In another level, I continuously switch between late fall and the depths of midwinter, controlling the old man as he crosses rivers and lakes. Ice floes can only be used as platforms in the extreme cold, but if he fails to jump back to the warmer season at every opportunity, he freezes to death. He is brave, but vulnerable.
Afterparty is an ambitious game that works hard to deliver funny dialog and outright laughs.
Over its five hours or so, the game yields amusement, challenge and charm. It’s highly recommended, even if you despise the game of golf. Maybe especially if you despise the game of golf.
On the whole, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a carefully designed platform game that rewards repeat play and trial-and-error.
Special items come rapidly, through many different means. I am gifted a boombox early in the game that I can turn on to force my enemies to groove to the tunes. Each item offers genuine strategic options while maintaining the general sense of goofiness and surprise.
I encounter other space explorers of my own kind. They are bizarre, likable clue-givers who provide moments of comic relief. I perpetrate no violence in this game. I am never required to fire a laser gun or grapple with enemies. (How few are the games, set in space, that absent themselves from combat.) Yet, the worlds I visit can be hostile, releasing their secrets with the greatest reluctance.
Three Kingdoms delivers, in the sense that it gives me the gift of a genuinely absorbing historical fantasy.
Hypnospace Outlaw is a hilarious satire on internet stupidity and venality
I hope the next Assassin’s Creed gives me as much joy as this one.
The Stillness of the Wind is a lovely, sad spin on farming games
Crackdown 3 is a playpen of combat and destruction that sets itself up as a liberating journey into a barbarous fantasy of wanton mayhem. But its central proposition — the freedom to do as I please — is undermined by frustrating design compromises.
Civilization 6: Gathering Storm offers too little, and costs too much
At the Gates is badly flawed, and strangely compelling
When the writers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey decided to suddenly turn Kassandra into a housewife, they betrayed the person they’d spent so much time and care creating. They made her into a cutout for a hackneyed plot.
Given this game's artistry, the child is a surprisingly ugly thing. It moves like a mole through molasses. Traversal is a major part of the game's puzzle landscape, but the child never feels entirely connected to the ground, dragging its feet through rocks, or floating weirdly over perches.
There are small things we can do for refugees via the appropriate charities, or through our political systems. We can also listen to their stories. Bury Me, My Love is brilliant storytelling.
Tough games generally reward me by offering up small lessons, each time I die. In most games, I'll notice that the big Dark Souls-y boss I'm trying to kill has a particular movement or flaw, and I test that weak spot until I discover the answer.
For a short time, it threatens to say something vital about games, heroism and violence. I take this as a good sign for the future of this form of entertainment, and as a frustrating demonstration of its present limitations.
Solis is a huge island, which allows for a realistic distribution of targets, and environmental diversity. There's some pleasure to be had exploring its various environs of city, jungle, mountain and beach-fronts, making use of an almost infinite variety of vehicles.
Some of the desires of Martin's characters come through in Reigns: Game of Thrones' structure and its writing. I can play as nine different leaders, including Daenerys, Jon, Cersei, Tyrion and Jaime. Each has their own quirks, as well as specific missions and locations that resonate with their previous adventures.