Developer Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: World War II packages a short-but-satisfying campaign with multiplayer that is fun and accessible for newcomers and returning fans of early titles.
Developer Gears for Breakfast’s A Hat in Time channels classic platformers like Banjo-Kazooie for a delightful romp that makes a great last-minute stocking stuffer.
Ubisoft’s latest outing in their science-fiction alternate history franchise is a decent action RPG — but not a very good Assassin’s Creed game.
The follow-up to developer MachineGames’ masterful 2014 Wolfenstein franchise reboot is as beautiful and brutal as the first but feels noticeably thinner.
Carving up Orcs in Middle-earth: Shadow of War is as much fun as it was in 2014, but every decision made surrounding that central conceit seems to have been drawn up by a marketing department, rather than the creative minds that once hypnotized us with the innovative Nemesis System.
Developer Reikon Games’ Ruiner is a gruesome tour through a vivid cyberpunk dystopia, dripping with neon-soaked style, that will satisfy fans of old-school isometric shooters.
Volition’s Agents of Mayhem couches tired gameplay in bland world design and populates it with a cast of grating one-dimensional caricatures.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice impresses with sight and sound, but there isn’t any meat on the game’s bones.
Arkane Studios’ revival of the Prey franchise may not be the epic adventure we were once promised, but it’s a thrilling science fiction adventure in its own right — if you don’t fault its reliance on some well-worn tropes.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a crushing disappointment from top to bottom and an inadvertent argument for letting the Mass Effect franchise rest in peace.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is a strange game that feels more like the errant love-child of Just Cause 3 and The Division than any previous title in the Ghost Recon franchise, but unfortunately it doesn’t pull off the best parts of either title.
The latest chapter in the Legend of Zelda series is a masterclass in elegant design, filled with interlocking gameplay systems wrapped in a gorgeous aesthetic and played over one of the most endearing worlds Nintendo has ever created.
Horizon Zero Dawn straddles the past and future in much the same way as its post-apocalyptic setting, falling just a little ways short of its full potential when it leans too heavily on tired mechanics. It’s a good game, removed from true greatness only by its adherence to tired formulae.
For Honor is a simultaneously rewarding and frustrating experience, innovatively blending team-based multiplayer design with fighting game mechanics but unfortunately held back from its full potential by technical issues.
Resident Evil 7 is a triumphant return for a troubled franchise, with only a few nagging missteps keeping it from greatness. https://youtu.be/ZBh1_u7BgiU The quietly bland protagonist of Resident Evil VII fades from existence within the first minutes of the game due
Watch Dogs 2 is the Internet as designed by committee. Its hackers are caricatures built from selfies and buzzwords, trying to poke fun at subversive Internet culture without understanding it. It’s a sanitized and commercialized version of real and relevant issues, and it hamstrings its own potential in a Quixotic quest to be hip.
Dishonored 2 is a gorgeous, dense sequel to one of the best games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Unfortunately, it lacks some of the original’s soul.
Civilization VI isn’t just another brilliant entry in a series known for greatness, it’s the perfect starting point for people who have never before taken the plunge with the long-running 4X turn-based strategy series.
Battlefield 1 is the most fun I’ve had with a Battlefield title since the original 1942, despite flaws that have dug themselves deep into the trenches of the franchise.
Developer Playdead’s adventure platformer INSIDE is a brief but unforgettable experience which will haunt you long after its fleeting play time is up.
Mafia III abandons the series’ trademark charm and attention to detail in order to create a mostly forgettable Grand Theft Auto clone.
Ludeon’s RimWorld isn’t just one of the best simulations in recent memory; it makes a strong case for being on track to become one of the best ever made.
Weappy Studio’s This Is The Police is a gripping, narrative driven police chief simulator, loaded with hard choices and deals with the Devil that is sometimes bogged down by its own gameplay mechanics.
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky is a truly disappointing excursion into a universe of wholly untapped potential.
Double Fine’s Headlander is a trippy 70’s romp through “Metroidvania” gameplay and a worthwhile purchase for those who don’t mind its simplified take on the subgenre. https://youtu.be/EmbrHyh5OWk Both Metroid and Castlevania introduced us to the idea of “open world” platforming,
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the latest entry from the team at Eidos Montreal, lives up to the Deus Ex legacy, which is in and of itself high praise. It’s a capable and compelling role-playing game that refines the gameplay of Human Revolution and confronts harsh issues without treating its players like children.
Rocketcat Games’ Death Road to Canada is a survival action roguelike that delivers simple and punishing thrills.
Spiders’ The Technomancer is a lackluster pseudo-sequel to the more interesting sci-fi RPG Mars: War Logs and a step backward from their previous work.
The capstone to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series is a master class in game development on every conceivable level. Few games in the modern day have the sort of magic that immortalizes them in the way that classics like Super Mario Bros.
Creative Assembly has crafted an epic rendition of Games Workshop’s storied license and a thoroughly engaging Total War game in its own right.
Developed by id Software, DOOM’s mad dash through a technological occult apocalypse on Mars is another competent franchise revival from Bethesda. My screen is awash in the gore of my foes, when red arcs of unholy power flicker in a dozen
HITMAN is a strange experiment in incremental content and aggressive monetization. It was billed as a “World of Assassination,” but its world is smaller than any the franchise has ever seen. While I’ve managed to enjoy every prior entry in the series, this one eluded my best efforts.
Tom Clancy’s The Division from Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment is a triumph of online world building, cooperative gameplay, and streamlined MMO design. It’s not just a threat to competitor Destiny, it’s a stark indictment of massively multiplayer games at large.
Far Cry Primal languishes under the burden of being a first-person shooter without guns, striving for equivalence where it could have been utterly unique.
XCOM 2, the sequel to 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, can proudly stand beside both the old and new in the X-COM series — no small feat — but it also surpasses them with its brilliance.
The king is dead, all hail the king. The Taken King saw the end of the failed experiment known as Destiny 1.0 and an effective re-launch of the game, but is it enough to both win over skeptical players and keep those who have stuck with the game thus far playing?
There are way too many shapes chasing me, and they’re all neon — which would make a really beautiful pattern if it wasn’t trying to kill me. I’m stuck between that, a giant bitmap UFO, and a gravity well that’s likely to eat all of us if I’m not careful. And I’m having asteroid flashbacks again.
Star Wars Battlefront is a game reminiscent of the era before multiplayer games became weighed down by extraneous features and superfluous content. While it lacks a lot of the gilding we’ve come to expect from competitive shooters, this focus on the core experience had paid off in spades.
Undertale is the next big indie gaming darling, resulting in a hardcore fanbase across the internet immediately following its September 15 release. The game features a well-rounded cast of characters, humorous dialogue, and inventive gameplay mechanics. I found it to be one of the most memorable RPGs I have played in recent years.
For a game about the gradual rebuilding of society after its cataclysmic end, Fallout 4 manages to be primitive and unfinished in all the wrong ways.
