Game Reviews

‘Watch Dogs 2’ Review: A Competent but Cringeworthy Open-World Adventure

Watch Dogs 2 is the Internet as designed by committee. Its hackers are caricatures built from selfies and buzzwords, trying to poke fun at subversive Internet culture without understanding it. It’s a sanitized and commercialized version of real and relevant issues, and it hamstrings its own potential in a Quixotic quest to be hip.

watch-dogs-2-cast-laptops

‘HITMAN’ Review: Time to Cancel This Contract

HITMAN is a strange experiment in incremental content and aggressive monetization. It was billed as a “World of Assassination,” but its world is smaller than any the franchise has ever seen. While I’ve managed to enjoy every prior entry in the series, this one eluded my best efforts.

hitman-swirly

‘XCOM 2’ Review: Good Luck, Commander

XCOM 2, the sequel to 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, can proudly stand beside both the old and new in the X-COM series — no small feat — but it also surpasses them with its brilliance.

2K Games/Fireaxis Games

‘Gran Vitreous’ Review: Twin Sticks and Neon

There are way too many shapes chasing me, and they’re all neon — which would make a really beautiful pattern if it wasn’t trying to kill me. I’m stuck between that, a giant bitmap UFO, and a gravity well that’s likely to eat all of us if I’m not careful. And I’m having asteroid flashbacks again.

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‘Star Wars Battlefront’ Review: Stay on Target

Star Wars Battlefront is a game reminiscent of the era before multiplayer games became weighed down by extraneous features and superfluous content. While it lacks a lot of the gilding we’ve come to expect from competitive shooters, this focus on the core experience had paid off in spades.

The Associated Press

‘Undertale’ Review: A Charming Independent RPG with a Lot of SOUL

Undertale is the next big indie gaming darling, resulting in a hardcore fanbase across the internet immediately following its September 15 release. The game features a well-rounded cast of characters, humorous dialogue, and inventive gameplay mechanics. I found it to be one of the most memorable RPGs I have played in recent years.

Kickstarter