With the release of Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), mastermind Hideo Kojima says goodbye to a series he’s steered since 1987’s Metal Gear. But while he’s going out on a high note — as you can see from my review of the game — I couldn’t help but think his departure might actually be a good thing. Here’s why.
With a wide open world full of story-driven missions, random encounters, and even plants to collect, the third-person stealth-action game Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC) plays like a sneaky version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt if you swapped magic for machine guns. But while that might sound like a big departure to fans on this long-running series, what this really does is adapt the classic Metal Gear Solid formula to a engaging new setting, one that helps make this one of the most compelling games of the year.
When the first-person survival horror game ZombiU came out in 2012, it showed how the WiiU’s tablet-like controller could be used for some inventive games. Which makes it all the more ironic that Zombi — a version of ZombiU for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC — is just as good as the original, even though it’s played with a more typical controller.
Ever since Don Bluth made Dragon’s Lair in 1983, people have tried to make video games that were more like interactive movies, with varying degrees of success. But while Until Dawn (PlayStation 4) mostly manages to get the “interactive” part right, it doesn’t do so well in the “movie” department.
Once you get past puberty into maturity, you realize that being sexual is easy, but being sexy, truly sexy, takes real smarts and skill. It’s the difference between a trashy sex novel like E.L. James’ Fifty Shades Of Gray and an erotic classics like Pauline Reage’s Story Of O. Unfortunately, it’s not something the makers of Onechanbara Z2 Chaos (PlayStation 4) — an acrobatic hack & slash action game in which women with big curves and small bikinis take on hordes of zombies — seem to understand. Though there is some fun to be had if you’re a fan of mindless swordplay, it’s hard not to think how much better this could’ve been if they had spent as much time on the gameplay as they did the character’s outfits.
With the exception of the original Gojira, the Roland Emmerich’s 1998 in-name-only American edition, and 2014’s excellent comeback, most Godzilla movies have been rather low-budget. So it makes sense that this eponymous game — which was just released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 — would be low-budget-looking, too. It’s just too bad the gameplay is rather low-rent as well.
Just as they did a few months ago with Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the good people at Zen Studios are celebrating the new Ant-Man movie with a pinball table for Zen Pinball 2 (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita), Pinball FX 2 (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), Zen Pinball (iOS), Zen Pinball HD (Android, Amazon), and Marvel Pinball (iOS, Android, Amazon). But while the table has some elements fans of the comic might expect, it also has some unexpected elements that make it an addictive table.
While Zen Studios have spent much of the last few years making numerous Star Wars and Marvel Comics tables, they’ve occasionally found the time to adapt other video games — including Telltale’s Walking Dead adventure game, Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and their own Castle Storm — into fun tables as well. The latest of these is based on Valve’s Portal, which is coming to Zen Pinball 2 (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita), Pinball FX 2 (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC), Zen Pinball (iOS), and Zen Pinball HD (Android, Amazon). And while I would’ve preferred a Half-Life 2 table, since I like that shooter more than the puzzling Portal, even I found myself getting swept up by this table.
It was recently announced that like some of the bands that may be in them, the music games Guitar Hero and Rock Band will be making a comeback with Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4, maybe even before the end of the year. But if you hate music, don’t want to buy a guitar-shaped controller, or just can’t wait that long, you can sort of get the same kind of gameplay, and more, from Color Guardians, a side-scrolling endless runner, platformer, and color matching game for PlayStation 4, Vita, PC, and Mac.