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January 26, 2015

Review – Grey Goo

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 12:06 pm

Grey Goo Review
Out now is Grey Goo, and imaginative and clever real-time strategy title from Petroglyph Games. The title features a fifteen mission single player campaign, as well as online multiplayer in 1v2 and 2v2 varieties—as well as the option of custom offline AI matches.

The campaign of Grey Goo is broken into three acts, detailing the trials of its three core species (if an all-consuming molecular super-sludge can be called a species). Each mini-campaign runs five missions and connects to an over-arching story. The setting crafted by Petroglyph is familiar—seeing three races brought together by circumstance in a far off sector of space—but refreshing in its execution.

Featured within are the alien Beta, the futuristic humans, and the eponymous Goo—a self-replicating race of molecular machines. Interestingly, the Beta are presented as the most relatable, appearing as an underdog species in the early days of interstellar travel. Meanwhile, humanity has progressed so far as to become somewhat alien, and the eponymous Grey Goo, the fruits of humanity’s labor, even more alien still.

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December 9, 2014

Review – Game of Thrones: Episode One – Iron from Ice

Game of Thrones Episode One Iron From Ice review
Out now is the first episode of Telltale’s latest game series, Game of Thrones: Episode I – Iron from Ice. I have a track record with Telltale games that might be described as criminal; frankly, I have a tendency not to finish them. It’s not a matter of quality or even interest; I commend the storytelling of the titles, and the properties portrayed fall right into my realm of interest. I suppose the problem is merely that I have distinct times where I sit down to play games, and when I sit down to watch television—and a Telltale game exists in some unknown third state my rigid leisure time finds difficult to accommodate.

Telltale’s Game of Thrones, however, is a pairing that transcends such considerations. For the uninitiated, the title brings the dangerous, nuanced world of HBO’s Game of Thrones television series to life through Telltale’s (virtually trademarked, at this point) style of the choice-driven episodic point-and-click adventure.

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November 30, 2014

Review – Legend of Korra

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:40 pm

Legend of Korra Review
Although I could hardly describe any game from Platinum Games as perfect, I afford the studio a significant level of pedigree.

With titles like Vanquish, Bayonetta, and even the underrated Revengeance, they have routinely provided unique, well-crafted experiences, carried on the shoulders of robust and complex gameplay systems.

In theory, a technical brawler in the Avatar franchise developed by Platinum should have been an easy home run. Instead, perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Legend of Korra is that there’s no good reason why it should be so frustrating.

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November 28, 2014

Review – Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One – Zero Sum

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 6:42 pm

Tales from the borderlands episode one zero sum review
While continuing to adapt high profile media franchises, such as The Walking Dead and the upcoming Game of Thrones, Telltale Games has also found time to bring their episodic adventure game formula to Gearbox’s Borderlands.

Challenging players to get rich or die trying on Pandora offers plenty of familiar sites for seasoned vault hunters, while also extending a friendly invitation to those not familiar with the landscape – where homicidal villains torn from the aesthetic desperation of Mad Max clash with the corporate suits of Hyperion, a company so devoid of conscious that they make the Alien franchises’ Weyland-Yutani corporation look like a fluffy kitten in comparison.

After the heavier subject matter of previous Telltale releases, Tales from the Borderlands offers a chance to embrace the lunacy born of that mix of interests, and Zero Sum suggests that Telltale is all in for having plenty of fun within this chaotic world.

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November 26, 2014

Review – Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions

Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions Review
Out today is Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, developed by Lucid Games and published under Activision’s revitalized Sierra banner. Like past entries, Dimensions is a score-driven twin-stick shooter that revolves around the player ship blasting apart geometric shapes and collecting “geoms” to drive up score multipliers.

The appeal of this entry is largely the same as it has ever been: designed as a kaleidoscope of flashing lights, bright colours, and energizing music, it compels players to edge closer to the flow state, where the barrier between thinking and doing breaks down and they’re able to go further and faster to achieve the higher score.

In this respect, it is expertly tooled; even the menus are practically begging to simply get out of the way and release the player into the field. Upon failure, one need not even wait for the explosive burst of their dying ship to fade away before beginning the next round; Lucid Games clearly knows that every second spent not playing is going to pull the player further away from the state of mind needed to play the game at a high level.

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November 23, 2014

Review – Freedom Wars

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 7:56 pm

Freedom Wars Review
We typically approach new games in search of an immediate clarity. Though the fundamentals might be familiar enough to allow us to find a quick footing, we want for instruction on the finer details of our abilities and objectives – the rules of the game.

Freedom Wars addresses this want by placing players in the role of an amnesiac in need of education regarding those points of play. And that, my dear sinners, is only the first of many crimes you’ll be punished for in this desperate new world.

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November 20, 2014

Review – Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 10:05 pm

Hatsune Miku Project DIVA F 2nd
After finally debuting in North America last year, Japan’s famous virtual pop star once again struts onto the PlayStation 3 and Vita. And while Hatsune Miku brings friends and tweaks to the familiar rhythm game formula, the Vocaloid personality also brings enough customization and music to have even casual rhythm game junkies waving a glow stick before long.

Beneath the candy coated exterior, there’s significantly more groove for the offering in Project Diva than the rhythm genre is typically known for.

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