In anticipation Shadow Of The Tomb Raider being released this September on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, the good people from Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics held an event at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles where they gave journalists an opportunity to play the opening level of the game. What follows are my impressions of it.
Suffice it to say, some spoilers follow. But only some.
Whether you thought it was triumph or a tragedy, there’s no denying that Star Wars: The Last Jedi was one of the most divisive movies in the Star Wars saga. Thankfully, the same cannot be said about the two tables that comprise the Star Wars Pinball The Last Jedi collection for Pinball FX3 (Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC) and Zen Pinball (iOS, Mac, Android), which will satisfy fans of pinball as well as people who both loved and loathed The Last Jedi.
In The Godfather III, Michael Corleone lamented, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in!” But while that’s also the situation that Kratos finds himself in at the beginning of the new God Of War (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Collector’s Edition), the game’s seamless mix of updated and classic mechanics into an epic and effortless third-person action extravaganza won’t have you making any similar complaints.
In 2017, science fiction writer Nancy Kress decided her novella Yesterday’s Kin needed to be expanded into trilogy of novels Tomorrow’s Kin, If Tomorrow Comes, and the upcoming Terran Tomorrow. But while fellow sci-fi writer Kelly Gay took a similar path with her novella Halo Smoke And Shadow, which started life as the short story “Into The Fire,” she says that this tale inspired by the Halo video games — which is now available in paperback after more than a year of being digital only — was originally conceived as the longer version.
Given how she’s an engaging, multi-layered character whose games are exciting and cinematic, you’d think it would be easy to make a good Tomb Raider movie out of the adventures of Lara Croft. And yet here we are again, watching as yet another attempt goes down in flames.
For the last few years, the bar against which I’ve judged all racing games is the high one set by the Forza games. So you know it’s a good thing when I say that the arcade-style, off-road racing game GRAVEL (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) is rather Forza-esque.
In honor of the movie Jurassic Park turning twenty-five this year — and, of course, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom coming out June 22nd — the good people at Zen Studios have put together Jurassic World Pinball, a trio of new virtual pinball tables for Pinball FX 3 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Switch), Zen Pinball (iOS, Android), and Zen Pinball 2 (Mac).
It’s just too bad that, as with the movies, not all of them are keepers.
Some games are good, some games are bad. And then there’s the game on this list: the worst games I played in 2017.
While 2017 wasn’t the best year for video games, there were a bunch that I had a lot of fun playing.
Here, in no particular order, are the best games I played in 2017.