SEGA's House of the Dead is a gaming institution, not because it's especially good (although it does what it does very well), but because its purposefully shaky action and dialogue makes it stick in the mind. Being chased by a sumo-sized monster? You can't possibly enter the door marked "No Entry." It's silly and harmless, and Typing of the Dead takes that idea and makes it even more outlandish.
Old-timey PC gamers might recall a game from the 80's called Shufflepuck Cafe, a science-fiction air-hockey sim with overt influences from Star Wars. The new PC game Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe takes the same concept and allows modern gamers to experience the exotic thrills of Air Hockey... IN SPAAAAAACE!
In Race The Sun players control a fast-moving hovercaft that speeds through an endless landscape of abstract geometric objects. Enormous cubes, cones, and walls fill the world as the player hurtles ever forwards towards a setting sun. The ship is unable to stop, only steer from side to side until the player makes an inevitable mistake and crashes in a shower of flaming pixels.
The Wolf Among Us Episode 2-Smoke and Mirrors continues Telltale’s Fable-based series in excellent fashion. This second episode lacks the excitement of the first, but it provides a much more complex outlook into this unique, noir-themed world.
Assassin's Creed Liberation HD might have been a good idea six months ago. Take a popular, critically successful Vita game and port it to consoles and PC. Why not? There are a lot of people that wanted to see this chunk of the story but weren't willing to by a handheld for it. Sure, six months ago it would have gone down a treat, and would have nicely bridged the gap between Assassin's Creed III and IV. With ...
The developers behind Deadly 30 absolutely have to be zombie game fans. It's a cunning combination of Call of Duty's Zombies, Left 4 Dead and a dozen other supernatural franchises that have defined the last few years of undead-erific fun. It's not a complicated idea: survive. But that's not quite as easy as it sounds, and it'll take every second of your 30 day "holiday" to really make it out alive.
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance sent up some red flags when it was announced; it didn't have Snake as a playable character, it wasn't part of the main Metal Gear storyline, and it was an action game with very little of Metal Gear's genre-defining stealth gameplay. However it was developed by Platinum Games, the studio behind Bayonetta, so it wasn't such a surprise that Revengeance turned out to among the best ...
After the shocking conclusion to the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, Clementine is back. The timing is perfect: the TV show has hit mid-season after a shocking finale and multiple sales, including the Telltale Humble Bundle, means there are few of us that haven't at least started the first set of episodes.
The keyboard that came with a Dell might be good enough for a civilian, but Space Marines, Dovakiin, and Zombie Hunters need a little more out of their primary input device. Mad Catz makes some very elaborate gaming keyboards that sport integrated touch screens, modular design and dozens of programable keys, but their S.T.R.I.K.E 3 is a less expensive gaming keyboard that keeps many of the features that gamers ...
Final Fantasy VIII was completely mind-blowing to those of us who had been obsessed with Final Fantasy VII. The locations were dark, the characters followed you around and they even managed to have hands. It helped that it was a decent title in its own right, and now it's been re-released on Steam, with a few modern features squeezed in. Is it worth another investment, or should you stick to your Vita download?
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
“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 ...
Gone Home is special. A creation designed to grasp the industry and its fans by their collar, and show them how a mature and painfully honest story should be told. While some games are set in fantastical worlds, such as a floating city or an apocalyptic world, Gone Home prides itself on its simplicity and intimacy. And like any good novel, Gone Home’s strength is the way it rewards people once they uncover and ...
Following the success of The Walking Dead, developer Telltale Games continues its trend of churning out compelling narrative experiences with the recent release of The Wolf Among Us. Based off of the Fables comic book series created by Bill Willingham, which follows recognizable fairy tale characters living in 80s New York, The Wolf Among Us is a delightful prequel that beautifully introduces the creative world ...
The time has finally come for The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief to reach its conclusion. This Agatha Christie inspired mystery has had its ups and downs, but has been a relatively enjoyable experience thus far, flaws notwithstanding. The second chapter followed through with the solid writing featured during chapter one's final act, but does it continue here in the third chapter, A Murder of Ravens? Do the ...
I'm sure there was a lot of scoffing when they announced the original LEGO Star Wars. Taking a toy license that was based off of a movie license and digitizing it must have seemed like the worst idea in the world, spawning a shoddy mess for children who have no idea what a good game is. Funnily enough, the exact opposite occurred and a gaming phenomenon was born. Now there have been approximately a billion LEGO ...
While EA has cornered the market on NFL games (by default, really), 2K has appeared to do the same with NBA sports simulations. While publisher Take-Two Interactive has been accused of just releasing roster updates with these annual releases, their series has been known to take risks and tweak major gameplay elements on occasion. NBA 2K14 continues this tradition to a degree, but it's not as crafted and ...
It's a bit odd that the Resident Evil games have become synonymous with Survival Horror. After all, they're about heavily-armed police officers who kill zombies by the hundreds. Real fear comes from facing an army of unstoppable monsters and not having any means to fight them off. Outlast locks players inside an abandoned mental institution, arms them with just a camcorder, then leaves them to creep around in ...
Lost Planet 3 is quite different from its predecessors. Opting to take a more Western approach to the series, Capcom turned to the American developers over at Spark Unlimited in an attempt to make this third installment more appealing. The franchise doesn't have a great track record, receiving low marks from both critics and gamers, so it's no surprise this game hasn't been getting much attention. It's a shame, ...
After playing through chapter one of The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief, I walked away with mixed feelings. The puzzles were a mess, and the story was a downright bore until Constable Zellner hopped aboard a ship headed to Cairo to continue his search for The Raven, who is hell bent on stealing the second Eye of the Sphinx. It was during this final act, with the murder on the ship, the detective work that ...
While everyone was still celebrating the announcement of DuckTales: Remastered, the reveal of another modernization of a bit-era Disney classic flew by everyone's radar: Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse.
When it comes to platformers, the Rayman games are typically hailed as being among the best. 2011's Rayman Origins was a critical success, and with the announcement of Rayman Legends, fans have been clamoring for what could be the definitive entry in the series. Well, I think they have it.
