Last year’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown was amazing. It kept me enthralled for over 60 hours. I even managed to save humanity a few times, and while I was having fun each time, my campaigns always followed the same arc: tech up to laser weapons, tech up to carapace armor, capture and research plasma, research ghost armor, discover psionics and save the planet. Things didn’t always go according to plan, but when they did, that was the order of operations. XCOM: Enemy Within shakes things up quite a bit, and it makes every aspect of the game feel fresh again. READ MORE
I’m a bit confused by Into the Nexus. It’s meant to cap off the Future series, but new things are teased at the end. It’s nice that the PS3 got it as a swan song, but looking at the cloud save options and the PS4 launch lineup, I can’t help but feel like Sony had bigger plans for Into the Nexus than it was able to pull off. And it’s a shame, too, because Ratchet & Clank is in top form here. I only hope that a good portion of its audience didn’t skip the title because of new hardware coming down the pipe so soon after the game’s release. READ MORE
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, more than any other game I’ve ever played, is less of a game and more a collection of toys that happen to have a story connecting them. Regardless of where I’m sending Edward or why, my face erupts into a huge smile every time I hit traveling speed and the crew of the Jackdaw breaks out into song. Just like I did with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, I could sail the seas for hours, take in the sights and feel like my time was well-spent. It’s only improved by listening to excellent renditions of “Drunken Sailor” and “Spanish Ladies” while I marvel at the beautiful scenery created by Ubisoft. READ MORE
Batman: Arkham Asylum drew a lot of comparisons to Metroid when it released in 2009. Arkham City and Arkham Origins have been steadily moving away from that formula ever since, trading upgrade-driven exploration for open-world gameplay. Blackgate, however, channels the Metroid franchise quite a bit, which is unsurprising given developer Armature Studio’s ex-Retro origins. READ MORE
Humor is difficult to do in video games. Adventure games have an advantage as they lean more heavily on their story than their mechanics, but it’s still hard to make your audience laugh when you have no idea if they’ll get stuck on a puzzle between setting up the joke and delivering the punch line. Daedalic manages it, though. The whole experience is a joy, for both newcomers to the series and veterans of Rufus and Goal’s quest to save their junk planet from being destroyed by the citizens of Elysium above. READ MORE
