Eric Layman

While I played through each entry in the holy trinity of Playstation 2 platformers, the Jak series was the one I started with. All three entries were explored to completion before I ever laid a finger on Ratchet or Sly, and I thought the Jak games were among the finest titles available in the early 00’s (yes, even II). Still, the last proper Jak game was nearly five years ago. Sly’s resurrection i...[Read More]

If nothing else, Brutal Legend proves that celebrity voice talent is absolutely rubbish without inspired writing. As of late, Marquee names have been headlines mainstream games – often to fruitless results. The name sells, sure, but if you’re going to feed the voice hackneyed lines between ho-hum bits of bland dialogue, then you might as well get random voice actor, not a big name. Fortunately, Br...[Read More]

There have been 21 Batman videogames! 21! Can you remember playing any of them? I spent a considerable amount of time with Batman: The Movie on NES, but, with the exception of last year’s Lego entry, most have been mildly inspired and entirely forgettable. And it’s quite a shame, because Batman isn’t one of those superheroes with gimmicky weaknesses. Hell, he doesn’t even have any actual powers; h...[Read More]

We were denied entry behind Square Enix’s closed doors (hooray scheduling confusion!), but the only game on the show floor we weren’t allowed to get video footage of was Project Cube, a work-in-progress for Live Arcade. Their first foray into the twin stick shooter genre, Project Cube did well to put its own spin on the genre. The fray took place on a large square, and the opposite for my tiny shi...[Read More]

I had no idea Astroboy was, as I was told, as popular as Mickey Mouse in Japan. I had never heard of him stateside, I saw no mention of him when I was in Japan last fall, and, most importantly, the game didn’t look tainted by the stain of the licensed garbage that permeates much of the Wii market. I didn’t know it was based on the latest Astroboy film, I just thought it looked cool. And, thankfull...[Read More]

The original Alien Versus Predator was, as many came to find out, one of the few reasons to justify ownership of a Jaguar. Atari’s ill fated console was, to most of the industry, was an expensive practical joke, but AvP, with its unique take on corridor first person shooters, almost made the thing worth owning. Multiple perspectives, an incredible use of darkness as atmospheric support, and the ab...[Read More]

Does anyone remember Distrega? It was an arena based fighter for the original Playstation in which characters had both melee and long range, magic attacks. They were spread out over enormous, sweeping arenas, which they could travel with remarkable speed. It didn't have the fast paced rush of Virtual On and it wasn't quite as close and intimate as Power Stone, yet it still managed to carve its own...[Read More]

The original Assassin’s Creed was a like a delicious ice cream cone that, unfortunately, was too much ice cream and not enough cone to keep it from making a mess. The opening hours were beautiful; conducting investigations was a bunch of fun, and exploring the levels and, eventually, finding ways to commit assassinations were wildly enjoyable. But then the game started repeating its own tricks, an...[Read More]

I loved Indigo Prophecy. Quantic Dream’s magnificent 2005 offering totally revived the long dormant adventure genre and modernized it with a (then) next generation skin. The narrative jumped shark toward the end and the primary input, which were not unlike quick time events, got a little stale; the game didn’t run out of gas, but it never reached the amazing potential of the first couple of hours....[Read More]

After dumping countless hours into nailing all 50 spectra in PixelJunk Eden (and the rest in Encore), it was safe to say that Q Games darling PixelJunk line had my full attention. Their follow-up to Eden, PixelJunk shooter, was one of my most anticipated games of E3, and was undoubtedly the apple of my eye when we finally made around to Sony’s booth tour. Stylistically, Shooter doesn’t look all th...[Read More]

I never actually played any of the early Silent Hill games. Resident Evil was where I got my survival horror jollies, so I always took a spectator role when it came to Konami’s series of mindf--- masterpieces. I watched my roommate play through the first three titles and parts of four, and promptly lost the same amount, if not more, sleep than he did. Eternal Darkness made a good run, but Silent H...[Read More]

Oddly enough, Blur was quite hard to find. I failed to find it at Activision’s booth and, eventually, I located a single kiosk on the outskirts of Microsoft’s booth. I’ve always been a fan of both Mario Kart and Arcade racers like Burnout, and combining the two seemed like an idea on par with greats such as peanut butter and jelly. And well, yeah, it was pretty much everything I expected. I starte...[Read More]