Yet Konamis defining success isnt individual, but collective: in the way your players make incisive off-the-ball runs, hustle and harry in packs, or segue into preset formations like migrating swallows mirroring real-life team attributes. You dont need lightning-fast right-stick tricks to dribble past players, just an intuitive understanding of your players' real-life attributes, and measured sweeps and pokes of the left stick. Collision System and Emotional Intelligence - PES 2016 nukes the jargon to feel like football. I cant fully explain how something like MonHun exists, never mind on a 3DS cart, but we are very lucky to have it.Īfter years locked in a mutually-destructive physics and AI arms race with EAs FIFA series exchanging blows over enhancements like PES ID, M.A.S.S.

Stellar localisation, massively improved tutorials and combat systems deep enough to give you vertigo make this a game designed to offer something at all times - Ive farmed in the space between train stops, spent eight hours fighting Elder Dragons on a plane, and spent countless days screaming at friends in my bedroom (mainly because I was playing Monster Hunter). See someone stride into a multiplayer lobby wearing full Khezu armour, and you know theyve had to kill a lot of monsters that look like angry, flying penises. It makes every suit, every blade a map of how you played this strange, massive game. An action-RPG built around loot, with no levelling to speak of, your characters skills are determined by the arms and armour they wield - and almost all of that equipment is crafted out of monster pieces youve chopped off in the course of the game.

I spent as much time this year using talking cats to fish for lobsters as I did sucking the toxic juices out of mega-beetles faces - and that, in essence, is what makes Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate quite so special.

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