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Most Recent: Reviews
Dream Trigger 3D Review: Anything But Lucid
Dream Trigger 3D by D3 Publisher for the 3DS is not just a lot of 3’s and D’s. It’s a shmup that destroys all of your preconceived notions of shmups. It’s frustrating at times and it will leave your hands cramped (quite literally and painfully). But it will also appeal to your love of difficult, old-school arcade games because it’s fun, addictive, and a breath of fresh air in a time when some games don’t even have a failure option. But do the benefits outweigh the frustration and pain? (more…)
Dungeon Siege III Review: An Elegant RPG For a More Civilized Age
In a lot of ways, Dungeon Siege III can be considered a “first” for the franchise. It’s the first game in the series published by Square Enix, and the first developed by Obsidian Entertainment. It’s the first Dungeon Siege game to appear on a console, and the first new game in the series in five years. With this new beginning at hand, I dove into the Dungeon Siege series myself for the first time and came away with a pretty good RPG experience. (more…)
Dirt 3 Review: Can You Class Up Dirty?
Codemasters has spent this entire hardware cycle delivering consistently excellent racing games – with their biggest success being the Dirt franchise. An “evolution” of the old Colin McRae Rally games, the original Dirt offered not just traditional rally racing, but numerous other disciplines of off-road racing. 2009’s Dirt 2 continued this movement away from what made the CMR games so popular… and added an unfortunate “extreme” element that was insanely out of place. The result is a series that’s commended for solid racing action, but frequently criticized for its abandonment of “serious” off-road racing. The result of these complaints is Dirt 3, which can best be explained as a “happy medium” between the seriousness of Dirt and the insanity of Dirt 2. In short, if Dirt 2’s craziness was a serious turn-off, Dirt 3 is a heartfelt apology. (more…)
Sega Rally Online Arcade Review: Very Short, Easy Game… Maybe?
The last time consoles saw the Sega Rally franchise, it was 2007. The first and only product from the now-defunct Sega Racing Studio, Sega Rally Revo was a challenging, pretty, and unusually deep attempt at arcade-style off-road racing. The game didn’t fare very well – an unfortunate circumstance likely due to the declining interest in racing games this console cycle. Four years later, the franchise returns to gaming platforms as the download-only Sega Rally Online Arcade. A stripped-down game based heavily on the engine used in Sega Rally Revo, the game captures the loose, arcadey gameplay the series is known for. Due to its heritage, it’s one of the better looking racing games for any console’s downloadable game service. At $10 SROA is definitely affordable, but keep in mind you have to be an avid online player to get the most out of it. (more…)
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Sega Rally Online Arcade
Brink Review: Broken Promises
There is never a worse feeling than when someone promises you the world, but ends up giving you a nickel and a shrug. It is even worse when a game that has been hyped for months as the future of the first person shooter turns out to be an unfinished heap of unexplored ideas. It is like the awful relationship that starts with such high hopes. You think that this will change my whole life! And it does… for the worse. Brink… why did you have to go and break my heart like this? (more…)
L.A. Noire Review: The Extra ‘E’ Stands For Exemplary, Princess
On the surface, L.A. Noire is an open-world detective game, in which you solve cases by gathering clues and interrogating suspects, working your way through the ranks of the various departments. But the game goes beyond that, allowing you to establish relationships with some characters while making rivals out of others. And underneath it all boils the subplot of their shared past, building a tension that froths through scene after scene. In a time when many argue over whether or not video games are art, or whether many have viable plots at all, L.A. Noire delivers a gripping story without sacrificing gameplay – and does all of this while feeling like a high-quality movie. (more…)
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged L.A. Noire
Yakuza 4 Review: Our Powers Combined, We Are Captain Kamurocho!
The Yakuza franchise has always struggled for respect in the West. Despite being extremely popular in its native Japan, none of the games have made much of a dent outside its borders – but at the same time the series has built a small, dedicated following. After the painful “will it or won’t it” with Yakuza 3, Sega made sure to avoid the same situation by quickly confirming that, yes, Yakuza 4 was getting localized.
Though it still requires a modicum of knowledge in the lore of Yakuza, this fourth entry is, in many ways, a re-introduction to the characters and universe. While the game doesn’t have any revolutionary changes to the formula – not a surprise considering there have been four releases in five years – some of the design choices make Yakuza 4 seem like a new starting point for future entries in the series. As long as you’re not completely worn out by the familiar formula, this is another great entry into a seriously underappreciated franchise. (more…)
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection Review: The Rose Tint is (Slowly) Fading
Final Fantasy IV is probably going for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most ports and iterations. After debuting on the Super Nintendo, it’s been ported to the PlayStation, updated for the Game Boy Advance, remade for the Nintendo DS, and now bundled with Final Fantasy IV: The After Years alongside a new Interlude to form Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. A tour de force in nostalgia as well as a series of fun episodes, The Complete Collection is a great item for collectors and FF fans, but not necessarily a “must-have” PSP title. (more…)
Posted in PSP, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection