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Farpoint is a must-have game for any PSVR owner - so long as you're willing to drop the cash on the gun bundle. The story is good enough for what it sets out to do, but it's the meaty single-player offering and the online co-op that propels Farpoint to the higher reaches of the VR stratosphere.
If any virtual reality title would convince people to dive into the technology or take it seriously as an eSport, Sparc is that title. It's simple playground fun with none of the bullying or awkward relationships. Needless to say, CCP Games' creation works and works well. Everything is as smooth as can be for a game that has competitive gaming dreams. Let's just hope that more arenas, items, and modes are added to keep the casual fan base around and even more complexity is inserted for the comp squads. Also, you know...if you like throwing a ball down a hallway, then this PSVR title will make you enjoy it like you were a kid again.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is a solid entry in a series that manages to perfectly balance between its goofy, intense, and sometimes sad scenes. The battle system is revamped, and punching someone's face has never felt better. The visual and sound improvements are fantastic, and the game is stuffed with fun things to do at every turn. If you are a fan of the series, this is an incredible experience. This is also the last journey of one of the gaming's toughest characters, and he could not ask for a better farewell.
The Council offers gamers a tension filled journey purely fueled by character interactions and mysterious circumstances. Best of all is the evolved gameplay mechanics from what we're used to for an episodic endeavor. I truly felt that I had control of every situation from an ability standpoint and a cleverness one. Wrap up an amazing RPG progression mechanic into a great looking voyage on a mysterious island and you have an incredible start to a game. The seeds of a secret society's leader gone missing have been expertly laid and I can't wait until Episode 2 comes about. Here's hoping this first one isn't the end of where the title shines.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider has some of the best visuals and sound of any game this year. This last entry in the trilogy has improved every aspect of the previous two games while adding some new ideas. Exploration is both thrilling and satisfying, and the excellent tombs are enormous puzzles waiting to be discovered and conquered. Other than a few minor audio and video flaws, the story and characters fall just a little short of greatness, but that won't keep you from enjoying an amazing game. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara finally realizes her full potential, and it is quite the ride.
Vane’s arresting visual design, inventive mechanics, compelling environmental storytelling, and tense, viscous atmosphere converge to create a truly exceptional experience and PS4’s first essential exclusive of the year.
The Hong Kong Massacre is a treasure of a game. It’s basically John Woo’s Stranglehold, but as a top-down shooter, and as Stranglehold is one of my favourite game’s of the PS360 era, that’s the highest praise I can give it.
When it comes to sports videogames, I’ve never liked the arcade-style ones with over the top gameplay and superhuman displays of strength. At first glance, that is exactly what the Super Mega Baseball franchise delivers, but once you start playing, you’ll see that it’s actually a deep baseball simulator with smooth gameplay and a metric ton of customization options. Super Mega Baseball 3 is better than its predecessors and they were a lot of fun. Despite the silly aesthetics, Super Mega Baseball 3 is not just a good baseball game, it’s my favorite baseball series going right now.
Wasteland 3 is a deep and satisfyingly replayable CRPG that is a love letter to fans of the post-apoc games from the late eighties and the nineties. It may not be the sharpest looking game in 2020, but for me, it is a perfect marriage of old-school ideas and current-gen looks and depth that I will be playing for a looooong time.
Hotshot Racing is pure fun, and that's something I can always get behind. It's good fun for all ages, but I suspect the older generation will look on Hotshot Racing with a little more love in their eyes than the clueless kids of today.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught is an easy game to recommend. The gameplay is solid and very, very fun, even if it's a little gross at times. The story isn't the highlight, and it does fall into some traps of repetition and tropes, but The Walking Dead fans will be happy to take a step into the miserable world with Daryl as their avatar. The real highlight is in Scavenger missions and all the walker bashing it brings. It's a shame there's no co-op, and not all of the original cast voice their characters, but there's really not much to complain about.
DIRT 5 is a brilliant racer and that provides an early taste of next-gen, at least on PS4 Pro. The gameplay is great arcadey fun, and there's depth to the single-player mode that gets much deeper with the player creation kit in Playgrounds. Dirt 5 blurs the lines between current and next-gen with DIRT 5. It's ahead of the game and perhaps one of the best racers of this console generation, and if you're left playing on the older machines this side of Christmas, you shouldn't feel too hard done by - you're still getting an exceptional racer.
Ubisoft delivers another open-world epic, but this time it's a focused and streamlined affair. The graphical overhaul works to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another as Assassin's Creed continues its ongoing evolution as an accessible action-adventure for the long-time fans, while still offering a deep RPG experience for those introduced via Origins and Odyssey.
"If you don't get hooked on the gameplay, you may find the game repetitious in the latter stages, but by then you'll have gotten your money's worth regardless. Ask yourself one question before passing this game up; will I ever have another chance to bloodily slice limbs off of grotesque naked men (without doing serious jail time)?"
Human Fall Flat is a fantastic physics-based puzzle game that takes a simple concept and executes it perfectly, with a powerful physics engine hiding behind the simple looking façade. Pushing and pulling has never been so much fun.
Korix takes the RTS genre and puts its own little twist on it. It's simple to get into but if you intend to master the intricacies and explore its hidden depths in the multiplayer component, you'll need to invest some time and really get your tactical mind to work.
Marvel's Spider-Man leans heavily on the tried-and-tested open-world formula, to its benefit and its loss. While it apes those that came before at every turn, it does so in such a way that it doesn't even matter - it's a beautiful Spider-Man game that tells its own story while delivering gameplay that's familiar but fine-tuned. Spend a few minutes swinging around and you'll barely care for the game's shortcomings. This isn't just the best Spider-Man game to do - it's the best super-hero game thus far.
"Imagine if the show Metalocalypse and the movie Heavy Metal had a baby. Now throw in even more bloody, visceral, H.P. Lovecraft-esque exploits that would make any hardened warrior blush. Seriously, if there was an alternate dimension that was a literal hell landscape, Slain: Back From Hell would be a perfect depiction of it. The art, music, level design, and creatures all come together to form an unforgettable, gothic horror experience. Although with all the headbanging I did to the soundtrack, I might not remember much in the long run. After all metal never dies."
If you've got a hankering for a colourfully fun shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously, Dick Wilde won't do you wrong. The lack of extra modes is a bit of a bummer, but the general gameplay and presentation more than makes up for it.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is the perfect sequel to The New Order. Everything has been improved from the enemies and weapons to the visuals and sound. The game has a great story too. If these are the last days of single player, we could not ask to go out with a better bang.