Batman: Arkham City Review
Dec 02, 2011
Batman: Arkham Asylum was a surprise hit for 2009, by being both a great action game and the best superhero game made. Six months have passed since the events of Arkham Asylum and now Dr. Hugo Strange has been assigned to run Arkham City – which can’t be good. I can’t detail how it is you get into Arkham City, but it’s one of the strongest and engaging openings to a game. Batman now has to find and stop Hugo Strange all while deterring some of the great villains like The Joker, Two-Face, and the Penguin, even stopping random acts of violence within the confines of the prison. All of it seems daunting for even Batman to do alone.
Need For Speed: The Run Review
Dec 01, 2011
EA’s venerable racing series, Need For Speed has now reached its 18th game in the franchise. Titled “The Run”, the game revolves around Jack – who ends up getting in trouble with the mob and must pay to save his life. In order to do so, he must travel 3,000 miles from San Francisco to New York to win this race across America and be #1 amongst 199 other drivers for a $25 million dollar cash purse.
Fate of the World: Tipping Point Review
Nov 14, 2011
Fate of the World: Tipping Point is the latest version of the highly rated game that wraps up the original game and the DLC into one package. What’s changed, and is it still highly recommended?
Dungeon Siege III Review
Nov 14, 2011
Truth be told, I have never really played Dungeon Siege or Dungeon Siege II for any amount of time beyond 30 minutes each from the demos. But six years have gone by and many things have changed, namely the Developer and the Publisher. Instead of Gas Powered Games at the development helm, it is now Obsidian Entertainment (of KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Alpha Protocol fame). And the publisher is now Square Enix. So what does that say for the series?
inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood Review
Oct 31, 2011
Sucker Punch’s approach to making this Halloween-themed spin-off of their popular franchise as a downloadable game instead of DLC for inFAMOUS 2 is a great sell both for timing and the series. As someone who’s played inFAMOUS and not it’s sequel (yet), the idea that this would be its own, self-contained game in the vein of Dead Rising: Case Zero served to the pleasure centers of my cerebral cortex.
Sequence Review
Oct 30, 2011
Hybrids are all around us: combat racing games, puzzle RPGs, first person / real time strategy, Prius’, and even peanut butter and jelly. Iridium Studios brings us a mash-up of two genres not likely to be friends: music and RPG. Sequence takes what made DDR famous and mashes it with RPG nature of battling enemies, gathering loot, and levelling up – combining to be one unusual, yet refreshing take thanks to this indie developer.
Scribblenauts Remix Review
Oct 24, 2011
Scribblenauts, the highly praised DS game, has, surprisingly, come to iOS in the form of Scribblenauts Remix. Needless to say, I got insanely excited. The idea behind Scribblenauts – create anything you can to solve the puzzle – really intrigued me, and to have it on my phone and tablet sounded even better. I’ll be writing this review as someone who hasn’t played Scribblenauts before. For those who have, note that most of the content in this game is from the original version, with some new iOS-exclusive levels mixed in.
Crimson Alliance – Vengeance DLC Review
Oct 10, 2011
Vengeance is a dish best served cold, or was that revenge? We only reviewed Crimson Alliance a month ago. And now the DLC Pack is coming out on Wednesday and it provides a short, but challenging extension to an already great co-op and singleplayer experience.
Orcs Must Die! Review
Oct 06, 2011
Orcs Must Die! is not just the title of Robot Entertainment’s latest XBLA game, it’s the War Mage’s way of life.
The Gunstringer Review
Oct 03, 2011
Originally coming to Xbox 360 as the “First Xbox Live Arcade Kinect” game, is the Gunstringer from Twisted Pixel Games. They’re known for their 360-exclusive downloadable titles: The Maw, Splosion Man, Comic Jumper, and Ms. Splosion Man. Somewhere during development, the project shifted from being an XBLA title to a full retail release. Stepping out from the normal downloadable release has done Twisted Pixel well, providing the best Kinect game to date – in fact, this feels like the first true GAME for Kinect.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review
Oct 02, 2011
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is my introduction to the series. Back when the original Deus Ex came out in 2000, I was a little disillusioned with the death of the adventure game genre and the skyrocketing rise of First Person Shooters. It didn’t help that Deus Ex came out on the heels of one of the most disappointing first person games ever in Daikatana. Knowing what I know now about the original Deus Ex— that it was one of the first shooters that was more than a shooter— I definitely would have played Deus Ex. But heck, up to that point I hadn’t even played through Half-Life due to the same reasons. That being said, I do like what Deus Ex: Human Revolution brings to the table, but it’s not without its flaws.
Driver: San Francisco Review
Oct 01, 2011
As with previous entries, you’re John Tanner, ex-race car driver and undercover cop. After the events of Driver 3, your nemesis Jericho is behind bars. Tanner and his buddy cop partner, Tobias Jones, have volunteered to escort the motorcade with Jericho to his trial. Jericho manages to hijack the prison truck transporting him all thanks to a rocket launcher, beautiful assassin, and a news chopper watching overheard. The chase that follows is reminiscent of old 1970’s detective movies with very well done chase cinematics. The unfortunate end of this chase leaves Tanner in a coma. No I didn’t just spoil the game for you; Ubisoft Reflections made it very apparent in the early game that this is all in Tanner’s head. The fun comes in watching the story progress and witnesses Tanner discover this on his own. Tanner immediately realizes he has some sort of psychic abilities that he can use to posses other drivers in the city. The story is engaging and stars a cast that gives a top notch performance with a fantastic cinematics. The whole buddy cop and 70’s car chase film are really felt throughout the game and gives the game some personality. Tanner’s ability to shift is quite the change for the racing genre and an experience that’s a whole lot more entertaining than previous entries in this series.
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad Review
Sep 23, 2011
The “Make Something Unreal” contest by Epic Games (the creators of the Unreal engine) is no stranger to long-time winners Tripwire Interactive. They are popular developer for their mods turned to retail games include: Killing Floor and The Ball. Now they have a follow-up to Red Orchestra – Heroes of Stalingrad. The game utilizes the latest version of Unreal Engine 3 – one of the most satisfying games set in World War II.
TrackMania² Canyon Review
Sep 21, 2011
TrackMania has been a very popular series on PC for quite some time. Each release isn’t so much a revolution, as it is an evolution. This follows that trend and is a more significant difference from past entries due to ManiaPlanet, an all-encompassing system that will house TrackMania, ShootMania, and QuestMania. This is why you likely won’t see ManiaPlanet come to Steam due to the way content will be released. Launching ManiaPlanet now only launches TrackMania2 Canyon.
Hard Reset Review
Sep 19, 2011
Following the quickest turnaround from the announcement to release, comes Hard Reset. A futuristic cyberpunk, robot-hating future, set in Bezoar City. I wrote about this game a month ago with my hands-on time with the preview build.
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