Fallout: New Vegas – Journal Entry #2
Hello and welcome to part two of a poorly written feature covering my time with Fallout: New Vegas. Rather than post extensive impression like I did for Fallout 3, I have decided to write from the perspective of my player character, DariusRucker. It’s 90% “his” point of view concerning intended plot elements, tomfoolery, horrible glitches, and random observations associated with ...[Read More]
Ys: The Oath In Felghana
As of late the Ys series has produced an interesting perspective on time travel. Three months ago we were given Ys Seven, the latest sequel in the series and a game that delightfully exceeded my expectations. Ys: The Oath in Felghana, next in line to arrive on PSP thanks to XSEED’s smooth deal with Falcom, is actually a remake of the third Ys game, sort of. Oath of Felghana is indeed a repri...[Read More]
Fallout: New Vegas – Journal Entry #01
Hello and welcome to part one of a poorly written feature covering my time with Fallout: New Vegas. Rather than post extensive impression like I did for Fallout 3, I have decided to write from the perspective of my player character, DariusRucker. It’s 90% “his” point of view concerning intended plot elements, tomfoolery, horrible glitches, and random observations associated with ...[Read More]
Vanquish
It’s usually a disaster when a Japanese development studio intends to produce a game in line with the tastes and sensibilities of a Western audience. Quantum Theory being the latest horrific example, much is lost in translation and the game usually winds up an intolerable mess. Vanquish suffers no such delusions because it lacks those ill-conceived aspirations. The fundamental difference is ...[Read More]
Preview: Dead Nation
After Zombie Apocalypse and Burn Zombie Burn, I was beginning to grow tired of zombie games in the download space. Little else could pique my interest, but Dead Nation held a trump card; Housemarque. Super Stardust HD was arguably the first great title on Sony’s PlayStation Network. A twin stick shooter, the beautiful presentation coupled with the enormous amount of onscreen activity made fo...[Read More]
Dead Space Ignition
Its ability to constantly under-sell and effortlessly over deliver is the secret best thing about Visceral Game’s Dead Space franchise. The original Dead Space beat Resident Evil 5 by six months and still holds the title as the current generation’s premier survival/horror. Dead Space Extraction flopped commercially, but it was a great game and sported some of the finest visuals on Nint...[Read More]
Sonic 4: Episode I
Nostalgia makes you do silly things. Fond memories of Sonic’s Genesis heyday proved to be sufficient rationale for constantly swallowing the bitter pills like Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic and the Black Knight, and Sonic Unleashed. Those weren’t good games, hell, sometimes they weren’t even finished games. I’ve not only been there, I...[Read More]
Alan Wake: The Writer
I didn’t much care for The Signal, Remedy’s first stab at Alan Wake’s post-game content. Certain faults were forgivable; recycled assets, for example, were an expected trade off for fresh content with similar production value. Others slips were not. Filtering Alan through identical environments under the guise of an inconsequential addition to the (delightfully ambiguous) narrati...[Read More]
Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman
“…what the hell is this?” isn’t my typical gut reaction when I’m handed a game to review. Katamari Damacy could have pulled it off, but most game titles relay a slight hint of the content therein. In this regard, and many others, Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman clearly wasn’t concerned with standing in the same line as everyone else. For the last f...[Read More]
Dead Rising 2
I never bought into Dead Rising’s backlash. Almost like videogame revisionist history, one of the first Xbox 360 games genuinely celebrated as a prime example of the potential for the new console generation was later stripped of its success by forum enthusiasts and podcast pundits. Somehow, alleged artifacts of previous generations, most notably the single save slot and strict time limit, re...[Read More]
Dead Space 2: Multiplayer Beta Preview
It was natural to be skeptical. Competitive multiplayer seemed antithetical to Dead Space’s most acclaimed features. A profound sense of dread and an unsettling atmosphere wouldn’t seem to mesh with kill counts and hectic objective based missions. Thankfully Visceral was well aware of this, and seems to have created an experience that doesn’t replicate and reproduce the single pl...[Read More]
Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue
Deathspank was one of the few games (that I didn’t have to review) where I managed to get a 100% completion percentage. It didn’t have much to do with embracing its ups or ignoring its downs, but rather my inability to see a list of potential tasks and an obsessive compulsive disorder/mandate to complete every last one. The easy of accessibility and gorgeous presentation aided my persi...[Read More]