Latest Reviews
NHL 16
When played by yourself or with a friend on the couch, NHL 16 is a fast, sharp-looking, and fun hockey sim that (unlike last year’s game) includes enough modes to keep veterans happy while doing an admirable job of welcoming newcomers as well. It still suffers technical problems with online...
It’s hard to pick fault with what Konami has achieved. I think it’s still too early to say with absolute confidence that PES 2016 is the best football game ever. Historically, it’s in the weeks and months after release that a football game can really establish its place in the...
Steins;Gate
In large part, I enjoyed Steins;Gate. Its first half is smartly told, its characters are genuinely likable, and I enjoyed learning about science in humorous ways. I just wish that the dating elements had been more smoothly incorporated into the established narrative and not forced (gruesomely at times) on the...
Shadowrun: Hong Kong doesn't change much about the core gameplay experience that developer Harebrained Schemes has given us for three years now, but it makes up for it with a quality tactical RPG that's challenging, well-written, and filled with memorable visuals and audio. What it lacks in new features it...
Of all the ways to experience One Piece — a daunting task, considering how much of it there is — Pirate Warriors 3 isn’t a bad choice. It does its source material justice, and the heavily condensed canon story is as fun to experience as ever. One Piece’s unique style...
Armello
To be fair to Armello, any turn-based multiplayer game struggles if the players you’re competing against are slow or incompetent. The big problem is that even when it works smoothly, there’s nothing special about Armello beyond its style to elevate it beyond passable. But if anything goes wrong, and its...
Like a big bucket of Hot Wheels brought to life, Forza Motorsport 6 is first-order car porn for the automobile obsessed but remains an accessible and exciting racer for those who just want to drive fast in something red with a horse logo on it. It’s spinning its wheels in...
The White March Part I provides some incentive to return to the Dyrwood in the form of a higher level cap, and the delightfully brutal combat, but few of the other new features leave a lasting impression. Despite an avalanche of possibilities provided by the wintry setting and the two...
Super Mario Maker is a great way to mark Mario’s 30th birthday, but it’s not concerned with being an overwrought history lesson. Instead, it’s a celebration that folds three decades of Mario into one accessible, powerful creation suite. The perpetual joke at the end of every 10 Mario Challenge run...
Tearaway Unfolded successfully translates so many aspects of the original. It remains a distinctive experience which celebrates creativity and fun with undimmed enthusiasm and invention, and along the way asks you to do things very few games do – whether that’s designing a snowflake or christening a baby wendigo. It...
Mad Max
Mad Max is a juxtaposition of exciting, thrilling fun set in a world of disgusting, primal depravity – like a singing telegram informing you of a death in the family, or an ice-cream cake with your terminal test results written in frosting. It’s a conflicting place of despair, a personal...
Looking at Dishonored today, there are elements of the design that haven’t aged gracefully, such as the tendency for mission design to be compartmentalised and the somewhat quirky controls, but the gameplay is still a liberating experience, as it’s grounded in player choice. It’s entirely up to you whether you...
