Digital Chumps
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Kholat is a compelling release set against a fascinating backdrop that drew me in early and kept me playing. It offers a memorable, if not completely satisfying, experience that's worth checking out.
I'm not convinced that this game does not have an infinite shelf life. I don't think I will ever run out of things to do on my virtual farm, which is a bonus of sorts and adds to game value. There is something inherently relaxing about hearing cows moo in the distance while I drive a tractor to my cornfield at sunrise. And, when I feel lazy I can hire someone to drive my tractor for me. Back and forth. Up and down. Back and forth. It's mesmerizing and boring all at the same time; and so is Farming Simulator 2015.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an exhibition of lessons learned not only from CD Projeckt RED's past work, but also from a spectrum of open-world and role-playing contemporaries. It's expected for games of this nature to excel at taking your time away. What's most impressive about The Witcher 3 is that rarely seems to waste it.
The concept of The Escapists—make friends, make enemies, make crazy tools, and escape from prison through any applicable deviancy—is easy to fall in love with. Reality, positioning The Escapists as a beautiful machine undermined by the gears assigned to power it, is more cruel.
House of Wolves is the most fun I've had in Destiny since launch. If grinding wasn't your thing--there's less of it now. If you wanted a horde mode--there' Prison of Elders. If you're better than me at PVP--there's Trials of Osiris. House of Wolves packs plenty of fun for all of Destiny's players.
The Executioner is short, but enjoyable. And at $5, it's worth playing on its own or as a fun way to wrap up your time The Evil Within.
Swords and Soldiers II is a unique take on real-time strategy gameplay that permutes the established formulas equally as much as it simplifies them. The result is an accessible—yet satisfyingly challenging—game which feels just as frenzied as the typical RTS title, but which can be enjoyed in bite-sized portions.
Don't Starve is a weird and wonderful jaunt through a purgatorial wilderness. With the Reign of Giants DLC, there's enough content for even well-seasoned Don't Starve players. The brutal and unforgiving permadeath mechanic heightens tension and emphasizes player prudence. The lack of stylus and touch controls feels like a real missed opportunity to take advantage of the platform's primary peripheral.
Ultra Street Fighter IV is a wonderful appetizer for the impending Street Fighter V. SFIV is a proof-of-concept to how a Street Fighter game can turn out when built and utilized properly on big time hardware.
"Splatoon" is everything you could want out of a new Nintendo IP. It somehow manages to be both cute and cool. It freshens a well-traveled genre with a neat game mechanic. The only thing holding it back could be Nintendo: the Wii U Gamepad's battery life is weak, the online battle modes are presently limited by a rotation system that takes choice away from players and the overall amount of content is lacking outside of the weapons and gear customization. If the company supports "Splatoon" as they say they will, though, we could very well be talking about these Inklings for a long, long time.
Sunset survives as the antithesis of contemporary narrative construction, but lacks the confidence and vitality to thrive inside of its admirable periphery. It's all support with little regard for structure.
Technobabylon is loaded with cool ideas and it's a lot of fun to play. The story, multiple playable characters, creative and interesting settings, and challenging but logical puzzles kept me entertained from start to finish.
Neon Struct conceals a modern society engulfed in menacing surveillance programs by drenching itself in the soothing aura of 1985's neon nightlife. It's an unexpected dichotomy—tranquility isn't the sort of evocation expected of extremely topical police-state paranoia—but one that Neon Struct dispenses with plausible seeds of insurrection. Colorful symmetry is the expected outcome, but Neon Struct surprises with plenty of shades of grey, too.
Schrödinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a fun platformer that has an interesting quark system in place to make puzzle solving unique and engaging. The game isn't perfect by any means, but it's good and unique enough in certain areas to warrant at least a look.
Cool concept and well executed, Lost Orbit is worth your attention.
A robust, entirely worthwhile release that gives you plenty of bang for the buck and expands upon one of last year's best games in a purposeful way.
For those that really enjoy the point and click genre, Perils of Man is worth a look, despite its flaws.
Color Guardians is a simple game with a straightforward purpose - run and button-mash. It will certainly challenge gamers with fast gameplay and demand multi-tasking sharpness from its players, but doesn't offer a lot beyond those things.
Among contemporary Ys releases and remakes—Seven, The Oath in Felghana, and Memories of Celceta—The Ark of Napishtim is more reliant on support provided by its adopted hardware. Unfortunately its tangled journey to the personal computer cost as many features as it gained, leaving The Ark of Napishtim as little more than a curious architect of the Ys games that followed.
Project CARS is going to give some of the bigger racing games a run for their money. There is depth, detail and fun to be had with this game. It certainly was worth the wait.