Rogue City captures the mood and fun of Robocop 1 and 2. You're a big, stompy cyborg with a big, booming gun. Its a simple premise, but it works. I have two major complaints with the game. Firstly the optimisation is awful: it taxes my PC far more than similiar games. Secondly I find the autosaves frustrating: sometimes you can go for long stretches without a save, making it frustrating to replay if you need to quit mid-mission. If you enjoyed the films, i'm confident you'll enjoy this.
The tabletop Blood Bowl is a great game and this version captures much of the feel. If you can find a good league, then multiplayer is great fun. Sadly, the singleplayer is sorely lacking. The first thing you might notice before even starting a match is the lag in the menus. Click on your team - delay - click on a player - delay - click back to the team view - further delay. Each pause is only for a couple of seconds, but the cumulative effect is deeply frustrating. Once in game, the AI is awful. I'm not a skilled player, but I've literally only lost a handful of games, and each of those I can blame on either lack of concentration or a series of bad rolls. The computer doesn't recognise final turns and will sit with the ball in defence and lose the game, rather than attempt a touchdown. Similiarly, I've had half the opposing team chase one catcher, leaving the rest of my team to slowly walk the ball down field unopposed. Blood Bowl is a lot of fun, just be aware of the limits to the singleplayer.
Whether it's diving with a pod of sperm whales, or plunging towards a 'bait ball' of fish, this game has provided some of the most wondrous experiences I've had as a gamer. The graphics are glorious, taking you into a world of colour and motion. The developers have really captured the movement of a wide range of sea creatures, to the extent that I found myself stopping to watch. To a degree you can interact with most of the animals you see; riding with anything more than a couple of meters long, or startling smaller fish (try swimming into the larger shoals and watch as the school breaks and reforms around you). There are one or two minor missteps. Around the half way point in the game you come across a minefield. Getting hit by a mine doesn't do much more than slow you down (I've never died, so assume you're immortal), but it does seem at odds with the rest of the game. Please don't buy this as a game, but as an experience (if you'll forgive the cheesy cliché!). Although there are some simple puzzles, they feel more like a way to encourage exploration than to provide gameplay. A lovely, relaxing, wonderful and beautiful game.
This is one of the most incredible pieces of storytelling you're ever likely to come across in a game. Much less combat focused than most RPGs; if you're willing to invest the time in exploring the worlds on offer you'll find a very rewarding experience.
