Gamer Limit recently got its hands on a preview of The Next Big Thing, Pendulo Studios’ latest adventure set to release in just a little over two weeks. Pendulo has been trickling teasers for some time now — videos and pics touting the game’s seemingly sleek and shiny art style, and its zany characters, but not much has been revealed about the overall story or gameplay. The preview spoke volumes to all these points and then some.

Now, if you haven’t heard about Pendulo Studios or The Next Big Thing until now, you get a pass. Pendulo, in their five game career, have focused solely on point-and-click adventures. Gamers old enough to have owned a PC with Windows 3.1 understand when I say this genre has seen better days. This is not to mention the fact that the studios hail from Spain where, according to the developers themselves, gaming didn’t hit it big until the 90′s. These can be insurmountable odds for the faint of heart. From the first few chapters we were able to preview, the title will go above and beyond beating them while bringing vibrant life to PCs and Macs worldwide.

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Killzone 3 may be gaining rave reviews, even our own Kyle MacGregor has expressed his admiration for the game, but I’m unconvinced. While the multiplayer is definitely a step up from Killzone 2, the single player campaign left me less than impressed.

In fact, I believe that the single player campaign in Killzone 3 is three steps backwards for the entire series. Hit the jump to hear why I think Guerrilla squandered a ton of narrative potential with this game.

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I just finished Final Fantasy VI yesterday (or is it III? Either way the one with Terra and Kefka). While I can see why the SNES version is sitting comfortably with a 93% on GameRankings.com, I found some flaws with the game. Namely with the characters.

Don’t worry, Kefka the insane clown was one of my favorites, probably because of my nearly crippling fear of clowns. It’s some of the heroes I have problems with. Read on to find out why I think the characters are Final Fantasy VI‘s greatest strength and its biggest weakness. Read more… »

[correction: After some Twitter back and forth with Brenda Brathwaite herself, it was made clear that the engine for Ravenwood Fair was indeed NOT developed by the folks who worked on Wizardry. In actuality, it was coded by a one Sean Cooper, who, according to Moby Games, is behind many EA titles like Populous, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper Gold. One must note that Brenda Brathwaite herself is behind Wizardry, the title noted in this feature.]

The first SF Game Developer’s Workshop (SFGDW) of 2011 gave us a tremendous surprise as legend John Romero, designer of such highly regarded titles as Doom and Quake, took the podium to give a post mortem of his latest title Ravenwood Fair. Now, here’s the surprise: it’s a Facebook social game.

Several hundred people gathered in a hot room at the San Francisco Art Institute Tuesday to learn how Romero and Lolapps creative director Brenda Brathwaite (just as legendary) created a game that has earned more than 10 million monthly average users (MAU) since its release in October. Ultimately, they came to learn how the game changes the way we view the social space, as it essentially marries AAA qualities with that of the viral.

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While Sony might be planning on 3D becoming the next big thing, right now the gaming world is focused on HD, and more specifically HD remakes. The fad caught my eye when the God of War Collection first came out in 2009. Then there were others. It feels like more and more HD remakes are coming out of the woodwork almost every day. Is this a good thing? Or is this HD-ification of the past just a shameless cash grab? Read more… »

Making a Japanese PSN account may seem daunting, but it’s actually pretty easy. The advantages of having an international PSN account are also immediately evident, as you’re able to download all sorts of demos and exclusive content.

If you want to know how to make an account, read on! Read more… »

[Need to know how to make a Japanese PSN account? Click here]

As of yesterday, the Catherine demo has hit the Xbox Live and PSN Japanese marketplaces. What’s Catherine? It’s the newest creation by the Atlus Persona Team, and the first Atlus Team title to officially partake in the realm of HD. The game stars Vincent, a man who starts having nightmares the night he meets the girl of his dreams: Catherine. Regular ol’ nightmares would be fine, except for the fact that if Vincent dies in his nightmares, he dies in real life.

If you haven’t already created a Japanese account – do it! It’s a pretty simple affair, it’s free, and it doesn’t take much time. For those of you who can’t make one, feel free to hit the jump and see what Catherine is all about. Read more… »

Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2, the two most frequent contenders for Game of the Year 2010 awards across the gaming press, are fantastic titles and deserve the accolades…but I’ve put them down. Mass Effect 2′s ending was so anticlimactic that I don’t really feel inspired to go back unless there’s new DLC to pay through, and Undead Nightmare is giving me something to do with Red Dead Redemption but still isn’t compelling enough to keep the game in the drive of my Xbox 360.

For all its graphical bugs and quests that refuse to remove themselves from my active quest list even though I’ve completed them and other eccentricities, Fallout: New Vegas continues to hold my rapt attention after clocking 89 hours on my first character. I have to wrench myself away from the Mojave Wasteland to play titles for reviews, and it’s been weeks since I regularly played games online with my cadre of teammates. Looking back on it, I wish I’d given New Vegas one point over Red Dead when I voted in Kill Screen’s High Scores list for the best games of 2010. Read more… »

2010 was a pretty good year for video games. There were some okay games released. Red Dead Redemption might have won at the VGA’s and Mass Effect 2 might have been Gamer Limit’s GOTY choice, but I know there are games coming out next year that will blow them away. I say that 2011 will be even better than 2010! Hit the jump for my most wanted games of 2011.

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As a new addition to the Gamer Limit team I was planning on writing an article that covered my favourite game of last year, as many of the writers here have already done. However I decided against telling you about how much I enjoyed the brilliant Mass Effect 2, because I would only be repeating articles that you have read already on plenty of different gaming websites, including Gamer Limit. Although it was rather brilliant, wasn’t it?

Instead, I thought, as a new contributor to the website, maybe it would be more appropriate for me to talk about the future of 2011 and the games that we can all look forward to. Last year was pretty good for gamers with a variety of great titles for us to choose from and 2011 doesn’t look like it will disappoint. Hopefully you all have a couple games in mind (I definitely have more than a couple), whether it be revisiting the land of Tamriel or searching for yet another lost city with Nathan Drake. Read more… »

I’m going to share something with you. Up until very recently, let’s say January 2011, I hadn’t played either of the games in the Mass Effect series despite being both a RPG and science fiction fan. I knew of the supposed quality of the series and Mass Effect 2 in particular, especially considering how many Game of the Year nominations it picked up.

I just finished playing both games. I put well over twenty hours into Mass Effect, and continuing with my female Renegade Shepard, I put over thirty-five hours into Mass Effect 2. Both games were incredible, and the series does so many things right. However there is one area where I feel BioWare missed the mark. Hit the jump to find out.

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[Over the next few weeks the staff here at Gamerlimit will be sharing their personal favorite game of the past year with the community in build up to Gamer Limit’s Game of the Year Awards for 2010]

I played a lot of great games in 2010. I also played a lot of not-so great games in 2010. However, there’s one game that really resonated with me, even though I played it at the beginning of January. Hit the jump for my thoughts on the brand new IP and my GOTY pick: Darksiders.

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