Xbox 360 Game Reviews
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Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Review)
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Every free thinking, truly good person in the world loves comic books, even comics without colorful masked men as the stars. And one of the best recent indie hits is the Scott Pilgrim series, and which has now become a Major Motion Picture (TM). Obviously, any film aimed at an audience that plays games is going to get a spin-off videogame, but quite possibly no film or comic book series before has been as simple a translation to the gaming world as Scott Pilgrim vs the World... ...
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Shank (Review)
Shank has the makings of a great beat-em-up – most importantly it has lots of cool attacks and lots of cool weapons. There are three basic attacks: melee (your namesake shank), heavy attack (chainsaw, among other weapons), and guns (unlimited ammo). You can also throw grenades (limited quantity) and combine attacks with grapple moves or jumps. All of these moves and abilities can be linked together into seemingly endless combos, and when you get going against a bunch of enemies, much clever multi-button-mashing pleasure can be had.
Small control annoyances often sully the experience though, and in this genre, even a small misstep in the controls can become a deal breaker... ...
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Mafia II (Review)
It’s been a long time coming – almost exactly three years since it was first announced, in fact – but Mafia II is finally here. We’ve seen a lot of the game prior to its release; learned about its characters, its attention to detail and its aim to immerse players in its sharply realized mid-century Mob fiction. So far, it’s seemed like a worthy enough successor to the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, but obviously it’s got a lot to live up to.
So, here’s the first thing you should know about Mafia II: It’s not the revolutionary game that its predecessor was. In some ways, it even feels like a big step back for the car-crime genre, with a structure that’s so linear and narrowly focused that we have to wonder why the developers bothered to set it in an open world at all. Once you come to terms with that, though, you’ll find a charming, brilliantly written mob drama that’s enormously fun to play through... ...
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Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Review)
Let us begin by saying right off that we’re sort of rabid Tomb Raider fans. We liked even the lesser entries in the series, except Angel of Darkness, for obvious reasons. Even so, one does not need to be a Tomb Raider fan at all to enjoy Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. One also doesn’t need to play it in co-op – it’s still a tremendously fun experience when played alone. Before we get into the rest of the review, though, we should address Lara’s elephant in the mansion: the lack of online co-op for the initial release. In case not everybody knows, although we were all led to believe it would be an online co-op game from the get-go, instead it currently features only sit-next-to-your-buddy co-op, with online being released through a patch in about a month... ...
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Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Review)
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days isn’t a fantastic game. Its visuals are great, combining a careful attention to gritty detail with a shakycam-filled, YouTube-inspired presentation that makes it unlike any other game we can think of. The clumsy action of the first game has been streamlined into a straightforward, no-frills, cover-centric shooter that’s like Gears of War without the chainsaws (or most of the arsenal, actually), and your enemies are smart, tough and fast enough to keep you from getting too complacent behind cover... ...
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Playstation 3 Game Reviews
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Young Thor (Review)
At just 1/20th the cost of a normal retail title, Young Thor is an oddly compelling game. It's got that je ne se quoi effect that certain games like Diablo are able to achieve that compels you to drive forward through each level simply by telling you you're not strong enough. Failing on one level only hardens the resolve to level-grind for a while so you can come back and trounce the place. However, qualities aside you get what you pay for with Young Thor, and in this case the low price on this PSP Mini is justified by its extreme lack of polish... ...
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Shank (Review)
Shank has the makings of a great beat-em-up – most importantly it has lots of cool attacks and lots of cool weapons. There are three basic attacks: melee (your namesake shank), heavy attack (chainsaw, among other weapons), and guns (unlimited ammo). You can also throw grenades (limited quantity) and combine attacks with grapple moves or jumps. All of these moves and abilities can be linked together into seemingly endless combos, and when you get going against a bunch of enemies, much clever multi-button-mashing pleasure can be had.
Small control annoyances often sully the experience though, and in this genre, even a small misstep in the controls can become a deal breaker... ...
More >
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Mafia II (Review)
It’s been a long time coming – almost exactly three years since it was first announced, in fact – but Mafia II is finally here. We’ve seen a lot of the game prior to its release; learned about its characters, its attention to detail and its aim to immerse players in its sharply realized mid-century Mob fiction. So far, it’s seemed like a worthy enough successor to the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, but obviously it’s got a lot to live up to.
So, here’s the first thing you should know about Mafia II: It’s not the revolutionary game that its predecessor was. In some ways, it even feels like a big step back for the car-crime genre, with a structure that’s so linear and narrowly focused that we have to wonder why the developers bothered to set it in an open world at all. Once you come to terms with that, though, you’ll find a charming, brilliantly written mob drama that’s enormously fun to play through... ...
More >
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Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Review)
Every free thinking, truly good person in the world loves comic books, even comics without colorful masked men as the stars. And one of the best recent indie hits is the Scott Pilgrim series, and which has now become a Major Motion Picture (TM). Obviously, any film aimed at an audience that plays games is going to get a spin-off videogame, but quite possibly no film or comic book series before has been as simple a translation to the gaming world as Scott Pilgrim vs the World... ...
More >
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Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Review)
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days isn’t a fantastic game. Its visuals are great, combining a careful attention to gritty detail with a shakycam-filled, YouTube-inspired presentation that makes it unlike any other game we can think of. The clumsy action of the first game has been streamlined into a straightforward, no-frills, cover-centric shooter that’s like Gears of War without the chainsaws (or most of the arsenal, actually), and your enemies are smart, tough and fast enough to keep you from getting too complacent behind cover... ...
More >
Wii Game Reviews
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Ivy the Kiwi (Review)
The concept of Ivy the Kiwi is sound – a Kirby: Canvas Curse-style platformer where you guide an adorable bird through all manner of hazards. Ivy never stops walking, and you can't control her directly. To get her to go where you want, you point with the remote while holding the A button to draw vines on the screen that she'll walk on, which you can use in a number of ways. Problem is, using the Wii's motion control instead of a DS stylus presents some annoying difficulties... ...
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And Yet It Moves (Review)
We take it you’ve all seen Inception. Good, wasn’t it? Rather than get bogged down in debate over who was dreaming or what was being dreamed, cast your mind back to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s amazing bit of hotel wall-running. As his world loses its center of gravity he finds walls becoming floor, becoming ceiling, becoming walls again. Audacious stuff. Good news, readers: And Yet It Moves is basically That Scene in Inception: The Videogame... ...
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Metroid: Other M (Review)
Since its introduction last year, Metroid: Other M has been touted as several different things. Some promotional materials suggest it’s a brand-new take on the franchise, depicting Samus Aran as an ass-kicking, skull-crushing heroine with hot new moves from developer Team Ninja. Other days Nintendo claims it’s still the Metroid you know and love, full of hidden power-ups and long periods of total isolation – just you against the hostile environment. And there’s still a third angle that says Other M is all about Samus’ personal background, and the story will be the most intense, cutscene-filled extravaganza a Nintendo console has ever seen.
These three viewpoints are indicative of the game itself – it’s a collection of very different ideas sandwiched into one game that occasionally can’t pull them all together. It often feels like Team Ninja had an idea, and Nintendo had an idea, and neither game was fully realized, opting instead to mash together first and third-person views when one or the other would have sufficed. Make no mistake, Other M has a few outstanding, franchise-defining moments as it draws to a close, but overall it’s a bit of a letdown... ...
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NHL 2K11 (Review)
We lost a little piece of ourselves last season when 2K Sports announced that their long-running NHL 2K series was going on hiatus. Things are tough all around for sports-minded gamers, after all, with franchises dying (March Madness, College Hoops, and NASCAR) or being put on indefinite leave (The BIGS, All Pro Football). When it turned out that NHL 2K11 would actually exist this year as a Wii exclusive, it kept our hopes alive that maybe, just maybe, the once-proud 2K pucks name will be restored to glory... ...
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Transformers: War for Cybertron (Review)
This is the most timid, lily-livered apology of a videogame we’ve played in quite some time. Oh, it’s for kids though, isn’t it? Yeah, that makes its paucity of ideas or guts all okay and everything. Let us tell you: each grey hair and worry line that sprouts onto your visage in the haze of your bathroom mirror should be celebrated with a full-on street party, because it means you’re another feature removed from the target audience of ass-biscuits like this that are packaged up and palmed off as games at 50 bucks a pop... ...
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