Includes RPS, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Last reviewed: Denshattack! · 6 days ago
I can't get Fish Sticks out of my head. Not the food, but the stray cat with a squished face and stubby legs that I wrangled into my shack in Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s new roguelite strategy game, Mewgenics. The shop, the pub, the dentist; no matter where I go, I…
I was, like so many of my 1990s-born peers, a huge Sims girlie. I spent hundreds of hours as a teen and young adult making people I knew, characters from shows I was obsessing over, or original characters I wanted to experiment with, and diligently following their life paths and…
Coldwood did put their hearts into Unravel and I can definitely feel that when I play. But despite his woollen charm, Yarny stayed well away from my own heart strings.
Firewatch is a rare and beautiful creation, that expands the possibilities for how a narrative game can be presented, without bombast or gimmick. It's delicate, lovely, melancholy and wistful. And very, very funny. A masterful and entrancing experience.
I associate Agatha Christie with a paciness and lightness of touch. It was there in this game at brief intervals but would then get obscured again as a scene dragged on for too long or you had to hover your mouse over a cigarette someone was holding AND a box of matches AND an ashtray in order to deduce they were a smoker. Eventually it just felt like the interactive elements stopped being a mild diversion and became an obstruction.
The Witness is one of the most fulfilling games I've played in yonks and it accomplishes a rare feat. It's varied, playful, elegant, mysterious, challenging, and intensely focused all at the same time.
American Truck Simulator is a simulation of driving a truck across America, and while it can claim many successes in terms of mechanical authenticity, its most effective simulation is state of mind. That zen-like focus and calm of driving, when every other worry evaporates from your mind. Only the road. Only the music. The music and the road as one.
I've admittedly not gotten an enormous way into the game, because good gravy, no one would want to. But it's been a tortuous, buggy, and most of all, deeply uninteresting slog. If a sudden delight were to arrive around the next corner, it wouldn't have been worth the effort of getting there.
It's a likeable game, and it feels fantastic to play when you nail an extended combat encounter with a chain of flawless shots, deflections, rolls, slides and aerial skull punches. It can be a touch imprecise, especially when trying to time a shot while rolling or throwing an explosive, but sometimes your failures can be just as entertaining as an unbroken display of acrobatic death.
There's loads to do in Lego Marvel Avengers, but only when you've found it. And of course the animation is well done, the ridiculous amount to collect relatively compelling, and if your kid 100%ed Marvel Super Heroes, then this will likely give them a new fix. But it's a despondent entry in a series that perhaps TT are finally beginning to grow tired of making.
XCOM 2 is an improvement on its predecessor in every way and the vast majority of those improvements have been applied so intelligently that they risk making Enemy Unknown obsolete. That game was a smart remake of a classic. XCOM 2 is a classic in its own right and as good a sequel as I can remember.
You'll cry. And cry and cry and cry. But I think you'll love it.
In fact, if you've looked at the screenshots, read this, and thought, "Goodness me, John's an idiot," then this is the game for you! I can't tell you where it goes in the later puzzles (there are 60 in total), as they unlock one at a time.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a prequel to the legendary Homeworld space real-time strategy games, but this time - heresy! - set on land. Here's our review.
Were it built with more skill, with a greater flow of movement and one hell of a graphical upgrade, and then given a dose of writing that wasn't horribly reminiscent of its sister show, this could have been quite the thing. And yet, I enjoyed myself at moments, before wearying of its weaknesses toward the end. Fascinating that it came this close.
Oxenfree was an unexpected delight for me. Atmospheric, beautiful and with the ability to feel real connections between its characters.
There are so many smart ideas in here, and the concept is neat, even if obviously derivative. But the execution doesn't hold it together, with disappointing responses to extremes, and a strangely anticlimactic progression. I feel like if this were given another six months, the game could be as interesting to play as it is in ambition. But as it is, it's not there.