bearcav

An under-the-hood overhaul of all things Elder Scrolls, but with Medieval Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation as inspiration? Count me in. They’ve fixed what I thought was an unsolvable problem with first-person melee and turned this type of RPG into something arcade-like and special. No, it’s not a half-as-long Skyrim substitute. It’s a 15x as long King of Dragons or Knights of the Round. Also, if you tell Nvidia to run DLSS4 on it, the graphics friggin’ rip.

Playing Nioh is like playing Ninja Gaiden on one screen, Onimusha on another, and Dark Souls on another, while balancing on the head of a pin. And it's glorious. Sincerely appreciate the ability to select a 60fps mode, and it's highly recommended for anyone picking this up. Have fun and die hard!

It's important to note a few things about No Man's Sky: it's done by a small team who wanted to make a giant universe in the style of 60s-70s sci-fi cover art, it's not created to be a mass-market product, and yet it was sold to people as a mass-market product that should check all usual "game" boxes. This works so well as a kind of snowglobe-esque homage to space opera universes, with on-point color schema, beautiful sound design, and a killer soundtrack, if the snowglobe was constantly changing around and you could do a *couple* of things to interact with it. It's also an actual artwork - the creators intend to express a love of discovery and the feeling of loneliness within infinite possibilities, like if you're the new guy in a big city and just don't get what's going on. It also really hits on the idea that beauty can strike you in weird ways when you're also racing to survive. If you want a great space simulator, don't get this game. If you want a great crafting game, don't get this game. If you want the best procedural generation of all time with wildly varied creatures, still don't get this game, because that's a little limited at the moment. But if you're all about exploring the weirdness of infinity, driven by a simple system to keep things interesting and a broad but well-written text based story, go for it. I did, and I think it's a good time.

This is a very solid iteration on a franchise that doesn't change very much. You get the best of the GBA game you've never played because it didn't have a US release, the best of the DS game without the forced touch-screen mechanics, and the best of the Wii game without all the waggle, all on a 3DS that has nearly zero latency - super important in rhythm games. It's the best of the Rhythm Heaven games. All that praise said, it starts a bit slow this time. While players will probably love the cheeky dialogue that comes along with there being an actual story for once, the initial sets of challenges are clearly for beginners and unskippable. Veterans of the series (and let's face it, that's who will be playing this game) might snooze through the long introduction until the game opens up. Once it does open up - and it makes it very clear when this happens - you'll finally be challenged again, and it's wonderful. There's interesting stuff happening with the music this time around, in both the regular stages and the remixes. Add on top of that a new unlockable system for the Museum and a few cute sidegames like what is basically Goat ****, and you've got the most fully-featured, mechanically-solid game in this series since the Japanese-only original. Highly recommended!

Quick hint: This game isn't about beating it quickly. Get into the single-player campaign and pick Ultra-Violence as your difficulty level, which isn't impossible, but will test your knowledge of how the game works, which is where this whole thing shines. If you're into intricate stories and cinematics, this isn't your game. If you're into fast and furious gameplay, tight controls, exploration, and possibly industrial rock, this is DEFINITELY for you! No scopes, no chest-high walls, no cover-based mechanics - you run, you shoot, sometimes you jump, and even though that sounds simple, the Devil's in the details - literally. Enemy variations keep combat entertaining throughout the game, and the way new enemies are introduced - sometimes by surprise, sometimes as "bosses" of sorts until you realize there's three of them in one place - is just perfectly-paced. All the new bells and whistles on top of what made the original DOOM games so good are nice, too - the lore stuff is really interesting, albeit tongue-in-cheek at all times, the weapon upgrades are nice because they're only for your alt-fire (therefore guns aren't underpowered when you first find them), the trials to get runes (a few stages in) often have an outside-the-box design to them, and the voice acting surprisingly doesn't get in the way - often because Doomguy kicks something and the game moves on, which is a nice touch. I'd definitely recommend Doom for its single-player alone. Try SnapMap, it's interesting, and maybe don't even get into multiplayer, but it's worth the price for the campaign alone.

I've been having some fun playing Gungeon. The controls are wonderful: they really perfected the dodge roll, which is fitting given the name of the studio. The sound design is great, as is the soundtrack. The character and enemy design and animation are top-notch stuff (and those bosses!!). The difficulty is proper Roguelike-hard. It's more like my playthrough of Dungeons of Dredmor than Nuclear Throne: you really need to get to know each enemy and what it does, along with which guns work the best on particular enemies with particular attack patterns. Secrets are all over the place and super-obscure, which I like, but your mileage may vary. The big downside: the RNG is really punishing on Floor 1. While the standard enemies are super easy, it's a huge spike when you hit the first boss. I've never had a problem getting a good set of guns by the time I hit Floor 2 and up, but that first floor can be super difficult because you have either an underpowered new gun or the default weaker one. For chests to open, you need a key. Those keys appear at random. That's the big problem - there's chests everywhere, but sometimes you won't open a single one, and then you're up against a boss who laughs at your standard pistol. Keys need to appear more often. The Convict circumvents this whole problem because she starts with a sawed-off shotgun, by the way. Overall, I'm returning to it, it's a ton of fun, and I hope they clean up just a bit of the infuriating RNG at the beginning of the game.

The Witness is the Dark Souls of puzzle games and a revival of classic head-scratchers like Myst. This game is polarizing - just look at the critic reviews to see that. You either love banging your head against really tough puzzles until you get that awesome feel-good revelation, or you don't. I'm in the former camp, and I'm enjoying this more than I've enjoyed just about any other game in years. There's zero handholding, constant twists and turns as to how puzzles can be solved, great use of the environment incorporated within the puzzles, amazing visual design, and all of this runs at 60fps the whole way through. I can't even begin to describe how gratifying it is to figure out one of the tougher puzzles in this game. If you don't know that feeling, or you just aren't a puzzle fan, don't buy this. For me, it's a 10, but it's strictly your-mileage-may-vary, which is welcome in an age of risk-averse game design that too often coddles the audience. Totally worth it if you're up for a challenge.

It's Gunstar Heroes, emulated and enhanced by M2, and in 3D. It's as good as that game's going to get, hand cramps on the 3DS aside! The sound is great (and there are the two different sound versions to choose from!), the quirky artwork and bosses are still there, and I think it still holds up well today. It's not a 2015 "10," but it's certainly a seminal retro game.

Artistic, responsive, knock-down difficult, and with a great soundtrack to boot, Zenzizenzic channels the toughest bullet-hell homebrews such as Vulkanon in its minimalistic visual design and maximalistic level, enemy, and bullet pattern design. Don't be fooled by the game having "five levels" in its arcade-ish mode - those levels are gigantic and tough, and the Macro mode is even crazier and infinite, given the random nature of roguelikes. If you're a shmup fan like me, this is a must-buy.

868-HACK is a super-addictive game. You might think that it's either just cryptic or bad at first glance - the graphics are somewhat minimal, and the sound is just weird, but the more you play it, the more you get **** in. It gets extremely strategic as you figure out what classes do and plan your strategy for each randomly-generated level. Soon enough, you're chasing your high score over and over again. It's not a game for everyone - if you're into cinematic experiences or in-app purchases, this isn't your game, but if you love strategy/turn-based games, check this out.

Nuclear Throne is pure, unadulterated chaos on top of a set of evolving and tight controls. Things will try to kill you, and you need to learn exactly how many hits each enemy takes, how each of the multitudinous weapons deals damage, how the mutations work alongside weapons and character traits, what particular types of terrain and obstacles do, etc. - otherwise, you'll fall apart in this randomly-generated top-down shooter. It's brutal! That's part of the fun - even the developers often have a hard time getting past World 5. [@GenoTS - that chest is called a "Mimic," and having no indicator that it's a mimic is the whole point of the enemy, a la Dark Souls. It's supposed to be tough!] Coming up on its 30th update, the team has been squashing bugs and making new stuff, while broadcasting their work on Twitch. They've almost reached their creation of the final level now. The soundtrack is awesome. The pixel art is expressive, weird, and cool. There are some really freaking cool secrets, and also some secrets that will kill you.

1001 Spikes is a paean to clever level design in a world full of games with procedural generation. The controls are so simple and so tight, and because of that, the game is all about how the levels work, what the developer is trying to do with you/to you. After a medium-difficulty tutorial world, prepare to be thrown in the deep end, with endgame Super Meat Boy-caliber levels popping up by World 3. With plenty of unlockable characters that do different stuff, if you like the game, you'll play it a ton. There's drop-in local co-op and versus modes, too, and man are they fun at a nerd party alongside Nidhogg and Towerfall. If you looked at this page because you were the least bit interested, get it! It's worth it.

Completely freaking worth the purchase. Yes, it's a pure arcade-style game with random enemies and one setting/stage for ten bucks, but the mechanics are so fine-tuned, the aesthetic's so unique, the crazy color palettes are just insane, and the part combinations make it very replayable. My favorite thing to do is just play the game with all random parts - just restarting with a new build each time. With just that one stage, I've put more hours into this than I did with Assassin's Creed IV, so that's something.

Go Google this game and check out the completely free 3DFPS build of it. It's so neat! You get to manipulate time in order to beat what would be a completely unwinnable FPS on its own, and the minimal black-white-red art style makes everything very clear. Also, compared to most time-manipulation games out there, this game is TOUGH.

I'm not a fan of the gameplay, which is a shame, because I really like the art style. One of the most interesting things about the game is that Danny Baranowsky, usually a music composer, did the sound design here, and he did a great job.

It's alright. I'm a Catbug fan, so it's nice to play a Jetpack Joyride-esque game where the cute protagonist exclaims "Sugar Peas!" every so often. The stages are really weird and interesting. Still, the controls aren't as great as they could be, the hitbox is a little unclear - it's just not as polished as Jetpack is, and for a game that ultimately seeks to improve and iterate on Jetpack, it doesn't quite work out. Not worth the purchase unless you're a fan, but hey, I'm a fan, so I got a small kick out of it.

Wayward Souls is ridiculously enjoyable! The style just oozes SNES-era Final Fantasy, the mechanics and sounds are very Link to the Past-like, the energy system is reminiscent of Secret of Mana, and the random generation of levels plays into that Roguelike replayability we're seeing in some recent awesome PC titles like Nuclear Throne. There are secret and special areas, tons of useless but entertaining hats to find and wear, interesting and well-designed enemies, and a strangely compelling narrative, given the randomness. Because it's such a challenge, I'd love to use a controller. I think I'll probably also get it on PC for this reason once it's out. Still, Rocketcat did their best with the (invisible) touchscreen controls, and for a Roguelike on a touchscreen device - heck, for *any* game on a touchscreen device - this is top-notch stuff. It's my go-to on iPhone when I'm out, or waiting, or if someone else is using the PC when I want to play Dark Souls 2.