The amount of quality content in multiplayer, and the ability to change Horde difficulty levels and play casual or competitive in Versus, makes Gears of War 4 a terrific deal, especially given the quality of the product.

Aside from the missing customization, this is easily the best and most complete FIFA ever. There are other areas with minor issues, but nothing worthy of mentioning in the negatives section. Tightened gameplay, improved visuals and The Journey make this a monumental achievement in the series and it reestablishes the series as the King of the Pitch, yet again.

The entertaining racing delivers a good foundation for the series, but there’s just not enough depth in this package to consider this a complete experience.

NBA 2K’s depth continues to set the bar for the genre. Like always, NBA 2K17 is several games within one. However, the amalgamation of modes delivers an especially tight package this year...The smaller issues only slightly hamper the overall experience. 2K has delivered another classic the moment you rip off the plastic.

On a whole, you can tell the dev team focused most of their attention on tightening gameplay. That’s understandable, but this approach has left many of the modes feeling a tad empty.

With some new depth, the already strong NHL series has remained solid. The product on the ice is great in almost every aspect, but the feature set could still stand to add layers...That said, NHL 17 is still a game virtual hockey fans of all different levels should have in their collections. It’s fun and deep enough to provide long-term entertainment.

F1 2016 succeeds where many racing titles fail because it effectively weaves in some personality to accent the hardcore racing details and car mechanics. The gameplay is phenomenal and the presentation is the main positive that drives the aforementioned personality.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Attack on Titan. Being able to traverse the environment and fluidly take out giants felt great. While there are some glitches and it could get repetitive for some, I can still happily recommend this to any curiously minded gamer and doubly so if you are an Attack on Titan fan.

It’s not a terrible game, it’s simply not a very engaging one. In the end, it’s just boring—a monotonous and dreary affair with pretty visuals and the promise of something more just over the horizon.

It has nearly all of the strengths of Human Revolution, but in a smaller, shorter package. The relative length, and the overall lack of evolution from a game made five years ago is striking. There are minor improvements, sure, but given how long it’s been, frankly I expected a lot more. I don’t regret my time with the game as I love this world, and gameplay is still a lot of fun, but what was revolutionary five years ago seems rather ordinary now, given that so little has changed.

Madden 17 scores in many ways, and there’s more to like than there is to hate, but we can’t ignore the flags on the field. Gameplay, presentation and customization have taken strides, but there’s still work to do.

There’s plenty of mystery and betrayal and a good, fun, and fairly brisk story that will leave you wanting more—even if the end isn’t really a massive cliff-hanger or anything (like some Telltale episodes are.)

Mighty No. 9 then is definitely a missed opportunity, not only in terms of crowdfunded gaming but also as a homage to what made the Mega Man games so great in the first place.

It’s a somewhat amusing game, but DG feels and plays like a high-level mobile game, only it isn’t.

4.1 is a raucous and fun shooter with a different as well as more open ended approach compared to the more scripted movie wannabe type games out there. The dialogue is both silly and endearing and the combat is very satisfying.

Inside is an incredible game, a compelling artistic achievement that deserves your time no matter what genre of game you normally prefer. I [wish] there was a tiny bit more to it, but between the gameplay, the animation and the atmosphere, it’s enough to be a worthwhile experience, and one you won’t forget for a good long time to come.

If you’re looking for a game to take the place of titles like London 2012 or Beijing 2008, then bypass this one. However, if you’re after a game that can offer a few hours of fun for your family a week this summer, this is a must-have.

In totality, this game feels like a shell that has a decent foundation with its gameplay. Unfortunately, it lacks variety, flair and depth.

It has been a very long time since I’ve felt this much passion for a game. Overwatch is a perfect storm. It’s a new IP, looks gorgeous, plays phenomenally and singlehandedly rekindled my desire to play a genre of game I thought I’d left behind at this point.

Overall, this is a great platformer done better than most of the competition out there.

Ultimately, I was deeply impressed by Uncharted 4, and I absolutely believe it lives up to the high bar of quality the series has set for itself, meaning all the delays were probably worth it. I think it relies entirely too much on the no-longer-innovative climbing mechanic, but there’s simply no denying that this game is a visual masterpiece with likable characters in an interesting and intense story. In short, it’s an Uncharted game, and once again, that can speak for itself.

It’s absolutely worth your time, and gives me a great deal of faith that virtual reality can be used for more than just spectacle and first-person POV. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

With The Climb, Crytek has taken a throwaway traversal mechanic from games like Uncharted and masterfully turned that into its own compelling and complete experience. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

It’s also not any competition for MLB The Show 16. Then again, it doesn’t set out to be either of those things. The aim was to create a baseball game that had a pick-up-and-play quality with a splash of real-life MLB style. While it accomplishes those goals in some areas, the game just isn’t all that fun to play—at least not as a console title.

Dark Souls III is a game that harnesses nostalgia masterfully. There’s no doubt that this is a game that’s as much love letter to fans as anything else. There’s a bit more exposition, tons of familiar faces and nods to the original game, and a sense that we’re travelling back to a place we haven’t been in a long time. There’s a sadness to this adventure, but also a kind of joy.

While CPL16 does some things right, there’s just not enough here to satisfy any sports gamer who isn’t simply thirsty for a lacrosse game. Because of the solid gameplay, the foundation has been established for a complete product in the future. Unfortunately, we just aren’t there yet.

This is a genuinely new experience, and I’m beyond glad that Remedy took this bizarre risk and made it. This is a game that feels special, new, and worth trying. I doubted this thing, I really did. But damn if it didn’t get me in the end.

The Show looks good, plays great and is deep enough to overshadow moderately unbalanced visuals and a slight void of personality. If you’ve always loved the series, the fire will still burn despite the minor infractions.

What’s here is special. Slightly flawed, but still absolutely worth experiencing for yourself. ADR1FT is evocative, chilling, tense, and unlike anything I’ve ever played, even if it isn’t for everyone. [VR Tested]

It’s a ton of fun, a great challenge, and a wonderful new take on the Souls formula, with plenty of its own tricks to make it original and fun on its own merits. The couch co-op seals the deal, though online multiplayer would also be nice. Making matters even better, the game only costs $17.99. You can’t go wrong.

If you like Far Cry, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll like this as well. But if you’re becoming exhausted by ~20 hours of leveling, skinning, leaf-collecting, trinket-finding and map-clearing after the last few installments, Primal is definitely more of the same. The setting change is effective, but this isn’t going outside of the series’ comfort zone as much as Ubisoft might have you believe.

While I really love this game, I have to dock points for performance issues. At release, a game shouldn’t have this many glitches, crashes, and other problems. Points also docked for the pacing misses and the difficulty spike at the beginning. Finally, points docked for the shoddy multiplayer, though I don’t weight this very high in my overall scoring of the game.

If you like your shoot-em-ups to unleash hell at an insane pace but all the while expect you to keep your head, then Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours is definitely the game for you.

A thoroughly excellent game and one that Capcom intend to support for a good while to come. It is, however, an intensely involved beat-em-up, as well as a work in progress, and only time will tell if the online community will be able to support players unfamiliar with the series.

It’s a gripping, compelling story set in a truly beautiful world that’s worth exploring. Just go in with your expectations clear. This is a relatively short game that’s almost entirely about the story, which consists almost entirely of two people talking over radios to one another. You play a chubby guy in his forties talking to, presumably, a woman of a similar age who you never see. There’s really nothing else like it I can think of, which makes it all the more rewarding...I loved Firewatch, mostly, letdown with the ending notwithstanding

American Truck Simulator scratches the exact same itch that Elite: Dangerous does. While they’re vastly different games, both evoke a sense of the wide open road, of the perfect road trip. Both give you freedom and put you in control of your own destiny and your own direction. Both are ridiculously compelling and they let you set your own pace.

Your entire playthrough should take 4 hours, but Oxenfree’s story unfolds briskly. As do the stakes. There’s no filler here, just an increasingly fascinating, emotional story steeped in the paranormal. Night School Studio’s first effort is a brilliant one. Not perfect, but absolutely worth experiencing.

Like any good art That Dragon, Cancer redefines the boundaries of its genre. This is creativity unfettered, matched in weight only by the likes of The Last of Us. However, where that game told a similarly heartbreaking story, there is no need here to perpetuate preconceived ideas. Shooting had to continue one way or another in Naughty Dogs tour de force, but here even assumptions about God don’t have to perpetuate indefinitely.

Gransys is a fascinating, starkly beautiful world. Character customization, combat, and the weird story and brilliant end-game all make this one of my favorite action-RPG’s of all time. Meanwhile, the Dark Arisen changes make the game somewhat more traversable and streamlined, turning a fun but frustrating game into something far more enjoyable. There’s nothing really new here, but it’s great to finally have the game on PC.

I give Rainbow Six: Siege a Hold on my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. It’s a great multiplayer game and well worth playing, but it certainly won’t hurt to wait a bit until the price comes down. Better still, if you wait you can go and buy two or three copies with friends and play it the way it’s meant to be played: As a team.

Let’s try a metaphor and imagine games as drinks. Fallout 4 is a fine wine, aged, complex, and evolving, likely better with a bit of wait. Bloodborne is a single malt Scotch — dense, overwhelming and rarified. Destiny might be a well made cocktail — a bit trendy, probably too expensive, but eminently satisfying and possessed of a certain technical skill. Just Cause 3 is a Miller High Life. It might not tick those other boxes of quality that those other drinks manage, but damn if I’d have it any other way.

The Old Hunters is a devilishly challenging addition to an already brutal game. With its release, Bloodborne transforms into an even beastlier and more grotesque experience, and it’s better than ever—a blood diamond in the rough even in a year chalked full of incredible releases.

If you’re looking to capture that feeling of playing in a beautifully-realized Star Wars sandbox, albeit one lacking variety and depth, EA DICE nails it. If you’re looking for a shooter stacked with substance, engrossing character progression, and endlessly addictive gameplay to sink your teeth into for the months ahead, Star Wars Battlefront misses the mark.

The gameplay is the star here. Rise of The Tomb Raider does everything Tomb Raider did and does it better, taking a still-growing heroine into an unfamiliar location and unfolding its lethal mysteries as we grow to meet them. This is still not the game it could be, but it’s remarkable how quickly Crystal Dynamics has taken a half-dead franchise and turned into one of the most vital experiences on the market today, true to its essential character while still feeling absolutely new. This is the new standard for third-person shooter/adventure games. I want another.

Fallout 4’s greatest triumph, and its one major point of evolution is in its storytelling, crafting a lengthy, unexpected ending and resolution that I will remember for years to come. It also remains one of the best games in existence for those who simply like to wander and explore and unearth long-buried secrets. But it struggles with archaic gameplay systems and an inflexible engine that anchor the game to the past for all the wrong reasons. Fans may enjoy more Fallout and a brand new map to explore, but this sequel will not be heralded as revolutionary or overly impressive this time around.

While both the story and the multiplayer will likely be divisive—we’re a long, long ways from Modern Warfare or the original Black Ops here—I’m glad to see Treyarch taking risks, trying something different, and impressed that even with all the changes, the core game still feels very much like Call of Duty.

Halo 5: Guardians is a smashing success. The campaign isn’t the strongest of the series, but it’s still a fun space opera romp, and it’s ending transforms the Halo universe completely...The phenomenal multiplayer makes this a must-have game, and probably the most compelling Xbox One exclusive to date.

There’s just no spark of life in Syndicate. Everything is so by the book it feels like it was made in factory by the child laborers I’m trying to free. They have refined the combat, stealth and traversal systems to a point where they’re as close to perfect as they’re ever going to get, but the actual content of the game itself refuses to evolve.

At the end of the day, it’s just not innovative and fun enough for me to heartily recommend it, and that’s largely because of the cost.

Seeing the cars come alive on the track, commander characters speak back to you when you take them down, and the slowly evolving powers of each car is like nothing I’ve encountered before.

A great start to a new series. Although the child-like visuals will put some Telltale fans off this is to miss the huge investment and achievement so far. If the series continues in this vein it’s set to be warmly welcomed by both Minecraft fans and families.

I do wish there was a better deck-building mechanism and it could certainly use more character-progression—anything to lessen the random-numbers game (RNG) and increase player agency. Anything, also, to give it more longevity. Even a multiplayer mode would help give this game more substance. But as a simple pick-up game? It works.

It’s a simple remaster, but it makes a work of art all the more beautiful and immersive.

From exploration to puzzle-solving to the charming story and lovely graphics, King’s Quest: A Knight To Remember is a delightful game.

It was nice while it lasted, but I doubt I’ll keep it installed. I hate waiting for most things in life, but if I’m going to wait then it had better be worth it. Angry Birds 2 is not.

I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, but if you enjoy horror movies like Scream and want to experience the genre with some agency in the story’s outcome, Until Dawn is a great choice.

It’s an experience with considerable polish that will introduce many young players to Star Wars franchise for the first time. Equally it will re-connect many parents who remember the original trilogy to the more recent joys of Rebels, Clone Wars and Episodes I, II and III.

Superchargers is the moment we really see Skylanders deliver on its potential. It’s not the cheapest game to play with your family but it delivers a huge amount of value.

In an already crowded it stands out from the crowd by taking the toys-to-life genre another step in the right direction.

Rock Band 4 may have lost a few features (some temporarily, some permanently) in its transition to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but the core gameplay is dramatically improved by allowing us to be more expressive, while preserving the older mechanics for those resistant to change. It’s player choice at its finest, and a welcome return to fake plastic rocking.