Fez is the most authentic exploration of the NES era of games that I've ever played, from its sound and visuals to its obtuseness. It uses the capabilities of current systems to take those ideas further, while limiting itself with specific intentions, deploying scrutability in bits and pieces. It doesn't just love the games it borrows from — it understands them. It knows what it is and what it wants to be, and doesn't compromise on it. And for those willing to bury themselves in Fez's alien world and logic, there are plenty of treasures to be found.
Battlefield 4 melds elements of its predecessors, but their baggage weighs it down
Rise of the Dark Spark is a colossal failure
That absence of meaningful evolution might be Killzone: Shadow Fall's biggest sin. For all the next-gen bluster of its visuals and the repeated blunt-force attempts to ram a message home, Guerilla's first shot on the PS4 retreads shooter cliches, and poorly. In a launch lineup crowded with shooters, Killzone: Shadow Fall sits at the bottom.
EA Sports UFC feels barely held together, a collection of parts that are often as frustrating as they are poorly explained. Somewhere, in all of the complication and opacity, is a game unlike anything else out there, that finds the unpredictability and wildness that set MMA apart from other combat sports. But there's an awful lot of bad to dig through to find it.
A progressive Assassin's Creed saddled with signicficant baggage.
Frustration tangles up Unravel's better ideas
Rainbow Six Siege is already fighting a difficult battle trying to enforce a more methodical vision of a competitive shooter. It's a minor miracle that Ubisoft Montreal has built such a solid foundation in that regard. But the bizarre progression hooks Siege borrows from free-to-play games, its dearth of content and its network problems make for an awful lot of frustration to overcome in search of those rare moments of unit cohesion.
The elements of a better game never come together in Thief
Ultra Street Fighter 2's pedigree can't make up for its shortcomings, or justify its price tag
A boring collect-a-thon and empty open world drag down Recore's strong fundamentals
Street Fighter V is the skeleton of a great fighting game
Child of Light seems content to only scratch its own surface
Isolation isn't the worst Alien game, but it is the most disappointing
Unity falls short of the fresh start Assassin's Creed needs
Dying Light too often loses track of what it's best at
Titan Souls finds its best moments when its willing to spare the rod
If more of what Sonic is what you want, then this is very much that, but more, and bigger, and faster. But for me, as someone with fond memories but key criticisms, Sonic Mania seems content to paint over some of the series' problems rather than fix them, making for a game that falls a little short of what might have been.
At around six hours long, Song of the Deep doesn't have enough time to become a disaster, and there are redeeming aspects of it. The character, the voiceover, the presentation are all a change of pace from the video game status quo, and the sense of discovery the first half offers is welcome. But it's hard to shake the feeling of a game with potential that never quite figures out how to deliver on it.
Titanfall 2 has the basics down, but loses much of the focus