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September 4, 2011

Review – Catherine

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 1:20 pm

Review Catherine
A monstrous baby and grotesque sexual mutations of the female form cast ominous and destructive shadows over the nightmares of Vincent Brooks, who finds himself dragged into a dark dream world each night – a nightmare realm where men seem to be punished for the crime of living wasted lives. Aside from the philosophical attachment, the weight of this crime is the way in which Vincent’s indecision and resistance to adulthood cause others to suffer, specifically his long-term girlfriend, Katherine.

Having followed the development of Atlus’ original HD title for some time, I’d anticipated finding plenty to discuss in these manifestations of male fears, seemingly stepping out of the mind of David Cronenberg and so dramatically intent on literally crushing Vincent beneath the weight of their significance – and in that regard I was certainly not disappointed or left wanting for words.

And yet, the truly frightening part of watching Vincent’s fears of a relationship with girlfriend Katherine, and the way that fear feeds a sudden affair when the mysterious and seductive Catherine appears, hits a note so personal, that the academic leanings must give way. The most terrifying element of Catherine is the similarities I’ve drawn between Vincent and myself.

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August 27, 2011

Hands On with NeverDead

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:00 pm

NeverDead Hands On
Konami has no shortage of brands to call on when it comes to keeping the pixels moving and the store shelves stocked. The majority of their mainline brands read like the “who’s who” list from my childhood, and yet still find opportunities to remain relevant with new iterations in the here and now. With that in mind, NeverDead initially caught my attention as a curious ambition – a fresh IP digging for new tricks to create an original title that didn’t immediately leave me imagining an endless trail of sequels to follow.

The chance to step into Bryce’s immortal shoes recently lent a few more insights into how that ambition and collaboration with Rebellion is playing out, so let’s finally chew on matters of life, death, and Bryce’s unfortunate position between those two points.

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Hands On with Silent Hill Downpour

Silent Hill Downpour Hands On
An over-turned prison bus gives Murphy Pendleton cause and opportunity to attempt a run through Silent Hill, and I was recently given some time with Konami to poke around the dilapidated buildings immediately awaiting him after the chance prison break.

Murphy’s arrival in the town where I’d like to build my dream house seems accidental, but then no one really ends up in Silent Hill by accident, do they?

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August 19, 2011

X’11 – Hands On With Dead Island

Filed under: Features,News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:14 pm

dead island
In the latest installment of our 254-part series “Games Sugar Played at X’11” we have Dead Island, much-anticipated co-op zombie masher.

This particular demo was timed, so I quickly set about grabbing my weapon—a wooden paddle—and getting down to business. The business of zombie-murder, that is—and as several franchises can attest, business is good.

The beach I stepped out onto seemed safe enough, until a zombie came up at my flank and grabbed a hold of me. A prompt informed me that I should pull the left trigger, setting the zombie up for a pull of the right trigger that socked him directly in the face, staggering him away.

This was actually one of the more satisfying moments in the demo, so intuitive that I didn’t actually need to see the second prompt to know what the game wanted me to do.

Now the zombie was down, but he wasn’t out—he was climbing back to his feet. I swung the paddle and he crunched nicely, but to my surprise, he endured.

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X’11 – Hands On With Rise of Nightmares

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 5:09 pm

Rise of Nightmares
Among the wares Sega was showing at X’11 yesterday was Rise of Nightmares, the Kinect exclusive survival horror title that’s due out in a couple of weeks. That demo happened to be my first opportunity to play a Kinect game, and while the title may not have been on my radar beforehand, that I walked away feeling good about the experience speaks volumes.

The demo began with a brief rundown of the basic control movements. I found myself in a rather unpleasant prison-like setting, where I was able to walk forward by placing one foot ahead of me and back by doing the reverse. Interestingly, the further forward my foot was placed, the faster my character would move, while turning my shoulders to either side would steer me through the world.

Placing an open hand in front of me brought up a cursor used to interact with and pick up nearby items, while pushing with that hand would open doors—a task that could also be accomplished, to my infinite amusement, by kicking wildly.

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X’11 – Hands On with Binary Domain

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:30 am

Binary Domain
When Sugarhumans descended on X’11 yesterday, I had the opportunity to get my hands on futuristic robot shooter Binary Domain. I approached the game having seen only what the trailers provide—offerings that can feel a little generic, given the crowded third-person shooter market.

I suppose it’s the videogame equivalent of “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – that you don’t really know the nature of a game till it’s in your hands.

To my pleasant surprise, Binary Domain proved to be a sharp, limber shooter.

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August 11, 2011

Review – Red Faction: Armageddon

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 12:17 am

Red Faction Armageddon
Red Faction: Armageddon—the latest in Volition’s series of destruction-centric shooters—picks up with Darius Mason, descendant of the previous entry’s protagonist, and the colonists of Mars trapped underneath the surface following the destruction of the planet’s terraformer.

To make matters worse, Darius has accidentally unleashed a horde of alien monsters that seek to… well, it’s not really clear what the aliens want. They do appear intelligent (intelligent enough to destroy machinery Darius is trying to use against them), but they possess no character or story to speak of, instead assuming the role of predictably mute monsters to turn into paste.

The story is soft and more than a little dumb at times, with a cast of bland characters that, though voice acted quite capably, don’t have a scrap of personality between them. One could argue that it’s refreshing not to be fighting yet another revolution in a Red Faction game, but I felt the title lost some of its identity by choosing to go the fairly standard alien invasion route.

Of course, the real cause for concern is the switch to the closed, scaled-down environments—moving away from what made Red Faction: Guerrilla such a success. With its new setting, Armageddon eschews the wide open expanses of Guerrilla for a series of tunnels and chambers. Darius will occasionally visit the surface, but always in closed environments.

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