Here's my selection:
1) Mario Kart 8 - What can I say?. There is a criminally limited number of tracks and it's a bare bones game at best. I thought the tracks would be completely different for each 'difficulty' (i.e. 50CC, 100CC and 150CC), but nope, they're all the same and the tracks on the bottom half are all old remixes that are barely spruced up. Talking of retro tracks, why aren't all of them in this? Also, only Donut Plains 3? Are you freaking kidding me?! The first few new tracks are awesome then everything is plain and meh. I was expecting a whole new array of great tracks and ALL the best tracks from every previous entry in the series! How f**king wrong was I?! The online mode is pathetic. It's so pathetic that I will not ever try it. I have no motivation to. You don't unlock anything new by winning races like decals, kart parts, colour schemes, colours options etc. The draw is supposed to be winning and climbing up leaderboards. This isn't the 90s Nintendo. People want more than that. We want to feel like we've earned something. We want bragging rights. I beat the game on 50CC. I will never touch it again. Great visuals although the pop-in textures and low-res textures on the signs really stand out. Mario Kart 8 is an overpriced demo, a rip off of the highest proportions...
2) Deus Ex Human Revolution - Glitches, glitches and more glitches, especially the bug where the game registers that you've taken someone out pacifically, but the pop-up says otherwise, but there's also object hovering, getting stuck in walls, all that good stuff. Awful dialogue to boot. Repetitive objectives which essentially boil down to you moving from one room to the next in a variety of ways, but ultimately having to do the same crap each time. The game is so linear and dated in terms of mission structure. The hacking, oh the hacking it's so wonderfully...broken. I ended up just hoarding nukes and worms because hacking wasn't thought out very well or I'm a super genius xD. It's child's play and not challenging in the least all the same. The AI is a joke, the graphics are appalling and are made worse by the repetitive en vogue yellow-on-yellow theme everywhere. The skill tree is also pointless as you don't really ever feel like you need the upgrades. They're just there. I really didn't like this game. GOTY contender my foot. Jensen is barely developed as a character. You don't feel for his situation at all and he's very much forgettable. The story trudges along and apart from the main themes which are so very obvious in each setting they otherwise feel bland and lifeless. The lack of environmental interaction struck me as strange too.
3) MGSV: Ground Zeroes - First off the bat, I tested out the combat and it does a brilliant job at emulating the CQC of Snake Eater to a tee which was the last game in the franchise I had played before this...that was their intention right? WHERE IS THE DEVELOPMENT?! The lack of a instant save system drove me insane to the point where I thought "f**k this crap" and put the game away for good, but let me point out why I hate this game in more depth, because it's fun to rant xD. Well, quite simply, it's utterly rigid in its structure. I suspect this was done to add replay value because the game is so short, but will I be buying MGSV: The Phanthom Pain after enduring (just) this horrible, horrible experience? Not until hell freezes over I won't! It's a sin to explore in this game or any game for that matter according to Konami, that's what I've gathered after the torturous ordeal that Ground Zeroes was. I played using a ghost/pacifist play style ATTEMPTING to take out everyone and collecting every item. What stopped me? Enemies wake up. I noticed this after KO'ing virtually everyone on the base (fun times). There's a point where realism destroys enjoyment and this is probably the go-to example, f**k me. The most ridiculous thing is that if you wander into a far off corner whilst an enemy soldier is incapacitated he'll be awake when you return, but he won't ring the alarm. Oh no, he'll have accepted your weird greeting ritual of choking him out as a sign of eternal friendship, but that's only if he doesn't see you. If he sees you then he'll be on that alarm quicker than a hyena. What is the point in torturing the player like that then?! Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe the game is meant to be played in a pure stealth fashion (as in you're meant to do as little as possible and just focus on the critical objectives), a mix of stealth and a regular shooter or a straight up 'destroy everything' TPS. Well in that case this game is extremely boring and against player expression. It would take an inordinate amount of time to beat this game, regardless of how short it is (my soul was scorched while playing this and thought better of playing it to the end), in the way I've tried to. JUST NOT FOR ME AT ALL. It is FAR too restrictive.
4) Watchdogs - I'll get the visual critique out of the way first. They're horrendous. Moving on swiftly, the physics in this game is like an ongoing joke by the developers. The vehicles either handle like bricks in a pond or something from Outrun. The hacking mechanic gets repetitive far too quickly as there's no depth, all you have to do is complete a bunch of tedious side missions to unlock skills points which then open up 'one click' actions. There's no challenge whatsoever and hacking is most definitely not empowering in the game, it's more like a paper thin gimmick that won't be one of the first things you'll remember after playing the game for any amount of time. Before anyone accuses me of being a noob, I always play games on the hardest setting from the get go. As this is a Ubisoft title Watch Dogs was built using an engine designed for easy cross-platform malleability. The problem is, the game looks like horse manure on consoles. However, at least there's consistency, as along with the poor graphics an array of glitches come included. I like the 'freeze car in mid-air' one best personally. That's my favourite. I said I'd get the visual critique out of the way first...I lied. We need more developers to develop engines tailor-made for consoles, because Watch Dogs on the PS4 looks like a dot-to-dot simulator. The texture resolution and shaodws are appallingly poor. The dialogue in the game is 'wooden' as is the protagonist, Aiden Pearce as character. The player doesn't care about him or his stupid family. He isn't fleshed out very well at all. He seems to care more about different coloured trench-coats than getting a lead on his niece. Anyway, the missions are all pretty samey so if you were looking for variety then you're shit out of luck. They largely consist of chasing a marker down and killing everyone there or if, for whatever reason, you want to go the stealth route and admire the ghastly textures then you can do that too. The world is lifeless and the player has no onus to explore. It really is a pitiful game and Ubisoft conned many customers. Watch Dogs was probably one of my most anticipated titles and it let me down comprehensively. I have to wonder though, were Ubisoft trying to make some kind of social commentary with the pathetic enemy AI in the game. Who knows? The game was abysmal, that much I do know. I never came close to finishing it and that's a journey I do not want to complete...ever.
5) Dear Esther -
6) Duke Nukem Forever -
7) Amnesia: The Dark Descent -
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Over to you.
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