Shooter

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon came out of nowhere. “This is just an April Fool's joke!”, people claimed. “Oh, it's just going to be some lousy DLC!”, cried the cynics. Thankfully, none of this was true, and the Kojima-esque viral marketing campaign successfully drummed up interest. Blood Dragon is its own game, is definitely not DLC, is definitely an homage to 80s blockbusters, and is definitely awesome.

The ocean waves beat a gentle rhythm on the beach behind me as I enter the disused bungalow. An idyllic tropical setting, but I'm here as a scavenger rather than a tourist, picking over the wasted scraps of a life once lived. The now deceased occupant lies on the floor with a gunshot wound in his temple.

J.J. Abrams' take on Star Trek, while it has its detractors, has been well received by fans old and new. The next film, Star Trek: Into Darkness, is slated for theatres next month and expectations are high. So, what better way to celebrate this highly anticipated sequel then by playing a game based on the hit films? Well, after spending some time with the latest Star Trek game, I can think of quite a few ways.

Ubisoft has been known to be at their most experimental with new console releases, and the Wii U was the perfect opportunity to pay homage to the first game they ever made – Zombi. Released in 1986 for the PC, Zombi was a first-person action-adventure game that takes place in a mall filled with zombies. The game's “hook” was that after a player died they would turn into a zombie and the other survivors would have to defeat it. ZombiU features a similar game mechanic, but this time Ubisoft was able to utilize modern technology to provide a more atmospheric ...

In what appears to be a bid to garnish more sales for the aging franchise, Capcom has decided to shake things up in the Resident Evil universe. With four campaigns, multiple playable characters, Mercenaries mode and the all-new Agent Hunt feature, RE6 is positively ripe with content. Gone are the days of puzzle solving in an eerie atmosphere. Now, it's all about cinematic action and ultra-linear level design. While these changes didn't hurt sales, the game has received plenty of hate from critics and fans alike. With this in mind, I was expecting the worst ...

There have been a number of attempts to bring the MMO to consoles and they have, by and large, been unsuccessful. Instead of building a game to play with a controller in front of the TV from scratch, developers instead adapt a game built around dozens of keyboard keys and a mouse. They're often surprised when that doesn't work. Defiance is a game that brings together the spirit of third person multiplayer gaming and the massive, persistent world of the MMO, and it does it so successfully you might begin to question why it wasn't possible before. This feels ...

In the last few years, the big budgets and carefully-constructed profit margins of AAA-titles have unfortunately taken a toll on the creativity of games. There are more modern/futuristic war first-person shooters and open world action games than ever - and at the same time, less unique protagonists and stories being told within these genres. Although some of these games may be impressive with game mechanics and scope of their story, I've felt less of a connection with the characters I control and as a byproduct, the journeys I take with them become easier to ...

Never a franchise known for deep, memorable storytelling, the concept of Gears of War: Judgment seemed a little odd. Were people really that interested in what Baird and Cole were up to when Emergence Day occurred, or right before the final attack on Azura of Gears of War 3? It turns out the absence of Marcus wouldn't change things too much: Gears of War: Judgment follows in the veins of its predecessors in both style and personality, though to slightly lesser returns – and oddly, with a lot less content.

To say that gamers were skeptical when The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct was announced would be putting it mildly. With Telltale releasing The Walking Dead adventure game - a game that was focused on hitting all the personal and emotional notes that the comic series is famous for - fans wondered if we needed what appeared to be a run and gun shooter set in the world of AMC's The Walking Dead TV series. Was it even something we wanted?

Sniper: Ghost Warrior hit the gaming scene in 2010. It wasn't very well received, but it sold well enough to warrant a sequel. The first installment was panned for containing too many run-and-gun missions, something that shouldn't be in a game supposedly all about sniping. With that, developer City Interactive decided to make some much-needed improvements with the sequel, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2. While they succeeded in building a game that focuses more on stealth and sniping, the final product leaves much to be desired.