I’m not really a fan of Sir Hammerlock — in fact, he’s probably the only character in the first game I didn’t like. I get that the game was going for an “old bean by jove” gentlemanly hunter type, but I felt like he was mostly just a walking trope.

Naturally, I was hesitant to get excited over a new DLC featuring Sir Hammerlock. But you know what? He’s probably the best part of it. Read more… »

I was never a fan of Ninja Theory. Kung Fu Chaos was a muddled mess, Heavenly Sword felt like a short tech demo for the first God of War, and Enslaved, although a beautiful and astounding film-esque experience, was a very sub-par video game.

But whatever you think of their history, the time has come to judge Ninja Theory’s work on a much larger stage: the handling of one of the biggest (if not the biggest) action franchises of all time. Given their spotty past, of course I was skeptical going in.

Let’s see how they did. Read more… »

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the newest entry in the Paper Mario series and the first one on the 3DS. This latest entry plays up the series’ paper-based setting and humor to new heights. After Super Paper Mario on the Wii, at first glance, this game looks like a return to the RPG form created with Paper Mario and perfected with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

However, even with everything polished to a flashy, shiny sheen, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is not an unequivocal step back when compared its predecessors. Frustrating design decisions and some questionable gameplay mechanics keep this from being considered among the top Mario RPGs.

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Embark on the most epic of epic quests. Live out the tale of the fabled black knight and slay all manner of grotesque beasts. Tarry an evening with a mad, macabre, evil queen. This is Black Knight Sword.

For anyone familiar with the brand, this latest title from Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture will surely satisfy one’s appetite for blood and derangement. For the uninitiated, it can be put another way; to play this game properly, you must let go your grip of reality and let Black Knight Sword tug you slowly into madness. You’ll be glad you did.

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One day, Capcom decided that it was high-time to endorse a fan-project, and release it as an official Mega Man release for free on the PC.

Wait, what? That’s all sorts of crazy, right? Well, it happened, and here’s how it went. Read more… »

The idea of selling a MOBA on a console is a fairly uphill battle. MOBA community members have played DotA for about seven years now on a PC, and such a drastic change could have drastic challenges for a development team.

Enter Guardians of Middle-earth — a console MOBA that strives to incorporate all of the potential fans who always wanted to play the genre, but never really could get into all of the advanced mechanics, or face the community. Read more… »

Borderlands 2 was in your face pretty much at all times, and I loved it for it. The quality of writing and fun factor were increased tenfold in the sequel, so much so that I feel like it’s an entirely new IP.

Naturally, people are probably expecting quite a bit from each of the four Season Pass offerings, after Gearbox hyped them up and equated all of them to the highly lauded General Knoxx.

We already had the chance to experience Scarlett’s Booty, a DLC that sought to offer up a new type of adventure, and now we have Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage. Although it isn’t Earth-shattering, Mr. Torgue carries on the heart of the original game.

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Hotline Miami is the newest title to set the world of indie gaming ablaze. For those of you who have missed out on all the buzz, let me fill you in. Hotline Miami is the first title produced by Dennaton Games, a development house comprised of Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin of Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf fame.

Hotline Miami is a retro, 2D, ultra violent, top-down action game. The player takes on the role of a nameless character, dubbed jacket by the community because of his prominent yellow letter-man’s jacket. Jacket keeps receiving strange messages on his answering machine (the game does take place in 1989 after all), from all sorts of crazy callers; things like babysitter requests or dating hotlines.

The one thing these calls have in common is they give a time and a place that Jacket needs to be at. As you play the game, you’ll quickly figure out that these messages are hits being given to Jacket. Read more… »

Another year, another Call of Duty.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t disliked a Call of Duty game ever since 4 reinvented the formula and took off like wildfire, but there’s something interesting about experiencing something very familiar, yet very engaging, every single year.

It’s like people are waiting for Call of Duty to fail both commercially and critically (even though they never do) just to say “I told you so.”

Well, you won’t get to say it, again, with Black Ops II. Read more… »

When the original Zone of the Enders was released on PS2, many people referred to it as the “Metal Gear Solid 2 demo with the free game.” Fortunately, while that was the primary reason I picked it up, ZOE ended up being a surprisingly quality game.

Years later, Zone of the Enders 2 proved to trump the sequel in pretty much every way possible. The recently released Zone of the Enders HD contains both of these classics, and not much else — so as you can imagine, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Read more… »

Halo 4 has some big shoes to fill. Not only is it the first numbered iteration in some time, but it’s also 343 Industries’ first fully fledged title after Bungie left Microsoft.

As expected, many people worried whether or not this new team would do the series justice. But despite my initial reservations, I have to say, this is the most fun I’ve had in the Halo universe since Halo 2.

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The Assassin’s Creed series has been polarizing over the years. People have both criticized and lauded the automatic free running system, the counter-based combat mechanic, and the sci-fi/historical setting.

Now, we’re all set to visit Boston and New York, and relive one of the biggest moments in American history — understandably, it has some big shoes to fill.

While the third main iteration is more of the same quality we can expect from the franchise, it isn’t going to do much for anyone who wasn’t already enamored by it.

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