At its core, Shadows: Awakening (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) is an isometric, third-person, action-centric role-playing game in the vein of Diablo III. But what sets it apart, and helps make it one of the more engaging games of the year, is how it not only lets you switch between parallel dimensions, but also how it has you using this mechanic in clever ways.
While it’s silly to speculate about what Han Solo would eat if he was in our galaxy, or what TV shows he would binge, it’s a safe bet that he’d probably enjoy pinball. Maybe not obsessively, but when Chewie’s not around to play darts and Lando is off flirting with some waitress, it’s easy to image Han dropping a couple quarters into a pinball machine. But what makes me think he’d like the three tables included in the Star Wars Pinball: Solo pack for Zen Pinball 3 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) — well, two out of three of them, anyway — is that they honor him and his recent biopic, Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as his friends, in a way that’s fun for fans of pinball, the Star Wars saga, and smooth criminals alike.
At first glance, the physics-based puzzle game Donut County (PlayStation 4, iOS, PC) seems like it’s devoid of any challenge. But while it may not be as difficult as Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy, there is some thought needed if you want to beat this rather clever game.
Having learned survival skills in 2013’s Tomb Raider, and honed them in 2015’s Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is putting them to the test in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), the final game in this prequel trilogy. But while this third-person action-packed adventure is as effortlessly fun as the other two, this isn’t just the same game in a new outfit.
It’s funny how all the talk of licensed games always being terrible goes right out the window when the thing being licensed is a comic book. Take the interactive adventures of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While he’s had some terrible games, people mostly remember such good ones as Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows, Ultimate Spider-Man, and, of course, Spider-Man 2. Thankfully, it is the latter category that that we find Spider-Man (PlayStation 4, PS4 Collector’s Edition), the wall-crawler’s newest adventure, and first from the good people of Insomniac Games.
Like other people who’ve made co-op games, the good people at Rebellion have said that their third-person shooter Strange Brigade (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) was designed to be played with friends, but can still be fun for those who don’t play well with others. As one of those latter folk, I decided to put their words, and their game, to the test.
Here’s my review of Strange Brigade as a single-player game.
Like The Blacklist and Designated Survivor, Blindspot is one of the ridiculously unrealistic but super fun high-concept dramas that are de rigueur on network television these days. But if you’re such a fan of this action show that you’d like to have every season in your personal collection, you might be a bit disappointed in Blindspot: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray and DVD.
When I was thirteen, circa 1981, I spent many afternoons at the community center near my house, dropping quarter after quarter into the now classic arcade shooter Tempest. So it is with great sadness that I must tell you that the latest updated remake, Tempest 4000 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC), failed to grab me in any way.
The original Ant-Man is one of Marvel’s lesser movies; a fun action movie that was undercut by bad and obvious jokes and a predictable plot. But while Ant-Man And The Wasp isn’t a complete reversal of course, it is a notable improvement in many ways.