As you can guess from the title, Serious Sam 3 is the third Serious Sam game, although it’s more of a prequel, chronologically set before the previous two games (BFE is for “Before First Encounter”). It hardly matters. Serious Sam has always been about discovering a vast array of weird alien creatures and killing them as grotesquely as possible.

You’re introduced to hyper-macho Sam in the opening sequence, complaining that he should be “doing blow off a stripper’s ass”; killing aliens is apparently the next best thing. A chopper accident and a de-eyeballing of a cyclopean monstrosity later, the game begins.

Serious Same 3 is a throwback to old school first-person shooter days, when graphics and realism were far more limited by computer processing speed. Instead, the old games were about killing enemies, lots and lots of them. That’s the core gameplay of Serious Sam 3, and it’s been a long time since a game focused on interesting (or at least challenging) fights over ever more detailed graphics.

A gamer should go into this knowing the graphics are hit-and-miss. Often the streets and scenery look cut-and-pasted, and there will definitely be times when the geysers of blood that spray from your enemies (I’m not exaggerating) will be more annoying than anything else. Sam himself seems out of place in the world, like he’s been drawn by a different, more skilled, hand.

Sound likewise has ups and downs. The music is often annoying but necessary as it changes when monsters are around — some monsters are sneaky, so you’ll need the music to get a clue at times. Sam’s lines are pretty funny, and I often found myself laughing at his mockery of the enemies, a rarity in shooter games.

"The trusty ol’ shotgun is your pal as always…"

The guns are straight out of central casting. The trusty ol’ shotgun is your pal as always, and the other weapons are all familiar. The best “new” weapon is the sledgehammer, a devastatingly useful tool that kills most monsters in one shot, provided you’re willing to get within melee range. Sam also has a built-in “melee attack,” useful for finishing monsters that get too close.

While most modern shooters feature maps that are basically linear railroads (to better support the graphics), the maps here allow for plenty of side paths. It’s very easy to get lost in the bland-looking city streets and various tunnels. I found myself often missing the modern convention of an ever present arrow telling me which way to go, but this game is clearly trying to be retro. The maps are loaded with sometimes diabolically-hidden secret areas filled with little goodies like extra ammo and armor. There are also very welcome wide-open areas, the better to support the swarms of monsters. It may not be a full sandbox, but you’re definitely on a wide set of rails here.

The battles with monsters are the whole point of the game, and, goodness, what battles they are. The game starts slowly, carefully introducing monsters one at a time, then groups of the same monsters, then swarms of complementary monsters. Another throwback to older shooters is the “player always has a chance” idea. You always hear the monsters coming (especially the guys with bombs for hands). Even the monsters with guns and missiles give you every opportunity to realize you’re about to meet your end. While recent shooters revel in the “Bam, you’re dead, re-spawn is in ten seconds” philosophy, your death in Serious Sam is always preceded by fair notification, and you almost always get to realize it was your own mistake that caused it. Got blown up by a rocket? Rockets move slowly enough that you had opportunity to get out of the way. Blasted by a goon with a shotgun? They always grunt before they raise their weapons and fire. Blown up by a swarm of bomb guys? You probably shouldn’t have moved into the swarm, then. Every monster telegraphs its moves; trying to pay attention to everything is what makes and keeps the game exciting.

"…now this design of constant arcade style combat is a rarity."

The battles start simply, but after an hour or two become very challenging. Overall strategy is simply to kill everything, and while general tactics seldom vary from conducting fighting retreats to previously cleared territory, the sheer quantity of monsters creates a quality of combat all its own. Twenty years ago, nearly every shooting game was like this, but now this design of constant arcade style combat is a rarity.

Death comes often in a game like this, but the game auto-saves before every major battle, and you can quick-save whenever you like. Various items restore hit points (again, a throwback to older games, where you have 100 hit points and lose them through taking damage), and small pieces of armor are scattered about the game, as is ammunition and weaponry. You don’t have “lives,” but you must replay each mission until you defeat everything without being killed.

Adding considerably to the replay value of the game is a scoring system for each mission, which generally runs for five minutes or so. You gain points for killing monsters (of course), finding secrets, and completing the map as quickly as possible, even losing points if you take too long — easy to do if you spend time looking for secrets. You get a multiplier to those points based on the difficulty level (from “tourist” easy to “serious” impossibility). I think Doom, from the 1990s, was the last game to actually track time and secrets like this, and it’s amazing how much of a motivator it is to replay the game, trying to find those last few secrets or track down a few well-hidden monsters, or simply to complete the mission as quickly as possible.

Serious Sam 3 might not be for everyone, but it’s the type of game that made first-person shooters a genre all their own, and serious – at the risk of abusing the word – gamers should absolutely give this game, if not the whole series, a serious look.

It's that good. “I stop playing only when the game crashes.” That's a gold quote to put on the back of the box. For all its major and minor failures and all the little things that Bethesda continues to screw up on, Skyrim is a helluva of a game, a game that pulls you from a thousand different directions, begging you to explore this, find that, or talk to him or her or that thing.

"…there's always something to see, do, and discover."

Its enormity is only part of it, as it’s all contained in a world that has, for a lack of a better term, a genuine sense place – caves, hideouts, old abandoned temples all have history behind them and places within the geography that makes sense. Whether its a pile of dead bandits next to a table of embalming tools or fossilized mammoths near the geo-thermal regions of Skyrim, there's always something to see, do, and discover. It isn't as foreign and alien as Morrowind, but it's much, much better than the uninteresting landscapes of Cyrodiil in Oblivion. Hand-crafting the world has done wonders for the game, constantly resulting in interesting sights and places to go.

The closer you get to any semblance of civilization in Skyrim, the less of an achievement the game becomes. Anything human or anthropomorphic are awkward at best. The voice acting is better across the board, but with so many lines of dialogue, only a few characters feel like they're given any specific direction to their rhetoric or enunciation, making a lot of the lines sound dry. The animation, while a huge step up relative to Bethesda's previous work, is still pretty poor, as characters fail to transition between animations all that well.

This has always been Bethesda's struggle – making interesting characters and flexible quests with good writing to support them. It's substantially better than their work in Oblivion – the lore is better, and the civil war has a surprising amount of ambiguity in it, but the things some of these people say and the limited amount of dialogue options you get are still only bearable – and abysmal once you compare to it something like Fallout: New Vegas, which retained a lot of Bethesda's open-world exploration, while injecting with Obsidian's trademark writing and solid quest design. The only true winning quality about the quests in Skyrim is that they'll often take you to interesting places.

That's what it's really all about – interesting places for your character to traverse and to see how your build fares in it. The character system in Skyrim is arguably the best iteration in the series. All skills are given equal weight, and leveling up results in upgrading one of three attributes and then choosing a perk for any of the skill branches. It’s simplified but much more obvious that your character is gravitating towards a specific build, because the perks offer substantial bonuses to the skill tree in which you're investing. Also not having to look out for doubling or tripling attribute scores removes the meta-gaming aspect of leveling, which was uninteresting at best and exploitative at worst. Some of the skills, like acrobatics and athletics, have been cut out entirely, instead of providing anything interesting to replace them. It's a bummer when you know you won't ever jump any higher or run any faster, but overall it's far more rewarding and fun to level.

The scaling problems that got progressively worse in Oblivion has largely been redesigned. Bears, giants, dragons, mammoths and anything else that should be intimidating and respected is, up to a certain point. Eventually, you'll out-level them and have better gear, and the end result is you curb-stomping a lot of the things that gave you a ton of trouble before. This in itself is immensely satisfying, and Bethesda could've put in the extra effort to have loot do the same. The vast majority of the loot is randomly generated, and it seems that all of it is scaled. You'll find weaponry that did a moderate amount of damage before, only to find another specimen hours later with stats having been given a curious buff. Higher tier loot also becomes more common the more you level, making the scaling completely obvious. The looting experience is damaged because of this, as the game continually generates generic loot through all the spelunking.

It almost doesn't matter, though, because the exploration is so damn good. I've mentioned this just about four times already, but it's the reason why Skyrim is Skyrim. As a hiking/anthropologist/tourism simulator, it's unparalleled. The world, fragments of the lore, the various regions and their diverse landscapes – it all slowly seeps in to the point that simply running around and being in the world is fun.

It's massive too. Despite having roughly the same square miles of Oblivion, it plays with line of sight by shoving in towering mountains. It diversifies landscapes by adjusting elevations and geography. Giving regions themes while holding onto a unified look of a general chill in the air, where the north is ravaged by eternal winters, and where the southern regions feature more temperate climates, gives Skyrim a real identity, something that was lost in Oblivion.

The overall effect is a perception of utter hugeness, where you can genuinely get lost. The compass always keeps things manageable, but that thrilling sensation of being far, far away from any city or village is so intoxicating and freeing, that this alone makes Skyrim such a grand achievement in world-building.

It looks and sounds wonderful too; rewriting much of the renderer has resulted in one of the best-looking games out there. You'll see that shadows tend to get blocky, and a lot of light sources curiously don't draw shadows, but it's the kind of visual gravitas that could only be achieved after five years of constantly working on and reworking an existing engine.

Jeremy Soule's musical legacy in the Elder Scrolls series expands further with this game. The score here is simultaneously more sweeping and serene than any of his previous work in the series. He's been known as the go-to guy for a generic fantasy soundscape, but damn is he good at what he does. The soundtrack manages to work in compositions from both Morrowind and Oblivion, evoking a little bit of nostalgia, all the while fully embracing the grandness of Tamriel's northernmost province. Skyrim also contains Bethesda's best sound design to date. The foley work is impressive with its attention to just about every little bit of everything. Destruction magic sounds scary, conjuration spells sound… conjurey, the movement of earth in caves, the crackling of ice, and even the footsteps just sound so right.

"For every problem the game has, there's the world."

You may notice I've forgotten to mention a lot of the problems that plague the game constantly. Path-finding is still screwy, AI is still very dim, and while the combat has become more dynamic and interesting, the aforementioned problems tend to sap a lot of the potential. The UI, while functional, could use a major overhaul in how it sorts items and, well, there's a lot more, but seriously – it really doesn't matter. For every problem the game has, there's the world. There's always Skyrim.

For the explorer in all of the us, for the curious in all of us, for the adventurer in all of us, Skyrim is our game.

That is a high compliment, I swear.

Its premise is comprised of some of the most lethally addicting game mechanics around: deftly-tuned, bouncy killing, coca-infused customization, and the chest-thumping camaraderie of four players placed against an ever-swelling, gloriously technicolored horde.

It all revolves around the Eternia Crystal – excuse the horrible, stock-fantasy name, please. The player, who selects one of four heroes (apprentice, squire, monk or huntress), is tasked with defending the Eternia Crystal from legions upon legions of evildoers, and, on occasion, horrific, gargantuan bosses. These heroic defenses occur in waves – once the player completes every wave, they beat the level. In between waves, the player gets to place defense mechanisms – towers, if you will – in strategic locations around the map.

This area of the game, what I like to call the raw meat, is fine-tuned and effortlessly playable. The heroes scurry and hop around the map with ease, and the dispatching of spells, towers (you can lay them during combat phases, too), and standard attacks is quick and ripe with compulsion. Every action is mechanically sound and dripping with the kind of feedback that makes them satisfying. Watching a furious knock-back attack send dozens of baddies flying backwards is the kind of visual narcotic that makes playing Dungeon Defenders so damned exciting.

There’s another addictive substance at work. Between and beneath the frenetic tower defense cores of the game is a layer of customization that will leave you foaming at the mouth. Both heroes and towers are upgradable in a variety of ways, from damage to health to movement and casting speed. I, for example, created a deadly glass-cannon-esque apprentice character – he looks like Vivi from Final Fantasy IX – by pumping stats solely into damage. Interestingly, the game eventually brings about diminishing returns on stacking abilities sky-high, which forces players into creating well-balanced heroes, and prevents game-breaking over-specialization.

"This kind of depth hurls Dungeon Defenders far past the typical tower defense game…"

And fear not, packrats, for there is an overflowing amount of gear. And the gear, too, is customizable. There are pets as well – and, you guessed it, they are customizable. This kind of depth hurls Dungeon Defenders far past the typical tower defense game and into something exceedingly rich and rewarding.

The game glows and sparkles too. Its visuals are a sugary kind of super-deformed, like if Final Fantasy V were 3D, a supercharged tower defense game, and far more brutal. The colors are lush, the models detailed. The sounds and soundtrack burst from the speakers with a youthful exuberance. These things only serve to make the raw, meaty core of the game taste sweet and fun – Dungeon Defenders could work wholesale without them, but the polish and swagger only make it more a joy. It runs like butter, too, even on low-end machines.

What matters most is that Dungeon Defenders is an unholy amount of fun to play with three other people. It’ll eat your nights and weekends alive and leave only a sugary-sweet resin behind. Cutting through the oncoming hordes and barking out commands through voice chat is a rush that will leave you grinning. Collaborating on defense placement will tease your brain, reward your smart moves and punish your idiocy.

It’s a game that wants you to play it. It’s a little complicated, but simply jumping in and slaughtering couldn’t be easier. Figuring out the depth will take a little bit, but – here’s a testament to how much I like this game – it will make you want to learn. It feels good to be clueless in Dungeon Defenders, and the thrill of discovery and, “Oh! That’s how that works,” will suck you in. It doesn’t hold your hand, but it isn’t frustrating, either.

Here’s a confession: there is a story, but its implications are minimal. I ignored it. I suspect it provides some context and additional flavor to the game – but it’s entirely non-essential. Dungeon Defenders is a game, a thing meant to be played and smiled at. It makes no pretenses.

The game’s single-player mode is practically non-existent – and I understand if people expect me to knock a few points off because of this – but I refuse. This is a downloadable game – you need an internet connection to obtain it and thus have one to play it. The match-making system is quick and streamlined. Jumping into a multiplayer orc-fest could not be easier. There’s no real reason for single player Dungeon Defenders, sure, but it’s there if you want it. The multiplayer is so accessible there’s no real reason not to play it – and thus no reason to punish Dungeon Defenders for a lackluster single player mode. And besides, the only thing single-player lacks is the rush of kinship that multiplayer has in spades (it is identical to multiplayer; you’re just alone) – and isn’t that intrinsic to solitary gaming?

"…this is the center of a Tootsie Pop, guys."

The bottom line: this is the center of a Tootsie Pop, guys. The sweet, sugary core of what it means to be a gamer – to hang out with your friends and play the night away. It is the pure joy of floaty, delicious, and streamlined gameplay. It’s the compulsive twitch that made you collect every Pokemon. It’s gaming in a pure, untainted form. It might not send the medium hurling into art museums around the world, but it will remind you of why you started gaming in the first place.

And there’s so much I haven’t told you. I could mention the time my mighty sorcerer, Aberforth, came crashing down from the heavens (read: the stairs above) to send an unholy (read: level 11) knock-back attack crashing down upon an oncoming mass of an enemies, saving one of my teammates in the process. I could grimace and recall games lost in the waning seconds as our crystal was overwhelmed. I could describe how you might find your brow sweating a little as you spend an almost-eternity whittling down a boss’s mammoth health bar. Or I could tell you about the exhausted cheers you’ll let out alongside trusted companions – your battle-kin – as you collectively clear increasingly more difficult levels.

But I won’t. Instead, I’ll see you in the dungeons.

This game has been with us for over seven years now, which is a long time considering the limited nature of the realistic MilSim market. There's not much room for mediocrity when you can't command massive Call of Duty-sized audiences. But Tripwire, thanks to impeccable modder chops, has carved out its niche and capitalized fully on it.

Red Orchestra 2 has everything their audience expects: realistic (difficult) aiming via iron sights or scopes, serious recoil, bullet drop and penetration, a full suite of accurately modeled vehicles and weapons, etc. No surprises here. In addition Red Orchestra 2 also presents a new layer of realism on top of what we'd expect. In a game like Armed Assault, things can seem somewhat realistic and un-gamey in the wide-open expanses of the outdoors, but the moment you step into a building or some ruins, it's obvious, from your character's stilted movement and limited leaning/peeking repertoire, that you're playing a videogame. RO2 keeps the immersion, however, because of the expansion in tools the player has available to deal with corners, windowsills, walls, stairs, and other thorny urban obstacles. In RO2 players can now attach themselves to corners or windowsills and poke their heads out and withdraw back behind cover easily as in a cover shooter like Gears of War but from first person. Additionally, everyone (not just machine gunners) can now prop their weapons on any level surface and receive a significant boost to accuracy. You can also stick your gun out around a corner and fire blindly without exposing yourself (someone can still shoot your hand though). Suppression is also modeled, and even if you're not directly hit with a bullet, if someone sprays your general direction and manages to hit close enough, you'll get a few seconds of realistic disorientation that prevent you from firing back effectively. Even if someone takes a shot at you while you're behind cover, you can still get hit thanks to the penetration system, which renders everything short of reinforced concrete and thick metal plate somewhat risky from a cover perspective. It's OK to hide behind a wooden fence, but after you squeeze off a couple shots you should quickly move, because anyone firing back is probably going to send a bullet right through the flimsy boards into your rifleman's innards. Combine all of this with the requisite three stances (prone, crouched and upright), a great floating-aim system, and a complete lack of “accuracy cones” (bullets go where you aim), and the shooting in Red Orchestra 2 is basically the best I've ever seen in a videogame.

The small details of shooting have been improved, but the larger game has received attention as well. The subtitle “Heroes of Stalingrad” points to several changes to the standard class system. There are still several standard classes – rifleman, squad leader, machine-gunner, and so forth, but there are also “hero” classes, special time-limited class options that are granted to players who perform especially well in a given match. I was a hero for a few rounds, thanks to a lucky flanking maneuver I executed, which brought me behind a half-dozen oblivious Nazis poking their heads over a low wall. I popped everyone and the next round I had much better weapons, which, of course, I hardly got to use at all. A lesser form of the hero system is the promotion system: there are limited slots for elite riflemen (who get semi-autos, typically) and marksmen (who are the only ones allowed to use sniper rifles), but if you spawn as a rifleman and perform well enough you can bump someone out who is taking up one of those class slots and underperforming.

"Straight-ahead charges or highly mobile rear-area subterfuge are way more effective – and more satisfying."

The maps are centered on the battle of Stalingrad, and there are fewer wide-open areas where vehicles can rule unchallenged. There are a lot more collapsed buildings, narrow hallways, factories, trenches and apartment blocks. Most of the maps are still huge, though, and there are a million places to sit and snipe at people, as well as a million ways to rush and get the drop on people camping. Sniping in place in this game, despite the severe penalties for moving while shooting and suppression, is highly dangerous and (on a server where people know what they're doing) not even that effective. Straight-ahead charges or highly mobile rear-area subterfuge are way more effective – and more satisfying.

Your stats are saved (sort of), and killing more people with the same weapon will upgrade the weapon's condition and also grant access to nice goodies like bayonets or drum magazines. You also progress upwards in the different classes, and earning more points as a rifleman unlocks new weapons and improves your performance (your resistance to suppression, the steadiness of your aim). There are achievements, for winning matches and killing people but also for resupplying machine-gunners (every class carries MG ammo, it seems) and for bashing in enough heads with the stock of your weapon.

Even though Tripwire hasn't been making mods for years now, they still behave like modders. This is why they're so exacting about their realism and so comfortable with experimentation. It's also the reason why their QA isn't quite up to snuff, and why they care more about getting the sights on the Mosin right than they do about balancing the two sides. The early release of RO2 was rocky, and just recently Tripwire had to reset everyone's stats because they'd messed up the experience system (for example, on one map I suddenly got all the achievements related to the machinegun, despite the fact that I'd never fired one before). They're continuing to improve lag, which is a big problem at certain times on larger maps (up to 64 players, remember?). Player numbers have allegedly dropped off since release, but not to the point where I had trouble finding servers ready to play on at any given hour of the day or night.

These are minor quirks that can be worked on and fixed easily. The basic fact is that Red Orchestra 2 spoils you. Playing any other shooter, especially one that claims to be realistic, after going through a few rounds in RO2 is bound to be a disappointment.

You feel small. You feel insignificant. You feel like you’re – wait for it – in a battlefield.

There’s a mindless quality to Battlefield 3, where there are things to do simply because you have to do them in the midst of complete bedlam. Firefights explode in pockets all over the map, as 63 other players join in to play pretend war. A dedicated sprint towards an objective can end with a single bullet, a single tank shell, a single gun run by a chopper that just happened to choose you as its next target out of 31 others. You could be doing the same exact things to someone else, and it makes the battlefield endlessly fascinating where stuff things happen anytime and anywhere.

Is this the very soul of Battlefield 3? Chaos reigns supreme? I'm not sure, because somewhere within the endless cycles of death and destruction, DICE seems to strongly imply that finding order within the chaos is the easiest path to victory. All the kits have their place in the battlefield – one supplies the ammo, one supplies the med-kits, one specializes in anti-armor, and one specializes in attaining reconnaissance for the entire team, pointing out enemy positions and movement from a distance.

Making use of the role of each kit and squadding up with three others to work together will definitely help you make sense of the warzone, and working together, as a team, is ultimately the best and most efficient way to get things done, but it's all just implied.

"Most teamwork is entirely incidental…"

The whole “Play it your way” mantra DICE has been pushing runs counter to the gameplay systems in place. Working together to take out enemy targets and capture key targets is the easier path to victory, but without proper VOIP functionality in-game, a horrendously poor squad management system, an even more horrendous mini-map that only serves to get you more lost, and the most horrendousiestestest chat log of all time and space, it's tough to work together. It's tough to communicate intentions, to relay objectives, and to work towards a common goal. On a 32-player scale of Bad Company 2, this is much less of a problem, because of there naturally being more focus, but double that player count, and you start wondering what the hell the rest of your team is doing when your team doesn't have a single capture point to their name. It might just be that they're at as much of a loss as you. Most teamwork is entirely incidental, where someone just happens to drop ammo for himself and has others just happen to be around in need of it, where an engineer just happens to be around to repair your disabled armor, and so on.

The problem gets exacerbated in certain maps, where it doesn't look like it was built with 64 players in mind, not even in the periphery. Maps like Operation Metro and Damavand Peak play very poorly in Conquest, eliminating the interesting flanking routes and open-ended options in favor of tight corridors where teams are locked in battles of pure attrition. Most end up playing exceptionally well, with a few playing well enough, but not all maps adapt well to the most traditional and arguably most interesting game mode in the series.

But when things click, the battlefield is glorious. You're duly awarded for your exceptional service in the field, as you're granted ribbons for your fine accomplishments and promotions for your efforts to fight the good fight. The synergy between each of your 31 teammates comes together in a way that few, if any, blockbuster multiplayer shooters even try to create.

It's two distinct methods of play where going at it on your own and working together are both viable methods of play, but with the former being considerably less effective and satisfying. There's a point where DICE should've stepped up and enforced methods to have a squad stick together and to have a great coherence between other squads, because when it works, it's nirvana in the form of high-intensity, all-out war; when everyone acts with their own agenda, it's substantially less interesting of a game but still a fun one.

It really doesn't help when elements of the game feel clearly unfinished, from the slapdash squad management, to how there's a general tendency for the game client to simply crash without rhyme or reason. The UI is generally awful, with icons and markers chewing up the screen, making it hard to discern key elements when in the middle of a firefight with explosions all around.

Beyond that, the co-op missions feel half-hearted, with the entirety of it lasting barely over an hour. They're definitely fun, and require a degree of communication, but without even a chat box to interact with public match-made games, there's the increasingly depressing feeling that DICE just barely met an immovable deadline.

It's got a single-player campaign too. Yeah. It's enters-one-ear-and-then-right-out-the-other type of stuff. Often taking control away from the player, often using pointless quick-time events, often just going through the motions of shooting AI going in and out of cover, it's a missed opportunity to teach MP basics and manages to tell a story so self-serious and boilerplate, that it's downright cheesy.

Battlefield 3 has some good looks going for it, with an aggressive visual style that's questionable in its direction. The game looks outstanding, but the art direction goes for a stark contrast lighting scheme that favors cinematic style instead of something resembling something closer to reality. It can be hard to discern enemy players, when shadows are so dark, and when light sources are so intensely bright, but it becomes less of a problem the more you play.

"No other game has a soundscape this convincing."

It sounds better. Better than better – it's perfect. It's practically like the real thing, as it never ever sounds like it's playing off a set of recorded sounds. It's incredibly organic and dynamic in a way that basically no other games have come to match. No other game has a soundscape this convincing. No other game sounds so good that the thud of tank shells and the screams of rockets flying right above you sends you instinctively smashing the prone key from the sheer power of the audio. The authority and power of each gun shot is felt in a way that makes all other guns in the history of video games sound puny and weightless in comparison. It's truly in a class of its own, generating an atmosphere of war from all sides.

Battlefield 3 plays incredibly well sometimes. Others, it plays well. There's a promising future for the game, as the player base will grow and understand the underlying objective-based systems, and DICE continues to support the game throughout the game's life. They've already proven that with Battlelog (the game’s web-based lobby system) to an extent, as it's been updated a few times since its launch. Battlefield 3 is a really strange product, promoting one method of play heavily while quietly nudging you to play the “better” and “right” way.

It's hard to tell how it'll pan out over the years, but right now, this is a great game burdened with new, confused players, technical problems, and a lack of information as to how to be effective on the field. It's a Battlefield game alright, but it's going to need some time and work before it becomes a worthy time sink.

The breeze is blowing, you've just marked the leader of the strongest opposition faction for execution, your tourist t-shirt shops are making bank, your miners are back at work after you shot a few of them for striking, and you exported so much canned pineapple to China, that the Chinese ambassador called you personally to let you know how much he appreciates it. What game could you be playing except Tropico?

Tropico 4's setting is certainly unique, and the above description of events reveals how quirky the game can be, but Tropico's real value has always been how well it handles the traditional city building formula. The economic model is mainly unchanged in T4 – you can orient your economy towards raw or finished exports or tourism, and you can placate or oppress your population in a wide variety of ways, by providing them with adequate housing and food or by putting them on starvation wages and killing them if they object. You gather information and execute your decisions in the same old way you used to, i.e., by scanning the island for ideal locations for either resource extraction operations or tourist enclaves, setting up the infrastructure and experimenting (seeing which mines turn profits, seeing how your tourists travel around your island, etc.) and tweaking. Government is still handled largely through edicts, which are specific policies you can issue (Litter Ordinance, Same Sex Marriages, Free Housing, etc.) through your new council of ministers. This is all very solid, very traditional city-builder stuff.

Which sort of raises the question: what separates Tropico 4 from 2009's Tropico 3, besides a suspiciously short development cycle? I had to check Haemimont's official press materials to remind myself. Part of this is actually a good thing; the materials mentioned that they added natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and the addition seemed so natural (no pun intended) that I hadn't noticed it when I was playing the campaign. In general, though, having to read a developer's website (after having beaten the entire game) to figure out what separates one game from its sequel is bad news.

They did add a few new buildings, like the stock exchange (which doesn't produce anything but periodically presents foreign investment opportunities) and the ministry (which lets you hire ministers, granting access to edicts), and as I mentioned natural disasters are new. The various factions on the island (the intellectuals, the communists, the nationalists, the religious) are more upfront about their demands and are more powerful; eco-activists, for example, can shut down your mines if they're displeased, and if the priest hates you he will turn his sermons on you. Yet this is barely in expansion-pack territory, and this is a sequel we're talking about.

So what makes Tropico 4 worth the extra number and the purchase price? Certainly not the new Twitter and Facebook integration that allows you to let everyone in your extended family and all your acquaintances know what a weirdo you are for playing a videogame about a banana republic.

"The main draw for this Tropico, such as it is, is the expanded single-player campaign…"

The main draw for this Tropico, such as it is, is the expanded single-player campaign (twenty missions) that makes full use of the new features and tries just about every trick in the book to keep things interesting. On one mission all of your ministers are corrupt U.N. officials, and you have to bribe them or force them off the island to be able to issue any edicts. In another mission your adviser (Penultimo is his name) tells you to divert your island from a wayward nuclear missile by building wind turbines to drive the island away from the blast zone. Other missions force you along a certain economic path: in one mission you have to build a tourist industry before you build anything else (which, in this Tropico and in all others, is tough), and in other missions you're asked to cover your island in mines or farms, or to export a certain amount of a manufactured good. Typically scenarios are composed of at least five of these smaller objectives towards some kind of greater objective. In one scenario you have to fill up Presidente's Swiss bank account, and you do so by taking bribes, shaving some profit off the top of Tropican industry, etc. In another you have to get a million followers on your in-game Twitter account. No joke.

The campaign is very good overall, even if the objectives are contrived, and the pattern is obvious from the start of each scenario (“oh, it looks like this time I have to waste a bunch of money on a rollercoaster for no reason”). Yet the fact that the challenges are frequently transparent doesn't detract from their value as challenges, and by the end of the campaign I felt like I'd really stretched myself. There's a story in there somewhere – about Presidente getting forced off his island and having to claw his way back to power – but it's just window dressing, and it's another point in Tropico 4's column that I beat the game and barely remembered the narrative.

So the verdict is that Haemimont have done it again: they've made another Tropico 3. If you're a Tropico nut, then the idea of a few new buildings and a lengthy, engrossing campaign probably has you interested already. The only ones who might want to stay back are those who felt like they'd had enough one, or two, or three Tropicos ago.

Taking place either during or after your main adventures as Champion of Kirkwall, Mark of the Assassin begins as yet another tale that Varic offers up to his Inquisitor interrogator. This time around, Varic has set up a meeting between your party and Tallis, an elven rogue who has a heist she needs help with. What follows is perhaps the most unique Dragon Age II DLC released to date.

Tallis the elven rogue is voiced by the enchanting nerd goddess Felicia Day, known for her work on The Guild, as well as a newer member of the Eureka TV series cast. She injects Tallis’ character with personality and humor, so much so that Tallis is one of the first Dragon Age II characters to be fully realized and developed in that way that BioWare has made famous.

Tallis is a rogue with the standard rogue abilities but also her own skill set, the Infiltrator. In this skill set, Tallis has abilities which allow her to kill weaker enemies outright, as well as a useful skill that allows her to vanish and reappear right on her targeted enemy. These skills make her a fairly effective rogue and make me wish I had access to her throughout the entire game.

The adventure itself seems simple enough: take advantage of an offer to attend a Wyvern hunt by an Orlesian nobleman, and during the event sneak into his keep and steal a rare gem. Needless to say things are never as simple as they sound.

The DLC is broken down into a few separate areas. The first deals with the hunt for the Wyvern, where the winner of the first kill gets the honors at the banquet. This first area contains a number of smaller quests as well as a new enemy, the slightly annoying ghasts. This section culminates with a Wyvern hunt, although I am curious why a party of adventurers that took down an ancient dragon would struggle with a far less deadly Wyvern.

The second section introduces an entirely new gameplay mechanic for Dragon Age, that being the stealth mechanic. While not entirely perfect, it is an attempt to allow for a new form of gameplay. This mostly involves keeping to shadows, while avoiding randomly patrolling guards. You do have the ability to knock out guards temporarily, before they regain consciousness and seemingly forget that anything happened. Getting caught just forces you to restart, so there is not a huge penalty for not utilizing proper stealth outside of convenience.

The final section involves a series of fairly clever puzzles and enemy encounters, topped off by a rather cool end boss battle. There is also a handful of side quest options available that seem to differ based on which companions you have in your party. While not crucial, I did find that the Aveline quest seems to hint at a possible conspiracy involving her family.

There are also a few puzzles that you can choose to work through or leave alone. With the exception of a pesky slider puzzle, I found them fairly fun, and I was able to work them out without resorting to any spoilers. You will also walk away with some decent loot, including a pretty powerful new set of armor for your character.

"…this is precisely the type of downloadable content that publishers need to be supporting their products with."

Overall, I would say that this is precisely the type of downloadable content that publishers need to be supporting their products with. In the end it is ten dollars, for a 4-5 hour chunk of content that features a new party member and some new treasure, quests, and monsters. Tallis leaves your party, which is sad as she would have been a fun rogue to keep in the party.

The other thing worth mentioning is that this DLC reeks of fun. It is somewhat over-the-top, with scores of amusing quips, entertaining NPCs and funny dialogue overheard everywhere. There is more personality in the surroundings and characters of Mark of the Assassin, to the extent that the main game nearly pales in comparison. This is an easy recommendation to make and a far more satisfying experience than the previous Legacy DLC.

Five years after this attack you are hired for your Red Faction trained demolition skills. Much like five years previously, you are tricked, only this time a strange and horrific form of alien life has been unleashed, and it will be up to you and your former comrades of the Red Faction to once again save Mars.

Armageddon’s story is decent, if somewhat familiar, however the development of the game is where the real story lies. It is no secret that Guerilla was a highly regarded game. It chose to move away from the first-person perspective and to instead blend run-and-gun combat with drivable vehicles and some of the best destructible terrain and objects ever featured in a video game. It was a true return to the Red Faction form, and it really revitalized the franchise. It was also a fairly open game, featuring collectibles, challenges and some random missions available if you chose to explore.

I have established this, because really from just about the minute it was announced back in June of 2010 that Armageddon would not be an open world game, but instead a more traditional linear game, the griping and groaning began. Even though Guerilla was the third entry in the franchise, to many gamers it was their first introduction. Many have forgotten the classic PS2 title that was easily one of the best FPS console titles ever released, especially for 2001. The franchise is best known for being based on Mars and featuring destructible terrain.

The question now is would the deviation of the Guerilla formula be well-received, or better yet, would it make for a better or worse game?

This is a third person shooter-styled game. Although a keyboard and mouse are possible, I had far better luck with my wired Xbox 360 controller. The game has eschewed the trappings of a cover-based shooter and relies instead on rampant and widespread destruction. What sets Red Faction apart from nearly every other game is the wide magnitude of destruction you are allowed to bring forth.

Leading off for the cause of destruction is an arsenal of diverse and powerful weapons, ranging from pistols and assault rifles to black hole singularity rifles and the Red Faction staple rail gun. You are allowed to carry four weapons at a time which allows you to modify your tactics based on what the game throws at you. Should you play your cards right and complete the game, you may even be causing death and destruction via the farts of a unicorn. (Yes. I just wrote that sentence intentionally.) My personal favorite weapon is a nanite rifle. I should also mention the exciting magnet gun, a device which allows you to target an enemy and an object and ensure that they meet up with the most destructive results. I didn’t use it often but may replay the game and try using it in newer and unique ways.

In addition to this diverse arsenal, you will find yourself in possession of the Nano Forge. This device is the true star of the game. The most important function of this device is that it allows you to reconstruct any structure that you may have destroyed. This comes in handy, when you get too destructive and need to rebuild a bridge over a chasm or even a stairwell that you took out.

The Nano Forge also allows you to use a variety of abilities, from a kind of telekinetic push to creating a shield around your character. These abilities in combination with the right weaponry can easily turn you into a killing machine in short order.

As you proceed through Armageddon, you will begin to collect salvage, a kind of currency that allows you to purchase upgrades. These upgrades range from new Nano Forge abilities to additional health and the ability to carry more ammunition. These abilities and their progression are tied into how far along in the campaign you are, as you need over 75% of the game complete before you can even access the final tier. This salvage is gained through exploration, as well as through rampant destruction. By the time I completed the game, I had unlocked almost every ability that was available, but of course I explored the maps tirelessly and destroyed everything I could find.

Despite being a linearly designed game, the maps you proceed through can be quite large, and at times you have a choice in terms of which objective to fulfill first. To help with navigation, you have the ability to activate a series of gold beacons which light up the proper direction for your travels. This is fairly helpful and will save most gamers from frustration.

In addition to the running and gunning Armageddon features a number of vehicles for your use. Initially this entails you piloting a large robotic suit used to help take down larger enemy threats. The suit features the ability to fire rockets in addition to your standard machine guns. You also have the ability to leave the suit with the press of a button, ensuring that you don’t miss out on anything. You will also gain access to a large robotic walker for use on a couple of different sections. This walker is a blast to pilot but seemed almost over-powered in comparison to your foes. Finally you will also gain access to an aircraft, which will bring some flashbacks to other popular first person flight games, especially the kind that involve tight spaces and flying indoors.

Graphically Armageddon is a very attractive game. It features graphics settings for Direct X 9, as well as 10/11. While Direct X 11 works and makes the game look pretty, it does feature some issues involving crashing to the desktop and a handful of lockouts which have yet to be addressed by the development team. Despite those hiccups, you will be treated to huge explosions, large numbers of aliens on-screen at one time with no slow down, as well as some fairly climactic and entertaining cut scenes rendered outside of the game engine.

The sound effects are solid including a solid and familiar sounding cast of voice actors. The sound effects themselves were top notch, especially as it was often the sounds the aliens made which informed me where they were, as well as what type of alien they were.

The single player campaign for me clocked in at nine hours, slightly higher that the 7:39 average found at How Long to Beat.com. While it doesn’t feature any versus death match play, you can play through the Extermination mode, which pits you and three other players against wave after wave of aliens. There is also the addition of the Ruin Mode which effectively challenges you to swiftly and effectively destroy various environments. While fun, these seemed mainly added to offer additional content but not rival the single player campaign.

The difficulty was fairly even on the normal level. The enemies were tough, and I died on numerous occasions. I also found that there were times when I simply had to run for my life and pray I made it to the next checkpoint. I was actually quite impressed by the wide variety of ways available for helping take down the alien threat. The Nano Forge abilities and weapon selection truly offered up unique strategies for moving through the game. Sometimes the larger enemies could be lured onto a bridge which I could then destroy, leaving them to fall to their deaths in lava.

"Red Faction: Armageddon to me is a good B movie."

Red Faction: Armageddon to me is a good B movie. It is loud, blaring, and fun, but by no means a complex or layered story. The enemies are quick and overwhelming at times, and the firepower you have at hand can be undeniably destructive. While there are some early pacing issues in the first third of the game, it really and truly picks up after that. The game becomes engaging, going from being on foot to operating vehicles to creative rail shooter-styled segments.

I personally feel that Armageddon has gotten some unfair critiquing in the media, largely for daring to not be a direct sequel in gameplay to Guerilla. The truth is that traditionally Red Faction has been a fairly linear series, relying on destruction and the fight for Mars as the draw for gamers. Clearly many wanted this game to be more like Guerilla, but I personally enjoyed my time from start to finish here. Like most B movies, your actual mileage may vary, but if you want to play a game that brings a smile to your face, as you stop and consider the sheer amount of carnage you create, I think you’ll find that Red Faction: Armageddon is worth your time.  

The play style felt as though I was merely guiding my party, while they chose to attack and react accordingly. I must have been expecting a more tactical, Baldur’s Gate style of gameplay. For whatever reason, I never quite finished the game. So as I approached Dungeon Siege III, I chose to focus on playing yet another RPG from the folks at Obsidian, who really are more known for how incomplete, yet fun, their RPGs are.

Taking place many, many years after the events of the first two Dungeon Siege games, this story is only very loosely related to the previous two entries. Think of this more as a new tale in Dungeon Siege, or even a sort of reboot.

You start the game as one of four different heroes of your basic character tropes; the fighter, the ranged fighter, the wizard, and the fighter/wizard hybrid style of character. Each of them comes to the story from a different background, which feeds into the main story. Depending on whom you choose, it will be determined how and when you encounter the other three. Ultimately it will be your character and your choice of any of the other three characters that adventure forth. Regardless of whom you choose, the story remains the same. You are attempting to reestablish the Tenth Legion and get revenge on the forces of Jeyne Kassynder for decimating the Legion years ago.

"One of the biggest differences in this game is that you exert a lot of control over your main character."

Dungeon Siege operates in the style of a point-and-click hack and slash RPG game. You will be accompanied by one A.I.-controlled companion, who will range from helpful to useless depending on the encounter. One of the biggest differences in this game is that you exert a lot of control over your main character. You have the ability to block enemy strikes as well as to dodge out of their way. This control really helps to pull you into the gameplay more, avoiding the whole simulator feel of the first Dungeon Siege.

As in all true hack/slash dungeon crawlers, the enemies will drop a host of loot for you to look through for both of your characters. While I occasionally found something worthwhile, I did feel that about 75% of the loot was worthless to me. After a while, killing a horde of monsters, only to discover that they only dropped some common equipment, becomes annoying. However, the game does feature a fairly competent inventory management system that makes sorting and selling your gear fairly easy. You also have the option to transmute your items for a few coins, which isn’t anywhere near as convenient as selling them, but vendors are few and far between, and with all the loot you find, you will constantly be maxing out your allowable gear.

Your combat will feature two different modes for each character. This typically varies from a one-handed attack style, versus a two-handed, more powerful but slower attack. The styles of attack and abilities will also vary via character and level. Katarina is your ranged character who utilizes rifles and pistols. Lucas is your traditional melee expert with sword and shield of two-handed attacks available. Anjali is a kind of hybrid that offers both powerful melee attacks, with some solid magical attacks that can add range to her abilities, depending upon what form she is in. Reinhart is your standard magician, and he has a variety of magical attacks for enemies both up close and at range.

The abilities vary by character, and tend to be directly connected to the fighting styles. You will be able to choose where to invest your points and will find that the more you use your abilities, the more they will gain power, eventually leveling up and offering an advanced form. Your abilities require power, which you gain by killing enemies. This allows you to continue using your abilities frequently, making it easier to power them up.

As is typical in this genre, enemies range from smaller creatures that surround your characters, to flying, range attacking creatures, to mini-bosses, and then finally major boss characters. While there is a variety, you will see a fairly predictable pattern for enemy types about two-thirds of the way into the game. Where the challenge can become overwhelming is when you get surrounded by enemies of all three types at once, and find that you cannot mover around as easily. At this point you will realize you actually need to learn to use tactics and abilities wisely, including liberal use of the dodge and block buttons.

I played through the main campaign twice, in order to experience everything as first a ranged and then melee fighter. I found that after struggling, but ultimately completing the game as the ranged fighter Katarina, my second play through as the melee specialist was substantially easier. This was likely due to better understanding the play mechanics the second time around.

This brings me to my first real complaint with Dungeon Siege III. While the game does initially give you numerous entries to your journal, explaining the play mechanics, they aren’t very thorough. In fact, it wasn’t until I was nearly finished with my first play-through that I realized my abilities leveled up over time with use. While you did get a rather generic tutorial, it didn’t really help me understand all of the play mechanics, and this led to some early struggles that were unnecessary, hence the difference in difficulty between my first and second playthroughs.

"These extras reminded me of Obsidian’s reputation for releasing promising yet flawed titles."

I was also annoyed by the influence system. Early on I made some random choice while speaking with another character, and was told that I had gained 1 Influence with them. That was it, no real explanation, just that I had gained 1 Influence. While having a high enough Influence ended up offering a slight stat bonus, it felt very tacked-on and underdeveloped. So did the seemingly random deeds that I performed, sometimes by finishing a quest and other times by not accepting a reward, but seldom with any explanation involved. These extras reminded me of Obsidian’s reputation for releasing promising yet flawed titles. I wonder if there might have been a greater plan for these types of mechanics that got cut out before release or wasn’t finished in time.

While there is a multiplayer component, it is poorly implemented and not really worth discussion. There were also some early complaints regarding the standard controls of the game, but I didn’t really have an issue. Some of the commands were a tad unwieldy, but I was able to confidently defeat the enemy hordes with my full arsenal of abilities.

Despite some odd issues on my ATI card on my tower that forced me to Alt-Tab in order to fix some odd looking textures, the game was good looking. The effects, character and enemy models are solid and offer enough variety to keep one engaged. The environments also range from drab to pretty, sometimes within the same part of the game. All story takes place within the game engine, so no pesky cut-scenes until the very end. I should note that my nVidia system had no graphical issues with the game.

The sound effects are solid if fairly forgettable. The character voices are unique enough to add to the story, and the occasional wry comment or observation from your companion tend to add at least a little humor to what was occurring around you.

According to my Steam profile, I invested 31 hours into Dungeon Siege III while playing. I found the game to be fun and engaging, at least enough so to complete it twice with different characters. While the loot was somewhat weak, the combat was unique enough, and some of the boss encounters were engaging enough to keep me happy. There is enough to offer here for fans of this style of action-RPG. As of this writing, I am eagerly awaiting the release of the first DLC for the game and hope to offer a future article on it.

id Software is renowned for creating amazing shooters, packed with intense firefights, cool monsters, and impressive arrays of weaponry. Bethesda is a world-class creator of games with epic stories, phenomenal graphics, and believable fantasy worlds.

On the other hand, id’s greatest weaknesses are minimal worlds and laughably simplistic stories (go ahead, I dare you, try to describe the storyline of DOOM in more than a hundred words), while Bethesda, for all that they do right, invariably features extraordinarily dull combat in their games, with enemies that all basically do the same things, and weapons that seldom have the satisfying feel matching anything id ever offered.

Rage, from id, is clearly influenced by Bethesda, and I have to admit I was very excited, since these two companies’ strengths seemed to perfectly offset their weaknesses. Alas, the weaknesses mostly overcome the strengths, but let’s look at things in detail.

What I looked for the most in Rage was intense combat; I’ve missed the hordes of monsters and amazing battles from Quake and Doom. Alas, the high quality visuals limit the number of enemies you’ll meet at any one time to a handful at best. Granted, they look gorgeous and hop, scuttle, jump, scramble, and duck very convincingly, and you’ll meet many dozens of enemies over the course of a battle…they just politely come at you a few at a time, like in a martial arts movie. The emphasis on agile movement also means that almost all your enemies are humanoid, although there is just enough variety that it isn’t bad, and a few boss monsters shake things up occasionally. The fights are definitely more intense than anything I’ve seen in a Bethesda game, but still below classic id shooters.

Equipment has also been Bethesda-matized. You have the basic weaponry familiar to id games (i.e., pistol, shotgun, a few types of machineguns, and, yes, a BFG), but these weapons are modifiable, especially with varieties of ammunition. The guns all have the right feel, and additionally you can craft your own special equipment (a la Fallout 3). Unfortunately, these feel just a little stitched on. Other than gear grinders to get through locked doors, and a mission where you’re obligated to build and use remote control car bombs, none of the other stuff (and there’s lots of it) is really necessary or worth the effort. I did most everything in the game with the trusty shotgun and built only a handful of things as needed, the other stuff safely ignored.

The storyline is your basic post-apocalypse, this time due to a meteor, and Bethesda’s influence is strong. Your character has been in an ark, so expect all the conventions of Fallout 3 here. You’re instantly pitted against The Authority as soon as you awake, but it’s tough to understand why: they’re bad because they’re bad, even though other ark survivors have joined them, or so you’re told. You don’t encounter these other survivors, or really interact with the Authority other than killing them indiscriminately, so I’m hard pressed to really care about the story – id’s inability to make a decent story seems to have pulled Bethesda down rather than the opposite.

"…the technology for the broom and dustpan has long been lost…"

The game world also has Bethesda slathered all over it, and fans of Fallout will again feel right at home. Much as in that game, the technology for the broom and dustpan has long been lost, and the world has a very familiar feel to it. The quests have that timeless issue common to Bethesda games (you’ll constantly get “do this RIGHT NOW” quests that you really have all the time in the world to do), and each town has plenty of little side quests and mini-games to play…or ignore. There is also a lot of driving combat and racing; these extended mini-games are fun, but like most everything else, feel just a bit stitched in, as driving very rarely integrates with the rest of the game (most every quest has you drive to an instance where you play it out on foot, and what you do while driving is irrelevant to the rest of the quest).

Because there’s no character development, there’s no experience point reward for playing the mini-games or side quests, although the money and other bonuses can come in handy. There’s also treasure of sorts lying around… but this doesn’t mesh right with a good shooter, and I really miss the power-ups of id games, which came on brief timers, motivating me to run around and shoot things faster. Doesn’t that sound more fun than finding “used dress shoes” that you can sell for $5 back in town?

Even factoring in the (token) multiplayer, Rage is a brief game in a small world, with two small towns and not much else. Despite my criticisms, the fact that I really want more says that ultimately this is a pretty good game, just with much unrealized potential. Perhaps if the game were larger, Bethesda’s ability to make a compelling story would kick in, and there’d be enough time to really investigate the crafting options. Perhaps given more time, they would have come up with ways to make the battles become more epic. As it is, Bethesda should definitely take some lessons here on how to make fights more exciting, while id would probably be better off simply abandoning the deeper role playing and story concepts attempted here, and focusing on what they’ve done so well in the past: making good shooters.