Another year, another Total War: Something. Creative Assembly’s been building and building, year after year, on the engine and gameplay systems that initially started off a little shaky with Empire but have since then matured gracefully. Every single new installment has resulted in better AI, better gameplay and better everything. So, Fall of the Samurai [...] Continue Reading »
In a strange coincidence I started playing The Darkness II at about roughly the same time I started Alan Wake. The plots in each game revolve heavily on light and darkness, which is really just a play on the classic good vs. evil conflict. In Alan Wake the protagonist uses light as a weapon to [...] Continue Reading »
I suppose I should start with this: I like Mass Effect 3′s ending. Describing why would be a terrible waste of time, especially when all I’m trying to say is that I like Mass Effect 3 a lot! Like really a lot! “It is, by half a foot, my favorite game in the trilogy.” [...] Continue Reading »
The Elder Scrolls games are the standard for single-player single-character fantasy role playing games, and any game designer wanting to make something in this genre has to address, at all times, how his game is to compare to Bethesda’s juggernaut. Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning (KAR) is Electonic Arts’ answer to Skryim, and it does a fine job of representing itself in the important ways, and does a passable job everywhere else. Continue Reading »
Well, took Remedy long enough. Roughly 472 years, give or take, since Alan Wake was announced, it’s finally reached the platform it was originally designed for, and it’s quite good and quite weird. It has a good, smart implementation of a limited set of gameplay mechanics, building on foundations in a way that would make [...] Continue Reading »
Yikes. I’m a regular at Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). It’s amazing how many games have the “E3 effect,” where they look positively awesome on display there… but lackluster at best once I get them on my home computer. Swords of the Stars 2: Lords of Winter (LoW) may have the strongest E3 effect I’ve ever [...] Continue Reading »
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. Continue Reading »
Thank god for Skyrim crashing from time to time, because that's the only reason I stop playing to do other, real-life things like sleep. 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 [...] Continue Reading »
Dungeon Defenders is a saccharine concoction of raw meat, cocaine, and the blood of a thousand million orcs. 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, [...] Continue Reading »
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. Continue Reading »
It’s like this. Scrambling from cover to cover, watching all manner of aircraft cracking the sound barrier overhead, tanks menacingly rolling over hills with a ferocity of a two-ton metal dragon, and you manage to draw a bead on a single enemy soldier. Pop pop. You scored a few hits. To finish what you started, [...] Continue Reading »
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? Continue Reading »
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. Continue Reading »
Taking place fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla, Armageddon tells the story of Darius Mason, Grandson of Alec Mason from Guerilla. Armageddon deals with a terror attack by the enigmatic Nathan Hale that ends up destroying Mars’ terra-former, forcing the residents of Mars to move underground, as the weather and atmosphere on [...] Continue Reading »
When I pre-purchased Dungeon Siege III a few months ago it was mainly to take advantage of the offer to get Dungeon Siege 1 and 2 for free. I remember following the media coverage of Dungeon Siege for months. From the solid looking graphics, to the pedigree of Chris Taylor, it all made me very [...] Continue Reading »
