinking about buying this simply for the space combat portion, you may want to explore other options. It's much more complex than the typical shoot'em-up experience.
While not as complete or all-around "perfect" as one might hope, this is still a must-have release for PS4 owners.
Director's Cut is the right term for this release; Fargo and the crew at InXile have combed through both the finer details and the high-level ones of Wasteland 2, fixing, tweaking, and adding to take it from great to excellent.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is a fun if not brief, epilogue to Horizon Forbidden West. Those looking for massive reveals may be a bit disappointed, but there's enough fleshed out in Burning Shores to make it a worthwhile play. Seyka jumps straight to the top of Aloy's best companions, and the Bilegut & Waterwing are awesome machine additions.
Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below is a huge step forward for Omega Force. This is the right formula for making future Dynasty Warrior-like games, as story, leveling structure and beautiful presentation form a perfect wrapper around typical/repetitive button mashing gameplay experience.
Ride's exhilarating character eventually fades into a tedious milieu of assertive persistence. The loop of wanting to complete races to get better bikes and parts eventually breaks into a dead end, and the speed and power of exciting motorcycles slows into a chore. Motorcycle enthusiasts are an exemption, but for others it's hard to look at Ride as anything more than Another Racing Game.
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash is varied enough to keep every skill-level of player engaged throughout its 30+ worlds but isn't as polished as one would hope. There's a quirkiness here that's come to be expected of the series – of the more "off-beat" Nintendo efforts, this is the closest thing to a Mario game that exists in the same space as, say, Tomodachi Life — but the oddities feel incongruous with the game at large, as if the previous game's environmental and "do-good" themes were just pasted on instead of weaved meaningfully into the experience. That said, it's still a slightly above-average platformer that'll eat up time for on-the-go gamers looking to satiate their appetite.
Armikrog is a missed opportunity, but despite its design flaws and technical issues, it's worth playing even if just for the unique visual experience.
One of the best games I've played this year and my favorite from Frictional to date.
If you can tolerate the rough patches in presentation and gameplay, you can find a bit of quirky, arcade style fun in Live 16.
Overall, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a welcome spinoff that helps diversify the Animal Crossing brand and cements it as one of Nintendo's cornerstone franchises (if it wasn't already). The Big N has shown an increased willingness on putting fresh spins on older series and this is a case where it works naturally. It makes perfect sense for an interior design game to exist in this universe, not just because of its town-building mythos but also because of its folksy charm.
FIFA 16 delivers another deeply satisfying game of soccer replete with beloved franchise staples such as Ultimate Team, Co-op Online Seasons, etc. The core game is largely the same. But key additions in the Women's International Tournament and the new Ultimate Team Draft add depth to a game already full of immersive play options. With the addition of Ultimate Team Draft, EA could honestly put out Ultimate Team as a stand alone release.