Playing a game you enjoyed a second time can be rough, potentially adding exposure to flaws you may have glossed over when the experience was exciting and new. I can safely say that, while it has its fair share of issues, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is as solid now as it was on the Wii. READ MORE
The strategy genre seems to be one of the more fertile grounds for innovation in all of gaming. Since its inception, designers have actively sought out all the varying avenues of possibility for manipulating virtual worlds. Different applications of systems, highlighting different motivations and tactics and endless variation on scenarios give the genre a wide breadth of potential. The newest example of experimentation in the genre comes to us in the form of Reus, a strategy game that prides itself in its creativity and bold design. READ MORE
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 has a lot going for it. First and foremost, it, like Rain-Slick 3 before it, is not afraid to poke fun at tropes and then use them itself. It’s also very funny. The battles are an absolute blast to play, and the tale is long enough to feel substantial but short enough to not overstay its welcome. That’s something that more RPGs should do; 15 hours is often enough, and if your game will take 80 hours to complete, then I may just shy away from it; I could play four other games in that same span of time. READ MORE
Filling the family-friendly action-adventure role in the PlayStation 4’s launch is Knack, from Mark Cerny and Sony’s first-party Japan Studio. It shows off the tech of the new hardware in ways that may not be immediately apparent to those who aren’t particularly technical, but that’s not the important part: it’s like an interactive CG-animated movie! That’s the pitch, anyway. READ MORE
There are a lot of things in games that are just not fun. Getting absolutely decimated because your equipment is too weak is not fun. Steamrolling the enemy because your equipment is too strong is fun once and then never again. And more than anything else, grinding easy missions hoping for a rare drop is not fun — particularly when that rare drop will take you straight from getting handily beaten to absolutely wiping out the enemy. READ MORE
