“Proper review’s supposed to start at the beginning. Ain’t so simple with this one.”

That’s a play on the first line from Bastion, the first XBLA title from developer Supergiant Games. I just had to work that in here somehow. However my review is straightforward enough that I can start from the beginning. But does it live up to all the hype? Read on to find out more about my journey with the Kid as he seeks out the Bastion to find out what caused the Calamity.

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A two week stint of creative thinking during Brutal Legend birthed four ideas. These ideas then manifested into Costume Quest, Stacking, Once Upon a Monster, and Trenched. An impressive two week collaboration of creative minds to say the least.

Given Double Fine’s track record, it is almost guaranteed that the art direction will be awe inspiring and the writing will be nothing less than witty. But whether this mech shooter meets tower defense will deliver in gameplay was unclear at first. Thankfully, I can confirm that Trenched delivers in every area, in almost every way. Read more… »

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team just kind of came out of nowhere. It was announced at E3, our own Kyle MacGregor couldn’t get enough of it, and now it’s upon us, all in what seems like a matter of days!

As a fan of the tabletop game myself, I had to delve into THQ’s recent rendition of the grimdark 40K universe and see if they got it right. Read on to find out the results of my adventure.
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The NCAA Football franchise has come a long way over the past couple of years. Year in and year out it makes great strides towards becoming the best football sim game around. Last year was easily the most contested year as more hardcore football gamers pledged their loyalty to NCAA than ever before.

This year, NCAA Football 12 brings with it improved presentation, visual upgrades, custom playbooks, revamped Road to Glory mode, coaching carousel, and a much needed collision based tackling system. But are these along with other new additions to NCAA Football 12 enough to regain the loyalty of its followers? Simple answer: absolutely. Read more… »

If you haven’t seen “Tell Your Children [Reefer Madness]“ the movie, go find it – it’s incredibly funny, educational, and it’s the basis for the brand new L.A. Noire DLC, appropriately titled Reefer Madness.

So what’s Cole up to this time? Oh, you know, same old, same old – rotating coke cans, chasing down bad guys, and accusing old women of brutally torturing and murdering their baby grandkids. Thankfully, it’s still a ton of fun.

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As bizarre as that title looks, it’s not really symbolic.  Dissidia 012 is just the prequel to the original Dissidia, which brought Final Fantasy protagonists together in one big fighting fan service throwdown.  It wasn’t a triumph among fighting games but its reasonable success was in following the philosophy that if you’re going to make a fan service game for your customers you might as well give it dynamic combat, a great soundtrack and lots of unlockables.  A second round of fan service might be pushing it, though.  Dissidia 012 would need to rise to the challenge by offering a lot more than its predecessor.

Does Dissidia 012 stand up as a follow-up in its own right?  Let’s take a look.  After all, what better way to celebrate the passing of E3 with a game that came out in March?

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Resident Evil is at it again – and this time, in 3D. Mercs 3D features eight characters across the Resident Evil universe, in an all out time attack brawl, entirely enclosed within the “Mercenaries” mini-game made popular by Resident Evil 4 and 5.

Considering the pedigree, many gamers are extremely skeptical of Merc’s value, priced at a pretty steep $40. So is Mercs 3D a cash grab, or a full fledged retail game? Well, it’s a little bit of both. Read more… »

Had enough Black Ops? Well too bad! A third map pack is finally upon us, and in record time.

With Treyarch’s third offering, we’re graced with an airplane hangar, a golf course estate, a drive-in movie theater, a military installation, and a jungle themed zombie level. Is this set of levels enough to make Anihilation worth the plunge? Read on to find out. Read more… »

Sucker Punch’s absurdly spelled PS3 exclusive inFamous hit store shelves back in 2009. While some gamers preferred Prototype, Activision’s superhero title that launched around the same time, for the most part it was agreed upon that inFamous was a fairly good game in its own right. Now here we are in 2011 and Sucker Punch has taken another swing at Cole “Lightning Man” McGrath’s story.

Have they hit a supercharged homerun, or do some of the same issues that kept the first game from being truly great rear their ugly, mutated heads?

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By now, fans will know what to expect from a Suda 51 experience. This self proclaimed “punk rock” developer has become famous for abstract games that buck trends, break all the rules, and lay on heavy helpings of satire and adolescent humor. With Shadows of the Damned Grasshopper Manufacture takes that excellent existing culture and mixes things up considerably by combining forces with industry giant Electronic Arts, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.

Shadows of the Damned follows leather-clad, Latino demon hunter, Garcia Hotspur, in his journey into the depths of Hell to rescue girlfriend Paula from the clutches of Fleming, Lord of the Demons. Good, now that you know the basics on this bizarre tale, join me after the break for the full review.

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The development of Duke Nukem Forever has been anything but easy. The original development team, part of 3D Realms, had been working on the game since 1997, suffering budget cuts and staff reductions before eventually being disbanded in 2009. A handful of the original team continued working on the project, forming Triptych Games and with the assistance of both Gearbox Software and Piranha Games, the game finally reached completion.

After so long in development it was inevitable that Duke Nukem Forever would have a tough time living up to fan expectations. The game needed to feel nostalgic and yet still bring the franchise into the 21st century; reminding players of their love for the Duke Nukem series, whilst introducing something new and fresh. In a very competitive FPS market, anything short of brilliance was going to disappoint, and unfortunately we received something unquestionably average.

Continue reading for the full written and video reviews.

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Cole Phelps is back with his first ever Arson desk DLC, and this one’s a doozy. Unlike most of your cases, which are a slow build, this one literally starts off with a bang.

In the cold dead of morning, the Nicholson Electroplating plant explodes in a thunderous eruption of twisted metal: and it’s up to you to find out what happened.

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