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Games Review

Gravity Rush 2 is 2017’s first excellent game

by Chris Plante

The adventure of Kat and her cat.

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The Walking Dead game has a new lead, but it’s as stressful as ever

by Andrew Webster

The new season of Telltale’s video game based on The Walking Dead is the third to date, but it’s also designed in part to appeal to new players. It has a cast made up of mostly new characters — series star Clementine returns, but in a supporting...

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Drive!Drive!Drive! is a trippy game where you race three tracks at once

by Andrew Webster

You know how the infamous “Rainbow Road” tracks from Mario Kart are just, like, impossible? They twist and turn in ways that are hard to predict, and you always seem to be just a moment away from falling off the edge to your death. Now imagine a...

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Super Mario Run review: a fun but compromised Mario on iPhone

by Andrew Webster

Oftentimes Super Mario Run, the first smartphone game created by Nintendo, feels like a compromised version of the classic games. To work comfortably on a touchscreen held in one hand, Nintendo has had to change its proven formula. This isn’t new...

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The final episode of Telltale’s Batman game wraps up an incredible superhero thriller

by Andrew Webster

I didn’t see it coming, but one of my favorite games of 2016 turned out to be an episodic drama about Batman. Following the success of The Walking Dead, developer Telltale settled into a very particular formula: story-driven titles based on...

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Nine great Oculus Touch games you should try (or watch) right now

by Adi Robertson

If you ordered the Touch controllers for Oculus’ Rift virtual reality headset, you’re probably either eagerly anticipating their arrival, or already pulling them out of the box for some motion-control gaming. But what should you play? Oculus has...

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The Last Guardian review: can heart make up for technical problems?

by Andrew Webster

Design and technical issues mar an otherwise powerful experience

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Final Fantasy XV was worth the wait

by Andrew Webster

A classic 10 years in the making

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The new episode of Telltale’s Batman game introduces a terrifying new Joker

by Andrew Webster

Through its first three episodes, Telltale’s Batman game series has managed to carve out a niche, tackling very familiar territory in its own unique way. The Batman you control is a composite of the choices you’ve made in the game, while...

Dishonored 2 is a serious game that doesn’t beg to be taken seriously

by Adi Robertson

It’s not hard to talk about some of 2016’s biggest video games, even ones that are primarily shooting galleries, in terms that sound mature and universal. Watch Dogs 2 is a satire on Silicon Valley. Mafia 3 is an examination of racism. Deus Ex:...

Lumines’ new Rez add-on is block-matching made in heaven

by Sam Byford

The first half of the 2000s saw the release of two games that marked the height of designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s knack for audiovisual fusion. 2001’s Rez was an inventive shooter where your every action added to the intensifying techno soundtrack,...

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Watch Dogs 2 is exactly what the original game should have been

by Andrew Webster

New city, new characters, new vibe

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This cute game about a girl and her dog is absolutely terrifying

by Andrew Webster

Just looking at Yomawari: Night Alone, a survival horror game available on Steam and PlayStation Vita, it’s hard to imagine how it could be scary. It stars a cute little girl with a big red bow in her hair, and it features a charming 2D art style...

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Telltale’s Batman series is turning into my favorite interpretation of the Dark Knight

by Andrew Webster

Everyone has their favorite version of Batman. Over the decades the Dark Knight has gone through multiple iterations, and though the core of the character remains constant, you get a very different vibe from the likes of the animated series or Tim...

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Titanfall 2’s new story mode is exactly what the series needed

by Andrew Webster

The original Titanfall was missing something. The 2014 multiplayer shooter managed to stand out among its contemporaries with its breakneck pace and weapons and levels that were designed to be more forgiving of new players. The multiplayer maps...

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Near Death is a tense, fantastic game about surviving Antarctica

by Adi Robertson

Near Death, a first-person survival game released this summer, is easiest to describe in terms of the things it’s not. Taking place in an abandoned Antarctic research base in the 1980s, Near Death shares a setting with John Carpenter’s The Thing —...

Here They Lie is surreal, nauseating, and oddly compelling PlayStation VR horror

by Adi Robertson

When PlayStation VR came out earlier this week, one of its lesser-known launch titles was a horror game called Here They Lie. Developed by Tangentlemen, a studio that includes Spec Ops: The Line co-director Cory Davis and Tomb Raider series...

PlayStation VR’s best launch game is a 15-year-old musical shooter

by Andrew Webster

Virtual reality offers up plenty of potential for completely new kinds of experiences. Games where you can use your hands instead of a controller to interact with the world, and where the added immersion of VR can make you feel like you’re truly...

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Gears of War 4 review: better safe than sorry

by Sam Byford

“If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll like it.” It’s a perennial cliché in games criticism and something I almost always try to avoid. It’s a lazy way to bunt on actual appraisal of the title in question, playing off presupposed notions of what...

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PlayStation VR: nine launch games for Sony’s new VR platform

by Andrew Webster

Next week, PlayStation 4 will become the first console to play virtual reality games with the release of PlayStation VR. Sony is a bit late to the VR game — both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift launched earlier this year for PC — but the company is...

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Telltale’s Batman game continues to put its own stamp on the Dark Knight mythology

by Andrew Webster

There have been countless renditions on the Batman story over the years, from campy comics to grim feature films. You’d think that would make it a space that’s difficult to say anything new in — but it turns out that’s not the case. Telltale...

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Virginia is a surreal adventure that feels like a playable movie

by Andrew Webster

The term “cinematic” is overused in video game criticism to the point of cliche. The label is liberally applied when a game’s world is realistically rendered, when its storytelling has the thinnest sliver of ambition, or when the publisher hires...

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Forza Horizon 3 review: the unofficial Fast and Furious video game

by Chris Plante

Officially, Forza Horizon 3 is a spinoff of Forza Motorsport, the arcade side-route to the franchise’s hyperrealistic main drag. Unofficially, though, the game has more in common with the last decade’s trend of motorhead movies, like The Fast and...

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The Psycho-Pass game feels like a great new episode of the anime

by Andrew Webster

Before you decide to play Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness, you have to ask yourself an important question: how much do you love the cyberpunk anime series about a dystopian future governed by thought control? If you’re unsure about the show, or...

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Feral Rites is a big VR brawler that misses its chance at originality

by Adi Robertson

For months, Oculus has been arguing that ordinary console gamepads, not fancy motion controllers, have a real future in virtual reality. But so far, there haven’t been many VR-only projects that prove this theory true. The latest attempt — and one...

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Microsoft exclusive ReCore has an identity problem

by Andrew Webster

At its best, ReCore makes you feel like you’re in that scene from early in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when a masked Rey spelunks through ancient, crumbling spaceships, scavenging any usable bits she can find. Similarly, ReCore puts you in the...

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Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is a solid remix of a remix of a remix

by Sam Byford

I was getting a little worried as I trudged through the tutorial to Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, the second sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. 2007's Pac-Man Championship Edition is a legitimate arcade classic — it rebooted a...

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Phoenix Wright is back, and gaming’s best crime drama is weirder than ever

by Andrew Webster

Picture this: a courtroom full of loud, impatient onlookers, all dead set on seeing your client jailed for a murder she didn’t commit. The prosecutor is a deeply religious lawyer who claims to have the ability to see the outcome of a trial before...

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Fallout 4’s last big expansion is a letdown

by Andrew Webster

Over the past few months developer Bethesda has been continually rolling out downloadable add-ons for its post-apocalyptic epic Fallout 4. Every time I think I’m done, a new location or character or box of toys appears, and I’m pulled back into...

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a competent game in a confusing world

by Adi Robertson

In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I am a second-class citizen in a world that once celebrated my existence. I am a dryly sardonic protector of the weak in a world controlled by corporate interests. I also have giant blades in my arms, have dedicated my...

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The new Batman game starts strong by letting you be Bruce Wayne

by Andrew Webster

In 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum managed to capture something that had eluded video games for decades: the feeling of being Batman. The brutal hand-to-hand combat, the high-tech tools and investigations, that sensation of skulking around in the dark...

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Fallout 4’s newest add-on lets you build the nuclear bunker of your dreams

by Andrew Webster

I didn’t realize how fun settlement building in Fallout 4 could be until I started working on an underground bunker filled with elaborate psychological experiments. Since its launch last year, one of the biggest additions to Fallout 4 has been the...

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