Assassin's Creed III serves as a stealth-action game with ample content that is equitable to its predecessors overall, though it is severely detracted by disappointing developments, a noticeably glitchy interface and failed attempts at innovation in the series.

Assassin's Creed III follows Connor, a Native American in the Assassin lineage, as he struggles to repel the Templars while taking part in event that shaped the American Revolution. The freerunning, combat sequences and progress through history are just as satisfying as ever. Loads of costumes, weapons (both purchasable and craftable) and abilities serve to add depth and customization to the gameplay, making Connor feel like the player's own creation. Numerous sidequests lengthen and support the game while allowing the player to explore the game's world through different avenues that retain a feeling of freshness by not grinding through them. Historical information to be divulged through seeing people and places incentivizes exploration, though the historical facts are sometimes hard to differentiate from the game's fiction, which makes the education value of the game questionable. Additionally, certain post-completion rewards allow the player to truly take command of the game, serving as satisfying means to engage the game in while the player strives for full completion.

This game does, however, faces difficulties. The biggest flaw that this game repeats consistently are its lackluster payoffs. ACIII is rife with missed opportunities and dead ends that will leave the player at best confused and at worst outraged. Its main story faces this issue in two major ways. First, Connor's saga, though decently paced through most of the game, screeches to a halt by the end of the game. The two top villains, who were built up so thoroughly during the rest of the game, have final encounters with Connor that can best be described as a quicktime event and a cutscene. Such needless handicaps and disconnects from player interaction are massive letdowns that leave the tribulations gone through by playing the rest of the story not feel worthwhile. The second issue comes in Desmond's storyline. Throughout the game, the player will be brought to the real world to engage as Desmond, who plays just like Connor but without all of his weapons and upgrades, thus feeling very weak. Desmond's missions are enjoyable as a view into what modern-day Assassining is like, but are ultimately letdowns. They feel wholly out-of-place, and the underlying story will be incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't played the prior games, thus leaving new players even more disjoint from the game. These shorts will force the player to call into question the value of completing the game's additional content, not knowing whether there will be an eventual payoff there, either.

The game also strives to stand out in the series by taking bold steps in key areas, with varying results. In some cases, the game succeeds. The diversity brought about for the protagonist, for instance, adds valuable style and culture to the game. Connor's Native American heritage is largely treated with respect, and the game provides players with opportunities to learn more about Native Americans in ways that don't even enter into the gameplay. However, many of the changes this game underwent were for the worse. The change in setting from Italy to colonial America does provide some freshness to the franchise; however, it sacrifices playability to achieve this. Freerunning in the city rooftops is largely useless now as guards will immediately investigate you when spotted - which is often. Freerunning in the forests is conceptually interesting but plays poorly, as there are few entry points to climb into the treetops, and even when in the treetops the players are mainly stuck on linear paths to a predetermined end, with few branching paths involved. But perhaps the most significant change is one of the least gameplay-changing: the protagonist himself. All the diversity that surrounds his character cannot save Connor from being as bland and dull as he is. His voice only shifts out of a lame monotone to go to grumbly anger. He shows more emotion while pig farming than during a pivotal death sequence. He never seems to grow over his adventures (except to become more grumbly), and even the end of what one may call his 'character arc' comes off as forced and clichéd. Connor's rigidness as a character just serves as one more disappointment to the player. Unfortunately, some series-staple bugs, such as dying via fall from the plane of existence, glitchy jump sequences, spawns into impossible locations and even hard crashes were not changed from previous games, and remain consistently present in this title.

This game reached far, and consequently fell hard. It did not fail from the fall, though, because it always has its satisfying core mechanics as an Assassin's Creed game to lie back on. What hurts most about this game, though, is that it clearly had the potential to be what it wanted to be. Should just some more time have gone into developing Connor, the interactions with the new area layouts and the rewards for beating various parts of the game, and this title could have been a masterpiece of not just the series, but the stealth-action genre. Instead, what it serves as now is an about-average game that should please fans of American history, Native Americans or the Assassin's Creed lore, but most others should look elsewhere for their Assassin simulator. Assassin's Creed III gets a C.

Scanner Sombre is an exploration-driven horror game. With a creepy atmosphere driven by the overwhelming darkness and its stark, cavernous setting, this game makes for a unique walking sim experience that should pleasingly spook players. Though it is a very short game at just over two hours and doesn't boast of much of a compelling story, the experience of exploring the ruins is enough to justify a purchase - especially to try its VR mode, if possible.

The premise of Scanner Sombre is straightforward: you are stuck at the deep, dark bottom of a cavernous expanse. Pitch black in dimness, you arm up with a futuristic scanning device that measures and records your surroundings, with the resulting colored dots as your only source of guidance. Navigate your way through the dreary subterranean underground as you find strange remnants, and piece together what happened down there - before it's too late.

Scanner Sombre's draw is its exploration. While technically a walking simulator, this game takes advantage of the genre's trappings - the emphasis on surroundings, visuals, and environmental storytelling - to quite effective use as a horror title. By making 'establishing visibility' the main goal of gameplay, players will invariably focus on the gloomy surroundings which developers Introversion Software painstakingly rendered to capture the feel of "trapped underground" works of horror like The Descent. There's a satisfaction earned from filling in an area until just about everything is visible - checking around every corner and stalagmite to see if there's a path forward retains its spooky aura throughout the title. If there is any gripe to note with the core gameplay system, it's that on occasion the system works *too* well, leaving confined spaces too bright with dots. The game largely avoids this by keeping the world vast and gaping, though.

While the game is respectable for maintaining a strong atmosphere, it isn't that hard to accomplish with such a short runtime. This title clocks in at just over two hours for a full, detailed playthrough. Scanner Sombre likewise doesn't differ from most other walking simulators in that the game itself offers little replay value, outside of the player wishing to experience the same thing over again. With such a minimal story, it's unlikely players will feel compelled to play again to check for things they may have missed. So prospective buyers should be aware that they'd be getting a game of very little quantity; the question before purchasing should be whether the quality warrants a buy, to which I would say "yes."

It is worth noting that Scanner Sombre also comes with VR support. I am not able to test this so I cannot account for its quality, though I should say that from online testimonials it seems to be pretty effective. I can see why: the minimalist visuals and gameplay revolving around simple hand motions seems perfect for the medium. This could very well make for a reason to replay the game, and so this title could be especially appealing to VR users.

Scanner Sombre cleverly plays off the gaming medium and the tropes of walking simulators to make for a compelling horror experience. It's too bad it lacks a compelling story or a longer runtime to help deepen the experience, though for what it is it's well worth the low sale price. Be sure to check this one out (again) if/when you own a VR headset. Scanner Sombre gets a B.