Latest Reviews
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a great MMORPG experience on PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Grounded in tradition and learning from the lessons of the games that preceded it, it thrives on the strength of its excitingly varied and flexible class system and highly mobile combat. The...
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs may be a different kind of horror than fans are expecting, but it's an interesting and welcome experiment in gaming terror. Though its sharp fangs of resource management may have been dulled, in place of the swift bite is a deeper, more haunting world that...
As Omega Force’s latest Dynasty Warriors spinoff, Pirate Warriors 2 does a great job of making the One Piece franchise work for its gameplay. However, it’s easy to see how non-superfans could get lost in Pirate Warriors 2’s slow buildup, and it risks failing to really take off until it’s...
Puppeteer
The beauty of Puppeteer is that its charm and its execution overshadow everything else. For its occasional long-windedness, the story is quite captivating. For its intermittent cheap deaths, its overarching forgiving nature rises to the fore. For its occasionally frustrating platforming, its scissors-based traversal is a breath of fresh air....
The setting and gameplay of Total War: Rome II are a perfect match, giving us some of the most satisfying and visually striking tactical battles we've ever seen in video games. The campaign systems are absorbing and full of meaningful decisions that make me feel like I’m in charge of...
NHL 14
With much better collisions and a vastly improved fighting minigame, NHL 14 is becoming more gamey and less of a simulation, but that gives it a distinct and interesting flavor compared to its predecessors. Many long-standing complaints with the series have been addressed, though AI still needs work before it’ll...
Lost Planet 3
Lost Planet 3 at least has a respectable story and some combat variety to it, even if the pieces don’t always come together quite right. Jumping in and out of the mech keeps it from being just another cover-based shooter. If not for level design that’s full of frustrating inconsistencies,...
When compared to combat in games like DmC and Metal Gear Rising, Killer is Dead comes out feeling uninspired and underwhelming. The past few years have supplied us with more competent action games, more fully realized and stylish worlds, and much more interesting forays into marrying video games with mature...
Rayman Legends
Rayman Legends is a delightful platformer, and one of the best I’ve ever played. Thanks to clever level design that toys with genre conventions, it gets incredible mileage out of four basic moves. And with great local co-op and dozens of unlockables – including stages from Rayman Origins, special character...
Charlie Murder is a competently made and often funny brawler that has fun with a wide range of inspirations. But when you're not battling evil IT engineers or grotesquely illustrated zombies it can descend into a repetitive slog of mashing the X button, particularly when played solo. Dull minigames don’t...
Don't call this XCOM. While its tactical combat works well enough to prevent The Bureau: XCOM Declassified from being straight-up bad, everything else is fumbled so often and so bizarrely that I can’t recommend it. Hell, this prequel can’t even manage to explain where the name XCOM comes from even...
Ostensibly toys are brightly coloured pieces of plastic – that’s true of the three bundled with Disney Infinity – but I’ve always regarded them as something more. They’re catalysts of imagination, letting children picture new worlds with the help of an initial spark. At its very best, Disney Infinity fuels...
