Part 1 of BioShock Infinite's story-centric DLC returns to Rapture but doesn't give you long to enjoy it.
NBA 2K14 on PS4 & Xbox One is not only a great basketball game, it's a showcase for your new console.
NBA Live 14 marks the return of the once-excellent basketball sim, but that excellence is long gone.
Peggle 2 is a joyful follow-up to one of the best puzzle games ever made.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone lead the way on the South Park video game we've always wanted.
Titanfall excels at making every moment and every action a fun one. It is a breath of fresh multiplayer FPS air.
BioShock Infinite's final DLC brings brilliant closure to both Rapture and Columbia.
Alien: Isolation erases the memory of Colonial Marines, but it's still not the great Alien game we were hoping for.
Time has done little to diminish Grim Fandango's beauty or relevance. It is an adventure game not to be missed.
State of Decay's unique gameplay remains intact on Xbox One, as does its jankyness. Nevertheless, don't miss YOSE.
I badly wanted Beyond Eyes to use its attractively whitewashed look and novel, visually limited ideas to tell a much more moving story whose empathetic lessons could've stayed with me long after the end credits rolled, but it didn't. Only its ending taps into this potential, and it's a shame the rest of its short playthrough time couldn't follow suit.
Rock Band 4 makes smart choices in bringing the series back, even if its setlist is somewhat disappointing.
Firewatch is amazing for many reasons, but above all because it's an adult game that deals with serious issues, with realistic adult dialogue to match. And it deals with those issues just like actual adults would: sometimes with humor, sometimes with anger, and sometimes with sadness. It is among the very best of the first-person narrative genre, and it reminds us what video game storytelling is capable of in the right hands. It's a game I can see coming back to every year or two just to revisit its beautiful sights and memorable characters – just like a good book.
The staples of Mirror's Edge remain refreshing and unique in the first-person genre in 2016, but Catalyst's attempts to keep up with the open-world Joneses don't always jive with its design strengths of movement and momentum. On top of that, muddy-looking console versions and a lame story filled with unlikable characters doom Mirror's Edge's return to fall short. I was so happy this game was being made, but in the end I'm just as disappointed in how it turned out.
Carmageddon: Max Damage feels like it was designed in and for the year 1999, which on paper is a noble goal when trying to revive a franchise. Unfortunately, in practice it just doesn’t work, instead reminding us that time moves on. Max Damage is a collection of ideas that looked good on paper and sounded good in its Kickstarter pitch, but in practice it would only have been an acceptable sequel if it’d come out in 1999.
Sadly, even loading an MP3 of ‘90s favorite “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows didn’t make any of these four music mini-games and passive experiences any less boring or more bearable. If my friends came over to check out my new $400 VR headset, Harmonix Music VR is the last thing I’d want to show them.
I never expected to compare Gears of War 4 to The Force Awakens, but I couldn’t be happier to do so. Like the latest chapter in the story from a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away, Gears of War 4 is directed by a new generation of creators, shares a lot of similar narrative structures to the beloved first piece of the trilogy it succeeds, and is an experience you’ll walk away from with a big smile on your face – in campaign, Versus, and Horde modes alike. It’s about as good of a franchise reawakening as I could’ve hoped for. J.J. Abrams would no doubt appreciate what Gears 4 accomplishes.
Super Bomberman R’s multiplayer versatility and boss-filled story mode are laudable retreads of classic gameplay, but its depth and customizability are disappointing. By contrast, the aforementioned Bomberman Live was a brilliant, fully featured Bomberman for Xbox 360 that came out 10 years ago, and it only cost $10. It’s reasonable to expect a bit more from a $50 Bomberman game in 2017.
You certainly get your $20’s worth out of Thimbleweed Park. The voice cast doesn’t elevate the script in the way they always did in the LucasArts “talky” days, but an enjoyable, self-referential story and hundreds of puzzles to solve make it worthy of a place on your shelf next to Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.
Danger Zone is a simple and barebones game that manages to recapture some of the car-smashing action of the classic Burnout series, but not enough of the joy. Though Burnout's Crash mode was always the star of the show in those games, it turns out that Road Rage, Burning Lap, etc. defined Burnout just as much as Crash did, as well as its personality. Their absence here is felt deeply, though to Danger Zone's credit it's priced accordingly at just $13. As such, it's worth a look for Burnout veterans, as long as you calibrate your expectations appropriately.