Matt Gardner
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Matt Gardner's Reviews
Not much has changed off of the pitch, EA Canada still can't seem to work out how to create stable netcode at launch, and goalkeepers still make hideous errors in spite of their obvious upgrades, but ultimately FIFA 15 is a fast-paced, thrilling triumph where it counts. It's frustrating at times, but it's also the most rewarding FIFA in years.
I'm not coming out of this locker.
Pix the Cat is a joy to play -- a heady, thrilling mix of bitesized, speedy, spatial puzzling that'll keep you coming back time and time again.
Bayonetta 2 is mechanically perfect, yet it is also a game that is stuffed with personality and wit and charm and an abundance of ideas and imagery and symbolism that its poor story cannot hope to make sense of or contain. But that's okay -- it is the finest game Platinum have ever made, and the best thing to grace the Wii U thus far.
Probably the best tower defence game there is. Nothing more, nothing less.
Bereft of a new-gen equivalent, F1 2014 is a stopgap game thrust into the spotlight that takes last year's version, strips back the Classic content, and adds in this year's cars. With the right setup, you can still get a pretty thrilling ride out of it, but to be honest you're best ignoring this hasty knockoff and investigating next year's effort instead.
NBA 2K15 is probably the best example of sports game fan service out there. It's a comprehensive package for any NBA fan that does an enormous amount to capture the intricacies and the dramas of the league, all the while creating exciting on-court action that is detailed and nuanced and fun to play. However, its years-old connectivity issues, and the dependency of offline modes on online servers once again threaten to ruin what should an outstanding game.
The Evil Within is a good game, an assembly of Mikami's best work and a rather pointed lesson in classic survival horror that Capcom would do well to note, but it's also unashamedly rooted in bygone years. As such, it'll pleases nostalgic fans yearning for a shinier, bloodied love letter to the creepy classics of yesteryear, but it doesn't really deliver anything particularly new. Greatest Hits albums are usually stuffed with goodness, and The Evil Within certainly has its moments, but they're also usually put out by bands with nothing more to say, I can only desperately hope that's not true of Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks.
Make no mistake, this is a content bundle rather than a generational upgrade, but that's sort of okay. How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition presents a solid content package, but it is disappointing that technical hiccups of last year's version still remain. Still, if you're looking for some pick-up-and-play, zombie survival action, this is a pretty good shout, and the new modes are ace.
Far from pointing the way forwards for the series, Assassin's Creed: Unity is a model of creative indecision and corporate policy -- a corpulent, broken mess that plays neither to its own strengths nor to its fanbase. There are flashes of promise here, moments when everything comes together, and the game's content package is hefty, but ultimately Unity proves to be a mercifully forgettable disappointment.
LittleBigPlanet 3 is an impressive game, stuffed with more imagination than ever before, and presented in a manner that makes user creation supremely accessible even as the toolset deepens. Though the Adventure mode is sadly short-lived, and the platform differences are fairly negligible, LBP 3 will surely prove to be a must-have game for PlayStation or series newcomers this winter.
Though lazily framed and under-scripted, Far Cry 4 is a gorgeous, systems-oriented playground that provides endless hours of entertainment. And exploding elephants.
A deeply atmospheric, emotionally compelling game that manages to treat war as a serious topic and examines the hard choices made by those caught in the middle of conflict. You might not particularly enjoy your time with This War Of Mine, but it's definitely a game you ought to play, being one of the finest critiques of war that this medium has to offer.
Gat Out Of Hell is a £15, bite-sized Saints Row-lite experience. Go into it with those expectations and you'll probably be fine. But if you don't care about playing last-gen material on new-gen platforms, give this a miss, do yourself a favour and pickup a copy of the original Saints Row IV for under a tenner.
Dying Light is a game best experienced on your own terms and at your own pace. It eschews the excesses of its sibling franchise, Dead Island, but is no worse for it and if you can get past the clunky storytelling and the repetitive missions, you might a diamond in the rough that really empowers you to revel in the design aspects of its zombie-infested sandbox.
Even if the mechanisms of this game seem a little dated now, we're reminded how the story and its characters are timeless in their good humour and quality, and in that respect, this Remaster should hold almost as much joy for newcomers as it does for returning fans.
Slick, stylish, sweet, there are probably more superlatives beginning with S that I could use to describe Superhot but I think you get the idea.
The vast majority of Firewatch is an utter delight. It presents a gorgeous world that you want to sink into like a hot bath, with characters you're desperate to get to know. Unfortunately, that's all sort of squandered by an ending that fizzles out into the realm of the incredibly forgettable.
Perhaps the game that best underlines the tenet that bigger isn't always better, No Man's Sky is undoubtedly a technical marvel, but it's also sterile, repetitive, and all too easy to put down.
Its linearity and lack of challenge do the ideas at the core of The Final Station something of a disservice. It's not a bad way to spend a few hours, but ultimately this apocalyptic train ride comes off the rails pretty swiftly.