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You’ll also feel like you’ve helped write one. Ghost Trick is a story about stories, about how the invisible machinations of a guiding hand can create something whole and beautiful. It could only ever be a video game. At the risk of embellishment, it might be one of the video games. That it’s found a home on modern hardware is encouraging, and that Capcom saw fit to leave it more or less untouched is a small miracle. This is Ghost Trick as it always was: pristine, unassuming, and inimitable. And this remaster will make you glad that it’s been resurrected.
In Spider-Man 2, we have the most elevated idea of what a AAA open-world game could be. Insomniac’s New York City isn’t an empty place for the player to destroy at will, Peter and Miles aren’t audience ciphers, and the story isn’t there for padding. Great power has been employed to bring this world to life on a scale unprecedented, even for AAA games. Insomniac’s great responsibility was in filling that world with life, love, and something even Peter’s Uncle Ben forgot to imbue his nephew with, and most games of this type must aspire to emulate: Insomniac’s Spider-Man sequel is a game driven by great purpose.
This isn't just a nostalgic copy of the games of the medium's youth, but also a fever dream of what the 8-bit era was capable of.
A result of the lack of tutorials and handholding is that each bit of incremental, hard-earned progress provides an unparalleled adrenaline rush.
For those desiring a more focused approach to gameplay, Far Cry 4 offers a lengthy campaign with over 40 missions.
It's more interested in showing off just how beautiful (and deep) the multilayered design runs than it is in really elaborating on it
In short, Advanced Warfare advances every single aspect of the already impressive Call of Duty series.
Someone will likely prove this statement wrong, but there hasn't been a game that's run this far with the storybook conceit, and if there is, it's a near-certainty it wasn't executed with this much beauty, heart, and care.
Experience is earned largely through quests, which highlights the emphasis on thoughtful storytelling over mindless bloodshed.
Reaper of Souls improves so much, so quickly, that gamers may too engrossed to remember to resent Blizzard's requirement that players remain connected to the Internet while playing.
As befits a game funded through Kickstarter, The Banner Saga doubles down on risk/reward mechanics throughout its rather lengthy journey.
Year Walk is a minimalist point-and-click chiller that affectingly and disturbingly strains for meta-fiction.
The virtue of shooters is a simple set of parameters creating interesting decisions, and the game's greatness is how it expands that matrix.
There's only two questions that matter: "Do you love Nintendo?" and "Do you enjoy hitting things 'til they go flying off into the stratosphere?"
The Switch delivers Captain Toad in a higher-resolution format, and with better gyroscopic controls.
Treature Tracker is a powerful gesture of confidence by Nintendo: a spinoff game with more original ideas than most companies' new IPs.
The campy hypersexuality feels joyful, rather than oppressive, because the character's overdetermined gender presentation is an expression of her power rather than a contrast to it.
Final Fantasy XV is a game that chooses to leave its mythology disjointed and its emotions real.
It's an experiment that acts as a deconstruction and overjoyed celebration of everything Super Mario Bros.
They say that New York City never sleeps, and those who play The Division may understand the feeling.