Examiner's Reviews
Far Cry 4 deserves your time. While I don't want to say run out and spend hard earned money on it, that's your choice, but it serves as one of the best games I've played on the new generation of hardware. I look forward to organizing some incredible and random co-op hilarity, and will easily dump hours upon hours in to this game. If you're a fan of shooters, good story, and overall immersive experiences, Far Cry 4 is on a Golden Path of it's own.
The game has a steep learning curve for newbies, but long-time fans will appreciate the look and feel of the game along with the tons of modes available to play.
Overall Assassin's Creed Unity is by far my favorite total experience in the series. While not without flaws, the story, acting, and content packed into the disc is pretty incredible, and will keep you busy for quite some time. While yes, it's a bit disappointing to see microtransactions show up, they're entirely optional, and the technical hiccups are there but easy to look past. Unity stands as move forward, and proves that even without awesome ship combat, we can get a great game about the order of Assassins.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare represents a return to form for the franchise. While the campaign likely won't win story of the year, we don't expect it to. A solid campaign that teaches the basics, and tells a competent story are all we ask, and exactly what we got. Multiplayer is of course a big deal, and Sledgehammer proves they are not only up to the task, but in to innovate the space, as the Exo additions, supply drops, and operator customization will keep this Call of Duty on your hard drive for a while.
Those who were huge fans of Sleeping Dogs when it first came out and didn't bother with post-launch content might be pleasantly surprised at what United Front did after release. Neither expansion is particularly wowing, but the bevy of additional content packs sure makes roaming the streets of Hong Kong a heck of a lot of fun. For those of you who missed the original and are reading this article we only have one question. Why have you not picked this up yet?
When I look at the overall experience that is DRIVECLUB, I find an addictive single-player campaign that left me wanting more and more. The online multiplayer is a fun and competitive mode to enjoy with friends. DRIVECLUB proves to be everything I wanted it to be, with a few exceptions here and there.
It's not perfect as a complete package, but in terms of gameplay and visuals, as well as its assortment of modes, "NBA 2K15" is easily the best basketball game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
This is the best game that has ever been aligned with the Alien franchise and the rest aren't even close.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is an entertaining game. It is a great take on Lord of the Rings lore and delivers an engaging open-world experience that PS4 and Xbox One owners will thoroughly enjoy. The repetitive mission structure is disappointing, but the game's world, characters, Nemesis System, and the storyline make this game a must-play for fans of The Lord of the Ring and open-world games.
Its a graphical showcase, fueled by plenty of solid gameplay tweaks to an already amazing game and makes us wonder where the series can go once everything extra makes its way to the current generation via the announced updates. Even with that, it's still a bit of a letdown in terms of extra content, it's far from a disappointment and is best judged by those who play for the love of the series and sport and not those obsessed with extra bells and whistles.
The long and short of Madden 15 is this; if you are a year in year out Madden fanatic, you will enjoy the latest addition to the series. It might not have a ton of new features, nor a breadth of new content, but there are enough changes to entertain, keep the games fun and challenging, and you have your football game for 2014/2015's season.
The Golf Club is par for the course. It's an enjoyable golfing game that lacks in charisma – mainly being character and career progression.
Overall, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a thoroughly enjoyable experience on the PS4, much like it was on the Xbox One. It still remains one of the best shooters of the year, and that's with no story or campaign mode being attached to the game. PopCap Games and EA have a gem on their hands and if we could be so lucky, we'll see a return to the garden sometime in the near future.
Though our time with Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty was a mixed bag, the overall experience was one of delight. Clever puzzles and imaginative settings kept us entertained enough to overlook our control issues. Fans of the series and genre should definitely invest in the title as it is rewarding and offers plenty of content for the asking price of $30.00.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is on the short side, lasting roughly 6-hours. That being said; the experience is a powerful and emotional journey. It is one of Ubisoft's best releases and a must-play for gamers this summer.
Sniper Elite 3 provides a unique take on an overpopulated time period, in an overpopulated genre, but still manages to stand out. Utterly enjoyable, and customizable if you are not one for the X-Ray kill-cam, Sniper Elite 3 manages to make the carnage of killing something more about a means to an end. While the story may leave wanting, the experience within, and the collectible content, is enough to call Sniper Elite 3 a definitive step forward, and one we hope continues for Rebellion and 505.
The game is a great sampling of what to expect from Phantom Pain, but there is enough content to make Ground Zeroes more than just a sampling. You will find yourself replaying missions over and over.
When compared to past Killzone titles, we found Shadow Fall to have one of the better campaigns. There are some tedious tasks found during the latter half of the game that hurt the game's flow. Regardless, Killzone: Shadow Fall is a quality first-person shooter, making it a definite play for PS4 early adopters.
Some nights Battlefield 4 felt straight up unplayable. We trust that DICE will remedy the issues with the title, but it does stand on the weakest foundation that we've seen from the studio for quite some time. Luckily there isn't a hell of a lot else as far as huge names go on next generation consoles. That lasting appeal until next spring is something that makes Battlefield 4 really attractive.
If pirating and plundering with some stealth on the side sounds mouthwatering to you, chances are you want to get into this, no matter what you thought of Assassin's Creed III. We're more than glad to see the franchise continuing in the right direction. Consider us surprised that pirates didn't turn out to be the most cliche experience in the universe.