Destructoid

Still, some people will find meaning and depth in what Dear Esther delivers. I envy that. The linchpin of these games is to develop a connection with the player. Along with that connection comes emotion. Dear Esther is simply too disconnected from itself to ever connect with me.

You still have your patented "safe" approach from Telltale with Batman: A Telltale Games Series: Children of Arkham, but its heart is in the right place. Retreading on Batman themes we've already seen from great writers like Jeph Loeb, Frank Miller, or Scott Snyder isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Atlus has been going strong for over 30 years and it has no sign of stopping. This would have been a cash-in almost anywhere else, but here, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse was shown the level of love and care most would give aggressively marketed new IPs. It's still no Nocturne, but it'll do.

Noitu Love: Devolution feels better than ever on the 3DS. It looks just as beautiful, even on the small screen, and plays right into the touchscreen's strength. The arcade nature of the game almost guarantees multiple playthroughs on harder difficulties and with new, completely unique characters.

Feral Rites ends up coming across as a budget Bloody Roar beat-'em-up that's not actually budget priced and clocks in around 10 hours. If it was multiplayer (another base issue with VR) and had a more encapsulating setting, I would be more on board with it. The cartoony, arcade brawler subgenre isn't as prevalent as it once was, and I saw flashes of classics like Fighting Force in this project that brought a fleeting smile to my face.

World of Warcraft: Legion does the greatest job so far of really connecting players to its world. Unlike the past several expansions, I really want to be a part of this universe and see this story through until its end. This is the best WoW has been since Wrath.

Event[0] is a short game. It’s the kind of game you play from start to finish in a single sitting over the course of an evening. While there are multiple endings to see and a broad range of reactions and attitudes to cultivate from Kaizen by interacting with him differently, I didn’t feel the need to go back and see the others. I liked my experience, the story it told, and where it ended up.

These problems are extra frustrating, because when Dead Rising 2: Off the Record functions properly, I have a blast with it. The story is nothing memorable, but the toybox that is Fortune City allows for all sorts of emergent storytelling that I'll remember for some time. I'm hoping that Frank's return in Dead Rising 4 fares better.

But for as uneven as that specific slice of Dead Rising 2 can be, the rest of the experience shines, even today. It's one of those games that pays back the time you invest into it at least double fold. Returning players won't find anything substantially new in this remaster aside from sharper image quality and better performance, but given the budget pricing here, that's a perfectly reasonable offer.

As someone who doesn't mind playing games over and over until I perfect them, I like the idea of adding some form of urgency, and feel like in most sessions I have ample time to meander without missing out on much. By that same token I also prefer the leniency of the sequels, and enjoy replaying them more often. It's a give and take, but Dead Rising is worth the squeeze and still holds up after all this time.