Dead Island
There is quite a bit going on in Dead Island. Like Dead Rising 2, it features outlandish weapon creation amidst unending hoards of zombies. It boasts a massive, incredible open world to explore and absorb, along with over one hundred quests to undertake, calling to mind Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Loot is color coded based on effectiveness and rarity, and you can play four different classes with up to ...[Read More]
The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
It’s hard to find a pair of games held in higher regard than Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Fumito Ueda and his colleagues at Team Ico sketched two master strokes that not only illustrated the fundamental difference between Eastern and Western design, but also captured to former at the pinnacle of its influence. It’s been six years since Team Ico’s last release and both critics ...[Read More]
Crimson Alliance
Certain Affinity isn’t pulling any punches with Crimson Alliance. A hack ‘n slash action role playing game, it suffers no delusions of trying to compete with Diablo or Torchlight. Its aim is to skip all the dead weight that the genre has collected and carried over the last decade. Crimson Alliance’s focus on pure gameplay was a noble mission, but it might have come at the cost of...[Read More]
The Baconing
Dear DeathSpank, I have to say, I did not expect to see you again. We had a blast last summer, and even though you showed up again, almost completely by surprise, last fall, I figured it would be a couple of years before you graced us with your witty brand of hack ‘n slash. Still, having played completely through your newest adventure, The Baconing, I can’t say I was unhappy to see you. Oh, ...[Read More]
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Japanese publishers have an infamous legacy of banishing attractive role-playing games into Western obscurity. Mother 3 was dropped in response to the fading Game Boy Advance, the Saturn died before Sega could localized the other two-thirds of Shining Force III, and Square-Enix held off on Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System to focus their efforts on current generation development. P...[Read More]
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection should have been a celebration of Mortal Kombat’s golden years. What the original holy trilogy lacked in mechanics or balance was compensated with the violence and excess that defined videogames as a viable hobby for teenagers and adults. On a personal level Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 were the reasons why I rode my bike to an ...[Read More]
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
After a few minutes into chapter one of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, my controller was sitting idle. Not unlike the first time I got my hands on BioShock, I had failed to notice the line where a cut scene had ended and a playable game had started. BioShock’s aquatic plane crash executed this moment by seeming too real to actually be something playable. El Shaddai arrested my attent...[Read More]
Catherine
Morality in videogames, one of the more popular trends of the last five or so years, has always been presented in relatively binary terms. Pick good or pick bad. Help people or hurt people. InFamous and Mass Effect have walked fairly clear lines between good and evil. Fallout 3 chose a similar course with more grey matter in between, but often revolved around a personal decision to do good or be b...[Read More]
Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues
While I spent more than seventy hours ravenously consuming the breadth of content offered by Fallout: New Vegas, I didn’t bother picking up either of the first two pieces of downloadable content. Dead Money appeared to focus on aspects of Fallout I didn’t find particularly interesting and Honest Hearts got lost in the shuffle. Old World Blues would have skipped right past my net as wel...[Read More]
Gatling Gears
Gatling Gears’ PlayStation Network debut had an interesting path to fruition. Released to Xbox Live Arcade nearly two months ago to generally positive reviews (read Nathan Steven’s take), Gatling Gears was due to arrive on PSN shortly thereafter. Due to Sony’s unfortunate global meltdown it was shelved indefinitely. Now it’s finally available for PlayStation 3 owners, and, surprise, fo...[Read More]
Impressions: Journey (beta)
When Journey began and I was plopped down in the sand, briefly shown how to manipulate the camera, and set free in the desert. Traditional tropes we associate with teaching us the rules (complicated button layouts, explicit tutorials, wacky friends demonstration mechanics) seemed deliberately removed from Journey’s visage. It was as if the development team at thatgamecompany regarded establi...[Read More]
Marvel Pinball DLC: Fantastic 4 + Captain America
While certainly not an improper score, Marvel Pinball sometimes felt better than the 8/10 I bestowed upon it last December. Zen Studio’s digital recreations of a beloved pastime were the closest one could get to the real deal, and filtering their keen eye for authenticity through Marvel’s lens was a near perfect match. If nothing else, it was safe to say Zen Studios had made better use...[Read More]