Stick shooters are another one of those old genres that would seem to be a natural fit for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, where MicroBot has been released for $10.  More importantly the better technology that comes with today’s consoles offers ample room for old genres to improve themselves and showcase potential that might have been hampered on primitive arcade machines.  MicroBot grasps some of this potential but get past the excellent presentation and it’s just a sparse shooter with occasional memorable moments buried in repetition.

MicroBot starts off on a high note when a syringe forcefully injects you into the environment, you being a nanite tasked with destroying infectious nanites inside a human body that have gone haywire.  The layered backgrounds of human tissue teem with life and the microscopic perspective of the human body is beautifully presented.  Fleshy walls and glands intermingle and feel corrupted by the mechanical scourge of the nanites that you are tasked with destroying.   Little touches like moving bits in the foreground and background really make this feel like a living organism. Read more… »

Depicted above is the splash page to the updated website promoting Hybrid, 5th Cell’s latest title. It gives you the choice between siding with the Paladin or the Variants. Depending on your choice, you will click through to either a depraved, boarded up room or a stylishly sleek, high tech chamber, both replete with several goodies. Among the goodies are journals revealing a bit of the story for either side, brand new screens and the trailer.

“God didn’t create hell, the Variants did,” says the voice somewhat gaudily in the trailer. Yes, the teaser may sample a bit of the melodramatic, and also those new journal entries, but the game itself is guaranteed to be bold for several reasons.

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The first ever DLC pack for the charming puzzle-race hit Raskulls is out today on the Xbox Live Arcade, for a measly 160 Microsoft Points. Don’t be fooled by the official XBLA description: the pack does come with a brand new cup in addition to the advertised four extra characters, which feature four new multiplayer levels.

I just tried them out a little while ago, and I’m excited to say they include some pretty neat mechanics from the Mega Quest, and are sure to please fans. This pack couldn’t have come sooner for some, as one of the chief complaints of Raskulls, from part of the community, was that it didn’t feature enough levels – well, here are four more for your perusal! Hopefully Halfbrick will have even more in store for us in the coming months, and everyone who has been holding out for more content can jump on board with this surprisingly fun game.

Today indie publisher Paradox announced that it’s new co-op Norse-based fantasy action game Magicka has sold over 30,000 copies in it’s first 24 hours of being released. Pretty impressive considering the developer, Arrowhead Studios, is just an eight person operation. What’s even more impressive is that because of those 24 hours, Magicka is now topping the charts on Valve’s Steam service. Read more… »

In a way, I hate reviewing budget downloadable first-person shooters. More often than not, they’re simply bad, with poor graphics and lack of polish that can, in a way, be expected of games with a lower budget. Even the good ones often come along with a sense of disappointment because they can’t match up to a full-priced juggernaut of a franchise. In the first-person shooter genre, there are many such juggernauts; it’s easy to feel that the deck is stacked against games like this.

Breach, the downloadable title from Atomic Studios (makers of the controversial Six Days in Fallujah) won’t steal away flocks of players from Call of Duty, nor will it impress the average player who browses downloadable titles once a month. The greatest success of Breach is that it does destruction and cover far better than games like Bad Company 2 or Black Ops, which helps to make it a completely worthy addition to your digital library even with its lack of polish.

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Over this past summer I posted a little news story about TellTale Games and their acquisition of the rights to produce a Back to the Future game, as well as the rights to make a game set in the world of Jurassic Park. Well, as we all know, TellTale has recently released the first chapter of their Back to the Future game, receiving a ton of praise on it, however the developer has been pretty tight lipped as to what they are doing with Jurassic Park.

Well, TellTale has lifted the curtain releasing a few details about their dino-tastic adventure game. According to a recent article in Game Informer, Jurassic Park will be a five-part downloadable series that takes place on Isla Nublar (the island from the first movie). Acting as a direct sequel to the first (and as far as I’m concerned, only) movie, TellTale will tie up all the plot points, such as that secret shaving cream container full of dino DNA. Read more… »

Until now, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been cruelly starved of worthwhile DLC for too long. The optimistically priced online co-op Onslaught was completely lacklustre and the recurring influx of “new” VIP map packs was becoming a running joke.

Coincidentally timed with the release of a game that bears the initials of a certain breed of fish, DICE finally served up a tastier DLC dish comprising of four free maps, which did well to accentuate the aforementioned fish’s astronomically priced map packs. This, however, was only the start of DICE’s extensive DLC plans.

Announced in the most fleeting of teaser trailers during this year’s E3, Bad Company 2: Vietnam is DICE’s latest and most substantial DLC offering to date, stealthily creeping into the market after months of uncertainty surrounding the release date. But with such stiff competition in the FPS pond, is there any room left for Vietnam to engage?

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In addition to being a bastion for indie developers and startup studios, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network are rapidly becoming destinations for actual arcade games.  Many of these tend to be straight ports and, regardless of how fun they were, their aging shows through, like a favorite tennis racket with half the strings broken off.  Crazy Taxi is venerated as one of the best arcade classics of its time but hasn’t translated well into this age.  It’s still as fun as it was in the arcade, but whether it’s enough for ten bucks is debatable.

The basic premise of Crazy Taxi is still the same, assuming you spent the past decade in isolation and missed the game as well as its sequels and numerous clones.  You start off the game by picking one of four purely aesthetic drivers – the only difference among them is their lumpy polygonal appearances – and leaping into your taxi.  You’re given an amount of time depending on the gameplay mode to drive around assumed San Francisco picking up fares and taking them to their destinations before time runs out.  If you take too long with a fare you lose it, and when you run out of your time your shift is up.

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Puzzle games are a dime a dozen, and most of them don’t seek to evolve the genre. The majority of the time, you see slight variants in gameplay, such as Luxor’s slight variation to Zuma, but nothing really pushes the boundaries of previous iterations.

Thankfully, Halfbrick’s Raskulls puts an end to the long line of Mr. Driller clones, and manages to not only re-invent the genre, but turn it completely upside-down. Read on to find out why you absolutely need Raskulls on your Xbox 360′s hard-drive.

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A few weeks ago a representative from Evil Controllers, a small 3rd party gaming controller manufacturer/designer, approached me asking if Gamer Limit would be interested in reviewing some of their products. Always being down for a hardware review, I jumped on the chance. To my surprise, the gaming controller they wanted me to review was their new “Evil D-Pad” for the Xbox 360.

As you can see in the image above, the only real difference between the Evil D-Pad controller and the standard Xbox 360 controller is that the Evil D-Pad has replaced the oh so problematic Xbox 360 d-pad with four individual buttons. At first, I though, “Who would want this? It’s just a PlayStation D-Pad on an Xbox 360 controller; especially considering it’s priced at $54.99 for the wired version ($74.99 for the wireless).” I couldn’t imagine dropping this kind of money on a new d-pad for a controller.  Then I actually sat down and played a few games with it. Read more… »

Video games themed around holidays like Christmas or Halloween aren’t nearly as prevalent as books or films.  There’s definitely potential in the idea but game makers haven’t really touched upon it yet.  Double Fine Productions decided to explore this new territory for games to bring us Costume Quest.  Double Fine’s creativity shines through in this endearing XBLA/PSN release to deliver a memorable experience.

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Poor old Sonic. Two decades ago he was a leading mascot figure on the face of every lunch box, defining SEGA and spawning one of the greatest rivalries in the industry. Since then, teary-eyed fans have watched as their beloved blue hedgehog became a shadow of his former self in the transition to 3D, resulting in a seemingly endless supply of dismal games that didn’t do the license justice.

It’s only taken them 16 years too long, but SEGA has finally seen sense and are gladly dismissing that anything after the original Sonic trilogy ever existed. Enter Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, a high definition revamp of the classic 2D formula that aims to finally redeem the faltering franchise. Is this the game that Sonic fans have been patiently yearning for?

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