Electronic Arts and Dice have faced equal shares of disdain and excitement after acquiring the rights to the Star Wars Battlefront series, and devs admitted themselves that taking on Battlefront was “scary”. Revive a darling gaming franchise long stuck in purgatory? Do so while prefacing the return of the most loved science fiction universe in history, upon which said game is based? No pressure, right?

Immediately apparent from boot up, Battlefront is a gorgeous game. Still shots are beautiful and, when in motion, the diverse scenery is even more striking. The included maps cover a range of environments including snow, green fields, sun-beaten desert, and even volcanic rock as the foundation for these laser-riddled playgrounds. On top of the visuals, Battlefront continues DICE’s pedigree for sound design. The score from Star Wars is in place and ramps up at just the right time during matches, but the sound effects are the true feat here: rhythmic laser fire hypnotizes, the muted thud of the special imploder grenade mesmerizes, and subtle touches like debris careening off the hull when flying a ship through the disintegrated remains of another ship is pleasantly distracting. Sonically and visually, the Star Wars franchise is well represented.

How do you review a game like The Beginner’s Guide? As a narrative experience that lasts an hour and a half (and that’s not a rough estimate—you’d have to go some lengths to make it any longer) one is almost tempted to say, “look, it’s really not that long, if it sounds like the kind of thing you’d like, you’re only losing an hour and a half to it.”

It’s strange, because a movie—you know, a narrative experience—also generally lasts an hour and a half, yet if someone said that to me about a film, I’d be like “uh, an hour and a half is a lot of time to spend on anything, pal” and yet if a game has got out of the tutorial by that point we’re probably feeling pretty good. And if it’s any shorter than about six hours we’re probably feeling ripped off, no matter how much it cost.

(If you’re wondering, The Beginner’s Guide is $9.99.)

When Bioware released Star Wars: The Old Republic back in 2011, fans of the game praised it for having a stronger focus on story than other MMOs. From class-specific storylines to Companions with their own story quests, SW:TOR had a great launch with numerous high review scores. Unfortunately, once you reached the end of that story, it became a standard hotkey MMO. Many of the players who finished their class stories ended up quitting.

SW:TOR has tried many things to fix this problem. They went Free To Play in 2012 and have released several expansions which added new features to the game: space-based PvP, player housing and guild flagships, new planets, as well as various new small-group Flashpoints and large-group Operations.

But none of these expansions quite captured the original game’s focus on an epic storyline. Bioware hopes to fix that with their newest expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire. Bioware claims that KotFE will have a renewed focus on cinematic storytelling and bring with it new worlds, new companions, and a storyline that will be affected by decisions you make along the way. So the question now is: did they pull it off?

Trespasser is the final single-player DLC to be released for BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition. It takes a two-year jump into the future following the events of Inquisition, so if you haven't completed the core game and watched the post-credit epilogue, there are spoilers ahead.

After an enjoyable foray into a new region in Jaws of Hakkon, then a so-so delve through the Deep Roads with The Descent, Trespasser puts the previous two DLCs to shame with its depth. Once again we can interact with our companions and find out how their stories have furthered, and our choices from the main storyline in Inquisition may (or may not) come back to haunt us. Orlais and Ferelden are bickering (as usual), French accents are abound, there's finally a mabari introduced, and—depending on who you romanced—a wedding could be in your cards.

Unfortunately (for me), my Lavellan had romanced Solas, so the only thing stacked in my deck was an emotional rollercoaster.

Two buttons, two functions. The rest is just rockets.

If you're wondering, yes that was a reference for The 7th Guest. This review, however, has nothing to do with that old (but good) puzzle game, and everything to do with rockets. Tinertia, the latest creation between Candescent Games and Section Studios uses two buttons. One for an air dash, the other for a level reset. The right-hand joystick is used for shooting rockets. You don't jump. That's it.

Well guys, looks like it's Tuesday again.

Today marks the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition's final single-player post-game content DLC, Trespasser. Our review for Trespasser is yet to come, but first we want to take a look at the game's previous release.

Last month, BioWare released the second single-player DLC for Inquisition. Taking the Inquisitor on a journey into the Deep Roads (because no Dragon Age game can be complete without that area), The Descent is an adventure that reveals dark secrets that even the dwarves of Orzammar are shocked to discover.

It’s been almost two years since I wrote my review of Square Enix’s MMO, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I was a big fan of what they’d created, especially compared to the mess that was v1.0. I even wrote a column about the game for over a year. Since that initial release, numerous patches came out, bringing with them new instances, Hard mode dungeons and Hard/Extreme trials, side-story quest chains like the Hildibrand saga, and of course the continuation of FFXIV’s excellent main story questline. Fast forward to a month ago when FFXIV releases their first expansion, Heavensward. This expansion brought with it an expanded level cap of 60, three new jobs, new zones, new instances/trials, and the continuation of that epic main story. For the last month I’ve been put in hours upon hours into the world of Eorzea and now I’m finally ready to give my opinion.

The Weaponographist, a fast-paced hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, released earlier this summer to positive acclaim on Steam. With summer convention mania behind us, we spent the weekend diving deeper into the game to see whether or not demon hunter Doug McGrave could redeem himself.

Will Fight for Food: Super Actual Sellout Game of the Hour is an eclectic bag of mixed feelings. On one hand the game lacks any sort of meaningful depth, but on the other hand it is that lack of depth that makes the game fun to pick up and put down again. The brevity of the experience serves to only bolster this point. The experience feels incomplete, yet somehow through its incomplete nature, it beats the odds and becomes whole.

Tropico 5 released on the PC in May 2014 and since then has been slowly rolling out onto consoles, with the latest being Tuesday's upcoming PlayStation 4 launch. Here's a quick summary of the game for those that haven't tried their hand at it yet.

You play as a dictator leading the island nation of Tropico, expanding your Dynasty and taking both a political and economic foothold, all while trying to keep the stronger world powers from becoming angry and decimating your lands. Build up your town, explore the island, claim resources, engage in sea trade, and attract voters to keep your reign. Research new technologies, establish a constitution to setup how you wish to rule and perform missions to earn rewards or prestige. Multiplayer breathed new life into the Tropico franchise as you compete head-to-head or go co-op while striving to make El Presidente's dynasty the greatest.