[I completed the game at Soul Level 77, after 37 hours and 10 minutes of play - for reference, I beat Demon's Souls at Level 76, at 22 hours and 30 minutes of play. Dark Souls is a considerably longer, and harder game.]

That’s right, the supposed “too hard for school” action-RPG Dark Souls has officially hit retailers, and I have no doubt that many people will play it for a few hours, and promptly give up.

But that’s a shame. Despite how hard the game may seem, there’s always (repeat: always) a solution to your problem. Dark Souls was masterfully crafted to the point where once you figure it out: you become God, and engage in one of the most rewarding gaming experiences of all time. I’m going to provide some very brief tips for you, in hopes that you’ll have that eureka moment just like myself. Read more… »

Hockey is a big part of my life right now. I work from home and live with my girlfriend, so I don’t really get out of the house much. The one thing that does get me out every week is playing defense for my hockey team, the Crystal Lake Slasher, every Monday and Thursday night. As a defenseman I have to understand the game at a relatively high level. I have to know positioning, how plays develop, how to break out of our zone, how to keep the puck in their zone, etc. I’m even considering taking a class on coaching with USA Hockey so I can help out kids who want to learn the game. I feel safe saying that I know hockey better than most videogame reviewers.

With that in mind, I’m confident in saying that NHL 12 is the most faithful representation of hockey ever made. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the franchise boasts over twenty two sports game of the year awards, and it has improved with each new iteration. Read more… »

The last bit of New Vegas DLC is finally here! The core premise of Lonesome Road is a final confrontation with Ulysses – the mysterious courier that passed up the job that almost got you killed. What are his motives? Does he really want you dead, or did he just try and save his own skin?

More importantly: is the DLC worth buying to find out? Read on for the answer.

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You’re on Banoi, an island paradise off the coast of Papua New Guinea. You’re on the job so you can’t enjoy the beaches, the tropical climate and whatever else this pacific island promises. So you don’t want to be here, not like this, going through one loathsome motion after another. Then, like an unsuspected monsoon, a zombie outbreak quickly turns loathsome into terrifying.

While that’s the general situation for all of Dead Island‘s playable characters, those who pick up the sticks for this title must sample similar loathing for some of its mechanics. There is so much promise and beauty. Yet, you can’t avoid the biting flaws threatening to tear this game down. After all the hype, Dead Island mostly teeters between the extremes of awesome immersion and near rage inducing frustration, creating what can best be described as a love-hate relationship with the player.

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As a series, Dungeon Siege has always had an odd position in games industry.  Dungeon Siege III‘s predecessors were adequate PC dungeon crawling romps that stood in the colossal shadow of Blizzard’s incredibly popular Diablo games. While it proved to be a moderate success, the franchise seemed to fade away into obscurity shortly after release of the sequel.

Now, Square-Enix has acquired publishing rights to the series . This time around Dungeon Siege has the jump on Diablo III, and is on both consoles and the PC.  Dungeon Siege III set out with ambitious promises to deliver a revamped, reworked Dungeon Siege experience. In practice it’s one that often falls short, leaving us with a mildly entertaining, linear hack-and-slash game.

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If you’ve been playing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine this week you might have noticed some problems with the online multiplayer. While the problems with matchmaking in the PC version of the game have been fixed, PlayStation 3 owners aren’t quite as lucky. Wait times to get into a match on PSN can exceed 35 minutes. While THQ have a patch coming to remedy the problem, the fact that such a substantial bug managed to get past the Relic Entertainment’s quality control is really troubling.

Space Marine‘s co-op campaign won’t be dropping for another three weeks. While it will be coming in the form of free DLC, between that and these bugs, it’s begining to look like THQ shipped an unfinished product. Unfortunately they’re in between a rock and a hard place with the fast-coming holiday season. Pushing the game back would mean increased competition for upcoming titles like next week’s Gears of War 3. Hopefully THQ’s attempts to expedite the patch will be successful. It would be nice to get in a match within a couple of minutes of booting up the console for once.

When DeathSpank released on PSN and XBLA last summer it received no shortage of praise. Headed up by legendary Monkey Island designer Ron Gilbert, that title combined the strengths of adventure games with those of hack and slash titles like Blizzard’s Diablo seies. While there were some problems with gameplay execution, DeathSpank won gamers over with an irreverent sense of humor.

While The Baconing might not bear the moniker of its predecessors, DeathSpank is back. The hero to the downtrodden has put on too many undergarments and has thus brought on the apocalypse. He must cast the thongs into the fires of Bacon to stop the end of the world. Yes, it’s that typical sense of humor you’ve come to expect of the series. I wish I could say that the same quality was there. But that would be a straight up lie.

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It seems like every developer with a well known backlog of games is jumping on the HD collection bandwagon. First there was the God of War HD Collection, then the Prince of Persia Trilogy HD; now it seems that Capcom’s Devil May Cry series will be getting its own re-release.

While Capcom has yet to officially announce anything, the ESRB has rated the first three Devil May Cry titles for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Considering that the DMC series was a PlayStation 2 exclusive, branching out with a HD collection might get some younger gamers interested in the franchise. Read more… »

Be honest, you already have preconceived notions about this game. That’s fine, I get it. After all, it is an annual sports franchise that, for the most part, takes an incremental approach year in and year out. However, last year was no such year with the introduction of GameFlow and Game Planning. Sure, it might not have been a feature for everyone, but the impact it had on the game was as important as the introduction of Focus was to the Tiger Woods franchise.

Fact of the matter is that Madden NFL 11 opened itself up to be much more accessible without taking anything away from the hardcore.  While the game wasn’t perfect, it was innovative and took a necessary step in the right direction. Madden NFL 12, on the other hand, falls right back into that incremental approach. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. Read more… »

The debut trailer for Grasshopper Manufacture’s next game dropped earlier today and the trailer shows off a few seconds of gameplay. From that limited look it appears as though Lollipop Chainsaw might play something like a cross between Dead Rising and No More Heroes.

As with any Grasshopper title, this one is near the top of my list of highly anticipated upcoming titles. Shadows of the Damned was fantastic and I can’t wait to get my hands on what’s next from the twisted mind of Suda 51.

Shadow of the Colossus and Ico will be re-releasing in glorious HD next month on the PlayStation 3. In addition to getting to experience these masterpieces again glorious HD and stereoscopic 3D visuals, you’ll be able to enjoy some additional bonus features unseen in the originals. The bundle features a total of five behind-the-scenes videos about the games and their developers. Also, trophies.

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection lands in stores September 27.

THQ has confirmed that Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine will be receiving co-operative multiplayer. The mode will not be launching with the game but rather will be dropping 30 days later as free additional DLC. That is, unless you purchase the game used. It’s looking as though THQ will be using some sort of online pass seemingly to dissuade players from buying the title second hand.

So far all that is known about the co-op is that it will support up to five players, but THQ will have more information for us within the month. In the meantime, Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team landed on PSN last week for $9.99 and has been available on XBLA if you’d like to check that out. I really enjoyed my time with Kill Team at E3 and am looking forward to playing both titles. Be on the look out for Space Marine when it drops on September 6.

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