God of War III Review (PS3)
Developer: SCEA Santa Monica Studios Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 A god-killing romp of Nietzschean proportions Some would argue that we flock to videogames for the buzz of a good power trip (consider the laughably absurd dimensions of Marcus Fenix’s musculature in the Gears of War saga). However, flipping this convention on its head, Sony’s ultra-violent riff on Greek mythology, God of War III, goes out of its way to make you feel like a mosquito perched atop a dinosaur’s mountainous shoulder.... read more
Aliens Vs. Predator Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: RebellionPublisher: Sega Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC New versus, same as the first Long before it was a pair of uninspired films that all but ignored everything that was cool about their individual movies, Aliens Vs. Predator was a series of comics and computer games that often lived up to their geek-bliss potential. But while this latest entry—which was made by the same people as the great 1999 game of the same name, and the terrible 2007 movie-related Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem—is better than any of the recent games or films, it's not exactly a return to this... read more
BioShock 2 Review (Xbox 360)
Developers: 2K Marin, Digital Extremes Publisher: 2K GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC Welcome to the second coming of Rapture The star of 2007’s BioShock was not the faceless protagonist whose genuine identity was one of the game’s great revelations. Neither was it the power-mad Objectivist icon Andrew Ryan. It was Rapture, the failed utopia beneath the sea, as haunting as it was dreamlike. And it’s to Rapture that BioShock 2 returns, with its rotting architecture, its leaking machinery and its grand, gorgeous chaos.... read more
Heavy Rain Review (PS3)
Developer: Quantic Dream Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 Interactive thriller is remarkably brave, but only periodically thrilling The videogame industry has been outgrossing Hollywood by a “Gerry Brookhymer who?” kind of margin for years now, but game developers can’t stop using motion pictures as the benchmark for their own visual-presentation and storytelling endeavors. To the point that, in game marketing, the word “cinematic”—though qualitatively neutral—is now assumed to be interchangeable with modifiers like “mind-blowing” or “amazing.” I don’t get the sense that many gamers have bothered to question this logic. It’s true that both games and movies are... read more
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Review (Nintendo DS)
Developer: Capybara Games Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: Nintendo DS Match-three gets grisly Capybara's take on Might & Magic feels quickly but deftly executed: an early study from a master of match-three. Like the studio's Critter Crunch, Clash of Heroes twists the simple mechanic into surprising new forms. You role-play five children whose lives have been upturned by a demon incursion. Each commands a different army—elf, human, undead, demon and wizard—whose distinct strengths and personalities unfold as you align units of like color. Rows of three form protective walls; columns of three make attack formations. What feels casual and compulsive in Bejeweled... read more
Mass Effect 2 Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: BioWare Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: Xbox 360, PC Interstellar role-playing shooter weaves an epic sci-fi yarn The first Mass Effect suffered from an identity problem. It couldn’t decide if it was a role-playing game or a third-person shooter. Even worse, the box-art and promotional materials made you think some generic buzz-cut space marine was the main character. Everyone knows Commander Shepard is a tough-but-compassionate bottle redhead with a weakness for space liquor and alien women. She’s also a beautiful lady.... read more
Army of Two: The 40th Day Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: EA Montreal Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 It takes two to make a thing go right Videogames, much like French kissing, ping pong or tandem bicycles, are usually best enjoyed with a friend. Fortunately that’s pretty much the entire premise behind Army of Two: The 40th Day, a game whose single-player campaign is moderately entertaining, but earns bullet-riddled props as a cooperative multiplayer experience.... read more
Osmos (PC)
Developer/Publisher Hemisphere Games Platform: PC The motes on the screen go ’round and ’round If you’ve ever played Spore (Will Wright’s playful, ambitious sim blending elements of Darwinian evolution and Intelligent Design), you might remember the first stage, in which you control a tiny single-celled organism. As you whip your little flagella to swim around a prehistoric tidepool, your job is to gobble up any creatures that have the ill fortune of being smaller than yourself. As you manage to eat and grow larger, so does the menu. Now Hemisphere has built an entire casual game around this simple... read more
Dark Void Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: Airtight Games Publisher: Capcom Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Capcom’s sci-fi take on The Rocketeer loses altitude fast Dark Void has all the trappings of an absolute mega-blockbuster title. The game’s storyline piles on intrigue, following cargo pilot William Gray, whose plane crashes in the Bermuda Triangle. From there he crosses into a parallel universe called the Void, which you’d swear was the mystical Paradise Falls from Pixar’s Up, save for the malevolent robotic cult stirring up mischief. Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary wrote the game’s phenomenal score, and one of the videogame industry’s most talented voiceover actors, Nolan... read more
Trine Review (PC, Playstation 3)
Developer: Frozenbyte Publisher: Southpeak Interactive Platform: PC, Playstation 3 Beautiful but frustrating A depressing trend in sci-fi and fantasy video games is developers’ over-reliance on grim, brown-and-grey visuals to present a world in decay. Sometimes it seems as though art directors’ reference points began with Alien and end with Aliens. So whenever a game like Trine—downloadable for Windows and the Playstation Network—embraces a vibrant color palette and an appreciation for the wondrous as well as the grotesque, you have to take notice. Trine’s high-fantasy milieu is drawn with rich colors and fantastical backdrops: Deep green vegetation grows upon purple rocks,... read more
Bayonetta Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: Platinum Games Publisher: Sega Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3These boots are made for clockin' It's one thing to go over the top, it's quite another to go so far over the top that you start going back down the other side. But the third-person action game Bayonetta doesn't just go that far, it keeps on going until it swings back around and goes over the top a second time. It really is just that ridiculous. That gloriously, unrepentantly ridiculous.... read more
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (Nintendo DS)
Developer: Level-5 Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS A second helping of brain-buffing puzzles This sequel to Professor Layton and the Curious Village is, on its surface, a tale of mystery. And, like many great mysteries, it opens on a train and revolves around death, deception and deduction. But the whodunit element—along with the charming Triplets of Belleville animation style—is really just window dressing for the meat of the game: More than 150 brain teasers that will push to the limit your capabilities for logic, spatial reasoning and reading comprehension. (Hint: If a puzzle seems to require a lot of math,... read more
Canabalt (iPhone)
Developer: Adam Atomic Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, PC Deceptively simple indie game will leave you breathless If the most primal dilemma human beings face is fight-or-flight, the vast majority of games gun for enjoyment of the former. Understandably so—there’s a strategic, almost tactile intensity to the simulated clash of two opposing forces. Indie platform-action game Canabalt, however, bucks this trend by milking a shocking amount of fun out of a reasonably straightforward flight fantasy. ... read more
A Boy and His Blob (Nintendo Wii)
Developer: WayForward Technologies Publisher: Majesco Platform: Nintendo WiiWhat About Blob? A Boy and His Blob sounds like a film you’d watch in health class, but it’s actually a charming new game for the Wii. Despite it being a remake of a notoriously hard NES game from 1989, the two don’t have much in common aside from the name and the general premise. You're still a boy, you've still got a pet blob, and you still feed him jellybeans that cause him him to morph into various useful shapes you can use to solve platform-based environmental puzzles. The blob has a great... read more
Where The Wild Things Are (PlayStation 3)
Developer: Griptonite Games Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii Bored to be wild The film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s picture book Where The Wild Things Are gave audiences, both young and old, cause to rejoice. In adapting the book for the big screen, director Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers put great care into making sure there was sympathetic emotional depth beneath the Wild Things’ charmingly monstrous exteriors. On paper, Sendak’s story feels perfectly suited for a videogame adaptation as well. When the book’s protagonist Max gets sent to his room by his mother for... read more
Need For Speed: Shift (Xbox 360)
Developer: Slightly Mad Studios Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC What happens when the world realizes it doesn't need so much speed after all? Though not struggling as spectacularly as the American auto industry, the long-running Need for Speed series has steadily lost ground to competitors. Recent installments feel tired and passé, especially when played alongside more inspired games like Burnout Paradise. Aimless circling is a vital part of any racing simulator, but that shouldn’t apply to a game’s own past.... read more
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo DS)
Developer: AlphaDream Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Get further inside the Mushroom Kingdom than ever before At this point, new Mario games are excuses for Nintendo to poke mild fun at itself, in that secretly flattering way only unimpeachable powerhouses can pull off. The company’s 28-year-old mascot has hopped through every genre under the sun, including, in the Mario and Luigi series, action role-playing. The third entry, Bowser’s Inside Story, feels like a long-running sitcom, where every character entrance enjoys great fanfare, and all the gags wink knowingly at prior gags. Nintendo could coast on nostalgia alone, but to their... read more
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360)
Developers: Vicarious VisionsPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DSMarvel fanboys rejoice! From the time Spider-Man first appeared as a pixilated, web-slinging blob on the Atari 2600, it seems that Marvel Comics' spandex-clad pantheon of superheroes have been systematically pimped out to one video game developer after another, with the end result being a slew of depressingly bland adaptations. Fortunately, video game-loving Marvel fanboys have a new reason to celebrate thanks in part to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, a game bursting with enough heroes, villains and nods to obscure Marvel lore to send most comic book geeks into anaphylactic shock. That... read more
Shadow Complex (Xbox 360)
Developers: Chair Entertainment / Epic Games Publisher: Microsoft Game StudiosPlatform: Xbox Live Arcade Mesmerizing side-scroller blends elements of Die Hard and Super Metroid When it was released in mid August, Shadow Complex became the fastest-selling downloadable title in the history of Xbox Live Arcade, moving roughly 200,000 units in the first week. The game is based on Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire and follows an all-too-familiar Hollywood action trope—a mild-mannered, John Cusack-ian everydude stumbles unwittingly across a terrorist plot and must avert a nuclear holocaust before 4pm, at which time he’s supposed to pick up his daughter from soccer practice in order prove to... read more
The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360)
Developer: HarmonixPublisher: MTV Games, Electronic ArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiThis is one music game that passes the audition Given that pop music doesn’t work as well in music games as rock tunes, it’s understandable to think a Beatles version of Rock Band would be less challenging, and thus less fun, than, say, Guitar Hero: Metallica. But by not just mixing Rock Band with The Beatles 1, Harmonix has made a game that’s as engaging as the Mop Top’s best work. For starters, such early pop tunes as “Twist And Shout” now have two more vocal parts to play, with... read more
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