In the end, Future Soldier is a really engaging third-person shooter that tosses you into some hairy firefights armed only with interesting weapons and smooth controls.
The game is incredibly accessible, but it's also incredibly deep. It's the warm shore of the Pacific Ocean, with a teeming coral reef 30 feet below the surface. A reef made up of hideous demons and, when PVP is released, ruthless, hardcore players, of course. But they will find it beautiful, while casual fans and curious semi-gamers will be perfectly content splashing around in the shallows.
Despite some minor issues (and a couple that aren't so minor), Max Payne 3 still manages to be a first-class third-person shooter and is thus one of the better games of the year. More importantly, it's a welcome return for one of the shooter genre's better series. The years may not have been kind of Max, but it seems he hasn't missed a beat.
There's clearly room for improvement, including a more aggressive AI, but over 30 hours later and I'm still playing it. Not bad for a simple take on Civ with some dragons thrown in.
Starhawk gives you a wonderful set of toys and just enough incentive to use them, and with a will to learn and experiment, hardcore players will find a deep and engrossing multiplayer experience. It may be rough around the edges, and it's certainly not perfect, but Starhawk is definitely fun.
Moments of blissfully smooth combat are followed by awkward bouts of running away. Just when you start to get bored by doing the same "go slurp us that scientist" mission for the fifth time, it throws you a curve ball. Which means that anyone who thought the original fell short, or was dull, or got trumped by inFamous, Hulk, or any number of Spider-Man games, is not going to be swayed by this. But for those who enjoyed the original, this sequel does not disappoint.
Despite the constant worry of carrying too much loot around, and even with some small interface issues, The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is a marvelous game. It's more focused and has a vastly superior combat model than Skyrim, is more realized and contains better writing than Dragon Age, and treats sex like a mature theme and not a juvenile goal. It's not to be missed.
It's short but sweet, which I personally prefer over games that overstay their welcome. It's also a pleasure to play, with a satisfying mix of action/platformer pizzazz and puzzle elements with a steady, addictive progression from those simple first stages to the devious concoctions of the late game.
If you opt to try it out, beware that this is the sort of thing you really do need to play with others. Playing is fun, watching others play is fun – but flailing through a bunch of Kinect minigames alone in a darkened apartment is not the Happy Action way.
SSX is a worthy addition/reboot (whatever we're calling it) to the series, although the whole Survive It shtick isn't nearly as robust as it was originally played up to be, and probably explains why EA dropped Deadly Descents from the name. While some feature are questionable, or questionably absent, as in the case of multiplayer, shredding the slopes in outlandish fashion is as enticing as ever.
