Diablo III has some big shoes to fill. Pretty much every dungeon crawler to date has copied or generously lifted elements from Diablo II, so given the series’ pedigree, Blizzard really had to bring out the big guns the third time around to ensure that they keep the legacy alive.

While at first glance Diablo III seems to be a step back from it’s predecessor, it’s actually more complicated, and ultimately, a more satisfying experience.

To clarify right off the bat, I have obtained a level 60 Demon Hunter for the purposes of this review. I have experienced Inferno and I have alts (alternate characters) of every other class at least to level 10. I wanted to provide  a more thorough review of everything that Diablo III has to offer (not just Normal Mode), so I made sure to  max out my character and experience the brand new highest difficulty level; Inferno Mode.

Super difficult levels of play aren’t the only thing Blizzard is catering to with their newest dungeon crawler, however. Diablo III offers a brand new skill system that basically turns it’s predecessor on it’s head. Simply put, the new system is extremely accommodating to non-hardcore players. For instance, when I showed my wife Diablo II, I had to constantly tell her not to ‘waste” skill points on certain abilities, because they were useless end-game.

I told her to “save” her points and dump them in better higher level abilities. To be blunt, it didn’t really make for a fun experience, as she had to play a certain way in order to achieve success. While I didn’t personally have a problem with it, I’m well aware that she isn’t alone in thinking that this isn’t a particularly fun method of play. Diablo III thankfully allows people of all skill levels to experiment to their heart’s content.

If you want to test out a brand new ability, you’re free to do so. If you hate it; change it. If you’re happy; keep it. You’re free to change all of your abilities at will at any time, even during combat with no penalty (so long as you’re willing to deal with the 10 second respec cooldown for each changed ability). There are no skill points to invest, or any stat-lines to modify. While people may think this constitutes a “noob friendly” or “dumbed down” system, that sentiment couldn’t be more far off the mark.

Diablo III‘s Rune System is an excellent example of how a dungeon crawler can be easy to understand on the service, but ultimately incredible deep. To be clear, every ability in D3 can be modified by a handful of Rune abilities, which are unique to each skill: it’s basically like a modifier on the move itself. So for instance, a normal arrow shot can be changed into a multi-shot, a lightning bolt arrow, or a piercing arrow.

Every single skill in the game has modifiers like this, allowing you to customize your character and build exactly to your liking. On the surface, it seems as if you only have a paltry few skills, but if you experiment with different Runes, you’ll find a ton of possible combinations that would put most dungeon crawlers to shame.

I consistently am able to change my skills at will, experimenting with different builds to my heart’s content. Even though I’m an old-school Rogue-like fan by heart with the tried and true “stick to your build” mentality, I can still easily see the appeal of the Rune system here, and it doesn’t hurt the game in any way.

Boss fights are no longer giant kite sessions like they mostly were in Diablo II. Just like an MMO style raid, constant movement is key, and there are a number of different environmental hazards to impede your success in the middle of a big fight. While solo encounters can be a lot of fun, where the game really shines is during four player boss encounters; especially on higher difficulty levels where the bosses can frequently 1-2 shot your character.

Diablo III‘s playable classes include the Demon Hunter (ranged), the Barbarian (melee/tank), the Monk (melee/support), the Witch Doctor (ranged), and the Wizard (ranged). Each class feels fairly unique, and has a ton of special abilities that set them apart from the rest. In the hundreds of public games I’ve played in, rarely have I seen the same exact builds used.

I’ve seen modified Wizard hydra summons of all shapes and sizes, and whenever I encounter another Demon Hunter, we rarely use the same abilities as each other.  While gear usually tends to be around the same aesthetic design when comparing the same class of characters, you do have the ability to dye your gear a number of different colors to give it a more personal touch.

Any Diablo fan knows that your first playthrough on Normal Mode is considered the “tutorial” for your subsequent playthroughs. Just like Diablo II, D3 offers a Normal, Nightmare, and Hell level difficulty, but also adds the now infamous Inferno Mode. With each subsequent playthrough the denizens of hell are tougher and meaner, until you reach Inferno; the game’s biggest test. Inferno mode is essentially designed to take weeks, or even months to complete. In order to best Inferno, you’re tasked with grinding Hell Mode for the best loot and teaming up with your best three squad-mates to tactically take down the game’s biggest challenges.

I can safely say that if people are looking for a challenge, Act IV Hell Mode and into Inferno will deliver. Just about every unique enemy that roams the map is boss-like in nature, and will require coordinate to best — that’s not even including the main bosses. Additionally, Diablo‘s classic Hardcore Mode, where your character is deleted upon your first and only death, is still intact, so when you couple it with the game’s brand new robust achievement and challenge system, there’s plenty of replay value to be found here.

Visually, the game isn’t very impressive, but it gets the job done. Although it doesn’t use the same grimdark tone that Diablo II, or even the game’s own cinematics have, the action still looks crisp and clean, and each ability looks unique on-screen. While the sound comes in crystal clear and incredible sharp, the music leaves a lot to be desired.

There’s a ton of tracks on here that I’d consider pretty solid, but nothing is even close to the classic tracks of it’s predecessor. It’s a shame given how long Blizzard had to work on the game’s score, but after I completed the game for the first time and heard the entire selection, I just listened to my own custom soundtrack anyway.

While the game is an incredibly fun experience overall, I do have a major problem with the game’s narrative. The story is extremely dull, and only long-term Diablo fans such as myself will get any real enjoyment out of it. Blizzard has it’s signature master crafted cinematics fully intact here, but outside of those few moments, practically everything is as tropey as a Saturday Morning Cartoon (and even then, sometimes a little worse).

Dialogue reads like it was written by a World of Warcraft fetch quest writer, and most of the game’s voice actors deliver their lines like they couldn’t wait to get out of the recording studio. Thankfully, you can skip every single movie, conversation, and story segment at any point with the spacebar and escape keys, which I proceeded to do after my first completion of the game.

While some fans may find this unforgivable, I can honestly say that nearly every single dungeon crawler I’ve played also has a forgettable story (barring a few rogue-likes, which aren’t in the same dungeon crawling action genre as the Diablo series). The lack of story didn’t really bother me, because just like a fighting game, the bulk of the game is spent in combat.

It may bother casual fans who only plan on beating the game once that the story is fairly throwaway, but I personally couldn’t care less about story in a dungeon crawler. To fans of the genre, the real test is how fun the game is to replay over and over, and the story is fairly inconsequential, so long as the world is fun to be in. Still, it’s something to consider.

As you’ve no doubt heard, Diablo III has a number of issues regarding it’s “always-on DRM”. Essentially, the game requires you to connect to Blizzard’s servers to play the game. If you don’t have an internet connection, or if your connection is down; you simply cannot play the game in any capacity.

While many people will be immediately turned off by this (not only pragmatically, but by the principle of the thing), I haven’t had many major issues myself. I managed to not only beat Normal, Nightmare, and Hell with my Demon Hunter, but I beat it a number of times with my other alternate characters. I’ve only really had a handful of disconnects, and the game basically put me within five minutes of where I was when I logged back in.

One of the disconnects was during the final boss, which was a bummer (as it cancelled the fight), but ultimately the juice is very much worth the squeeze, and unless you have a super spotty network connection, it’s not nearly as bad as it seems. Of course Blizzard should be held accountable for angering it’s consumers in the first place, as this business decision has no doubt accounted for some major lost sales, and Hardcore Mode fans might be a little more than angry about a potential disconnect for their high level character.

As a complete package the game is fairly incredible, but what will the future hold? Legacy wise, the real question is whether or not Diablo III will live up to it’s older brother’s accomplishments. Will people still be playing the game in over ten years time? Will the PVP update be able to balance player combat with PVE in a sufficient manner without breaking the game? Will the allegedly planned two expansions provide as much replay value as Lord of Destruction?

All of these questions have yet to be answered, but out of the box, Diablo III is still a experience you won’t want to miss, regardless of your genre preferences.

This review was based on a digital copy of Diablo III for the PC.

Max Payne has always been an interesting series. To date, it’s still one of the only neo-noir titles to grace gaming, and it pioneered the “bullet-time” phenomenon, which previously was synonymous with The Matrix.

With the third iteration in the series, Rockstar (who have developed their first Max Payne game) has ditched the gritty New York scenery for a more lush tropical setting. But the real question is: does it pay off to have such a stark departure?

While the visuals may be different, the tone of the game is still very much Max Payne. The intro is pretty much a testament to how excellent the direction in this game can be, as Max reminisces about his family, and his trials and tribulations in a hotel room, drowning himself in bottle upon bottle of booze. The scene is straight out of a David Lynch film, in that it constantly shifts perspectives in a grimdark fashion, giving you the immediate sense that not all is well in Payne’s life.

Through the magic of voice over (which I’m generally not fond of, as it can tend to lead to lazy storytelling), you’ll learn about how Max feels about everyone around him — as you can expect, he doesn’t really like anyone, and tends to judge people at every turn. But despite how awesome some of these surreal scenes can be, while  Max Payne 3 quickly attempts to dazzle you with the hallucinatory sequences seen in the game’s intro, but they pretty much fade away in the second half of the game.

One of my favorite things about the Max Payne series is how amazing the story is, and how personal Max’s story is. In the first game you feel connected to Max’s family, and in the second, his girlfriend/love interest. In the third iteration, the entire point of the game is that Max has hit rock bottom.

While it’s enthralling at first, Max is a far cry from the sympathetic character he was in the first two games. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that: it’s just that the general noir tone and personal relationships help set the perfect tone for the first two games.

Max is pretty much on his own in this one (even if he has a companion along the way, mentally he is on his own), and depending on your preferences, it may make for the weakest game emotionally in the series. As far as the story goes, there are crosses and double-crosses, but it’s to the point of extreme predictability.

Anyone who hasn’t seen films like Man on Fire or Traffic may be surprised at the comings and goings of the criminal underworld, but if you watch lots of crime dramas, you won’t really be subject to any surprises. While the noir tone is sacrificed in favor of bright South American locales and bright filters, the general result is a much more visually impressive game.

But what would these new fancy locales be without some fancy new moves to complement them? Max still has his ol’ signature “slo-mo” bullet-time ability, as well as his classic shoot-dodge maneuver. You can also turn off assisted aiming in both single player and multiplayer (yes!) to make for a smoother, more classic experience.

Our old friend also has another ability up his sleeve: last man standing. This is kind of like the recover mechanic found in Gears of War, but it requires you to fatally wound your would-be killer right before you die. If you succeed, you pop one of your health pills and live to fight another die.

Difficulty wise, I’m pleased to say that Max Payne 3 pretty much does everything right. The difficulty ramps up fairly evenly as you progress through the game and learn how to utilize all of Max’s nuances, but it isn’t without it’s fair share of cheap sections.

Just like Uncharted 2, Max Payne 3 will occasionally throw a ton of enemies at you in a seemingly impossible situation, to the point of frustration. Enemies will just appear out of nowhere and blow your face off, occasionally seeing you back quite a ways away from your latest checkpoint. Considering how long and drawn out some firefights are, I’ve found myself losing around ten minutes of progress sometimes.

Arcade Mode is available for your perusal after you finish the game’s levels. The series favorite mode New York Minute returns, as well as a standard Score Attack mode. Think of these modes like Call of Duty‘s Spec Ops missions: they’re more action oriented versions of previous levels that allow you to max out your highest possible run.

While Score Attack mode is pretty much what you’d expect, and only truly fun when you’re comparing yourself against other people on your friend’s list, New York Minute is still just as fun as ever.

Multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag, and many people will be quick  to ignore it. Thankfully, the varying difficulty levels of the campaign and Arcade mode should keep you busy longer than your average third person shooter.

You’ll find all of your standard Deathmatch modes here (including a Juggernaut mode), but Gang Wars is probably the highlight of the multiplayer experience. Through this mode, you’ll have to re-enact various scenarios from the campaign.

You can set up your own “crew” (which will evidently have some effect on GTAV), and put hits out on rival crews. Here’s hoping for some Zombie DLC, a la Red Dead Redemption. It’s not a genre-bending mechanic, but it’s still above and beyond when it comes to your typical multiplayer experience.

All in all Max Payne 3 doesn’t transcend the third person shooting genre, but it’s a damn fine game, and a solid entry in the Max Payne series. If you’re not the biggest fan of third person shooters, it won’t do anything to sway you, but the highs most definitely weigh out the lows in Max’s latest adventure.

This review was based on a retail copy of Max Payne 3 for the Xbox 360.

Developer Ronimo Games proved with Swords & Soldiers that they’re adept at merging real-time strategy gameplay with a two-dimensional world. But how did they do marrying MOBA mechanics with frantic side-scrolling action? The following should give you a hint:

When you start playing a game that features a giant robot, a space cowboy, a monkey with a jetpack, and the word “awesome” is mentioned well over five times within the intro movie, you know you’re in for something out of the ordinary. Welcome to the world of Awesomenauts.

The first thing you notice about Awesomenauts is its fantastic art style. Reminiscent of over-the-top 80s cartoons, the characters and environments hearken back to a time when GI Joe was on TV and hair metal was popular.

The intro movie sets the stage–there’s an interstellar war with two sides locked in a robotic stalemate; only the elite mercenary team known as the Awesomenauts can break it. That’s really all you need to know. There are robots and bad guys to fight. Get to it.

Awesomenauts is a 2D MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) style game that combines some of the deeper genre nuances seen in titles like League of Legends with some of the more whimsical sensibilities of side-scrolling brawlers.

Each team of three starts out in their home base on opposite sides of the map, and the objective is to destroy the enemy’s “drillcore” located in the middle of their base. Sounds simple enough, except that you have to contend with automated turrets, computer controlled droids (creeps to those well versed in MOBA nomenclature), and of course, the enemy players. You accumulate Solar–the game’s currency–over time and when you destroy enemies. This currency is used to upgrade your character’s abilities and unlock new ones.

Players can choose to play as one of the six Awesomenauts: a self-destructing robot, a space cowboy armed with dynamite, a monkey with a jetpack, an alien brain, a frog with a laser gun shaped like a fish, and a French lizard with a sword. Each character looks visually distinct and handles quite differently. For example, the robot functions as a tank and has a bite attack that can steal life from opponents. On the other hand, the lizard has no ranged attacks but can cloak himself and move around the battlefield like a stealthy assassin.

While it’s cool that all the characters play pretty differently, some of them feel more useful than others. It feels a little unfair when the cowboy can throw multiple sticks of dynamite, shoot you with a gun, and then knock enemies back with a ghost bull, but the lizard is stuck with a tongue move that works like Scorpion’s harpoon and no ranged attacks.

Plus, the characters you unlock as you level up seem to be better than the original starting three. Zoltar, the alien brain, has abilities that let him heal his allies. It makes certain matches feel a little unfair if you’re facing an enemy team that can heal itself in the thick of battle and your team can’t because all three of you are playing with the starting characters.

However, as became the case with most my time with Awesomenauts, I couldn’t tell if my struggles with certain characters had to do with my inexperience or actual imbalances in the game. The developers have already announced that a patch is on the way to address balance issues brought up by players in the forums, so it will be interesting to see what they tweak once the patch is released.

While Awesomenauts can be played alone with bots (why would you want to do that?), it’s much more fun to be played with other players. The game features up to three player split screen and drop-in/drop-out functionality. All of the games I played online took almost no time at all to get set up, and there was virtually no lag to speak of.

While MOBA purists that cut their teeth on League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients might complain that Awesomenauts is too simple, there’s plenty of depth for both more casual players and seasoned veterans. Each character has two main skills and several different ways to level them up. For example, the frog character has a dashing, lunging attack and a tornado attack. By spending Solar you can upgrade the range or damage of the dash attack, or if you’re feeling fancy you can add a damage-reducing shield to the tornado attack. The multiple tiers of upgrades give Awesomenauts a lot of depth.

In my case most of my first ten matches were spent learning how the characters work, and even after that, my time with the game still feels like a learning process. Occasional hiccups like strangely large hitboxes–being not close to an enemy but their special attack hits anyway–lead to some head-scratching moments, by doing away with the inherent seriousness in some MOBA-style games, Awesomenauts makes learning to adjust your tactics fun. If you were killed by that special attack the last time, make sure you’re anticipating it the next time.

Some gamers might get a little frustrated when they win their first match and then go on to lose ten more in a row. But at the same time, because Awesomenauts is so inviting with its ridiculous aesthetic, it’s hard to resist the temptation to play “just one more round.” With Ronimo promising that more characters are on the way, there’re plenty of reasons to stick with the game. You will lose matches; you will feel like other players are so much better at the game than you, but Awesomenauts will make you want to learn its intricacies and improve.

This review is based on review code of the Xbox 360 version of Awesomenauts, provided by Ronimo Games.

Gamers on the go don’t usually have a whole lot of specialized options in terms of headgear. While you could jury rig just about anything into a microphone-enabled headset with a Hands Free 3.5mm Adapter, if you can find a solid built-in option, there’s no reason to go through all the trouble.

Turtle Beach’s new “mobile” line offers three models: the M1, M3, and M5. Each subsequent model not only ups the bulkiness, but the functionality as well — not content with anything but the best, we got our hands on the Earforce M5.

Look

The headphones themselves have a sleek black finish on the outside, with the unmistakeable Turtle Beach logo emblazoned upon the outer-cups. The inside hosts a grey looking material that looks cheap at first glance, but feels comfortable on your ears, and does a decent job of keeping out sound (although they’re nowhere near noise isolation, as I can still hear a lot of outside sound, even with the volume turned up).

Keep in mind that the Earforce M5 is available in a wired option only — in case you were looking for a Bluetooth enabled option, you’ll have to find it elsewhere. Cord length is probably the worst part of the unit — it’s a mere 39 inches long (compared to their other non-mobile Earforce options, which run at least 4-5 feet). As a result, you may need to bust out the extender if you’re planning on using it outside of portable devices.

The plug type is a standard 3.5mm 4-pole connector, but it has a separate PC adapter for dual microphone and headphone use (for reference, these are the green and salmon connectors). Thankfully, the ear-cups fold very nicely, which means you’ll pretty much never find yourself in an uncomfortable position, whether they’re on your ears, around your neck, or packed away. Overall, they feel pretty comfortable on the ears.

Functionality

For the purposes of this review, I tested my Earforce M5s with the 3DS, Playstation Vita, Apple iPhone 4, Kindle Fire, and a PC. Out of all of these devices, I was most satisfied with the sound quality from the Playstation Vita — the 40mm speakers seemed to capture every nuance, and every high and low that my games could deliver.

While the maximum volume level wasn’t as powerful on the 3DS and the iPhone, the headset is still able to produce quality sound. For select devices (like iPhones), the M5 also contains music functionality, as well as an in-line mic that’s attached near the top of the cord. Using the mic’s button, you can pause, play and skip tracks (or videos) — I never had any issues during my testing.

The mic itself can not only be used on iPhone itself for incoming and outgoing calls, but with the aforementioned connector, you can use it on PC. Although the functionality is nice, it would be nice if there was a volume adjuster on the mic unit.

Overall

The $49.99 M5 is a great middle-ground between a light convenient headphone solution, and a giant bulky full stereo headset. I’m already finding myself keeping them close at hand whenever I need to review any Vita or 3DS games, and occasionally I take them along on trips for use with my iPhone. Alternatively, if I’m in a jam and I need headphones for any of my various PCs, I have that option as well.

If you’re in the market for some new headphones, I’d take a close look at the M5s — they may just suit your needs.

[Prototype] kind of just came out of nowhere. In a world full of serious sandbox games, the ability to play as infected anti-hero Alex Mercer allowed us to dip, dive, glide, and destroy more objects than any game since Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Now, the tables have turned, as Alex is on the other side of the curtain, taking on a more villainous role. Sergeant James Heller is the protagonist now, freshly infected by Mercer and set to do his bidding.. While the story plays itself out, the real question is, from a gameplay perspective, can Heller really fill Mercer’s shoes?

Prototype 2 starts off with a pre-infected human James Heller, whose wife and daughter was just recently allegedly murdered by Alex Mercer. As you work your way through the intro that teaches you the basics of the controls, Mercer eventually infects you with his own virus, granting you powers, and pretty much setting up the rest of the game.

From there, the narrative takes a predictable turn. Is Mercer really to blame? Or does the fault lie with Blackwatch, the militaristic presence that’s essentially holding New York City hostage? Without spoiling anything, you won’t really care about any of this by the time the game is over — like the first title, the fun factor in this series lies with hardcore visceral action — not an award-winning touchy-feely epic.

P2 has a God of War feel to it, in terms of character motivations. What I mean by that is the character is not exactly a sympathetic figure. Heller is motivated by revenge, nothing more, and will leave a trail of unadulterated death in his wake.

James Heller may not be the king of cursing, but he’s up there in the Pantheon of Video Game Crudeness. Of course, I don’t really have an issue with this; it just exemplifies the dichotomy between Heller and Mercer, from a narrative standpoint. Whereas Mercer was kind of a silent badass, Heller will announce himself openly to enemies all the time, often times taunting them into a conflict.

Simply put, after a short hour, you won’t feel the slightest bit of sympathy for Heller, or be able to relate with him in any way. That said, the game is still an incredibly fun action romp, so I didn’t mind this setback personally: you just have to go in with the mindset that there will be blood, and lots of it.

Weapon-wise, Heller will have access to everything Mercer had, with one major addition: tendrils. Tendrils are basically infected tentacles that are a ton of fun to use. By holding down the attack button, Heller can use black-hole ability, which shoots your tendrils in every direction at a target, pulling in everything around it like a magnet (or…black hole!).

Besides your standard weapons, where Prototype 2‘s action really shines is the inclusion of a heap of new abilities, most notably the bi0-bomb. The cool thing about the bio-bomb is that it’s use is multifaceted. You can not only engage this ability at will, creating a bomb out of pretty much anything, but you can also execute it from stealth-mode to distract other enemies.

Heller also has the ability to instantly kill vehicles (after unlocking an ability), and summon infected Brawlers (basically big mutated apes) at will. The level-up system is also expanded upon quite a  bit, adding a perk system to the typical statistical increases found previously in the series.

Like most open world games, you have the ability to tackle story missions, side missions, or just go willy nilly about the town, gliding around to your heart’s content. Like Prototype, there are a number of side quests to find, like collectible blackboxes to locate (similar to Grand Theft Auto’s suitcases), research teams to kill, infected lairs to breach, Blackwatch soldiers to stalk, and so on.

This time, New York is divided into three districts: yellow, green, and red. Yellow is more of a shanty-esque district, Green is mostly free of infection but has a high militarized presence, and Red, Mercer’s home district, is basically completely infected. You can access each district via a helicopter “sky bridge” at set points on the map, just like a”flight path” in an MMO.

Even though it sounds like a fragmentation of the open world, I actually enjoyed the ability to run around in three distinctly different districts at will. In the original Prototype the city would change over time, which was cool fro m narrative standpoint, but ultimately if a particular area you liked romping around in was wrecked, you had to just deal with it. Here you can just high-tail it to a new area if you want to engage in a mass murder spree, or explore areas without much interruption.

If you buy the game new, you’ll have access to “RadNet”, which is basically a “Call of Duty Elite“-esque network for Prototype 2. Essentially, this is a collection of various challenges similar to the ones in Prototype 1, but a bit more varied in nature. One perfect example is the ability to “bowl for soldiers” after jumping down from the top of a skyscraper.

Like the first Prototype I didn’t really focus in on these, as they’re mostly forgettable. If you’re bonkers about completion however, RadNet adds quite a bit of content for you to work through in addition to everything else in the game.  It also allows you to unlock an Alex Mercer skin if you beat all of them, which is really cool (and draws comparisons to Ubisoft’s uPlay).

Similar to Prototype 1, if you aren’t the biggest action fan, you’re most likely going to find the sequel to be repetitive unless you heavily invest in the RadNet challenges. Likewise, the story is fairly by-the-book, which isn’t doing it any favors.

Thankfully, Prototype 2 does what it sets out to do: let the player live as an utter badass. At the end of the day, there are very few franchises that evoke a sense of power just like the Prototype series, and the sequel doesn’t disappoint: just don’t expect anything groundbreakingly new.

This review was based on a retail copy of Prototype 2 for the Xbox 360.

For the longest time my only experience with the world of The Witcher was reading the occasional comic on Penny Arcade. But one day, console-owners rejoiced when developer CD Projekt RED announced they were bringing an expanded version of the acclaimed The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings to the Xbox 360.

This console version seemed like the perfect opportunity for those who missed out on the first two games to dive into the series, but did The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition survive its transition from PC to console?

Well, you know what they say about things that appear too good to be true…

For people new to the series, you play as the titular witcher: Geralt of Rivia. A witcher is a mutant whose job is to essentially slay monsters for gold. Because witchers aren’t entirely human, they’re looked at with distrust and sometimes outright hate from the populace at large even though they provide valuable services.

Despite being a monster hunter, by the time the game ended, Geralt hasn’t done that much monster slaying for profit. Instead, the player gets wrapped up in a nearly impenetrable plot tied together with poorly designed game mechanics. Those coming into the game looking for a simple hack n’ slash action RPG will be sorely disappointed.

If you try to fight that way, even in the game’s tutorial section, you will get destroyed. Despite being tweaked to accommodate an Xbox 360 controller, combat in The Witcher 2 is an overly complicated affair with severe balance issues. In the beginning of the game Geralt, the White Wolf, is weaker than a kitten, but by the end of the game you’re a walking murder factory able to eliminate foes with your blades, magical Signs, and a whole array of alchemical potions and traps. The crux of the problem is all of these tricks and traps are incredibly difficult to use.

The targeting system is incredibly finicky with Geralt sometimes hopping incredible distances between foes when the player wanted to fight the guy right in front of him. Also I found the camera controls to be too loose when aiming ranged weapons; even worse, there’s no option to adjust the sensitivity.

The game’s controls were unresponsive, sometimes requiring multiple button presses, especially when I’d try to cast a magical Sign or throw a bomb. All in all, the combat in The Witcher 2 evolved into something I dreaded to more of a minor chore by the end of the game. The Witcher 2 prides itself on telling a “gritty” and “mature” tale that you won’t find in other RPGs. Well its story certainly is gritty, but for those new to the series, it’s also completely impenetrable.

In this Enhanced Edition, the developers added several cutscenes to bridge this game with the first one that fail to do their job. There’s such a thing as starting a story in media res, but The Witcher 2 takes it to ridiculous extremes.

You start the game fighting alongside some king as he goes to reclaim his bastard children from some rebels. You don’t know any of the characters. You don’t know the kingdoms and the different powers. And you don’t know why Geralt should care about any of the people around him. When this king gets assassinated you’re supposed to instinctually know just how big of a deal it really is. The game tells you that redheaded Triss Merigold is important to Geralt, but I never felt any big connection between them because it never showed me their bond.

It didn’t help that both their voice-actors are laughable. Geralt’s in particular is especially flat and monotone. Both Mark Frost and Peter Egan do a good job with their roles though. Players new to the series will struggle trying to understand all the different terms and names while the game continues to reference past events like we know what it’s talking about. Geralt in particular is fascinated with something called the Wild Hunt, but it never makes an appearance in this game.

Everything is poorly explained and such a mess that by the end of the game, I’d stopped caring about anything other asking the game to point me in the direction of who I needed to stab next. When the developer has to include a conversation between the main character and antagonist with over ten different dialogue options, each of them long-winded, you know they dropped the ball when it comes to story.

The game does present the racial tensions between humans and non-humans, much like Lord of the Rings’ elves and dwarves, in a believable and nuanced (also “gritty” and “mature”) manner, and there are several choices you can make over the course of the game about who to support in this conflict that lead to radically different outcomes. However, none of them satisfy because of how the game loves to keep the player at a distance. The Witcher 2 feels like a game that actively works against the player rather than with them.

A lot of the game’s mechanics revolve around pure guesswork. The game loves to tell you what you’re supposed to do next in a quest, but most of the time these hints are so vague and the mini-map is so useless that you can spend up to a half hour wandering around trying to find a single quest marker. The same guessing approaching even applies to combat as well. Many of Geralt’s abilities are activated by mediating and drinking potions before combat. To be clear, you can’t swill down some strength enhancing brew mid-fight. Instead, the game expects you to guess when you’ll get into a fight and be preemptively prepared. Problem is, when you don’t know what type of monsters you’re going to be fighting, you might find yourself drinking an entirely wrong combination of potions.

Obviously the visuals aren’t as good as they are on PC, but they still are some of the best seen on the Xbox 360…when they’re not constantly plagued by clipping and texture pop-in. During dialogue scenes, every time the camera changes angles all of the textures have to reload even when the game is installed to your console’s hard drive (which the instruction manual strongly hints you should do).

I’m not sure who this version of The Witcher 2 is for. PC gamers have probably already played it, and all the extra content included in this port is available to them for free. Unless they want to use a 360 controller that badly, they have no reason to purchase this. New players, already at a disadvantage by starting a series midway through, will find themselves lost and confused by the messy, dense plot and poor exposition that assumes the player is incredibly familiar with the game’s world.

Poor player direction and feedback, a complicated combat system, and a backwards difficulty curve round out the experience. Despite all the additions and enhancements, The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition is an unsatisfying game that won’t appeal to series newcomers and never lives up to its own ambitions.

This review was based on a retail copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for the Xbox 360

Gamer Limit gives The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition a 4.5/10.

It’s a tale as old as time — boy meets girl, boy betrays girl, boy gets chased down by a monster intent on boy’s destruction. Luckily with a trusty shotgun at his side and plenty of persistence on the player’s part, death at the hands of a swirling mass of tentacles can be avoided long enough for rComplex‘s silhouetted protagonist to run, jump and slide his way to safety.

Prepare yourself for visuals as attractive as they are simplistic, a catchy (though repetitive) soundtrack, and some of the most frustrating gameplay to land on the App Store in quite some time.

If you’ve played any of the other many auto-runners on the App Store, you probably already have a pretty good idea about what rComplex is about — momentum. With a creature hell-bent on ripping you limb from limb at your back and no way to permanently subdue the beast, survival largely comes down to footwork.

That’s not to say you’re entirely defenseless, however. A shotgun blast will  cause the creature to retreat for a few moments, and should you run out of ammunition the protagonist is equipped with a one-time use scythe that will release him from the monster’s tentacled grasp. And while bullets and extra scythes are scattered throughout levels, they’re really more of an insurance policy to give you some breathing room for platforming than a solution to your troubles.

While vaulting over and sliding under objects, the player is tasked with collecting a set number of ”Memory Cubes.” These items move the story along, allowing the protagonist to recall a memory and deliver the next ham-fisted line of corny monologue. Upon collecting the required number of cubes, the stage will mercifully end and let you begin the excruciating process of traversing the next level as the game trudges to its conclusion.

Even after having received updates to address complaints, rComplex still has a number of issues. Thanks to controls that are incredibly slow to respond, I frequently found myself crashing into objects that should have been easily cleared. This combined with the fast pace of the game means that when an obstacle appears, players are only given a split-second to react.

If the controls weren’t so incredibly sluggish it wouldn’t be an issue, but rComplex isn’t only broken, it’s incredibly unforgiving. Stumbling more than once or twice will almost surely engage the player in a battle of attrition with the monster that will inevitably end in being sent back to the beginning of the level. I frequently found myself in situations where I was forced to fire my last shotgun shell at the monster whilst desperately hoping that last cube would appear and let me escape from the nightmare.

After beating your head against the wall for a few minutes it will become clear that this title doesn’t have a lot to offer aside from a pretty face and infectious beats. Unlike other games with similar conceits, rComplex isn’t respectful of your time or difficult in any meaningful way. People unfortunate enough to play rComplex in its current state won’t be rising to a challenge or improving their skillsets at a genre that requires quick reaction times, but wrestling against a poorly designed game that could have used a little more time in the oven.

Run, run as fast as you can — away from rComplex if at all possible.

This review is based on v.1.3 of the iOS game rComplex.

Fez has been in the works for many years — odds are if you are reading this review, you have heard of the game.

So, given the game’s prestige, I’ll keep this intro short — the wait was worth it.

Writing a review for Fez is difficult, as I do not wish to reveal a large portion of the game, but I’ll be able to cover pretty much every core aspect without spoiling key sections. Simply put, the game is basically a mix between VVVVVV and Cave Story. There is no hard action per se — Fez is a straight puzzle platformer, in the rawest sense of the term. There’s no gunplay, no enemies, and no complicated inventory system.

The actions your character (a puff-ball man named Gomez) can take are fairly simplistic, given that outside of movement, there’s only a jump and interaction button. But where the game  excels is not limited by what Gomez can do — it’s what you can do by manipulating the camera with the LT/RT buttons. By pressing either trigger (or bumper), you can switch the camera’s point of view around the game in a cube-like fashion. Using this method, you can find hidden doors, areas, and pick-ups to help continue on your quest to collect as many cubes as possible (which help you gradually unlock new doors to complete the game)

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Fez excels in the sense that it mostly offers players a choice on how they would like to approach completion. You can choose to engage in a number of the game’s tricky puzzles in mystery rooms to collect the coveted blue cubes (ranging from block puzzles to more complicated endeavors), or focus more on hard platforming, to collect the more common yellow cube pieces, which can be assembled into cubes once you collect enough. Each cube is counted as one currency, so you can open cube-doors with any combination of both types. To complete the game, you have to collect 32 of any combination of cubes — yellow or blue. In total, there are 32 yellow cubes and 32 blue cubes, so theoretically you could complete the game with mostly venturing after yellow cubes, or wracking your brain over blues. Letting you work at your own pace is not a major genre-bending decision, but it still helps make the game enjoyable nonetheless.

But while it is a platformer at it’s core, Fez excels at setting a relaxing and unique tone that is rarely found in gaming today. Through a combination of sights and sounds, Fez is able to draw you into it’s world without forcing it down your throat. While there is a finite amount of the world to explore, the game basically lets you find it at your own pace. Occasionally it may remind you of a particular area to visit so you don’t get lost, but for the most part, you can get to anywhere you need to go with your basic set of abilities. Once you earn more cube collectibles to unlock the game’s limited amount of key-doors, you can enter more areas and explore more of the game — however, this design choice is clearly to avoid you simply walking into the ending.

Fez does have a few technical issues, which is strange given the lengthy development time. For starters, my game crashed twice (once in a menu, once randomly), and I was put into an infinite death loop, forcing me to restart my game manually. Thankfully, the game saves as often as an MMO, so I was able to load up my game in less than thirty seconds and pick up where I left off. Also, given the prestige of the game, I can’t imagine these issues being patched out at a later date.

Visually,  the game may not blow you away if you’re not a fan of pixel art, but those who are open to the medium will find some incredible level designs to behold. Even without the rotation mechanic that allows you to see each area in it’s fullest, the game’s aesthetic design could still be considered in a league of it’s own. While there are tricky jumps, nothing feels unfair — yet, areas also feel challenging at the same time. You can clearly tell that much of the game’s development time went into fine tuning the platforming mechanics to ensure that they were pretty much perfect.

While it’s not mind blowing, Fez’s soundtrack deserves credit for fantastically fitting the game. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be the soundtrack to Clockwork Orange, in that it simultaneously gives you a feeling of whimsical calm and makes you feel uneasy in the same measure. Not many soundtracks can claim this feat, so it’s nice to see that a large amount of work was done ensuring that each track matches the area in question.

So aside from the mood, there of course is actual gameplay involved. Thankfully, Fez goes through great lengths to ensure that you have fun. For starters, you have an unlimited amount of lives, and you basically respawn immediately after your death right where you left off (similar to VVVVVV). Fez also highlights cube pieces., and gives you subtle hints as to where pick-ups can be found, without explicitly revealing the solution to a puzzle. As a result, even casual gamers can find solace in the fact that they’ll eventually find where they need to go, even if they have issues navigating the (initially) complicated map system.

At first, the map will feel like it’s difficult to read, but once you take a look at it for a while, you shouldn’t have any issues. Every possible power-up or pick-up is represented on the map, and if you clear an area in it’s entirety, the quadrant will turn gold — ensuring that you don’t aimlessly wander around areas you have already completed. You’re free to not only collect all thirty-two required cubes to finish the game, but a number of artifacts and collectibles as well. If you rush through the game it could only last you around five hours or so, but if you’re keen on getting absolutely everything, you’re going to net around double that.

Fez is a truly remarkable game, and can be placed in the indie pantheon along with Cave Story and VVVVVV. It provides a unique sandbox to engage in puzzle platforming, and it does that platforming aspect well — if you’re  fan of the genre, don’t miss out on Fez. Let’s just hope the sequel doesn’t take five years to produce.

Some time ago, cult-creator Goichi Suda set out to create a “mature” game for the Kinect, — a feat that was only attempted by a few brave developers.

What do you get when you mix demonic elephants, a former major league baseball star, and a creepy carnival? One of the weirdest, flawed, and most enjoyable games on the Xbox Live Arcade.

The absolute first thing you have to get through your head is the fact that Diabolical Pitch is indeed a Suda game. By that, I mean the story is pretty much nonsensical, and is just a delivery system for weirdness, creepiness, and dark comedy. If you can’t stomach strange/foreign games, right off the bat I can tell you this Kinect romp isn’t for you.

Diabolic Pitch is fairly abrupt in it’s presentation, as it opens up with a less-than-a-minute intro that features a former professional pitcher who ends up in a dark demonic carnival after a career ending arm injury. Due to the mysterious demonic powers that be, our hero is granted a prosthetic arm capable of demonic pitching power, but there’s a big caveat — he has to fight his way past the demonic hordes to regain his former life.

Mechanics wise, the game is incredibly simple — all you have to do is stand in front of the Kinect, then pitch, catch, and kick. You can pitch pretty much as quickly as you want, but there is a fatigue gauge to keep you from potentially gaming the system somehow, or just wildly throwing without strategy.

Your pitches automatically lock onto the general area where you release your follow-through, which works well so long as the Kinect is perfectly calibrated and in the right place (which I’ll get to later). You use your dominant hand to throw (which you can set up before the game starts), but your other hand can be used to lock onto enemies for a more precise throwing option. Of course, in true Suda fashion, there are special “Diabolical Pitch” special moves that draw from the darkest depths of Dragon Ball Z, and each of them have their own specific hand maneuvers.

You can catch an enemy’s projectile by doing an actual catching motion, and kick an enemy by doing an actual kick — that’s really it. Throughout all of the game’s levels, you’re going to be fighting of droves of demonic enemies, meeting new derivatives and types every few levels or so. Thankfully, Diabolical Pitch is a blast to play. Your arm will literally tire as you make your way through demon after demon, and the special diabolical pitches themselves (while monotonous after a while) make you feel pretty powerful. While it’s basically a carnival game at it’s core, it’s exciting enough to keep you wanting for “one more game”.

So does all this motion control magic actually work? Well, most of the time. If your Kinect is perfectly aligned, you have enough room, you pick simple diabolical pitches, and you’re playing by yourself, it works well enough. The issues start when you put another player in the mix for the game’s coop mode (which sadly features the same levels from the single player campaign), or any of those other factors aren’t met. For instance, even in my fairly large basement, I had space issues with another player.

Often times we’d smack each other with pitches, or find it nearly impossible to pull off the “Dual Union Pitch” special moves. If the Kinect sensor is even just barely off, everyone goes downhill — even if you move slightly, the game constantly will drop into a menu state, giving you very little leeway to reposition (protip: put all of your remotes and controllers behind you, in case you need to reach them without interruption). From time to time if my sensor was moved, I’d even have issues with solo power pitches.

In terms of replay value, the game will probably last you a few hours (maybe a few more if you beat the game both SP and MP), and you’ll have the ability to unlock new moves, abilities, and powers with the game’s collectible card system. While there’s a decent amount of cards to collect, not everyone is going to want to grind the game over and over to earn enough coins to purchase them.

There really isn’t a whole lot to Diabolical Pitch — it’s over in a few hours, and every level functionally feels the same. Your mileage may vary, but personally, I had a ton of fun with it. While it doesn’t have nearly as much charm as the typical Grasshopper game, it is still enough to scratch that Kinect itch that’s been raw since Gunstringer.

Shortly following Tiger Woods’ first PGA Tour event win in more than two years, the newest installment of Tiger Woods PGA Tour was released. The past few years of this franchise has brought with it some of the best innovation in sports gaming. A sentiment that many hope stays true in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 and beyond.

Game mechanics like Focus and True-Aim have kept the games fresh and rewarding in years past. And while not all of them were gems – looking at you caddie – EA Sports keeps all of this in mind and does not rest on its laurels. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 successfully polishes its strengths, focuses on addressing its weaknesses, and provides enough new content to keep players entertained for hours on end.

One of the biggest issues in the Tiger Woods franchise has always been its difficulty level and its failure to properly scale. Prior to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 with the introduction of True-Aim, the higher difficulties still lacked that challenge many are looking for. While True-Aim was a welcomed addition, the game still lacked a proper difficulty scaling – one in which could only be addressed at its core game mechanic. And thus, Total Swing Control was born.

In years past, the swing mechanic had very few variables that shaped where and how the ball would move. This resulted in a very binary long and short game and is the main reason why Tiger Woods games became a bit mindless after dozens of hours. Total Swing Control completely redefines the way you play every inch of the golf course. The left stick movement now 100% shapes your shot. This not only fixes the difficulty scaling mentioned previously, but it also keeps you engaged and thinking every second. This results in a much more fun and rewarding experience.

The swing meter is gone and in its place is a swing arc. This arc is dynamically defined based on the lie of the ball, your stance, the strike you intend to put on the ball, whether you wish to draw or fade, etc. It is then up to you to match this arc with your left stick. As you pull back the left stick a new arc is drawn. If it is accurate, it will remain white; if not, a red line will be drawn.

Strike and Stance are now something that can be user controlled as well and works hand-in-hand with Total Swing Control. Any change in strike or stance will change the swing arc and is thus something you have to earn when attempting to execute. This fine grain control provides yet another element of strategy that continues to drive the franchise to complete realism.

In previous years, power was earned by spamming the A button if on 360 or the X button if on PS3. The more you pressed it during the backswing, the more power went into the shot. With Total Swing Control, power is now earned based on the swing. The more you hold down the left stick and the faster you bring it forward, the more overswing received and thus more power.

While these mechanic changes work very well and greatly improve gameplay, one negative change is the removal of Focus. While I understand that this power mechanic change has a direct impact on Focus and how it would work, removing it is not the right answer. Focus brought about an element of strategy and aided the issue of people getting 30 under par in a round. With its removal, unfortunately, unrealistic scores in online tournaments and matches at the lower difficulties have returned.

Finally, for those worried, the caddie is finally out of your hair. The caddie system is more under the covers this year and suggestions from the caddie can be received by pressing the Y button on 360 or the Triangle button on PS3. As with last year though, the suggestions the caddie makes are still pretty hit or miss. Either way, it operates as a good guideline for beginners. For those hardcore players, thankfully it can be turned off this year.

One of the most addicting elements of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is the introduction of a coin system. Coins are rewarded based on your performance in any mode you participate in. Multipliers are given depending on difficulty as well as the performance of the Country Club you are in – something which will be discussed a bit later. You also receive coins for completing various objectives across all Tiger Woods games. The more Tiger Woods games you play to complete these objectives, the more coins you receive.

What you do with these coins is a more controversial topic however. Various packs can be purchased which contain pins. Up to three pins can be chosen prior to any match you play. These pins can alter your performance on a given course, power rating, overall stats, etc. While not necessary to complete any objectives or tournaments in the game, it does provide a slight advantage to those that either play a lot or, unfortunately, those that cough up some real life money. When it comes down to it though, skill will always reign supreme – no pay to win here thankfully.

Coins can also be used to buy 18-hole access to various downloadable content courses. While the 16 holes provided in the retail game are plenty, some may want to try out some of the 16 downloadable content courses. I feel it is a fantastic idea to allow players that don’t wish to pay for courses to be given another option. If you use your coins enough on a course and complete all the course mastery objectives, you receive unlimited playtime on that course.

While at first glance this might feel like a free-to-play structure, there is the same amount of courses as in years past, but now you can be rewarded for playing hours on end. To some this may feel like “typical EA” with their microtransactions and cash grabs but after playing this game for over 40 hours, I have come to realize that this in no way shapes or defines how the game plays. All pins and chance at unlimited access to courses are well within grasp if you put in the time. Be smart with your pins, play at higher difficulties, make your way into a good Country Club and you will soon find yourself making great headway in unlocking free, unlimited access to some of your favorite downloadable content courses.

So now you must be asking yourself, “What are these Country Clubs he is talking about?” Well, you can now join together with up to 24 people and show everyone else what you are made of. Once a Country Club is created, various objectives can be completed to make your way up the ranks. No matter who or what you play in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, your performance always ties into your Country Club. Also, as mentioned previously, a coin multiplier is rewarded based on your Country Club level. This is an element that Tiger Woods has always been missing – a reason to actually tie yourself to the online world.

In addition to the leveling system you can also participate in various tournaments or matches against each other or other Country Clubs. This greatly operates as a stepping stone into the online world of Tiger Woods. It first can operate as a “semi-online” function and is not intimidating in the least. But as you play more and build a bond with the Country Club you are in, you will soon find yourself jumping into dozens of online matches and tournaments. Online has always been a dwindling element of Tiger Woods but this is undoubtedly the spark the franchise has needed for online modes.

The one mode that many find themselves spending the most time with each year is their created player career. Unfortunately, not much has changed here. You make your way from an amateur to a pro, pick up sponsors along the way, and, of course, spend your experience on various skill attributes.

One of the most notable changes in created player mode however is the fact that the control you have over your attributes is much more basic. In previous years you would spend experience points in subcategories of main skill attributes. This year, you only level up the main attributes. While this isn’t really a big issue, some may prefer that fine grain control that is now gone. Nonetheless, it simplifies things without having a large negative impact on the mode itself. Created player mode continues to be my mode of choice and is still a ton of fun.

The newest and most publicized mode in this years Tiger Woods is Legacy Challenge. From Tiger’s toddler years all the way into the future, various milestones in Tiger’s career were carefully chosen. Each of these milestones act as challenges that you can complete.

With up to ten hours of gameplay in this game mode, the experience ranges anywhere from downright bliss to unnecessarily frustrating. The frustrating element is not only because the game mode begins to become a bit long in the tooth but because the difficulty spikes really get to you. At one point you are doing simple putts and the next you are doing match play against an, at times, too good player. These weird difficulty spikes continue throughout the over 50 challenges. This is one mode that I enjoyed much more when played in smaller gaming sessions.

For those that are interested, yes there are in fact motion controls in this year’s Tiger Woods – be it on the 360 with the Kinect or the PS3 with the Move. The PlayStation Move controls are very similar to last years with a couple more fine tuned improvements in tracking. It is a much more realistic experience than that of the alternative in Kinect.

Unfortunately, the Kinect controls are extremely disappointing. The game menu controls are a bit frustrating at times and once in game, it is a simple swing mechanic. First, you face the Kinect which is a bit disorrienting given the fact that you are used to facing the course sideways when swinging. Controlling things like where you want to hit the ball, changing clubs, and spin are fantastic and work very well with voice commands as well. However, once you swing you will quickly realize just how little tracking the Kinect is doing. Whether you are on the hardest difficulty in the game, swinging is nothing more than making a swinging motion. No matter how bad it is, it will always be spot on. I was expecting much more out of the Kinect and have no intention to turn on the Kinect again for this game.

Overall, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is a great experience. The gameplay mechanics and modes introduced this year are a great step in the right direction. There is a lot of content in this year’s title but it is really hard to say whether it is worth the upgrade from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 to 13. If Total Swing Control, the coin system, Country Clubs, or Legacy Challenge is in any way appealing to you, then the answer is undoubtedly yes. If not, you can enjoy the annoying caddie from 12 because I sure don’t miss him.

This review was based on a retail copy of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 for the Xbox 360.

Last year, Pendulo Studios gave us a romp of the point-and-click variety, with a story full of monsters and dames. The Next Big Thing puzzled and joked its way to a 8.5 score here at Gamer Limit.

Pendulo returns with Yesterday. This time around the studios plumb gamers into the depths of the occult, sampling bits of gruesome torture and madness. It is no understatement to say they outdo themselves in the process.

Yesterday is yet another point-and-click game full of puzzles and story. That’s where the comparisons end, however. Players soon find that there is very little lightheartedness to be had.

Instead, the first thing to be had is tension in an abandoned subway, with a young Henry White staring down the barrel of a madman’s gun. It is no spoiler to let you know that he survives. Neither is it a spoiler to say that Henry is a serial killer. All this is revealed in the game’s opening.

That is the true genius Yesterday’s storytelling. Players know what is at stake upfront – namely White is one evil SOB and it is up to the main character, John Yesterday, to stop him. Thing is, Yesterday has lost his memory in an attempted suicide and thinks White is his friend.

This is definitely not your father’s point-and-click adventure.

The game develops with you playing as Yesterday, retracing the steps that led to his apparent suicide in hopes that something might jog his memory. The more he digs, however, the closer he gets to the mysterious art of alchemy and a satanic cult called The Order Of The Flesh. All the while, flashes of his past keep coming back, leading him to question whether he actually tried to commit suicide, or if someone tried to murder him.

What makes this story even stronger are the puzzles. Each and every one make sense for the story; and never does a puzzle feel like an arbitrary stall from getting to the next plot point.

For instance, John’s investigation takes him back the Parisian hotel room where he was found nearly dead. All of a sudden, he recalls giving the lascivious concierge an envelope with the explicit instructions not to give to anyone without the password, not even him. Of course, he had left himself clues around the room as to what the password is. Without giving anything away, the puzzle uses simple hotel room items quite ingeniously; it makes one feel like a good psychological thriller is taking place on screen.

Overall, the presentation is superb. In true Pendulo fashion, the game is delivered with pre-rendered backgrounds and cell shaded characters. All environments are rich, always tinged with darkness in the décor to fit with the themes of the occult, torture, murder (of which there is plenty in the game).

The characters themselves are less defined than in previous Pendulo titles. Yet, their loose design somehow provides balance. There are times when they are beaten and shot, Yesterday especially, and the amount of detail is just right. Never is the game gruesome to a point where it is just plain disgusting or over the top.

Wrap it all up in subtle sounds and music, and Yesterday is all around effective. The music actually serves two purposes: 1. to bring even more tension to specific parts in the game, and 2. to serve as a clue of sorts as the player gets closer and closer to solving any particular puzzle.

If there was a bone to pick, it would be with the item menu. At first glimpse, it is quite sleek, with a single bar going across the bottom of the screen. Players can pin the bar or un-pin it so that it’s hidden until hovered over with the mouse. All items are lined up ready to be used.

When it comes to using the items, however, the bar gets frustrating. Players can inspect an item with a simple click, drag an item over another item or over the environment to interact. Yet, the menu sometimes disregards the drag movement, thinking that you want to inspect. Inversely, it will be too sensitive and read a drag when there wasn’t one. It can make for a small, albeit justified, annoyance. Otherwise, this is one magnificent game.

As all point-and-clicks should, Yesterday tells a strong story and does it right, with no cheap twists, no secrets held from the player. That is not to say there aren’t any secrets held from the characters themselves. There is no shortage of Shakespearian irony. That good kind of irony.

Couple this with challenging puzzles and sharp graphics, you can’t go wrong. Yesterday truly offers the full package.

This review was based off a digital copy of Yesterday for the PC.

When I first heard the concept behind Operation Raccoon City, I was taken aback by excitement. I would have the ability to not only influence and see first-hand the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but I’d be able to go on missions with fan favorite HUNK himself? I had to be dreaming. Well, if I was dreaming, actually playing the thing was the pinch that crushed my sweet, sweet slumber.

Buyer beware – only hardcore Resident Evil fans need apply to this outing.

ORC is a squad based shooter — the “squad” part is non-negotiable, as you will be required to tackle missions with three other computer or player controlled teammates. When I first started up the game and dove into the single player campaign, I was having a blast. All of the cast is fairly unique, both visually and mechanically, and their powers were fairly unique (Healing, tanking, stealth, etc). I initially played as Vector, stealth/infiltrator expert and protege of HUNK. Our first mission as Umbrella special ops was to infiltrate the lab of Dr. William Birkin, and steal the G-Virus sample.

At first, things were simple enough — we encountered a team of mercenaries and engaged in a shootout, all behind the backdrop of Resident Evil guns, pickups, herbs, and sound effects. Everything was going great until the mutated Birkin came into play, then the veneer of a finished game started to slowly degrade until a broken and bloody mess was revealed.

The first issue is that when Birkin actually came to attack me, I was stuck in an animation where I was constantly chain-juggled until I died. After respawning, I was able to run away from the monstrous foe, but I kept snapping to cover constantly and died again (there is no “go to cover” button – it’s automatic when you touch a wall or box).

The third time was a charm, but during our next encounter, he burst through a wall and instantly knocked me into a glitch state,  which didn’t allow me to dodge his attacks (eventually there is a QTE-like prompt to dodge his attacks, as you are “supposed” to get hit). Things started to fall apart around me as I stood there trying to figure out how to solve this glitch.

This one broken encounter kind of sums up a decent portion of the game. Squad mates will run into danger, explosions, and hazards like they’re candy.  I also realized that nothing was done to get new players up to speed on anything at all, from the game’s backstory to upgrading your squad.

While the entire five hour campaign won’t feel like this — most of it will. It’s a shame, because the campaign itself isn’t really bad at all — in fact, there’s some replay value to it at higher levels of difficulty, as well as the fact that you can find intel to exchange for XP and concept art. But if you’re looking to avoid the horror of AI squadmates, you’re going to have to go online, because there is no local play of any kind.

Multiplayer also has a similarly broken feel to it, which is a shame, because when it works, it works well. The helicopter escape mechanic in particular is fairly engaging, as it tasks two teams to get their squad to an extraction point after a certain amount of time — the only catch is, not everyone on either team is guaranteed a spot. Other modes that pepper in zombies and enemies are very fun, and fairly reminiscent of Resident Evil 5‘s Versus Mode, except it lacks that engine’s smoothness.

There’s also a Heroes Mode (which pits two teams against the main characters of the Resident Evil series), Survivor Mode (FFA), and Biohazard Mode (CTF). Biohazard Mode, on paper, is actually quite fun when the game doesn’t get in the way of it, due to the fact that there’s a ton of outside influence that can screw up your clean flag run — it helps mix things up a bit. Heroes Mode would be interesting, but it drags considerably as the Heroes have so much health, they can basically just tank enemies and waste time.

During a few of my multiplayer games, I fell through the floor, and was able to live after being gunned down as a ghost (all the while my respawn timer was broken). These kinds of issues need to be fixed immediately, and I hope Capcom is sincerely reading these reviews, as a few fixes will go a long way. The MP has potential, but it’s marred by the game’s sloppy code. Thankfully, actually getting into games doesn’t seem to be an issue.

As a die-hard RE fan, I wanted to like Operation Raccoon City, but the fact remains that the game is mostly broken.  Truth be told, I hope Slant Six stays far away from any major IPs in the future.

This review was based on a retail copy of Operation Raccoon City for the Xbox 360.