Borderlands is a shoot-and-loot franchise with the focus on multiplayer. I am not very familiar with this genre, having actively avoided it most of the time. I prefer shooters with emphasis on story and environment, rather than inventory management and acquiring stuff.… Read the rest
The biggest surprise about Stick it to the Man! is that it was not made by Psychonaut‘s Tim Schafer. This engaging puzzle-platformer certainly seems to have his handprints all over it. The look is cartoony, stylish and oddly familiar, the writing is funny with dark undertones and there is an obsession with mindreading.… Read the rest
The word Classic gets thrown around a lot in the world of pop culture, but Half-Life 2 deserves the label. This first-person shooter from 2004 shows up near the top of most ‘best video games ever’ lists. (Like this one.) Because of its reputation, I always felt I needed to give it a closer look and I finally got around to it.… Read the rest
Jazzpunk is odd, and this is in no way accidental. In fact, the game tries a bit too hard to be odd and strains something in the process. Being free-form is to be expected from a game with the word ‘jazz’ in its title, but with a little more focus and a bit more restraint, the oddness could have been put to better use.… Read the rest
First-off, let me confess that I am a ‘noob’ when it comes to ‘hack and slash’ action games. Before DMC, I never finished one, having dabbled with the amazingly camp Bayonetta, but getting side-tracked by something shiny. I haven’t played a Devil May Cry game before.… Read the rest
Bastion is an action game with an isometric view, in which you play a kid called The Kid. You battle monsters with a creative assortment of weapons in a melancholy, but colourful storybook world. The sad part comes courtesy of something called The Cataclysm, which blew apart your homeland and turned nearly all the inhabitants into pillars of dust.… Read the rest
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney entwines two franchises around a single narrative. It is an odd coupling and the elements never fully mesh, but it’s as good a blend as could be expected, given the ingredients. Phoenix Wright games are about gathering and examining evidence and pointing out contradictions in testimony during elaborate murder cases.… Read the rest
A lot was riding on The Wolf Among Us for developer Telltale Games. Telltale was already known for point-and-click adventures and interactive storytelling, but it only recently hit the critical and commercial motherload with The Walking Dead – Season 1. … Read the rest
Crysis 2 is a convoluted Jerry Bruckheimer action movie poured into a video game, starring a dead-man-walking protagonist, who was almost literally poured into a power suit as he lay dying. It allows him to withstand a great amount of damage or to turn invisible, but not simultaneously, and only for a short amount of time.… Read the rest
Virtue’s Last Reward is the sequel to 999, and is a visual novel which features ‘escape the room’ puzzles. Again, nine people awaken to find themselves trapped and forced to take part in an experiment called ‘the nonary game’. This time, things seem to take place in the future and the ringleader is a psychotic A.I.… Read the rest
