#GAMES OF 2016 HOW TO#
#GAMES OF 2016 PRO#
#GAMES OF 2016 SERIES#

That's how long ardent Pro Evolution Soccer fans had to wait for the dawning of a new era, in which the game bearing that esteemed name finally lived up to its storied past. Even if you find it alienating, it's impossible to deny the quality of the craft. Inside brings you up to the edge of your strangest dream and then shows you what happens to the dream after you wake up. That a rigidly designed, linear game like Inside can actually capture the untethered flow of the human subconscious is a remarkable feat on its own, but Playdead does it with equal grace and humor. The studio's propensity for naturalistic production - the way the boy moves, the soft sounds of his pursuers, everything in its world no matter how impossible - captures your attention the moment you press start but it also leaves you vulnerable to the game's wild swings in internal logic. Inside, the second game from Playdead Studios, feels like the culmination of 40 years of surrealist game making, a moving, flummoxing, and evocative evolution of the command to eat eggs rather than bombs in a virtual space. When Kirby's Adventure tells you to eat eggs not bombs, that's some René Magritte business right there. Even beyond the foundational arcade era and limited tech like Atari 2600 where strange, impressionistic design was a limitation born necessity, video games have embraced oneiric qualities. Surrealism has a rich history in game design. Following plot threads opens up new packs of cards that are added to your story, expanding the narrative options and providing the clues you'll need to break the curse and die permanently, once and for all.

(*checks notes*) Ok, fight a skeleton, empathize with werewolves, discover a traitor, prevent a famine, date a.pigeon.

#GAMES OF 2016 HOW TO#

Swipe to choose between decisions about how to run your kingdom: fight the invaders or welcome them, build a school or don't, date the pigeon or.wait, date a pigeon? Hold on, that can't be right. Within that constraint, Reigns manages to cram in an adventure that's clever, funny, and shockingly replayable, as you do your best to live as long as you can before dying (usually horribly) and being reborn as the next monarch in line. Reigns has but a single game mechanic that will immediately be familiar to anyone who's ever picked up a smartphone: swiping left or right. The best mobile game experiences take clever advantage of their platform's strengths. Truly a game that'll cause you to hoop and holler. Meaning that even four seasons - and 250 games - in, there's still the same thrill to unearthing a supreme talent through the draft, or masterminding a last-ditch play-off victory. And its rich, all-encompassing MyGM mode covers every aspect of managing an NBA side while never losing the fun factor. Matches in NBA 2K17 don't merely feel like authentic basketball, they look and sound like it too with astonishingly realistic player likenesses and insightful, just-like-on-ESPN broadcast presentation. The others are great, but still playing catch-up. But 2K nudges ahead of MLB 16 The Show, Madden 17 and NHL 17 because it's an established, class-leading veteran in terms of both on-court quality and off-court depth.

#GAMES OF 2016 SERIES#

While Brits clamour for even a half-decent rugby game, and the cricketing world waits for the burgeoning Don Bradman series to fulfil its abundant potentia, all four of the big US sports - basketball, baseball, gridiron and hockey - find themselves represented to an elite level in virtual form. North American sports gamers have never had it so good. Eventually, you become so attuned with the game, so in sync with its crushing difficulty, that the rest of the world begins to melt away, leaving only you, your quickening heartbeat, and Thumper. Thumper’s convergence of sight, sound, and interactivity creates a uniquely oppressive atmosphere, weighing down on your chest in a way that even some of the best horror games can't achieve. As a silver space beetle racing down a track to do battle with a demonic hovering face, you'll tap buttons and move analog sticks along with its proggy, percussive soundtrack in order to overcome numerous obstacles at an increasingly rapid pace. But if you let one of its spindly tentacles ensnare you, there's no saving you - you're hopelessly caught up in one of the greatest rhythm games ever made. And Thumper's demands of your attention and reflexes are incredibly exhausting in a way few games can manage. Its minimalist, psychedelic aesthetic is alienating, cold, and disarming. Its tunes don't exactly conform to the pleasurable formula of what humans typically consider music. Var doodlepage = new slashdoodles.Thumper isn't for everyone.

Games of 2016