Shank was greeted with mixed reviews when it came out in 2010, but it sold well enough to warrant a sequel from Klei Entertainment. In Shank 2, you’ll find a shining example for other small studios of how to respond to criticism and improve on an idea. READ MORE
I love Law & Order. Dick Wolf was right on the money to make two 30-minute shows, tie them together, and stick them in a one-hour time slot. I’m rooting for the cops to find the bad guy, and then ten minutes later I’m pulling for the prosecution to put him away. Telltale has proven the episodic adventure gaming can work, and they’ve proven that licensed games don’t have to be bad. Legacies isn’t their finest work, but despite the flaws I was just as engrossed in it as a rerun of L&O on TNT. READ MORE
Square Enix took a risk creating a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, possibly the most polarizing game in the long-running series. Many felt that Square simply needed to pretend XIII never existed and go back to a more traditional style in XV. I feel like Square Enix made the right decision with XIII-2, as it corrects virtually every complaint leveled against XIII, successfully adds new mechanics and continues the intriguing story of Cocoon and Pulse. READ MORE
I’m not typically a fan of fighting games, because I’m always the worst person in the house at them (a difficult feat considering that four out of the six people in my house are under the age of two). The systems always feel over-complicated to me, and then somebody who has never played comes by and whoops me at it. Fortune Summoners manages to control like a fighting game without making me frustrated, because there is no second player. The enemy A.I. is good, but with time and practice you can figure out what you’re doing wrong and get past it. READ MORE
Soccer is the only sport to really have found success in the management genre. With only a few releases before the last few years, the desire for this kind of deep simulation has been enhanced by two factors: the surge in the popularity of fantasy sports, and mainstream sports games’ trend of dumping many deep management elements when making the jump from the last console generation to the current one. READ MORE
