Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved Review

The Real Geometry Wars 3 starts here.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved, the free update to last fall's Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, is a tale of two radically different tapes. On the first tape, you have a twin-stick shooting level design and potentially supernatural reflexes pushed to their limits in beautiful, technicolor harmony. On the other tape rests some of the most punishing, unfairly designed boss fights this side of a SNES side-scroller. That Geometry Wars 3 remains a great game despite boss fights that transformed me into an apoplectic, rage-fueled, profanity-spewing monster is a testament to just how much Lucid Games has perfected its score-chasing, polyhedral exploding craft.

Let's talk about the first tape. The first time I saw the score required to pass "Super Sequence," the penultimate level of Geometry Wars 3's new Hardcore Mode, I let out a weak laugh. 20 million points … I consider myself to be an above-average Geometry Wars player, but 20-million-point runs tend to be reserved for my best Pacifism performances. My laugh was premature. It should have been reserved for the level itself. Countless swarms of purple pinwheels, yellow flowers, pink twin cuboids, magnetic blue octahedrons, and yellow rockets filled my screen in a flash of color that would make the opening credits ofEnter the Void blush. And I died. I died very quickly.

The neverending pursuit of perfection.

But, as Geometry Wars has always shown, there is a pattern to this madness. The pattern involves dozens of enemies coming to life at once and forcing you to channel your inner "Luke Skywalker on the Death Star run" persona while playing more aggressively and dangerously than you ever have before. Geometry Wars gave me the tools to survive, though, and after far fewer attempts than I would have ever guessed, I breezed to 50 million points, which was still 100 million points shy of a two-star score (and 250 million points shy of a three-star run). Surviving pushed me to my very limits in a way that few games ever have, but I felt satisfied that I had earned my victory.

Let's move on to the second tape: "Aventurine." Oh, "Aventurine." I will remember your name for the next 10 years. One of the most maligned elements of Geometry Wars 3's original release last year was its boss fights. Dimensions Evolved only makes it worse. "Aventurine" is the second boss fight (of four) in the game's "Ultimate" campaign, which adds 40 new levels to the Adventure Mode. I'm ranked in the top 50 in the world right now on that level with a score I obtained without ever even beating the boss. Similarly, I'm ranked 27th in the world for a run on the final and only boss on Hardcore Mode, and I still haven't beaten it. I suspect I never will.

The challenges never let up.

It took me multiple hours to conquer any given boss in Geometry Wars 3's Ultimate Mode, but "Aventurine" was my own personal Rubicon. I spent over four hours with the spawn location and attack patterns of every single damn enemy on that level memorized -- which occurred after about half an hour or so -- sitting straight up and staring at my TV with such intensity that I saw explosions in the back field of my vision any time I looked away. Geometry Wars had burned itself into the essence of my vision. But I couldn't beat the son of a … word that's inappropriate for a family-friendly publication. When I finally did persevere -- after escaping from near collisions and deaths by mere pixels -- I didn't feel like Rocky toppling Apollo Creed, ecstatic in my triumph and hard work. I felt like a war-torn veteran crawling out of the foxhole after months of nightly bombardments. I never want to fight that boss again. I never want to play any of those boss fights again.

I would rather fight Bloodborne's Cleric Beast with just my fists and no blood vials than ever touch "Aventurine" or Hardcore Mode's "Topaz" ever again. Yet, despite the most agonizing video game bosses I've ever forced myself to overcome--minus "Topaz" because there's only so much I'm willing to let my blood pressure rise for the sake of a video game achievement--Geometry Wars 3 is better than ever before. Dimensions Evolved has all the content of a minor expansion pack at the price of a free update. This is the standard version of the game moving forward, and minus the abysmal boss fights, Geometry Wars 3 is better, more dynamic, and bigger than ever before.

Hardcore Mode addresses the second biggest complaint that long-time Geometry Wars devotees had with the base game: unlocking drones. Drones and drone supers marred the inherent purity of Geometry Wars' scoreboards. Players who spent more time upgrading their drones had an advantage when trying to reach higher scores. Hardcore Mode does away with drones so only you and the phantasmagoric-colored battlefield determine your performance. Many of these levels were designed with drones in mind, however, so the game supplies plenty of super states to help level the playing field in your favor, which you'll appreciate when well over a hundred enemies are on the screen at once. With the exception of the last level, "Topaz," the 20 remixed Hardcore levels send a jolt of adrenaline right into the veins of long-time series fans.

Ultimate Mode is a larger addition, featuring 40 new levels and a host of new level types and enemies. While the continued presence of drones in Ultimate Mode may displease fans who can't abide that gameplay addition, the excellent level design should soothe most other fans’ concerns. Whether you’re on the level that plays out like an old-school, bullet-hell, Ikaruga-style shooter with fatal red walls pushing you ever forward or playing the new "Scorpion" mode, which feels like Centipede on steroids, Ultimate Mode constantly pushes the play palette of the series forward while maintaining the breakneck challenge and pace the series is loved for.

I put more than a dozen hours into Dimensions Evolved, but I already fear the dozens of hours more that I'm going to dump into Ultimate and Hardcore Modes as I try to best my own scores and those of my friends. The boss fights remain a titanically poor decision for a series focused on lightning-fast, frenetic gameplay, but when the rest of the package has only gotten better and more varied, they're a frustrating but small price to pay.

SOURCE : http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/geometry-wars-3-dimensions-evolved-review/1900-6416121/

Ziggurat Review

It's tough being a neophyte wizard in the world of Ziggurat. If spending two decades learning the fundamentals of magic and spellcasting isn't hard enough, you must now put those skills to the test in the infamous, multi-leveled ziggurat, where creatures from myth and fantasy eagerly wait to snuff out your very existence. Ziggurat, a first-person, dungeon-crawling roguelike, won't overwhelm you with its brief length. But as short as your victory run may be, the brisk combat flow and compelling sense of progression will keep you transfixed despite some minor problems.

You will face many challenges as you leap and sprint through the labyrinthine ziggurat. It features procedural level design, which means you get a different adventure every time you play. Like The Binding of Isaac, levels are constructed of a series of linked rooms, and the doors slam shut in the presence of dark minions, sealing you in with your prey…or your hunters. Lurking in the dark passageways you find the usual smattering of fantasy archetypes, such as necromancers, sword-wielding skeletons, and impish goblins--along with some exceptions, such as evil mushrooms and crab-clawed demons. Oh, and killer carrots. Yes, carrots, which are almost too adorable to put back into the ground--but what else are you to do against vegetables that turn evil?

Is there a blob heaven?

Some rooms contain traps you must overcome, or modifiers that change how you approach a fight. The latter can include increasing enemy size or quadrupling damage given and received; you can also get something more aesthetic, such as the always-amusing big pixel mode, which gives the game the look of a mid-90s shooter.

Every quest into the ziggurat's recesses has a humble beginning. At first, you are armed with only a simple wand and a slowly regenerating mana pool. But your arsenal steadily increases to include three other magical tools and powers, including spells of ice and poison and staffs that rapidly fire glowing bolts of energy. Weapons and spells are scattered throughout the ziggurat's many rooms and floors, either floating in the air or stored in chests, just waiting to get plucked and added to your hotbar. Each come equipped with an alternate attack that changes their attack speed or potency at a higher cost to your mana pool, which is replenished by picking up colored gems that fallen enemies occasionally drop. It won't be long until you find your favorite tools of the mystical trade. The magma rifle, with its incredible range and powerful explosive slug, is always a top choice. But the one I will always make a mad dash for is the scarab beetle staff, which fires red bugs that ricochet off surfaces. The staff works wonders at medium range, but in smaller rooms, those carrots don’t stand a chance!

Ziggurat is a fight for survival against some nasty foes, but the longer you persevere, the more chances you have at increasing your odds of survival. Gathering knowledge gems that are periodically dropped by your fallen enemies allows you to level up and choose one of several random perks, which come in the form of magical cards. Perks can also be acquired in secret rooms, their hiding places betrayed by cracks in the wall. An element of strategy is involved in picking the right perk, and your decision can have a huge effect on how long you last against the oppressive odds--in Ziggurat, you will find that long-term planning can lead to handsome rewards. Favoring the perk that instantly replenishes any lost health seems like a no-brainer. But you have a choice between said card and Bookworm, which allows you to choose among three cards on the next level instead of the default two, how would you proceed? You can also gamble with your fate in rooms where shrines to ancient deities rest. Sacrificing health or mana give you a chance to earn a divine favor if you're fortuitous or a penalty if you’re not. If you stumble upon the Oracle perk, which removes all divine punishments, fortune will smile upon you.

Wingardium Leviosa! Wait, that isn't right...

Movement and combat flow at a rapid pace, reminiscent of classic shooters of yore. There is no stamina to speak of, so sprinting from room to room goes unabated. It's actually quite common to fly through an entire floor in under 10 minutes. You're not slowed down by pools of water, and you can fall from precarious heights without taking any damage. You can adjust your position in the air as well, which is necessary for some of the challenge rooms. These rooms award you with a new perk, spell, or weapon after you dodge flying darts or nimbly hop across rocks and floating debris in stretching pools of lava. This degree of energetic locomotion keeps your heart pounding as you explore the ziggurat, often running backwards, Serious-Sam style, from approaching clutches of hungry foes, picking them off with shotgun blasts of arcane ice or blowing them apart with chemical bombs. Ziggurat's sweat-inducing velocity, combined with the satisfying feeling of growth brought about by its perks system, is, well, spellbinding, and it had me returning to its musty halls even late into the night.

But some issues will pull you out of the enchantment. There are graphical glitches and performance issues, such as frame rate drops and flickering shadows. In its defense, however, Ziggurat looks fantastic. The game dazzles with a charming, almost Fable-like quality, with sources of light emanating from burning torches or esoteric crystals sprouting from the floor to cast bright hues of purple, yellow, and green against grungy stone walls and floors. So it's a shame that on rare occasions, black smears damage Ziggurat's attractiveness. These smudges flicker as you look around, and they can be thin and amorphous, stretching across the screen. The worst smear I encountered covered a good third of the upper portion of my view. And let me tell you, when you have hulking foes to fight and projectiles to dodge, missing such a huge chunk of the screen is unacceptable. The blotches, oddly, only exist in a single room at random, and they seem to be triggered by minions. I couldn't make any sense of this phenomenon, which haunted several of my playthroughs.

It's a trap!

Beyond that, I just can't seem to find any love toward Ziggurat's bosses, who guard the portal you use to ascend to the next floor. Some of the bosses are merely larger versions of existing enemies, but none of them, except the final boss, offer much of a fight. Most go down after a minute or two of circle strafing, while you only have to dodge the occasional flying projectile.

Ziggurat can be completed in just over an hour, but it's unlikely you will stop there. The game is challenging, engaging, and a whole lot of fun, despite its problems. There is an abundance of perks to discover and up to 11 characters to unlock, all of whom have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. If you believe you have the mystical skills to conquer the mighty Ziggurat, now is your chance to prove your worth.

SOURCE : http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/ziggurat-review/1900-6416120/

The Weaponographist Review

Big dumb fun.

Some games are just likable. Take The Weaponographist, for instance. This top-down dungeon crawler doesn't do anything in an obviously outstanding way. At a glance, you've got a standard, forgettable, dumbGauntlet clone: nothing more, and nothing less. But the game's speedy pace, stiff challenges, wide variety of monsters and weapons, weapon and skill gimmicks, and loads of old-school cartoon charm hook you. I started off the game yawning. I wrapped things up many hours later with aching wrists (you absolutely need a gamepad here, so don't even bother trying the keyboard option) and a smile on my face.

A big part of the game's appeal is its refusal to take anything seriously. In the solo campaign (there are no multiplayer options other than the ability to check your timed scores online against other players), you play Doug McGrave, a demon-slaying stud in shining armor. As he's wandering around the countryside in the opening cutscene looking for new challenges and new sources of filthy lucre, he encounters a witch who pleads for help stamping out a demon infestation. She's broke, though, so Dougie isn't interested--at least, not until she whips out a vitality- and weapon-withering curse that soon convinces him that he should try slaying evildoers for charity.

Even the deadliest boss battles have a distinctly Hanna-Barbera flavor to them.

All of this is played as a send-up of the traditional role-playing epic, with Doug looking like a cartoon superhero right down to his big, bumper-like chin. The visuals have been taken straight from an old-time cartoon. Both the cutscenes and the in-game graphics come off like lost clips from the Hanna-Barbera shows that aired on Saturday mornings in the 70s. The audio is just a shade smoother than the bleeps and bloops of the 16-bit era, giving the game even more retro allure. Visuals and sound combine to set a light, carefree mood that adds a lot to the overall experience of exploring underground dungeons and murdering all the inhabitants. The writers don't try too hard, either, so you don't have to deal with groan-worthy puns or the obnoxious, unfunny joking too common in games.

Gameplay isn't quite as enjoyable as the setting and story, but it's close. The Weaponographist sticks to the traditional hack-and-slash RPG formula. Doug ventures into multiple dungeon levels (called depths), each loaded with numerous close-quarter rooms that serve as battle arenas. A couple of save points can be found in each depth, letting you save progress midway through and then again before the concluding boss battle. Rooms generally work as follows: You walk in, the door closes, you don't get out until you kill dozens of creeps.

A big part of the game's appeal is its refusal to take anything seriously.

Monsters are played for laughs, as with the overall cartoonish visuals. The wide-ranging rogues gallery consists of demons in all manner of weird forms. There are lions with whips dressed as circus lion trainers, leprechauns with deadly yo-yos, dark elf archers, Ents with slingshots, and more. Each depth features a handful of new creatures with new weapons. All the weapons can be picked up and used against the bad guys, which livens things up as you proceed deeper and deeper into the underground labyrinth of evil. It's all more than a bit surreal, but the creatures are too broadly drawn and colorful to be outright creepy. Art direction that was slightly more adult would have made this a disturbing, nightmarish experience.

As noted above, the witch's curse decreased the durability of Doug's weapons and his skills as a warrior. So every sword, whip, machine gun, spear, and so forth comes with a lifespan that ticks down on a meter on the lower left side of the screen. When your weapon crumbles, you're stuck duking it out with your armored fists, making it imperative to scrounge something else as soon as possible. Magic weapons can be equipped to launch powerhouse attacks. Rings of fire can be summoned up with the magic staves left behind by slain wizards, for example, and the tubas dropped by marching-band goons can be used to fire Death Star-like laser blasts.

Getting stuck with the wrong weapon for the current gang of monsters can get hero Doug McGrave killed in a hurry.

Speed is of the essence as well. Doug's curse makes him get weaker whenever he isn't killing monsters, with his strength shown on a combo bar. Slack off on the murderousness, and the bar quickly starts to empty. When it completely runs out, Doug starts losing experience. So it is imperative to get on and stay on a roll where you are constantly killing foes. Do this, and Doug gets into a rhythm where he is regularly leveling up and staying just ahead of the increasingly tougher mobs of bad guys that stock each new dungeon chamber. Fall behind on the slaying, and everything quickly gets tougher and tougher, with the end result being that you become overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies.

Both elements have a big effect on combat, turning it into a fitting blend of speed and strategy. Constantly running and killing is key to everything, although you must also be careful about what weapon you pick up. Some just don't work very well against certain foes, and others are wildly underpowered or a poor fit when dealing with numbers of enemies. The chainsaw, for instance, is practically worthless in swarms of monsters due to how slowly you maneuver it. On the other hand, weapons like the zippy whip are almost too powerful given how fast you can deal out damage while racing around.

A bit of luck is involved here, too, because you can get stuck in some rooms without a good weapon for so long that you might as well just lie down and die. Enemy buffs that speed up monsters or cause balls of death-dealing slime to bounce around rooms can also pop up, making life even tougher. A combination of these apparently random special effects and crap weapons can end Doug's dungeon delving in a hurry, even if you keep up your combo meter.

When your weapon crumbles, you're stuck duking it out with your armored fists.

The action gets repetitive, however. Combat involves doing the same thing over and over again while slightly adjusting your approach to deal with different types of enemies. Depths are tough in the early going, meaning that you have to replay rooms on a regular basis. I found that I had to die a number of times in the first rooms of each depth to trigger a respawn back in the village hub, where I could spend the demon goo acquired from vanquished foes on buffs for weapons, magic gear, and so forth. I had to build Doug up in this way in pretty much every depth, having to die on at least three or four occasions before I was tough enough to start overwhelming the opposition. Be prepared for a fair amount of grinding.

Despite its reliance on a familiar formula and some repetition, The Weaponographist is a dumb, fun arcade romp due to its quick pace and interesting concepts governing weapon use and skills. This is one of those friendly games that just about anyone would enjoy picking up for short play sessions every now and again, especially those who like their dungeon crawlers tinged with a sense of humor and a retro flavor.

SOURCE :http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-weaponographist-review/1900-6416122/

Batman Arkham Knight Dev Responds to DLC Pass Criticism, Reveals Playable Batgirl

Warner Bros. sheds some light on $40 Season Pass.

by Emanuel Maiberg on May 3, 2015

Last week Warner Bros. and Rocksteady Studios announced that Batman: Arkham Knight will get a $40 Season Pass, which some fans thought was too expensive considering the little information the developer and publisher revealed about what it will include. Last night, Warner Bros. responded to the criticism, and also revealed that the game will include an extra mission that will let you play as Batgirl.

"We’ve heard from our community that you want more information on what we’ll be delivering in the Season Pass," Warner Bros. said in a post to the game'sFacebook page. "While we aren’t ready to unveil every aspect of the content we’ll be developing, we would like to share more detail now to give you a better sense of the scope of the Season Pass."

Here are the new details Warner Bros. revealed about what the Season Pass will include:

• Batgirl: A Matter of Family -- An all new prequel story expansion in an entirely new location where you play as Batgirl for the very first time in the Arkham series - check out the first render of Batgirl.
• The Season of Infamy -- Play as Batman in all new story missions featuring legendary super-villains invading Gotham City, with new story arcs, missions and gameplay features.
• Gotham City Stories -- Play as Batman’s key allies in narrative missions extending their storylines, from both before and after the events in Batman: Arkham Knight.
• Legendary Batmobiles with Themed Tracks -- Drive the most iconic Batmobiles from Batman’s 75-year history, on custom-built race tracks, each themed to that Batmobile’s specific era. Every Batmobile will be drivable across every race track.
• Crimefighter Challenge Maps -- Engage in a series of new challenge maps utilizing the unique play styles of Batman and his allies.
• Character Skins -- A variety of skins from across the eras for Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman.

Originally scheduled to launch in 2014, the new Arkham Knight release date is June 23 for Xbox One,PlayStation 4, and PC. Earlier this week, Rocksteady released a thrilling new trailer for the game that also confirmed it will have a Grand Theft Auto V-style character switch mechanic.

SOURCE: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/batman-arkham-knight-dev-responds-to-dlc-pass-crit/1100-6427058/

The Star Wars Games That Have Been Erased From The Expanded Universe

With a new Star Wars trilogy on the way, Disney removed much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe stories from official canon. Here are some of those stories told by games which are now lost.

by Daniel Hindes on May 3, 2015

With a brand new Star Wars trilogy in the making, everyone is anxious to return to that galaxy far, far away. But Disney isn't settling for three new films that follow the saga's main characters and some new players--it's also creating multiple new standalone Star Wars films, with each promising to offer a new perspective on the sci-fi universe. Collectively, these films are called the Star Wars Anthology. The first of these, Star Wars: Rogue One, follows a group of Rebels who steal the plans for the first Death Star.

But if you're a fan of Star Wars games, you may be thinking, 'Hey--didn't I already steal the Death Star plans back in 1995?' Well, you'd be right! But since Disney has effectively erased most stories from the Star Wars Expanded Universe from official canon, many of the side stories that Star Wars video games have told are now no longer recognised. Here are three of our favourite side stories Star Wars games have told which we'll miss the most.

Who Stole The Death Star Plans?

Because Star Wars games tended to take more liberties with established canon than other tie-in media like films and comics, there are multiple conflicting instances of the Death Star plans being stolen by different people. It's easy to see why: the theft of the plans is an important event that kicks off the very first Star Wars film. But the most regularly referred-to theft was conducted by Kyle Katarn, the protagonist of Star Wars: Dark Forces, a first-person shooter released in 1995. In the game's opening level, Katarn infiltrates an Imperial base, shoots a lot of Stormtroopers, and recovers a chip holding the Death Star's schematics.

But the theft of the Death Star plans didn't stop there; Star Wars games also filled in how the plans made their way into the hands of Princess Leia. A mission in Star Wars: X-Wing requires to you protect a shuttle as it physically transports the schematics to Leia's blockade runner, the Tantive IV. And who was in that ship? A character who actually featured in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope named Biggs Darklighter, one of Luke Skywalker's wingmen whose X-Wing blew up during the Death Star trench run.

How did the Rebels get from Yavin to Hoth?

You can bet the Empire would be pretty pissed after a farm boy blew up its superweapon--and even though it did blow up, the Rebels' presence on Yavin 4 was still no longer secret. So, they had to pack up shop and skedaddle. But how did they move all their stuff from Yavin to Hoth in the short time between A New Hopeand Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back?

It's an event that's covered by a couple of different Star Wars games, firstly in X-Wing's expansion pack, X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit. As the Empire moves to blockade the Yavin system, the Rebels prepare their capital ships to jump to hyperspace. The player must protect these frigates from waves in TIE Bombers, giving them time to evacuate the system. The evacuation ends with a dramatic transfer of a crippled capital ship's crew to a functioning vessel, after which the player scuttles the massive craft as the last of the Rebels flee the system.

Because the evacuation was so rushed, not every Rebel convoy managed to jump to the same location. A mission in Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader picks up soon afterward, with the scattered convoys attempting to reach a rendezvous point. As Skywalker's convoy arrives, they find the other Rebels have been ambushed and destroyed, and must flee the meeting point to arrive at Hoth with only a fraction of their supplies and manpower.

Who killed all those Bothans?

There aren't many other lines in the original Star Wars trilogy that inspired so many off-shoot stories as "Many Bothans died to bring us this information". The plans for the second Death Star were acquired by this group of people, yet we know almost nothing about them. Think about it--do you even know what a Bothan looks like? (It's a furry human.)

Rather than create a scenario where you play as the Bothans and steal these plans from the Empire, Star Wars: TIE Fighter included a tour of duty where you hunt down and massacre the Bothans as they flee with the technical readouts in tow. This isn't just a single mission where you gun down ships labelled "Bothans", but a multi-stage campaign that involves capturing Bothan spies and delivering them to Darth Vader, destroying a massive Bothan dreadnought, and then sneaking into the Rebel fleet to double-check they believed the plans and would therefore fall into Vader's trap in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Indeed, many Bothans died, and most of them by your hand.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-star-wars-games-that-have-been-erased-from-the/1100-6427025/

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected Review

Fourth and F It

HIGH The Gat loyalty mission.

LOW Holding down the power button on my PS4 for ten seconds and hoping the crash hadn't screwed up the hard drive permanently.

WTF There are a lot of different Shaundis in this game...

Fun fact: this is the fourth review of Saints Row IV we've had on this website. Brad andDarren found this game a refreshing return to form after the Third, a game they did not love. I, meanwhile, thought IV was missing some of the edge that had defined the series.

The budding console generation is thick with remasters and HD updates, however, so it's come back around again. Unfortunately, the "Re-Elected" edition for PS4 and XB One is only worth plunging into for those who literally cannot play Saints Row IV any other way.

The good news is that the core game isn't really changed. Everything that Brad, Darren, and I said before stands, and it's mostly positive. Re-Elected comes with material from a couple of DLC packs as well. Some of this amounts to costumes and additional weapons, but the "Enter the Dominatrix" and "How the Saints Save Christmas" DLC expansions are also included. Both of these are mild disappointments.

"Enter the Dominatrix" is the better of the two. Acknowledging that Saints Row IV had its origins in this DLC, the expansion adopts the conceit of being a DVD special feature with the characters (including Zinyak) commenting on their proposed roles and the events of the abandoned story. The missions themselves are a little lacking in variety—most involve killing waves of enemies and then sticking the Boss's hand somewhere it shouldn't go. Still, I enjoyed the meta-humor of the setup, and the enemies, harking back to previous entries' theme gangs, were an improvement over the unspeakably dull Zin.

The reskinning of Zin as gingerbread men and murderous nutcrackers was the best thing about "How the Saints Save Christmas", despite being a meatier offering. A version of Shaundi pops in from the future (for those keeping track, this is the third Shaundi in the game) sending the Saints on a mission to save Santa Claus from an evil version of himself named Clawz. Again, the missions tend towards shooting a whole bunch of dudes, though there is an entertaining bit where the Boss mounts a sleigh and fires flaming coal at the houses of the naughty. The story, however, is disappointingly straightforward, and while it's shot through with plenty of Christmas movie references I didn't find these entertaining. The expansion does add some activities to the map to improve longevity, but these weren't a huge draw for me.

Both expansions gave me the impression that the team was scraping the idea barrel. "Dominatrix" felt like it was just mining bits of the Third, and Christmas specials have never been the height of creativity. Short, and short on interesting ideas, these expansions probably wouldn't justify purchasing Re-Elected, even for a Saints fan. The case for a buy gets weaker when the quality is considered.

I can't speak to the stability on XBox One, but on PS4 this game was a nightmare. I experienced several crashes while playing, as well as numerous glitches in menus. On two occasions Re-Elected froze up so completely the only thing I could do was a hard shutdown of the console. The sound was glitchy and bizarrely processed, especially in audio logs which sometimes boomed with echoes and were muffled at other times.

The visual upgrade has little to recommend it. The cityscape looks passable, though it was never really attractive in the first place. The character models paradoxically look worse in this remaster. Perhaps it's just the extra pixels, but many of them look like nightmarish rubber dolls in this version.

For someone who has just entered console gaming with a PS4 or XBox One, or who traded in their previous consoles to get their current one, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is worth grabbing because it grants access to an open-world crime game that's willing to go way out there in every way possible, and make fun of everything—including itself. This is a case, however, where I would whole-heartedly recommend the PS3 and Xbox 360 originals. The remaster's packed-in expansions add little, and the "upgrade" is a failure. Rating: 4 out of 10

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 20 hours of play was devoted to single-player modes and the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, partial nudity, and use of drugs. This is a game where one of the melee weapons is a giant dildo, and another is a huge anal probe. It's not for your kids.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: All important dialogue has subtitles and there are no essential sound cues.

http://www.gamecritics.com/sparky-clarkson/saints-row-iv-re-elected-review