PS3

The God of War franchise’s success is largely based on the spectacle it provides. The first three main titles boasted huge environments that contained titans, monsters, and gods fighting epic battles while the protagonist, Kratos, was dismembering his enemies and shouting in fury. But they also tried to add to the combat system with each installment, either with new weapons …

It’s great when things make sense. And it’s even greater when they also come together nicely, harmoniously. Charles, the snob, likes to call this a matter of “coherence” and “cohesion”, but you can call it whatever you want if you still pay your taxes and sometimes stop to take the time to see if all elements in a piece of …

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is Black Flag with a new coat of paint. Offering the same systems and overall structure, it shares similar problems to its predecessor: it’s shallow, bloated, and repetitive. Its story follows suit, showing some promise at the beginning, but quickly falling into similar pitfalls, packed with one-dimensional characters that have little to say about anything. The story …

God of War III is all about spectacle. During the visually impressive intro, Kratos is tearing his enemies apart on the back of a titan who, in turn, is climbing Mount Olympus and battling a gigantic aquatic creature controlled by Poseidon. The camera is constantly moving in and out of the action to display how the scope is now even …

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag builds on the foundations of its predecessor to set its story in the Caribbean and put the focus on pirates and naval warfare. Black Flag’s many mistakes are old ones in the franchise, with the game being dragged down by clunky stealth, weak combat, a repetitive mission structure, and an underdeveloped story. The main character …

Beyond: Two Souls is a game that doesn’t work on any level: the story is dragged down by a disconnected structure and shallow, boring characters, while the gameplay is even less interesting, offering us choices that have absolutely no impact over the game’s main events. The protagonist is Jodie Holmes (Elliot Page), a woman who has spent her entire life …

God of War 2 is a fairly safe sequel that capitalizes on the core elements of the first game for great effect, bringing a violent revenge-driven protagonist, and a simple yet effective combat system, while expanding the scope of the adventure. It brings some new ideas to the table, but they could have been more developed. In the story, the …

The ambition of Assassin’s Creed III is both its strength and its Achilles heel. The scope of its world and the number of activities available for the player is certainly impressive, since in one moment we will be bombarding ships during a storm on the high seas and, in the next, we will be hunting foxes with hand-made traps in …

The traits of the classic Greek hero differ substantially from those of a contemporary one. While the latter is tied to the morality of their society, the former is barely concerned with notions of right and wrong: their vocabulary, instead, circles around the concept of glory. Kratos, the protagonist of God of War, is one of these heroes. He massacres …

Bayonetta is an insane action game with an unusual heroine and a very engaging combat system. Its tone is bonkers all around, with over-the-top set pieces and unhinged dialogue: it’s high-octane madness in videogame form… but one that’s being constantly interrupted by long cutscenes that tell a quite bare-bones story. The main character, Bayonetta, suffers from amnesia: she only knows …