XCOM: Enemy Within is the definitive XCOM experience. There's enough here to keep veterans of the series engaged for another playthrough and it's a perfect launching point for newcomers to experience what may be the best turn-based strategy game on the market right now.
Need for Speed: Rivals will wow you initially, but there are too many missteps for it to keep you engaged for a sizeable length of time. The nonsensical story, surprising lack of features and an online component that may as well not be there overshadow the fantastic driving mechanics and lead to a rather monotonous game.
Killer Instinct has the potential to be a top fighting game, but a lack of features and variety of characters hold it back from being something outstanding. Still, with the base game being free, there's no excuse for anyone not to at least try it out.
The Xbox One may not demand a purchase right away, but it shows a massive amount of potential. Once a few more games and applications have been released, this may not only be your new favorite video game console, but it could also be the new centerpiece of your entertainment system.
I wanted to love Contrast coming into it. It seemed like it was going to be right in my wheelhouse: an art game with an actual mature storyline with some clever puzzle mechanics. Everything from the aesthetics to the controls seemed tailor made for me. However, at the end of my three hour play through, I was left wanting.
The Battlefield series and I go way back. Some of my fondest memories behind a keyboard revolve around my core group of friends and I spending countless hours (and untold amounts of cash) at the local LAN center careening around the maps in jets trying to establish air superiority. As the series progressed over the years, DICE kept finding new ways to entertain me and make me feel like a key component in a war that much bigger than myself, something very few other titles even dare to try. Battlefield 4 doesn’t reinvent the wheel quite the way that Battlefield 3 did, but it does continue the series’ trend of offering what may be the best team based FPS title on the market.
I honestly have zero idea of how I’m supposed to review The Stanley Parable. I’ve played through the game roughly a dozen times so far, each time finding a brand new way to progress through the brief title. I can’t compare the game to anything, because I don’t think anything like this has ever been done. I can’t detail the gameplay, since the illusion of choice and finding your own way through what appears to be a linear narrative is the main focus of the game. I can’t even break down what is surely some of the best-written dialogue of the year since that’s the only real form of storytelling here.
What happens if you take an the combat mechanics of Diablo III, mix in the aesthetics of Torchlight II, remove the loot, introduce some puzzles, and ramp up the difficulty to 11? You end up with a game like FORCED, a brutally challenging, tactical ARPG arena title.
Dollar for dollar, the Tempest X270OC is the best 1440 monitor on the market for gamers right now. It absolutely blows away everything else in its price range, and goes head-to-head with panels twice as expensive, while giving them a serious run for their money. If you're looking to finally make the jump up to a better screen, I honestly don't think there's a better option right now.
The Manticore stretches itself a bit too thin. While trying to walk the line between mechanical and rubber dome, as well as the line between gaming and general use, it doesn't necessarily excel. That being said, it's still a beastly keyboard offering a ton of value. If you're looking for a non-mechanical keyboard with some fantastic backlighting as well as a bunch of macros, this should be on your short list of candidates.