World of Warcraft: Legion addresses long-standing player concerns in smart ways
Ashes of Ariandel is the best Dark Souls 3 has ever been
Mafia 3 attempts to do great things with its writing, but the gameplay can't keep up
Dragon Quest 7 ties together a bunch of fun mini-adventures into a lengthy, nostalgic package
No Man's Sky is an impressive set of tools grafted onto a game with very little going on.
I Am Setsuna is a somber yet joyful nostalgia trip
Necropolis fails to capture the magic of its influences
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has good ideas but never goes anywhere with them
Ratchet & Clank is something worthwhile for fans new and old alike
Dark Souls 3 lives up to the formula in some respects but falls short a little too often
Superhot never lets its good looks or cleverness overtake its smart core design
In its best moments, Darkest Dungeon makes me feel crazy and hopeless. There's something I can't say for most games: The times when I most felt that I had irrevocably fucked up were also the times when the game was at its strongest. Though some of Darkest Dungeon's more annoying design concessions detract from the overall experience, I'd be foolish not to recommend such a singular experience.
Explorers is a strong start to a new take on Final Fantasy
Resident Evil 0 is better in retrospect than it was at release
Xenoblade Chronicles X is an awesome game buried under a mountain of annoyances
Rise of the Tomb Raider executes the franchise formula with confidence
Syndicate doesn't get everything right. It doesn't solve all of the series' problems, and at this point, I'm not sure if any one game could. However, it's the first step in a uniformly positive direction that the franchise has taken in years.
The balance that Dragon Quest Heroes walks between trivial fun and deeper strategizing is precarious. At any point in the 30-plus hours I played, I felt like it could have tipped over, leaving a boring, button-mashing shell of a game. Amazingly, it never did.
SOMA may not be as scary as Amnesia, but it is without a doubt a stronger game
Mad Max is a shallow, forgettable experience