The original Sanctum quickly became one of my favorite PC titles of all time. It had a ton of charm, but most of all, it was difficult. On some maps you had to juggle scores of towers, make elaborate mazes, and blast your way to victory without a second to waste. Sanctum had a level of strategy practically unparalleled in other tower defense games, if only due to the mere fact that twitch skills and strategic thinking were required.

Sanctum 2 on the other hand, is more twitch based. In fact, it’s practically all twitch based, as a lot of the strategy elements were thrown out the window. Whether that’s a good thing or not is completely dependent on how much you value the FPS genre. Read more… »

Resident Evil Revelations was a solid effort by Capcom to attempt to marry the old and new philosophies of the Resident Evil franchise. Although it wasn’t really their top work in either regard, Revelations look incredible on the 3DS, and pushed the system to its limits.

Now, we’re back to that fateful cruise ship once again as we relive the terror with Jill and Chris, but this time, in HD.

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No one saw Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon coming. As a full-on digital-only game that’s completely separate from the core experience (and thus, doesn’t require Far Cry 3 to play), Blood Dragon takes the foundations of Far Cry, runs with it to the absolute maximum, then cranks it up to 11 and lights it on fire with a concentrated blacklight.

Complete with VHS tape style loading screens, a tutorial that makes fun of other tutorials, and classic sci-fi actor Michael Biehn, this is one wild ride that you — ::puts on shades:: — will never forget. Read more… »

If you were itching for an open world zombie game in 2011, Dead Island was just what the doctor ordered. It offered up a bloody four player co-op experience in a market that wasn’t quite over-saturated with similar experiences, and it soared commercially for it.

But the zombie-fest also came with a price: it had a heap of technical issues, game breaking glitches, and to some, a general lack of polish and heart that caused many players (myself included) to come away somewhat disappointed.

With all that said, I hope you liked Dead Island, as you’re basically just getting more of it. Read more… »

You won’t find Pauly Shore in this (bio)dome. Well, if you do, he won’t be as fun as he used to be. Deep Silver and Techland have released this screenshot and more to herald Dead Island Riptide, coming in less than 15 days.

Not all are focused on the scenery, as you will see.

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I was extremely skeptical of the new Tomb Raider reboot. As a massive fan of the earlier entries in the series, it would be hard to top the magic of Tomb Raider II, especially since everything we had seen of Tomb Raider so far made it look like an Uncharted knock off.

Well, it’s far from a knockoff.

In fact, it’s one of the best third person shooters of this generation. Read more… »

I had a number of problems with the original Bioshock. Barring the fact that it completely fell apart near the end, I didn’t really feel like Irrational delivered a truly unique experience once you were past the cool looking setting. Beyond the initial reveal of the underwater city of Rapture, I wasn’t really enamored by its cold, rusty Altanis-like veneer. A lot of areas felt too similar, and combat was a bit too basic.

Bioshock Infinite, on the other hand, casts its own shadow on other games in the genre — aesthetically, and otherwise. It’s the real deal. Read more… »

With PAX East behind us and GDC in full swing, it is understandable that Capcom be on a tear of announcements and new content. With a little hop from Resident Evil 6 x Left 4 Dead 2, over DuckTales Remastered, and back into the realm of Umbrella Corp, they deliver unto us a brand new gameplay video for the Resident Evil Revelations console and PC port.

Rachel, the blonde, squirrely-voiced Federal Agent with luscious locks ever covering her eyes, gets all the attention as she shows off her skills in Raid Mode. A climactic and quasi metaphysical video it is, as she winds up coming face to face with … well, you’d just have to see.

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When Metal Gear Rising came across Platinum’s desk, there were already plans for the game in motion. It was originally supposed to tell the story of Raiden’s journey from Metal Gear Solid 2 to 4, and it even was initially thought up as a side story involving Snake’s arch-nemesis, Gray Fox.

But none of that initial plan came to fruition. Instead, an all new story and concept was formed, taking place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, directly tying into the events that concluded the game. Naturally, people were worried.

But I have to say: Platinum really knocked it out the park on this one. Read more… »

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Dead Space 1. 

Dead Space 2, however, blew me away. I don’t know if it was the increased variety from a raw gameplay standpoint, or the more interesting locales, but Dead Space 2 had me hooked.

Now, it seems as if Dead Space 3 is set to combine the survival horror elements of the first game alongside of the more action oriented portions of the second, as it introduces new systems like weapon crafting, cover, and human on human conflict.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem — they just…went a little overboard and took away from what made the series so special in the first place.

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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… »