BloodRayne: Betrayal Review (Multi-platform)
I am not good at this game. Fifteen chapters and I’ve managed one C — Fs for all the others. Fourteen times it’s called me “Worm Chow”. Told me that I am old, that I am slow, that I have never possessed the peace of mind to let go of the thumbstick, to not mash the button while the animation plays and my inputs are meaningless. That my times are too slow, my combos too small, my damage taken too great.... read more
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review (Multi-platform)
Two of the Emperor’s Space Marines review the new Space Marine training simulator.... read more
Kingdom Rush Review (PC)
If there’s anything that truly separates Kingdom Rush from the growing number of fixed-path tower defense offerings, it’s the game’s look. Ironhide Game Studio’s reinvention of this well-worn wheel features cartoon-cute bandits and trolls traipsing across colorful forest clearings and snowy mountain paths, while your equally charming towers and infantry do their best to keep them from their destination. The game might start off with plain old goblins going up against plain old arrow-shooting towers, but as the game progresses, cannonballs and lighting bolts rain down upon magma monsters, necromancers, yetis, demon dogs, and many other villainous creatures. The variety... read more
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review (Multi-platform)
El Shaddai’s visual design is a staggering achievement that maintains its sense of majesty and awe.... read more
Catherine Review
(Multi-Platform)
If you haven’t been playing close attention, you’d be forgiven for thinking of Atlus’ Catherine as “that sex game,” or something like that. Pre-release marketing focused on the blond curl and apple blush, the stocking hems and saucy liquor-sips of the title character—bet you thought I’d say “titular,” right? Yeah, no. The hook for Catherine wasn’t just its lissome leading lady, but the idea that she was the avatar for a mature game. A game about a man’s sex life; a game for adults.... read more
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review
(Multi-Platform)
Step into the conspiracy.... read more
Trauma Review
(PC)
From the psycho-sexual phantasmagoria of the Silent Hill series to the nightmarescapes of Sanitarium to countless amnesiac protagonists unraveling the riddles of identity, videogames have a long tradition of creating compelling narratives out of psychological damage and healing. It is a shame that Trauma is not part of that storied (ahem) institution.... read more
Toy Soldiers: Cold War Review
(XBLA)
As gimmick records go, the 2000 album Gizmodgery by Matt Mahaffey’s band Self is one of the best. Every song was recorded exclusively with toy instruments, such as you’d find on the shelves of your local Toys“R”Us. You’d think that conceit would be a recipe for disaster for any rock musician worth his salt, a one-way ticket to Weird Al territory. But Mahaffey’s knack for catchy hooks, funky harmonies, and effects wizardry make Gizmodgery stand on its own as a rock album, not merely as a novelty. It transcends its gimmick.... read more
From Dust Review
(XBLA)
Get down and dirty with your divine-self.... read more
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Review
(XBLA)
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet wants you to feel small. Isolated. Sometimes the camera pulls back to shrink the size of your ship onscreen, just to underscore how alone you are.... read more
Bastion Review (XBLA)
“Words can’t explain what happened, but words are all I got.” The words spoken by Rucks towards the start of Bastion are as accurate as they are misleading. Ruck’s whiskey-over-sandpaper voice is with you and “the Kid” for your entire adventure through Bastion’s fragmented world, narrating your actions from start to finish. Most of his tales regard your surroundings and opponents, reminiscing about the world that was and slowly filling in the gaps of your knowledge about Bastion’s world and the “Calamity” that ripped it asunder.... read more
Shadows of the Damned Review
(Multi-platform)
When it was first conceptualized in 2006, Shadows of the Damned was a horror game based around a simple idea: the physical and psychological negotiation of light and darkness. At the time, Grasshopper Manufacture head Goichi “Suda51” Suda explained the project was being modeled after the works of Kafka, with the game’s protagonist using a torch to explore a surreal castle and its surrounding village area, interacting with the strange citizens that lived there. Though it was only a year after Killer 7 had brought Grasshopper to North American shores for the first time, the proof-of-concept (such as it was)... read more
Dirt 3 Review
(Multi-platform)
I cut my teeth with Dirt on a particularly nasty hairpin run in the series’ second installment. Having previously gotten a small taste for rally years ago with Gran Turismo 3—a game I was otherwise terrible at—I’ve been interested in that kind of racing since, but the prospect of reviewing a realistic racer (even an offroad one like Dirt 2, which just happened to fall into my lap) was an intimidating prospect.... read more
Trenched Review (XBLA)
“Are we the West? Are we anything anymore? Is there a West if there isn’t an opposite force in the Soviet Union to define us?” —Stephen Colbert, June 30, 2011 When I was young, the concepts of good and bad were easy to understand. These words carried none of the heaviness and uncertainty that I would later come to assign them: “Bad” meant enriching oneself at the expense of innocents or threatening to destroy the very planet on which we live; “Good” meant placing oneself in opposition to those who would pursue such goals. There was something appealing about this... read more
Tiny Tower Review (iOS)
“Sorry, I don’t normally do this,” I apologize as I pull my vibrating iPhone from my pocket. My friend continues to tell me about her thesis while I restock the sushi bar or floor three of my tiny tower. I’m about to put my phone away again when I realise that the laundromat on floor seven also needs to be restocked. And an old lady is in the elevator, waiting to be taken to the apartments of floor eleven. “Sorry,” I repeat and chuckle nervously. “I hate it when people do this.”... read more
Alice: Madness Returns Review
(Multi-Platform)
“Memories must be strictly managed,” the doctor tells me. "Unproductive ones must be eliminated. Go to Wonderland.”... read more
Brink Review
(Multi-Platform)
I remember the joy of first playing Team Fortress Classic. It was some time back in middle school, and the Half-Life spinoff introduced me to the world of class-based shooters. As I grew older, my interest in these sprawling multiplayers waned, and I looked back fondly on countless highschool nights of Halo 2 wondering what the allure had even been. I still found the games enjoyable, and could play for hours or days, but soon my attention wandered elsewhere.... read more
L.A. Noire Review
(Multi-Platform)
(Another night in the rain-soaked city. Smoke fills the bar on 3rd street as the band wraps up its introductory number. One man sits in the audience, draped in a trenchcoat, drink in hand. It’s Sinan Kubba, here to take a crack at describing Team Bondi’s new game L.A. Noire. A smooth saxophone melody sets the stage for the singer to appear.)... read more
Conduit 2 Review (Wii)
The Conduit was about a conspiracy between aliens and the founders of the American state, discovered inadvertently by a Secret Service agent who had presumed to be fighting off a terrorist group. Surprisingly, the aliens were developed and reproduced on earth by John Adams and then sent out to conquer human civilization through conduits that enable transport between far-flung locations. Conduit 2 is about more of this kind of thing, deepening the conspiracy by adding Progenitors, ancient beings that once controlled human kind and whose strength needs to now be absorbed into a mechanical orb in order to stop John... read more
Yar's Revenge Review (XBLA)
I’ve never been a particularly good dancer. I like dancing—well, whatever approximation of it exists on the kaleidoscopic floor of an electro synthpop show or at hipster house parties, anyway—but try as I might, I’ve just never been able to figure out how to coordinate my body with enough simultaneously complexity and dexterity to do much of anything interesting. I won’t complain too much, since I can still knock back a few drinks and enjoy myself in such cases, and I’m fine with not being the most showy dancer on the floor. Still, if I actually stop and think about... read more
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