IGN

• PS4
• PC
• 7.6 / 10
• États-Unis

Absolver is a beautiful martial-arts fighting game that allows for an impressive degree of personalized play with its innovative combat deck system, which lets you learn skills from combat with other players and NPCs. Unfortunately, it only comes with a single PvP arena mode at launch, and its fascinatingly nebulous campaign breaks off early and abruptly. It feels like an early access game with a ton of potential, but it’s not quite there yet.

• PS4
• XONE
• PC
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

F1 2017 isn’t light years ahead of the already very good F1 2016 but the new cars, retro content, and the juiced-up career mode make a very strong case for the upgrade, and I really appreciated the enhanced force feedback on a wheel. Rich with details and faithful to just about everything that makes contemporary F1 tick, F1 2017 is about as good a simulation of a single, modern motorsport as you can get.

• XONE
• PS4
• 8.6 / 10
• États-Unis

The shift to the Frostbite Engine definitely lets Madden NFL 18 look fantastic, and Longshot makes great use of that to tell a short but powerful against-all-odds story. MUT Squads also opens up a new way to play with more than two players. But beyond that, the underwhelming feel of gameplay improvements and lack of much of anything new within Franchise, Madden NFL 18 sails wide-right in the final seconds. That said, being a much better-looking version of a solid football game with a great new story mode makes it at least a significant improvement, even if it’s more incremental than we’d hoped from a new game engine.

• PC
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

StarCraft remains a titan of the genre for a reason. Though its interface lacks some contemporary conveniences, Blizzard has still, to this day, failed to outdo itself in terms of the elegant balance between three highly asymmetrical factions that was achieved in Brood War. Whether you want to revisit the glory days or see a piece of gaming history for the first time, StarCraft Remastered is a trip well worth taking.

• XONE
• PS4
• PC
• 7.1 / 10
• États-Unis

Agents of Mayhem does a good job paying homage to the cartoon and live-action TV heroes of the 80s and 90s, and revels in the absurd tropes and idiosyncrasies of those inspirations. A broad and goofy arsenal of unique weapons and gadgets and the ability to switch characters on the fly to access complementary abilities offers some solid combat and good mindless fun, but due to some unpolished writing and repetitive environments and enemy types, it doesn't fully live up to its heroic potential.

• PS4
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Matterfall succeeds in adapting Housemarque’s trademark style of fast, action-packed, arcadey action to the 2D platformer genre, but it feels like a puzzle half solved. There’s virtually no content here after you finish its exceptionally short campaign, outside of some harder difficulty modes and a global leaderboard to climb, and its level design isn’t well-suited for replay value. It’s a ton of fun while it lasts, but once it’s over it’s hard to not be left with a feeling of “Is that it?”

• PC
• PS4
• 7.9 / 10
• États-Unis

In its best game modes, LawBreakers manages to make simply moving around feel amazing. Learning how to fall with style in the most deadly way possible is a thrilling challenge. Getting stuck playing a weak mode and map thanks to the grab-bag matchmaking can be frustrating, but it doesn’t ruin an otherwise fast and tense shooter that lets you gleefully propel yourself through low-gravity with rocket boots and miniguns.

• PC
• PS4
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

The amount of action that can transpire within a couple of seconds in Nidhogg 2 makes for two-player combat that’s both intense and hilarious to play or watch with friends. Nidhogg 2’s visual style might not be for everyone, but its sharp, minimalist duelling is still smart and chaotic enough to allow for endless couch competition.

• PS4
• SWITCH
• XONE
• PC
• 8.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Still, even when Sonic Mania stumbles a bit, it’s only on little speedbumps in the road. For every issue I had, it didn’t take long before I was enjoying myself again, eagerly anticipating what sort of wacky wonders the game would throw at me next. It truly is the classic throwback longtime series fans have been clamoring for, but there’s plenty to love here even if you didn’t grow up with a Genesis. Sonic Mania is a stellar example of a retro revival done right.

• PC
• PS4
• XONE
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a masterclass of atmosphere, storytelling, and the marriage of mechanical and conceptual design. While there are moments that feel shoehorned in to remind us we’re playing a video game, the care and attention Ninja Theory has clearly poured into Senua and her story has created something amazing. This is a game everyone should play, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have lived inside the mind of Senua, however briefly.

• PC
• XONE
• PS4
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Tacoma successfully overcomes the challenge of featuring eight characters and making them all interesting in a relatively short game. Using the out-of-sequence AR recordings to learn about the exciting events on Tacoma is a unique way to see every side of a conversation, and it’s one I hope to see catch on. I would have appreciated more time and events that'd have given me a reason to explore more of the beautiful station, but the time I did have in this fascinating hypothetical future was great.

• SWITCH
• 8.4 / 10
• États-Unis

Overcooked is one of the freshest couch co-op games I’ve ever played. It’s a perfect blend of strategy and chaos, asking you and your teammates to think on your feet as its smart and strange levels do everything they possibly can to make sure you are shouting at each other. The Switch port has some framerate and rumble issues that keep it from matching the best versions available, but for local multiplayer fun it’s hard to beat.

• PC
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

Lone Echo and Echo Arena are the rare games that demonstrate the true value of VR and hand tracking. Its sense of movement feels great, and it couldn’t exist in any other way. Lone Echo’s well-acted story and interesting environments move at a slow enough pace that you can soak it all in and appreciate the sensation of virtual weightlessness before jumping into the fast, sweaty, competitive action of Echo Arena. The fact that you can experience the multiplayer without even buying it means it’s one of the first things any Oculus Rift owner should download.

• PC
• PS4
• 9.7 / 10
• États-Unis

From the art to the music to the story to the tactical gameplay, and even to how they’re all woven together so artfully, Pyre is an adventure that excels in every area of its design other than limiting its multiplayer to local only. It’s an epic journey that made me feel thrilled, devastated, and awed, and its tense moments had me tugging my collar both in and out of its fast-paced mystical sports arenas. With an emotionally charged ending that saw so much I’d striven for come to fruition, but was still tinged with tragedy and melancholy even when I did almost everything right, I won’t be able to get Pyre out of my head for a long time. This is Supergiant’s best work to date, and that’s saying something.

• SWITCH
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• PS4
• XONE
• 6.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Though Black deserves credit for adding new puzzle mechanics along the way, it could’ve easily seen its 6-8 hour runtime chopped in half and still gotten its message across. That entire time I found myself wondering if, like Inside, Black would have anything to say. When I finally discovered its message at the end of the campaign, it did inspire me to look up the real-life issue it was drawing attention to and learn more about it. I applaud it for that. Sure, it could’ve done so with a bit more subtlety – it's a bit heavy-handed at the very end – but at least Black does have a point to make. It’s just a shame that it wrapped that in a game that’s so shamelessly and distractingly derivative.

• PS4
• SWITCH
• XONE
• PC
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

I didn’t want the Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy to break what wasn’t broken. Thankfully, Vicarious Visions clearly didn’t want to either, and the studio’s reverence for the original maddening yet rewarding challenges that still remain fun is clearly on display. On one hand, that leads to the frustrating limitations of the original Crash Bandicoot persisting 20 years later. But it also results in the incredible visual and aural overhaul and the gameplay tweaks to earlier entries, like time trials and crate counters, that Naughty Dog added later in the series. Those additions make the overall package so much more cohesive while never forgetting what made, and what still makes, so much of Naughty Dog’s original trilogy a blast to play.

• 3DS
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

It’s no easy task, but Ever Oasis has managed to make me care as much about preserving my town as I do about saving the world. Despite the few odd design choices, there’s a wonderful blend of adventure and town-building where every task you tackle finds multiple ways to reward you.