Duck Dynasty (PS4) Review

“It is lunacy they exist in videogame form. Women and those of color as protagonists continue to be called a financial risk in publisher’s eyes. Homophobic and embarrassingly close minded? Here’s a check for a TV show. Then a lunchbox and a mug and a boardgame and shirts and Christmas ornaments. At the top of the pile is a retail videogame. You know, for the kids. All of this is wasteful novelty merchandise destined for garage sales across the deep south. Sort of like those singing rubber fish stapled to a plastic base that sing, “Take Me To the River.” Thrift store owners must hate those things. They’ll hate Duck Dynasty too.”

Rad my full review of Duck Dynasty on Medium

Aces of the Luftwaffe (PS4) Review

“Lost, though, is a sense of menace. Nazi-but-not-Nazi forces amass an army of zeppelins, ghost planes, mega-bombers, and others in their battle for world domination. Each boss ship comes piloted by a narrative stereotype – the wacky Nazi scientist, the square-jawed muscle head pilot – who spew a few lines of accented English before dying in a flurry of explosions. A catchy, small time military march drums in the background as a heroic salute to victory. It’s all so cute. Weird when considering the real world historical context, but cute.”

Read my full review of Aces of the Luftwaffe on GameSkinny

Project Cars (PS4) Review

 

“Obsession is Project Cars’ only real dressing. Music is absent during the race; the shifting of gears is the sole rhythm in the background. Races have no pomp and circumstance, no celebrations, no elation upon victory. There is no emotion, just pistons and oil. Career play has no face, merely passive emails and scrolling social media feeds to show if fans are elated or disgusted. The repetitive niceties of the public internet at large is Project Cars one dose of unreality.”

Read my full Project Cars review at GameSkinny

Project Root (PS4) Review

“Project Root’s world is a mixture of biological and mechanical. Its scenery is dotted with forests, which are interrupted by cavernous pits of machinery laid inground by Prometheus Corporation. The planet, it seems, is dying by their hand. There are no homes. No people. No activity other than pockets of resistance and bullets of many colors swirling across the air.

Prometheus Corp owns the Earth in 2068. How they gained their financial power is unclear. There is no one left to buy their materials anymore, let alone a stock market to support their girth. They exist to create weaponry for protection against their feisty rebel opponents, who named themselves Arcturus. These warring factions are the sole signs of intelligent life.”

Read my full review of Project Root at GameSkinny

Axiom Verge (PS4) Review

“Somewhere in the middle, the grip begins. Instinctive satisfaction from the thrill of exploration takes over. It’s a human feeling. We’re natural explorers. The genre knows this all too well and the best-designed entries are destined for exposure.

If shooters ping a primal need for violence, adventures soak in their ability assert themselves through constant revelation: A specific skill opens that door, that ledge needs this item to be reached. The formula is gratingly simple and exploitative, yet when done right, masterful. Axiom Verge is done right.”

Read my full review of Axiom Verge at GameSkinny

MLB 15: The Show (PS4) Review

“But, card packs are baseball too: tearing open shimmering foil and, as used to be, chewing questionable (usually stale) pieces of barely edible rubber touted as gum. Maybe that’s what The Show needs next year, a strip of pink gum with some loose powdered sugar included inside the package. That or a Dodger dog, but freshness may be a concern.”

Read my full review of MLB 15: The Show at GameSkinny

Apotheon (PS4) Review

“If the ancient Greeks had created video games, their combined wisdom would likely have made Apotheon, a beautifully antiquated story of restless, spiteful gods realizing humanity’s infinite uselessness and a Greek warrior who would save mankind’s decaying civilization. Interplay of gods and men is enthralling; Apotheon would be nothing without it.”

Read my full review of Apotheon at GameSkinny

Dying Light (PS4) Review

“In some cases, it is survivalist drama which lends this sub-horror genre bite. With some connective tissue — say a statement on popular culture’s morbid compulsion to skewer, explode, and maim aimlessly — Dying Light could lessen the overwhelming sense of emptiness it carries, yet Dying Light has none of it. Arms are severed, heads are splattered, spines are broken; none of this has purpose which is why it feels so icky and appears so curiously grisly.”

Read my full review of Dying Light on Medium

The Crew (PS4) Review

“The Crew only exists because the current holiday release season had an empty reservoir calling for a checkpoint racer. (EA’s Need for Speed is on vacation.) In steps this catatonic, repetitive driving excursion, which is Ubisoft’s attempt at the car-bound fetish fantasy where the planet bows to the whims of wheels and the throbbing power of engines. Exhaust is their lone societal contribution. It’s disgustingly masculine, and powered not by fuel, but impotent testosterone. The egotism is record-setting, and this childish turf-war conflict is a menace.”

Read my full review of The Crew at GameSkinny

NBA Live 15 (PS4) Review

“It’s a brand-over-player approach. The young Trailblazer star may politely reinstate EA Sports troubled NBA Live with his voice work, however the camera is drawn toward logos. Half court practice arenas are swallowed by the light emanating from Adidas’ background iconography. Scoreboards burn from the punishing white contrast flooding in from those three angular stripes. Then it pans down, not to Lillard, but his shoes. Turns out, it is the shoes to EA.”

Read my full NBA Live 15 review at Gameskinny