PC Reviews

Twas two weeks 'fore Christmas, the calendar did say, And nerds wanted new video games to play. Their hard drives were packed with ancient DLC Like Battlefield maps and Burial at Sea. They craved new content, with more missions to do.

Broken Sword is one of those point and click titles that just keeps on trying. Like Leisure Suit Larry and Monkey Island, there's something about the nostalgia behind those original titles that have kept people asking for more. Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is the latest in the franchise, and on the whole it's rather successful, just so long as you know exactly what it is you're going in to.

There are certain things that will always be of interest to hidden object and casual adventure enthusiasts: anything with a little intrigue and classic literature. Jane Austen's Estate of Affairs, by Legacy, has both, but is that enough to keep you clicking?

Where do I begin? Where do I end? Where do I middle? When it comes to The Stanley Parable, there's no real way to review it, just as there is no real way to play it, or finish it, or even describe it on a basic level. In the spirit of The Stanley Parable, allow me to go a bit meta – when I write a review, I like to spend the first couple of paragraphs giving an overview of the game. The story, the setting, but here, there is no proper story, there is no proper setting. Do you see the quandary? Maybe there's only one way to review it...

I’m sure when most people think of Amnesia they think of creatures popping out at them, chasing them and constantly trying to kill them. Well Amnesia A Machine for Pigs takes a completely different approach to scary, and in my opinion it works. So expect more of a looming feeling of uneasiness then pure outright terror that comes across as you play. It is unfortunate the amount of bad feedback this title has received because expectations were that of the last Amnesia title. I feel AMFP was a short and creepy experience with some brilliant story work intertwined.

Last gen the action adventure genre evolved into something far more controller, more linear than it ever had been before. The likes of Uncharted and Tomb Raider put personality and story ahead of pitting you against a cave and tasking you with getting to the end. It's funny then that it's so easy to see Deadfall Adventures as a bad copy of these games when actually the developers have gone back to the source.

Bioshock Infinite was one of the best received games of the last year, and it's no surprise that the DLC has caused something of a splash. Placing both Booker and Elizabeth in an alternate timeline in Rapture, the city beneath the sea from Bioshock and Bioshock 2, Burial At Sea is another slice of story that'll leave you open-mouthed, mostly for all the right reasons.

If you're a core gamer of yesteryear, you can stop reading here. You will hate Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. Whatever you felt Pac-Man was about - how you felt he spoke, where he lived, what his reasoning behind traversing those mazes was - The Ghostly Adventures will throw that all back in your face. It'll take decades of quiet appreciation and turn every facet of that appreciation on its head.

Enslaved Odyssey to the West was a criminally underrated title based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West, made popular in the UK by television show Monkey (or Monkey Magic, if you're from the US). Unfortunately, sales seemed to be about as lousy as the reviews, and with the announcement of DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved got thrown out by the anti-Ninja Theory crowd. Released on PC for the first time last week, Enslaved has a second chance to thrive in a post-Last of Us world. Will people finally recognise it for the diamond in the rough it always was?

“Too crazy for Saint's Row.” That's how the developers at Volition describe the new DLC pack Enter The Dominatrix. Or rather that's how the characters in the game describe their new adventure. Fans of the series know that parts of Saint's Row IV were originally intended to be a DLC pack for Saint's Row III, but there were still a few missions and characters that never made it into SRIV. These scattered missions and incomplete cutscenes have been released in their unfinished state as a DLC pack for Saint's Row IV and the experience is presented in the same way ...