Jordan Hurst
- Portal 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- The Stanley Parable
Frozen Cortex provides that, but only with custom modes, which require patience to create and are less viable for multiplayer. As it stands, it's a one-note game whose one note is fairly enjoyable, at least for a little while.
If, for some reason, the 50-100 hours of content in Pillars of Eternity were not enough for some people, The White March Part I will fulfil their needs. However, "expansion" seems like too generous a word for what it is. "Expansion" implies branching out into new territory; all this DLC does is cycle back for another lap in the same territory.
The first part of The White March wasn't exactly a bastion of innovation, so fans who were satisfied with it will certainly enjoy this conclusion, as it is undoubtedly the better of the two halves, regardless of its steps toward stagnation. It's telling that, despite having already put around 100 hours into the first two Pillars of Eternity releases, this one was still thoroughly enthralling enough to sink in another 10-15.
The kitchen sink approach to input is gone in Metrico+, but the clever premise is still undermined by a timid, half-hearted execution.
Some interesting story developments can't save the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within from being a tired, simplistic reuse of Telltale's usual techniques.
RUINER ruins its own explosive presentation and promising combat with poorly thought-out difficulty and incomplete narrative and gameplay concepts.
Episode 3 of Batman: The Enemy Within adequately follows through with some earlier plot points, but it doesn't do much else.
How entertaining you find Genital Jousting will depend on how funny you find its central joke. Beyond that, it's just fascinating that it even got made.
There's more to TSIOQUE than meets the eye, but not enough to make the pedestrian gameplay worthwhile.
This faux-remake does what it sets out to do eerily well. There's just the question of whether that goal was worth achieving.
Pathologic 2 is the ultimate acquired taste - unforgiving, byzantine, and eye-opening.
The ridiculous premise of Metal Wolf Chaos far outstrips what its gameplay can deliver, but this international release is still good for a laugh.
Chasm's beautifully realized world can't distract from an ill-fitting gimmick that leaves its gameplay unbalanced and repetitive.
The word "illogical" has always been the bane of adventure games, but Memoranda takes it to new extremes by extending it to its setting and narrative in addition to its gameplay.
GRIP: Combat Racing demands constant discipline from its audience while exhibiting little itself.
Spinch is a trip - both the psychedelic kind and the "fall on your face" kind.
All of the underlying wrongness of Infinity Runner can probably be traced back to Wales Interactive overstretching itself. The game was almost definitely envisioned as something more open and complete, until a lack of money or time forced the developer to squeeze its ideas into the shell of an endless runner. The rigidity of the genre ruins almost every promising aspect of the game - it defangs the antagonist, dilutes the plot to the point of irrelevance, and - most damning of all - makes the fact that the protagonist is a werewolf almost inconsequential.
Curses 'N Chaos will appeal only to a very small niche market. Enjoying it requires an intact nostalgia bubble and a friend to play with, and even then, there are better options out there. Tribute Games have admirably captured the immediacy and charm of retro gaming, but they've also revived its unfair and ill-conceived design techniques, many of which died out for good reason.
Dead in Bermuda is a game about solid characters that doesn't have any character of its own. It's an uninspired title with a warped sense of progression, most notable for the inevitably divisive conclusion waiting for users who stick with it for 15 hours. That probably won't be a very large percentage, because this is, at best, mildly fulfilling in the same way a run-of-the-mill MMO can be: because humans are instinctively fascinated by rising meters and numbers. Anyone who wants some engaging gameplay with their numerical Skinner box would be better served elsewhere.
Overgrowth's opaque combat, off-putting presentation, and unremarkable ideas would have made it a mediocre game ten years ago. Today, they make it a bad one.