Most Recent: Reviews
Anomaly: Warzone Earth Review: It’s Good To Be a Creep
Tower defense games are incredibly fun and addicting; heck, I don’t even want to think about the obscene amount of time I’ve spent trying to improve my scores in Defense Grid. Blasting creeps as they snake past your towers never gets old, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to play as the creeps? (more…)
Mass Effect 3 Review: Is It A Shepard… or the Sheep?
Finally, Mass Effect 3 is here, and has smashed into the face of the gaming public like a ship traveling through a Mass Relay station. It seemed like BioWare couldn’t push this title out fast enough after the impressive Mass Effect 2, but they may have taken mach speed too seriously and lost some vital components. We’ve got the long and short of it, pitting a Paragon against a Renegade for an important debate on the recently-docked Mass Effect 3. Is the game as polished as Joker keeps the Normandy, or did BioWare’s shields sustain too much heavy fire while working towards their trilogy-capping title? (more…)
Sine Mora Review: Bullet Time, Meet Bullet Hell
Sine Mora is the product of a very unlikely union: Hungarian developer Digital Reality and the Suda 51-led Grasshopper Manufacture. Digital Reality is best known as the developers of several obscure strategy games for the PC while Grasshopper has made a name for itself by fitting more crazy into a game than any developer working today. With all that working against them, their partnership has resulted in an absolutely excellent game. (more…)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review: Turn Back Time To Get Your 40 Hours Back
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a game that has no idea what it’s doing or where it’s going. It’s full of time traveling, paradoxes, role-playing, platforming, and more than a few puzzles to solve. It’s full of changes and alterations, but at the core, it’s very much a sequel – and it shows. It feels like the game is experiencing growing pains, with short bursts of interesting moments infused with utter dullness. Should you take the plunge and go back to Pulse? Or would your money and time be better spent waiting for Operation Rainfall games to hit our shores? (more…)
Gamers At Work Review: Make Room on Your Bookshelf
Morgan Ramsay’s Gamers At Work delivers a lot of behind-the-scenes information about the video game industry right from the source: the mouths of some of the most powerful and influential people involved in starting and fueling it. Ramsay interviews Nolan Bushnell, Don Daglow, Trip Hawkins, Ted Price, Warren Spector, and a dozen other founders, developers, programmers, and entrepreneurs. More than just a dry question and answer session, Ramsay gets to the heart, asking pointed questions and drawing out interesting – and sometimes emotional – stories. (more…)
Silent Hill: The Terror Engine Review: An Academic View of Survival Horror
Silent Hill: The Terror Engine is an academic text about the Silent Hill franchise that touches many aspects of that series as well as those of other frightening game franchises. It also goes into horror films and their influence on the survival horror genre of gaming. The author, Bernard Perron, also refers to many texts and articles, drawing from a huge reservoir of data on the horror genre across all media. But it’s more than just a dry academic text – it’s obvious that he is a fan of not just the series but also gaming in general. His voice is a critical one that comes from a place of dedication, passion, and affection. But is this enough to make the book one that is palatable to the non-academic reader? (more…)
Journey Review: A Trip You’ll Want to Take
Thatgamecompany’s latest creation, Journey, is more like a work of art than a video game. In fact, I’d go so far as to venture that this game is going to revive the whole “video games as art” argument all over again. Journey brings to life the story of a lone traveler, trekking across the desert to the source of a fallen star at the apex of a mountain. The trip is a spiritual one, something of a pilgrimage, and the symbiotic relationship the main character has with the fabric creatures creates a unique experience that is startlingly emotional for such a short game. (more…)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review: Treasures Within A Treasure
After last Fall brought us Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, it seems like it’s too soon to enjoy a new Uncharted game. That’s where you’re wrong, jerks! Because SCE’s Bend Studio (with Naughty Dog’s help) has gifted us with the wondrous experience that is Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita. Not only does it shimmer almost as much as the PS3 titles have, but the new methods of gameplay make this a refreshing experience both in the realms of Uncharted and in handheld gaming. (more…)