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Stasis has its quirks and shortcomings, but its atmosphere and compelling descent into deeper and deeper levels of a proverbial Hell make it worth sticking through.
A creative, well designed, and well-executed local co-op game, Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime is fun and worth your attention.
With many series with more than a few sequels, keeping the interest of anyone outside the core supporters becomes tough, particularly with those that have an annual or biannual release schedule. Some have been able to stave off obscurity and keep their profits high, like Call of Duty, but these are the rarer case studies. Relevance becomes an even bigger issue with genres that depict experiences with an abundance of monotony, like sports titles. "Simulation" tuned racing games are of a similar conundrum. One one hand, the need to stay fresh and increase creativity to warrant a new AAA purchase price is side-by-side with the obligation to car enthusiasts that expect a good amount of realism. Off-the-wall driving antics and resplendent gameplay garnish that work for the likes of Need for Speed and Burnout don't have a place among Gran Turismo and Project CARS. Forza Motorsport has traditionally been closer to the latter contemporaries. The Horizon subset is afforded a little more slapdash, but such "arcade" caveats don't have a place in Forza proper. With this the 6th entry to the main thread, it wouldn't be a surprise if the proceedings felt dated and rehashed. Fortunately, the series avoided that fate this holiday. Game modes display a good amount of variety and offer diversions when the Career grind gets too tiresome. Jumping into a Showcase Event or online tilt after a tough series of single player contests is a great way to stay engaged for hours and hours. Changes made to rain and night races are the shining jewels of this iteration and are "must play" experiences for hardcore racing gamers. And the graphics package corrects the little oddities from Forza 5, creating some of the most pleasing visuals I've yet seen on the Xbox One. With one of the most anticipated software holiday seasons in recent memory upon us, making "$60 a pop" purchasing decisions will be very tough. Deciding if a vanilla racing game is worth one of those tokens is ultimately up to the consumer. What I can say is within that relatively narrow definition, Forza 6 does about everything necessary to fulfill the niche to a high degree.
A great 2D platforming party game best played locally, Runbow is a good buy for your multiplayer playlist.
If you're looking for a grand strategy game that has an incredible amount of depth and breadth for your PS4, this is it.
A solid RTS game right now, and with a bright future ahead, Act of Aggression is a strong and welcomed release.
Leo's Fortune assumes an identity behind the blasé eyes of its protagonist. Leo's the kind of dude who's seen it all before, a sentiment sure to be shared by any seasoned platformer enthusiast. Still, it's an inoffensive way to kill a couple hours on a Saturday, assuming ambition doesn't get the better of you first.
An instant classic in the point and click genre that plays great on the PS4 and goes highly recommended.
Enhanced as it may be, Risen 3: Titan Lords is still a very rough experience with too many problems that outweigh its merits.
Puzzlers exist in an interesting genre. From Tetris to Bookworm to Angry Birds to The Talos Principle, they all add unique dashes of panache to the classic game type. Portal made a seismic impact onto the puzzle platformer subgroup, proving that teasing the mind's critical thinking quality could be just as commercially viable as the usual "action" release. Magnetic stands as one of the more blatant attempts at recapturing that magic, even down to story lines. I don't necessarily dislike the basic idea here, nor do I think it's exponentially inferior to Portal's gimmick. Electromagnetism is one of the four forces of nature, and the magnetic field could play host to a great number of interesting gameplay possibilities. The problem is that the puzzles don't consistently deliver the complexity needed for them to be considered challenging. After completing the first several events and learning all the tools of the trade, identifying the test elements and stringing together the solution in one's head takes just a minute or two. Primarily, the challenge comes from simply executing the steps, being careful not to fall and get burned, hacked, or gassed to death. Magnetic works best as a platformer, which may be disappointing for those who wanted intermediate to advanced puzzling.
Though surely there's plenty of room for additional features and improvement, Super Mario Maker is a user-generated content experience assembled with the wisdom and mature philosophy of gaming's finest.
Surrounded by a weapons-grade aura of jubilation, Tearaway Unfolded rejects traditional applications of skepticism. Criticism just evaporates under tidal waves of color and personality, positive themes and excessive joy, and the heart-melting sentiment of its ending.
A welcomed release on the PS4 that is a blast with friends for satisfying, short player sessions.
Back to Bed is a visual upgrade from its mobile brethren, but it still maintains the quick, casual fun that the mobile side sported. If you like a decent puzzle game, this might be worth looking at on the PlayStation 4.
Only Final Fantasy could get away with the paradox of a clean slate that simultaneously references countless tropes endemic to its name. Type-0 HD can feel like the tortuous result of hasty assembly, but if allowed the time and energy to piece itself together, it stands as clear and original as others bearing its exalted title.
The joy of I Am Bread is the frustration that you have to go through to get to its goals . The wacky control scheme and the uncooperativeness of it all is a planned design, as well as the driving point for the game. Much like Bossa Studios' Surgeon Simulator, which is more about the complication of trying to perform surgery with individually assigned buttons for fingers, I Am Bread is lighter version of that same concept where it's not quite as frustrating, but still nonetheless a chore to play through.
Overall, the gameplay for Madden NFL 16 has been refined, simplified and improved. It feels like it's going back to a time where playing a football game was less of a chore and more fun. I think EA Tiburon hit the right notes with this year's Madden and has opened the door for everyone wanting to play a good game of football on their current generation system. Kudos to them for logical and entertaining gameplay improvements.
An indie gem that shouldn't be missed regardless of your platform of choice. It would have been ideal to see this re-release separate itself more from previous versions, but it's still a very good and memorable experience.
If anyone reading this has a One but hasn't experienced Gears first hand, this is a must buy right before the rush of the holiday releases really gets going in a month or so. For long time Gear heads, I still think this is a worthy hard drive partition, and makes retiring the 360 from your HDMI ports that much easier.
Until Dawn doesn't hide what it's trying to do. It's a game that focuses on story and QTE heavy gameplay. It has linear design driving it, while only deviating from the course with player choices, which affect the direction of the story. If you can accept these things, and realize it's not perfect, then you're going to probably enjoy Supermassive Games' horror show.