There’s no way to talk about Battlefield Hardline, the first non-military spin-off in DICE and Electronic Arts’ FPS franchise, without first addressing Battlefield 4. From server connection problems to gameplay bugs, Battlefield 4 was an example of how not to launch an online-focused game. Yes, things got better eventually, but…
Always Sometimes Monsters is the kind of game that leaves you staring at your computer screen once it's over, wondering just what exactly it all means. On the surface, Vagabond Dog's debut is a depressing life simulator, but there's a reason the game took "Best Indie Game" and "Best Writing"…
Elegy For a Dead World is one of—if not the—only game to use writer's block as a game mechanic. As a Grand Finalist for 2015's Independent Games Festival and GDC's Experimental Gameplay Workshop, Dejobaan Games asks the player to explore empty, dead worlds and write something about how they got…
If you've ever been fascinated by an ant farm, you'll probably like indie developer Eric Hornby's Earthtongue. As he explains via the game's website, "EarthTongue is a vivarium sim that places in you limited control over a small ecosystem on a fantastical world." (more…)
If there's one gaming trend that has been noticeably on the rise over the past two years, it's the resurgence of difficulty in its purest form. From the skill-based approach of Dark Souls' combat to the exponential rise in popularity of roguelikes, it's more evident than ever that gamers want to be…
The opening ten minutes of Ori and the Blind Forest will make players cry. Let's just get that out of the way upfront. The tears will come in more of a Pixar or Studio Ghibli kind of way than something like the opening of The Last of Us, but the…
After dominating worldwide software sales during both the PS1 and PS2 era, the Final Fantasy series has seen better days. Sure, there have been some high points since the days of Cloud Strife and Final Fantasy Tactics, but those have been few and far between. Some have argued that Final…
What do you get when you cross old-school Asteroids, bullet-time effects, boss fights, and biblical overtones? The David game is what you get, a delightful indie title by Fermenter, originally released last year and now available on Steam for PC and Mac players. (more…)
Never Alone is a breathtakingly beautiful game from Upper One Games; it draws upon the cultural history and storytelling of Alaska's Iñupiat people to tell an engrossing and heartfelt tale. It's the first title in the developer's series of "world games," which aim to "draw fully upon the richness of…
Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have an unexpected hit on their hands, with Cities: Skylines garnering over 250,000 sales in its first day on the market this week. The game was labelled as one of the best city-building experiences to date, and the debut trailer certainly made the game look…
Sequels can be a difficult thing to get right. The follow-up to any hit game typically has some large shoes to fill, especially when the original is as critically successful as Hotline Miami was back in 2012. However, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number does an admirable job of preserving what made…
There's a new trend in game development: making Victorian England as weird as possible. The 2015 gaming season kicked off with The Order: 1886, the PlayStation 4 exclusive which turned the streets of London into the scene of a werewolf-fueled rebellion, while upcoming titles include the ultra-gothic Bloodborne and next…
Given the flack that gamers have been giving the Resident Evil franchise in recent years, the premise of an episodic take on the longstanding series may have rubbed some fans the wrong way. While many followers have their quarrels with the recent string of entries, the first episode of Resident…
DmC: Devil May Cry had an uphill battle almost from its very first screenshot. With fans voicing their outrage over the redesign of hero Dante, many thought that Devil May Cry would have a tough time recovering, let alone finding success. Yet, there lurked behind it all a sneaking suspicion…
If you mixed Telltale mechanics with the storytelling of Gone Home, you might end up with something like DONTNOD Entertainment's follow up to Remember Me, Life Is Strange Episode One: Chrysalis. (more…)
In the age of Steam sales and Ultimate Collection bundles, it's hard to imagine that there are many worthwhile PC classics left to add to our ever-growing Steam libraries. That said, 2015 has been a great year for PC remakes. The year started off with fresh ports of Resident Evil…
With a name like Helldivers, it’s hard to imagine the game being anything but brutally difficult. But with a developer like Arrow Game Studios (Magicka) on the project, the expectation is that the game will still play well, offer fun co-op, and turn that challenge into a strength. Helldivers succeeds…
Since the 1990s, gamers have been crazy about skateboarding video games. We've loved to grind and flip and grab to our heart's content; until the wheels fall off and our thumbs have gone numb from trying to input combos into our controllers. But by 2010, we were overwhelmed with the…
Imagine if Trials Evolution, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Angry Birds had a baby – that’s ScreamRide. The latest release from Frontier Developments (Zoo Tycoon, Coaster Crazy, Kinectimals) borrows heavily from the arcade-style games that came before, but tries to chart a new patch, or in this case a roller coaster…
Lost Constellation is a supplemental game for the yet-to-be-released Night in the Woods from Alec Holowka (Towerfall Ascension) and Scott Benson. Think of it as a tantalizing appetizer; the story is complete on its own, but it definitely makes you hungry for what comes next in the game’s universe. There’s…
As the freshman effort from Turtle Rock Studios, Evolve represents a huge risk, and as a 4v1 asymmetrical co-op game, Evolve carries the hope of a blossoming genre on its back. It’s something new and different, and therefore is going to be a tougher sell to gamers. (more…)
Let's just get this out of the way: Hatoful Boyfriend is a bird dating simulator. If you're not familiar with dating simulators, these are interactive, choose-your-own-adventure stories with a particular emphasis on romance. In the case of Hatoful Boyfriend, that romance is with several different birds. (more…)
Every Nintendo franchise has its own identity. Super Mario is the pioneer, comforting players with nostalgia even while introducing new, bold ideas. Wario assembles tech demos into a game, offering brief glimpses of what Nintendo's hardware is capable of. The Legend of Zelda pushes its consoles' technical limits, creating games…
By now most gamers have heard the claims that The Order: 1886 is a short game. If those gamers were quick enough, they saw the playthrough or at least heard tell of the playthrough, which in turn inspired an interesting conversation about game length and value. And while developer Ready…
Survive for sixty seconds. That's all that Minutes asks. Forget about saving the princess, rescuing the galaxy, stopping the demons, or conquering the world. Just survive. In Sony's release notes, designer Richard Ogden calls Minutes a "minimalist game," but that doesn't mean that it's a simple one. Behind Minutes' straightforward…
There is really nothing else like Device 6, "a surreal thriller in which the written word is your map". Calling it a text-based puzzle game sells it short; it isn't a classic text adventure like Zork, nor is it like a Twine game, where clicking progresses the story. Winner of…
In a many ways, the shump (short for "shoot 'em up") is the one type of video game that's failed to evolve. Sure, the genre's come a long way since Spacewar! hit all the way back in 1961, and the difference between a modern shump and the widely-accepted granddaddy of…
The second episode of Game of Thrones takes places on a journey across Westeros and Essos, providing plenty of action, intrigue and character development. Some moments of the episode run too slow, but plenty of pieces have been put in play in the giant chess board that is Westeros politics,…
After an ample amount of fan demand, Nintendo has finally released a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Originally debuting on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, the game was met with mixed reactions from consumers and critics alike, but that didn't stop it from becoming a cult-classic amongst…
When it was first unveiled back at E3 2013, first person zombie survival title Dying Light showed a lot of potential. Developed by the same folks who brought us the first Dead Island, the game looked to be a more polished version of that last-gen release, albeit with some smoother…
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That old saying has been put to different uses in modern gaming - embraced by those churning out formulaic hits, while being ignored completely by those seeking to 'update' or 'improve' beloved classics (an re-sell them to a brand new audience). But in…
When most people think of mobile games, they think of endless runners, free-to-play RTS games, and endless microtransactions. But iPhone games and other mobile games are a growing industry, and increasing numbers of developers are flocking to the platform to show what they can do with limited hardware capabilities and…
There's a quote from Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto in which the renowned game designer compares the best video games to playgrounds – places the player can return to again and again, exploring in different ways and always finding something new. It's an approach to game design that emphasizes play,…
Shovel Knight is one of the biggest crowd funding success stories. Indie developer Yacht Club Games took to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise funds for its 2D love letter to the NES era, asking for a modest minimum funding goal of $75,000. The result was phenomenal. Yacht Club ended up…
The concept of matching numbers and characters for fun has existed for over 1,500 years - it's a genre popularised back in 500BC in China with mahjong (a game matching decorated tiles with one another) and more recently enjoyed with the card game snap (in which you yell out 'snap!' when a card…
While the original Saints Row drew plenty of criticism for its lack of originality, the franchise has grown over time to become one of the most creative open world titles on the market. From bats that double as sex aids to a full-blown Matrix rip-off, Saints Row found its niche…
Ethan Carter is a young boy who's seemingly aware of the supernatural. He's a fan of paranormal detective Paul Prospero and so when he goes missing under strange circumstances, it's up to Prospero to discover where Ethan is and what happened to him. Or so it would all seem. The Vanishing of Ethan…
It's never easy to try to view HD remasters through a critical lens. Nostalgia clouds the judgement if the game is simply a beloved experience from the past, let alone a formative title in the modern gaming world. But such is the challenge with the new Resident Evil HD remaster, an updated…
When Blizzard pulled the plug on the paper-based World of Warcraft trading card game, it didn't come as much of a surprise. The game quickly fell behind its competition (Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and YuGiOh) in both sales and its reception. The bitter taste left after the trading card game's cancellation made…
If a game like Plants Vs Zombies managed to carve a place for itself by bringing the basics of the tower defense genre to the masses, developer Four Lights has chosen to mold Defenders of Time in an image that lies at the most opposite end of the accessibility spectrum possible.…
When a game series finds a genre that works, it tends not to deviate too far outside of that bubble. It's only when the franchise gets a few decades under its belt that there is even talk of potentially changing things up. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was…
Super Mega Baseball is indie developer Metalhead Software's first foray onto the video game scene, combining a friendly arcade look with a great simulation feel. That overall formula makes for a solid baseball game that enthusiasts (and their friends) will love. That is, unless your friends are on Microsoft consoles;…
As the online multiplayer spawn has grown exponentially over the last two decades few developers have left room for the couch co-op experience. And where local multiplayer has fallen by the wayside, the party game has been pushed even further to the periphery – to the point there are barely…
The world of visual novels and point and click adventures has come a long way since rookie attorney Phoenix Wright made his American debut on the Nintendo DS in 2005. With recent games like TellTale's The Walking Dead revitalizing the genre and other text heavy adventures like The Wolf Among…
It’s that time of year again. The time when summers need to be slammed, series need to be survived, and the mania is all about wrestling. It must be WWE 2K15 time. Determined to give fans the most realistic WWE experience to date, developers Yuke’s and Visual Concepts have teamed up…
Telltale's Game of Thrones series features their most ambitious storyline yet. The season premiere focuses on the happenings of Westeros, alongside the events of season three in the HBO show. The game assumes the player is familiar with the canon Game of Thrones events and characters, so anyone new to the…
There's no overstating things: the odds were stacked against Assassin's Creed Rogue practically out of the starting blocks. Destined to be overshadowed by its next-gen counterpart, Unity, the latter game's shift to the identical launch date only presented a grander challenge for the team at Ubisoft Sofia. Events since then have given Rogue an…
If there's ever been a longstanding character in the happy, go-lucky world of Nintendo that's deserved his own spinoff, it's Toad. The quirky little mushroom man has largely been playing third fiddle to the likes of Mario and Luigi, but now he's finally able to step into the limelight with a…
With the shocking surge in momentum enjoyed by Borderlands' loot-and-shoot series following the game's sequel, it went without saying that the developers were going to be pumping out more content than ever before. But fans and casual audiences were stunned to see Tales from the Borderlands, a choice-driven story from Telltale Games…
LittleBigPlanet is as much a platformer as it is a platform. Over the past two mainline titles, Media Molecule's franchise has built a solid fan base on the back of whimsical design and creative freedom. Each game does a lot of the initial legwork, leaving it up to fans to…
These days, it isn't enough to be the biggest, the boldest, or even the most badass when it comes to AAA gaming: first and foremost, the game has to work to win approval. The past few weeks have shown that not only is universal acclaim hard to come by, but the…
Leave the Rook Islands behind and get your mountain-climbing gear on, because Ubisoft Montreal's much anticipated followup Far Cry 4 whisks players away to Kyrat, a transparently fictionalized version of Nepal and the native country of protagonist Ajay Ghale, who makes the long journey from America to scatter his mother's…
When an expansion like Warlords of Draenor comes along and adds 10 levels of content and a new end-game experience to an MMO that already has a decade of dungeons, quests, and raids to explore; there is obviously going to be a lot to absorb. Subscriptions to WoW skyrocketed this…
As one of the best-selling franchises in Nintendo's arsenal, an appearance by Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U was inevitable. Based on the premise of having all-star Nintendo characters (and a few guest fighters) duke it out, the initial appeal of the series isn't hard to pinpoint. Watching Bowser dropkick Link…
Traveller's Tales' LEGO games have, for a while now, provided an endless source of entertainment for a great many households, especially those with younger children. But, at the same time, their use of popular franchises like Marvel, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter has helped extend the reach of…
The core premise of Pokemon isn't lost on the copious number of consumers that invest in every core installment of the near-annual franchise. Catching 'em all and becoming the very best have been drilled into the minds of players since the franchise was first established in the late '90s, and…
Though it was originally expected to come out in 2015, Five Nights At Freddy's 2 lead developer Scott Cawthon decided to release the full game several months early, with no warning to fans. The first game was a cult hit, and the sequel was only announced less than a month ago. Evidently, fans were…
It was clear to everyone when 343 Industries used its acquisition of the Halo franchise to release Halo: Anniversary - an upgraded, remastered and expanded re-release of the original Halo: Combat Evolved - that a similar treatment could be expected for Halo 2. But with the arrival of the Xbox One, Microsoft revealed…
Despite quickly becoming one of the most well-defined AAA game franchises in years, there's no question that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag came as a bit of a surprise. Swapping a sprawling city for the open seas, it boasted a scope and innovation few expected from what was seen as a…
When Activision first announced that Call of Duty was moving to a three-year development cycle, and slotting in Sledgehammer Games for its 2014 release, few knew what to make of the announcement. On the one hand, Sledgehammer had a chance to rejuvenate the franchise with a fresh perspective. But it…
If you happen to be a fan of the Dark Souls franchise, then you are likely well aware that there is still a sub-genre of the action-adventure game that wishes to punish players for each misclick or poorly timed dodge that they make. Although it can be easy to find these punishing…
It’s impossible to deny the divisive nature of the Bayonetta franchise. From the over-the-top action and style to the narrative that never takes itself too seriously, there are those who love the titles and those who immediately dismiss them. While there is a fence in the middle, there just isn’t much…
Crusader Kings 2 is one of the most deep strategy games out there today, where players quest to bring their family to power through any means necessary - assassinations, subterfuge, war and deceit are the name of the game. Though the game is now two years old, Paradox Interactive has…
In keeping with the spirit of Sunset Overdrive, which doesn't waste a beat getting going, let us toss any lengthy preambles aside. Developer Insomniac Games has been around for two decades, and therefore they too do not need any quick bios or rundown of their classic titles (of which there…
There's a very good chance when you start Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, you'll have no idea what's going on. The introduction to the third Borderland's characters and story is as confusing and all-over-the-place as the game itself unless you're a diehard fan of the lore and characters of the series. If…
Civilization: Beyond Earth finally launches the Civ series back into space and into the future, a setting players haven't experienced since the award-winning Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri over 15 years ago. Like its ancestor, Civilization: Beyond Earth introduces exotic technologies and settings, this time built with the technology of Civilization V. The…
In the eyes of many basketball loving gamers, 2K Sports and the team at Visual Concepts have produced the NBA 2K series to be the reigning king of the court for years. With the release of NBA 2K15, the franchise looks to continue its dynasty run even as EA Sports’ NBA…
The survival horror genre has been to a lot of interesting places of late - particularly in the indie scene with games like Slender and Five Nights at Freddy's - but the trailers for Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's new title The Evil Within promised nostalgic long-time gamers a return to the feel of classic Resident…
The barrier for entry to create an indie video game has never been lower. Anyone with an internet connection can pick up a free development kit for Unity or Unreal Engine and hit the ground running. Although most of the major game creation programs offer fairly intuitive graphical interfaces at…
After the abysmal effort that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, few would have blamed fans for giving up any hope that the Alien franchise would deliver a solid game. So far, there had been more misses than hits, and with the most recent standing out as a big miss it seemed…
Nintendo's Wii U has Mario Kart 8, Microsoft's Xbox One has Forza Horizon 2 and now Sony's PlayStation 4 has DriveClub. 2014 is the year of the platform exclusive racer and of the three, Driveclub is the least impressive offering, but still a very good game in its own right. (more…)
About fifteen minutes into Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Talion (the playable character) gasped for breath as he attempted to recover from the dozen arrows in his chest that my poor defense had failed to avoid. At the same time, a seemingly random Uruk archer cheered in celebration at my defeat. Unlike cinematic death…
It's been a long wait for the latest installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, and for fans who've dreamed of having a portable iteration, it's finally here and has a number of expectations to live up to. Fortunately, it's a relief to report that the game pushes the 3DS to its limit, and…
While many had already made the jump to next-gen with FIFA 14, even more soccer fans – having previously been burned by the first sports title on a new generation – decided to bide their time until FIFA 15 came around. They hoped that, much like Madden NFL 15, this…
Nintendo Wii U owners have been waiting quite some time for the next true entry of The Legend of Zelda, which made the initial announcement of a crossover between the beloved franchise and Dynasty Warriors all the more bizarre. Officially released under the banner Hyrule Warriors, the game borrows elements of both…
The gimmick behind Develover Digital's arcade-style shooter Heavy Bullets is a simple one: Don't run out of ammo. The retro-themed indie FPS drops players into the world with a revolver, six reusable bullets, and not a whole lot of plot. From there, the goal is to survive eight maze-like levels…
It would be an understatement to say that the Forza brand hasn't made the transition to the Xbox One that either Microsoft or Turn 10 Studios would have hoped for. After Forza Motorsport 5 delivered a visually stunning and technically impressive next-gen simulation racer - marred by microtransactions - the reputation of…
After a separation from its own Halo brand, years of development and a monumental budget, Bungie's first chapter of its epic sci-fi shooter franchise is finally here. Like many gamers, we've been been playing a lot of Destiny over the last two weeks since its release. And we needed to before we could understand everything…
With the first Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive and developer Avalanche Software burst onto the scene with a new vision for the toys-to-life genre. They took what Activision's Skylanders had been doing, united it with their billion dollar properties and brand, and even threw in some intriguing creation tools for good…
Despite being viewed as some of the most formulaic and dependable game titles - or perhaps, because of it - annual sports simulations tend to be criticized as charging full-price for little more than a roster update. But to date, the NHL series has escaped those claims, offering both incremental improvements…
It's the start of a new generation for The Sims, after no less than 20 different expansions and Stuff packs released for the previous iteration of the game. The Sims Studio and Maxis have teamed up to build a brand new game engine, packing in plenty of new emotions, a…
One of Sony’s primary focuses for the PlayStation 4, and previously the PS3, is to continue to make PSN the go-to place for indie game developers looking to create content that is unique in both style and gameplay. CounterSpy, from developer Dynamighty, with a helping hand from SCE Foster City…
Crossovers can be an interesting beast to tackle. Just because two things are well-received on their own, it doesn't always mean that they will translate well when mixed together. While this was undoubtedly the fear when Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was first announced, these puzzling contemporaries prove to be quite…
[This review contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 2 finale.] - As the trailer for The Walking Dead's season 2 finale, 'No Going Back,' emphasized painfully, young protagonist Clementine has changed a lot since her days of hiding out in a treehouse with a walkie-talkie. She's traveled a lot of…
The PLAY 2014 event on PlayStation Network is winding down, and as the dust settles on this year’s festivities, Hohokum stands in a category all its own. Indeed, Honeyslug Games and artist Richard Hogg, with some help from Sony Santa Monica, have created a unique experience that takes another distinct…
Now that EA Sports has (somewhat) moved past the growing pains of the Xbox One and PS4 many are wondering whether the next iterations of their popular titles will deliver on expectations. Luckily, Madden NFL 15 has arrived to prove that, yes, EA Sports is getting a better grasp on…
Timed alongside the release of the Michael Bay-produced feature film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the mobile game is not the worse movie tie-in around. Yes, that may not be a ringing endorsement, but by setting a low bar those who do end up purchasing this game might find some entertainment…
Sharknado: The Video Game is not a good game. In fact, it's barely a game. It's the type of experience one brings up when talking about horrible movie tie-ins or mobile titles created solely to cash in on bigger properties. But in the case of Sharknado, even the movie isn't…
Light-hearted moments don't come easily to the Walking Dead franchise (the zombie apocalypse kind of dampens the mood), but after nearly two full seasons of death, misery, hardship and more death, Telltale Games breaks the tension a little in The Walking Dead's penultimate season 2 episode, 'Amid the Ruins,' by…
There are few video game developers more experienced with the tantalizing addiction of episodic video games than Telltale Games, but the ongoing saga known as The Wolf Among Us has finally come to a close. Where the previous four episodes were tasked with building mystery and anticipation, Episode 4, titled 'Cry…
Sniper Elite 3 is a game unsure of its aims. On the one hand its sniping, as one might expect, is pretty great, especially for those gamers who like a little arcade-y violence in their WW2 fiction. But everything else packaged around the sniping is poorly executed — to the…
They called it the Great War, but for an entire generation of people it was the scariest time of their lives. Not just for the soldiers either, but for any man, woman, or child who was a part of or knew someone who was a part of the First World…
The path that EA Sports UFC has taken to release has not been a smooth one; when UFC President Dana White sought to launch a partnership with EA's sports simulation studios, he didn't like the response given. That led to the creation of THQ's Undisputed series, followed soon after (once…
This game is undoubtedly the hardest thing to write about because it's just so off-the-wall bonkers. A majority of the content and scenarios in this life simulator are so out there and bizarre that half the time I'm left pondering just what's occurring, and yet it's all strangely entertaining. Nintendo…
Coming out of E3 2013, we were pleasantly surprised by Airtight Games' Murdered: Soul Suspect. The game flew very far under our radar heading into the show, but after its presentation at Square Enix's booth we were intrigued by the game's premise and its unique fusion of storytelling and gameplay.…
After 5.5 years of development, Ubisoft's new game franchise Watch Dogs is finally here, featuring open-world sandbox gameplay from driving and shooting, to mini-games and of course, hacking. But how does the new multi-platform console transition title compare to other sandbox titles and action game games we've already experienced? Read…
So far, the developers of Telltale Games' episode adventure series The Wolf Among Us have taken a simple fantasy premise, and spun a fairly engaging and evocative detective story. What started as a welcoming and stylish relative of The Walking Dead in Episode 1 has marched its way squarely into…
You only get one first impression, and indie studio Supergiant Games made their mark with its initial offering, Bastion - a breathtakingly designed and mechanically sound fusion of old school brawling and modern RPG philosophies. When the team's follow-up title Transistor was first revealed, it was no surprise to see…
The Tropico series has always been a unique entry in the genre of city building games. Criticism from fans was high after Tropico 4 was labeled as “more of the same,” doing little to distinguish itself from previous titles. Does Tropico 5 introduce enough new elements to keep veterans satisfied…
In the long history of gaming, there are some franchises possessing staying power regardless of console generation, and others which seem relegated to the past. The Wolfenstein name has seemed to be the latter of late, with recent attempts at a reboot earning a mixed response. But with Wolfenstein: The New Order,…
There's always something special in the air prior to the release of a new Mario Kart game. Aside from being a longstanding franchise that appeals to a wide array of consumers, the series has been a ongoing and consistent source of fun for the masses for over 20 years. Nintendo…
Gamers who start up Steam or check out the digital titles available on consoles will be overwhelmed by the amount of pixel art video games. It's a design choice that eases the burden on resources and forces creativity on game developers and artists. It strikes a chord with gamers who…
When we last left our ragtag group of survivors in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, gravelly-voiced villain Bill Carver had caught up to them, committed a bit of light murder and then ordered everyone to be rounded up and taken back "home." Players who were hoping that the third episode…
Throughout his illustrious crime-fighting career on the comic page, Spider-Man has been described by numerous adjectives. Spectacular. Friendly. Ultimate. Superior. And of course… Amazing. His video game legacy however, hasn't always been characterized by those same positive descriptors. Indeed, their quality features the same up and down pattern with which…
In the last year or so, the local competitive experience has seen a renaissance unlike any other. Rather than outfit games with options (online or local) when it comes to multiplayer play, some developers have decided to forgo the hit-or-miss nature of online and keep things simple by sticking to…
Kirby is a franchise that's usually hit or miss for gamers of various preferences. Heralded by many as one of Nintendo's less challenging platformers, it's easily overshadowed in the minds of hardcore gamers by the likes of the Big N's more attention-grabbing sidescroller franchises (i.e. Donkey Kong Country and Super…
There aren't many sports that Mario and his friends haven't tackled by now, but each outing seems to rarely disappoint when it comes down to core gameplay. Mario Golf, however, is a franchise that's often provided users with a copious amount of depth whenever it's hit the green on a…
Since the very first minute that Ubisoft revealed Child of Light - a hand-painted, side-scrolling RPG from the team behind Far Cry 3 - game enthusiasts knew that it was not only intriguing from a corporate/triple-A/publisher perspective, but had the potential to be a truly unique experience. While the finished…
The attention surrounding the Batman: Arkham series - brainchild of Rocksteady Studios - may have recently turned toward the team's final entry in the franchise, but the developers seeking to tell the origin story of the iconic superhero and his rogues gallery aren't done just yet. With several of Batman's…
It's been months since Crytek channeled the power of CryEngine 3 to release a free-to-play, near-future PC first-person shooter known as Warface, and after a number of patches and updates, they're ready to bring Xbox 360 Gold members in on the action. The game is available free-of-charge for gamers with an active Xbox…
When the Trials series first debuted back in 2000, it was a relatively simple, physics-based experience with one goal: get the motorbike rider from one end of the track to the other. Since then, a lot has changed. Now, the franchise has evolved to include all manners of bells and whistles,…
Telltale Games has gotten off and running with The Wolf Among Us, an adventure game adaptation of Bill Willingham's "Fables" comic series. With Episode 1 starting with a bang, and Episode 2 keeping much of that momentum moving, the third installment of the episodic series has arrived, in the form of 'A…
Microsoft's enthusiasm and unwavering commitment to the Kinect motion control device has earned the company a blend of disdain and praise - to extremely varying degrees. With once-revered developer Rare credited with many Kinect-focused titles of similarly varying quality, the team has been entrusted to create a must-have next-gen title…
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - Deluxe Edition follows in the footsteps of portable spinoff games like Assassin's Creed III: Liberation and Resident Evil Revelations by re-releasing the mobile title with a much cheaper console port less than a year after launch. Blackgate is a direct followup to the mostly-well-received Arkham…
Let's set the record straight: despite its title, Goat Simulator is neither a simulator nor is it an accurate portrayal of goat life. Rather, it's a game built around a seemingly one-note joke, but that actually has a surprising amount of depth. It's the type of experience that many will…
To say that BioShock Infinite's Burial at Sea DLC has the weight of an entire franchise on its shoulders would be to put it mildly. While many pieces of post-release DLC seek to expand on a side story or character, Burial at Sea instead decides to go for broke with…
Recapturing the nostalgia gamers have for a classic title is a near impossible task for developers to pull off. When it comes to a game like Diablo II - which many fans grinded away on for the majority of a decade - Blizzard had to really bring its A-game to…
Dark Souls 2 is not a pleasant game - at least, not in the traditional sense of the word. It will unapologetically and periodically beat you down and take everything you hold dear. Half the time, you may not even have any idea of who you are, what you’re doing…
Sucker Punch's inFAMOUS: Second Son is the first major 2014 exclusive for Sony's PlayStation 4, the game fans have been waiting for since it was announced alongside the console early last year. The third game in the inFAMOUS series brings back the idea of super-powered individuals with a new protagonist in Delsin Rowe…
In the first few weeks of the Ouya's release, gamers were hard-pressed to find a reason to purchase the Android-based console. Sure, it was the new device on the block, but the Ouya failed to offer anything gamers hadn't seen before… save for one mischievously addictive title called TowerFall. For…
The Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid franchise has always been about obfuscation. From the way Director Hideo Kojima likes to hide his true intentions with a game (see: The Phantom Pain reveal) or the dense narrative that permeates the entire series, there has never been a clear line of communication between…
There are a handful of things that people usually associate with a children's daycare, but the green dinosaur that debuted in the Super Mario franchise, Yoshi, isn't one of them. This is the connection Nintendo has decided to draw between players and Yoshi's New Island for the 3DS, and while…
There's a case to be made for striking while the iron is hot, so for those who subscribe to the idea of video games being regularly tossed aside for a newer release, Resident Evil 4: Ultimate HD Edition is a strange proposition. Critics (and fans) have maintained that the game…
Dozens upon dozens of developers have tried their hand at unseating Call of Duty as the reigning king of the multiplayer world. Some have done so by aping COD's formula as best they can, while others deploy the opposite approach, offering something new and different. But maybe that's not the…
Despite being a series that by all accounts should only appeal to a niche market, the Professor Layton franchise has developed a sizable following on Nintendo's handhelds. Whether it's the clever puzzles, the development of a series-wide lore or the professor's gentlemanly charms, Layton's name has become synonymous with the DS and…
Helplessness isn't a sensation that's commonly experienced when playing video games. It's a medium that's largely involved with the task of problem-solving, and problems can usually be solved by the tried-and-true combination of taking aim and firing. It could be argued that if a player feels helpless in a game…
In the world of licensed video games, there tend to be two types of releases: those which offer at least a somewhat worthwhile experience, and those which leave fans of the associated franchise downright insulted. For years, the games bearing the South Park name have cleanly fallen into the latter…
About a third of the way through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, as Dracula (a.k.a. Gabriel Belmont) is careening along on an out-of-control train with some form of nasty demon in-hand, he says, "I am the only one who lives forever." In this one line, Lords of Shadow 2 forces…
2009's Plants vs. Zombies by PopCap Games and its 2013 followup are some of the most popular casual games of all-time, taking the simple tower defense formula and infusing it with personality and charm like none other. Using that brand power, PopCap and publisher Electronic Arts made the surprising unveiling last…
After successfully rejuvenating Killer Instinct for the next-gen crowd, developer Double Helix Games firmly established themselves as the current reboot king. So, when they announced plans to update the arcade classic Strider for current and next-gen platforms, anticipation was understandably high. While not a clear-cut remake of the original Strider,…
After Traveller's Tales delivered two very successful titles in LEGO Batman and LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, it seemed a forgone conclusion that the developer might soon tackle Marvel's heroes and villains. But, there loomed a major conflict over whether DC owner Warner Bros. would be able to secure…
If there's one genre that's in abundance on the Wii U, it's side-scrolling platformers. Everyone from Mario to Rayman - and even Luigi - have starred in their own games on the console, which is why the announcement of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze during E3 2013 wasn't as much…
For almost a decade, the developers at Traveller's Tales have slowly crafted an annual brand unlike any other. They've taken billion dollar franchises like The Lord of the Rings and DC Comics, shrunk them down into brick form, and made compelling, family-friendly fare. You could even argue that they made…
When Square Enix first debuted Final Fantasy XIII, the title was met with a tremendous amount of resistance. For as much as the game added new and engaging elements to combat, it dropped the ball nearly everywhere else. And then, when Square Enix sought to do better with Final Fantasy…
JRPGs can be a difficult beast to critique. Founded on decades of tradition and established tropes, many of the traits that make the genre what it is also stand as its greatest weakness. With Bravely Default though, Silicon Studio and Square Enix seem determined to elevate the genre and provide…
Telltale Games proved that their comic book adaptation of The Walking Dead wasn't a fluke when they launched their first episode of their next graphic novel-turned-adventure game, The Wolf Among Us. But fans have been forced to wait months to see how the second chapter of Bigby Wolf's investigation would…
The PS Vita Play 2014 promotion is in full swing, and the first offering is developer Roll7’s skateboarding side-scroller OlliOlli. The Vita exclusive stands as a shining example of learning from the best in a variety of battle-tested game types and using that knowledge to create something that reinvigorates all…
Oftentimes games are built with a specific mechanic in mind, and then a story and a concept are built around said mechanic. But occasionally those two ideas work in tandem, either to stunning effect or simply to instill a little charm in the player. Octodad: Dadliest Catch, for example, chooses…
Before delving too deep into the world of Broken Age it's important to note two things. First, this is a Kickstarter-funded project, meaning it sought out a specific audience — point-and-click adventure fans — and found it in spades. It's a game developed on its own terms, not by a…
It's not every day that a multiplatform, blockbuster video game franchise, beloved for its story and sprawling mythology, receives an exclusive entry, but such was the case with Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation. Released only for the PlayStation Vita alongside Assassin's Creed 3, those without the handheld were left out in…
Stoic Studios' beautiful and profoundly emotional RPG The Banner Saga is a perfect advert for crowd-funded games. Over 20,000 eager fantasy fans pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it made, and the final product leaves no doubt that it was money well-spent. Heavily influenced by Norso myth, legend…
Slowly but surely, the PS Vita continues to expand its library of gaming goodness. Taking a place amidst that growing collection is developer Media Molecule’s Tearaway. The papercraft-inspired platforming adventure has style to spare, but it does stumble from time to time in a few core ways and never quite…
Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo series has always been without substitute. There are those that try, and some get close, but it's hard to duplicate, let alone emulate, the amount of staggering detail that goes into the end product. Nowhere is that sentiment more evident than in Gran Turismo 6, the…
Nintendo and Sega have teamed up once again to offer fans another take on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to coincide with the 2014 event in Sochi, Russia. The new game, lengthily and appropriately titled Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, takes one of…
With the latest installment in Ubisoft's flagship series, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag righting the ship (pun intended) after a somewhat divisive predecessor, the development team has released the first story-based DLC that is, itself, pulling no punches in terms of story and themes. Placing Adewale, the runaway slave and…
Life isn't fair. This rule is especially true in the world of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: a post-civilization America ridden with zombies, bandits and myriad other dangers that have no mercy to spare for the young or the weak. Luckily for Clementine, only one of those words describes her accurately. Having…
The original Peggle, and its successor Peggle Nights, were simple puzzle games built around luck more than anything else. They were addictive mobile titles that catered perfectly to that pick-up-and-play environment. Peggle 2, on the other hand, is going for broke with a full-blown Xbox One release, and is exclusive…
It's time once again for another one of Mario's infamous parties. The series makes its debut on the Nintendo 3DS with Mario Party: Island Tour, and with it comes 80 all new mini-games for portable gaming enthusiasts to partake in. While the previous iteration on the Wii, Mario Party 9,…
1505 days and two cancelled games stand between EA Sports’ release of NBA Live 10, and the next game in the series. NBA Live 14 is supposed to be EA Sports’ triumphant return to the court after three years of absence, two of which were results of games being cancelled…
With several titles under their belt, the folks at Twisted Pixel (Ms. Splosion Man, The Gunslinger) have firmly established their place as the zany developer, who chooses to inject a healthy dose of the absurd into their games. However, in doing so their games typically fail to deliver on most,…
With the genre of arcade racers thinning out each year, the Need For Speed name continues to carry the banner onward. Favoring thrills and nitro-boosts over simulation, and the open road over the track, Need For Speed Rivals takes that thinking onto next-gen consoles. Developer Ghost Games has accepted the…
The Xbox One has finally landed, and along with it, a handful of exclusive launch games to entice early adopters. Among them is developer Crytek’s Ryse: Son of Rome, which holds the distinction of being the Xbox One’s only retail launch exclusive that doesn't have a sequel number tacked onto…
As one of Microsoft's most critically acclaimed exclusive franchises, the developers of Forza Motorsport 5 were given a leg up few others could dream of: input on what Microsoft should make possible with the Xbox One. Beginning with a consistent performance set at 1080p and 60 frames per second, the…
While those who've read our current-gen review for FIFA 14 know that EA Sports' latest isn't the big step forward fans were hoping for, this is a unique circumstance. With the next-gen consoles now upon us, FIFA 14 gets another chance to impress, only with the added power of the…
The Madden NFL franchise has survived for 25 long years and several console iterations, and over that time the series has grown from a blocky, arcade-style experience to a well-oiled machine, where refinements are slight but the gameplay is razor sharp. With Madden NFL 25, the franchise once again takes…
Microsoft Studios announced Zoo Tycoon earlier this year during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, leaving both animal fans and nostalgic gamers eagerly awaiting a rush of digital animals for their consoles. Developer Frontier Developments has pawed around in the animal business before, crafting furry critters in Kinectimals and even creating a Rollercoaster Tycoon port…
With the next generation of consoles finally here, so begins the hunt for that perfect showcase game - The one that you can pop into your shiny new piece of tech and validate the hundreds of dollars that you just invested into the next decade of gaming. What game will…
It's been nearly two decades since fans last played a new entry in the long-dormant Killer Instinct series, and enough time had passed that many thought the franchise was put out to pasture long ago. Since the game had effectively been missing in action since 1996, it was a little…
When considering the most well known pop-culture phenomena of the past few years, not many have had the massive impact that Angry Birds has. When considering the biggest pop-culture phenomena of the last few decades however, many would argue that Star Wars sits atop that list. Combining the two would…
The original Slender title was a free-to-play game which proved to be a very entertaining, though short, experience. Gamers would simply try and run through the woods collecting notes before Slender Man could catch up to them, and the cryptic and persistent adversary proved to be a smash hit with…
Exactly 22 years after unleashing one of the most beloved games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the company known for taking huge risks has made lightning strike twice, all the while doing the unthinkable. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds marks the first time Nintendo has…
There are a few first-party games that can sell Nintendo consoles, and it's no secret that the Wii U has been lacking many of the major properties that helped to make the Big N so prominent in the previous generations. New Super Mario Bros. U was a decent launch distraction,…
In any console's launch day line-up there are roles to be played by every release. One game is meant to appeal to the casual sports crowd, another to the hardcore shooter crowd, and one for those who want something a little different. Sony Japan's Knack is the family friendly title.…
Throughout the life of the PS3, Sony often let PSN play host to a number of thoughtful, beautifully crafted independent games. That tradition is carried on with the PlayStation 4. The release of the launch title Contrast once again illustrates Sony’s commitment to bringing unique gaming experiences to their console.…
Despite several decades in the industry, developer Housemarque is not a very familiar name. They found tremendous success with the Stardust and Super Stardust games, but for the most part they are a company that likes to slip in under the radar. That's no more clear than with their new…
XCOM: Enemy Unknown succeeded in reviving a seemingly ancient tactical video game franchise and delivered one of the best strategy gaming experiences of last year. Developer Firaxis Games followed up with more digital content to bolster the experience of the core game, but ultimately failed to expand upon their newfound…
Representing the flagship launch title for the PlayStation 4, Sony and Guerrilla Games bring players back to the the once Utopian colony of Vekta in Killzone: Shadow Fall. Taking place 30 years after the events of Killzone 3, the fourth core franchise installment aims to offer a fresh start for the series…
In the sweaty and brutal ballet that is professional wrestling, numerous names have come and gone. The one constant brand over the decades of sports entertainment has been WWE. And even after the turbulence at the game franchise’s previous publisher, the now defunct THQ, the brand lives on, being quickly…
The last time gamers saw Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth — the protagonists of BioShock Infinite — the duo was uncovering the many mysteries of Columbia and how that sky bound utopia fit into the larger BioShock mythos. In BioShock Infinite — Burial at Sea: Episode 1, however, the first story…
There is no company more synonomous with party games than Nintendo. Whether they're hosted by Mario, take place in Wario's workshop, or feature a plethora of Miis, there's plenty of mini-game packed software that can be played across a myriad of Nintendo consoles, and the latest is a sequel to…
The first time the Call of Duty series made the leap to next-gen consoles (soon to be old-gen) it was a middling franchise known mostly for bombastic portrayals of WWII battles. Since then, a lot has changed. Even before the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, the next franchise title to make…
No veteran gamer needs to be told just how iconic and lasting a figure Pac-Man has become - a feat made all the more impressive given his popularity spanning a number of console generations. Even so, it's entirely possible that Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, has slipped below your radar. It's…
Battlefield 3 was the first video game by Swedish developer DICE built on the next-gen-ready Frostbite 2 engine. The game was praised for its visual prowess on high-end PCs more than anything else since the aging current-gen systems simply couldn't support all of the same features, and it quickly became…
There was a time before Assassin's Creed came to Ubisoft, but at this point, hardly anyone can remember it. For the latest installment, the studio has turned from sprawling cities to the Caribbean Sea circa 1715, casting players into the Golden Age of Pirates of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.…
It was Rocksteady Studios that first stunned gamers and comic book fans alike when they proved with Batman: Arkham Asylum that not only could a Batman game not be terrible, but offer a genuine chapter in the character's mythology. With Arkham City that team took their approach into the truly…
Whether it's crafting a game where murdering eight sons to unite Russia and Scotland seems like a good idea or making a Reservoir Dogs trailer for a game about magic, Paradox Development Studio and Paradox Interactive have seemingly perfected the craft of developing engaging and deep strategy games. Europa Universalis…
Over the course of this closing console generation, Sony's PSN has been host to a number of titles that challenged both the general aesthetic of gaming, as well as their basic mechanical concepts. Games like Journey and Flower instantly spring to mind and now enters Rain. Developed by Sony’s JapanStudio, PlayStation…
After what many would consider an incredibly long wait, the first pair of Pocket Monster titles have hit the Nintendo 3DS. Aptly titled Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, the names themselves immediately make apparent the change that awaits longtime fans within the new games. With new 3D battles, the addition…
There's no understating just how important the success of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead was to the company's future. Emphasizing story and gameplay truly shaped by the player's decisions, the point-and-click adventure game was a hit with fans and critics alike, catapulting both the adventure game genre and Telltale into…
Beyond: Two Souls is the latest gaming "experiment" from David Cage's Quantic Dream studio that, not unlike his previous endeavor Heavy Rain, hits with the promise of revolutionizing video game storytelling. However, while Heavy Rain was a fairy straightforward story, Beyond is anything but. Granted, without Heavy Rain's lead, Beyond…
It's been over 10 years since The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sailed onto the GameCube and ushered in the era of Toon Link. Despite a copious amount of controversy upon its release, the game managed to do well for Nintendo and was received well by critics. Some fans…
Last year's FIFA 13 was a bit of a disappointment in that it failed to iterate on the previous year's improvements in any appreciable ways. Like many sports games released over the past few years, FIFA 13 left the impression that the series was standing still — biding its time…
Disney Infinity is a beautiful experiment in the power of brand marketing. It takes the loose framework of Activision's Skylanders franchise, and uses a large swath of the Disney/Pixar library to bolster it. So, instead of family-friendly platforming with original creatures like Chop Chop or Drobot, players will be using…
What can be said that hasn't already been said about Grand Theft Auto 5? The series has now delivered the highest rated game ever and become one of the most financially successful franchises in any medium. It's a series so expansive and rich in detail but also base and vapid in its…
As gamers prepare to give the current generation of consoles its final send-off in eager anticipation of the shiny new machines that lay just over the horizon, Sony’s Japan Studio has taken a different approach. Somewhat quietly sneaking out amidst all of the pre-holiday hoopla is the PlayStation 3 exclusive,…
Last month kicked off a series of noteworthy first-party game launches for the Nintendo Wii U with Pikmin 3, and the first title following up the adorable strategy game is an entirely new property that can't be compared to anything that's come before it - The Wonderful 101. Platinum Games —…
Zen Studios' KickBeat is a PS Vita and PS3 rhythm game with its own personality. Rather than package the timing-based gameplay simply with musically informed button presses, Zen Studios packages the product around fighting. It's a novel idea, one that helps KickBeat stand out from the myriad rhythm games (Rock…
Although it has been more than a year since Diablo 3 was released on PC and Mac, many consumers have yet to forget the pain and frustration associated with what is now looked back on as one of the most painful single-player game launches in history. In the 15 months…
Given their yearly release cycle, some sports simulations come under constant attack for dragging their feet, or growing stagnant from a lack of competition; but that's one problem the NHL series has rarely encountered. With their latest release, NHL 14, has the team at EA Sports Vancouver refined their core…
The world didn't know it needed Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but when it was released by Frictional Games in 2010, gamers and press alike wondered what had taken so long. Putting an emphasis on atmosphere and hiding, the little game from Sweden instilled fear into hundreds of thousands of players…
After a plethora of solid entries into the world of strategy gaming, Total War: Rome 2 arrives on the scene to make its case as the next great entry into the series long-standing lineup of tactical RTS as well as turn-based empire conquest. But does Total War: Rome 2 live…
Killzone: Mercenary, the second handheld title in Sony's first-party producer FPS series was first teased at the launch of the PS Vita. Months later, at Gamescom 2012, the project was branded with its Mercenary subtitle - an element that informs both the story and gameplay in the new Vita title.…
The original DuckTales is something of a cult classic — a 2D platformer that captured a lot of the spirit of the Disney TV show and delighted kids and adults alike. Gamers hold a certain fondness for the game, and so it was with good reason that they were excited…
Earlier this year, gamers who invested in the Wii U with hopes of playing through a new Rayman game that was exclusive to the platform had those aspirations dashed when Ubisoft announced that the game would be pushed back until September so it could be ported to the Xbox 360,…
After what seems like years, Rayman Legends, the followup to Ubisoft Montpellier's rebooting of the titular hero in Rayman: Origins has finally arrived. Originally intended as an exclusive title for the Nintendo Wii U, Ubisoft made the rare decision to change their minds, and bring the experience to those owners…
If industry awards were handed out in categories like “Most Boring-Sounding Premise” or “Game Mechanic No One Asked For…Ever,” then independent developer Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please would score the clean sweep this year. Turning a virtual daily grind at a seemingly mundane occupation into a game people would actually want…
We'll admit it: we'd almost forgotten about Lost Planet 3 too. Not without good reason, of course: after Capcom unveiled the shockingly promising trailer at E3 2012, the company went radio-silent on the third installment in the series, instead turning focus to more reliable brands (Lost Planet 2 being as…
It's no secret that The Bureau: XCOM Declassified crossed the finish line with the odds stacked against it; key members of the development team came and went since the game - then known simply as XCOM - was revealed back in 2011, before serious - serious - changes were made…
Over the past few years, the Madden franchise has done its best to stay relevant, while at the same time not pushing the envelope in any appreciable ways. Madden NFL 13 was a passable annual iteration, but one that only die-hard fans were interested in. This year's entry, Madden NFL 25…
[HTML1] It may not have received the amount of fanfare as past releases featured in Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade, but gamers can expect to hear more about Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in the coming weeks. Developed by Starbreeze Studios, the brainchild of Swedish film director Josef Fares…
Arkane Studios' sidequel DLC chapters for Dishonored had a significant challenge to overcome, since they tell the story of a character who features briefly, but crucially, within the plot of the main game. Infamous assassin Daud, also known as the Knife of Dunwall and the leader of mercenary band The…
At long last, Sam Fisher is back in action in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. After three years of hard work from Ubisoft Toronto, the studio's first release is as sharp and action-packed as its predecessors – despite a few minor drawbacks. Following the example set by the previous game, Conviction, the newest installment of…
There are few pairings as iconic as the Mario Bros., and the dynamic duo are teaming up once more in a brand new game for the Nintendo 3DS called Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Once again placing the siblings in a new world with a heavy emphasis on RPG elements, the…
Although the Saints Row franchise has been around for almost a decade now, a strong case could be made to say the series came into its own with Saints Row the Third. Sure, a lot of the key elements of Volition's open world crime game have been there from the…
As far as hooks go, you could do a whole lot worse than offering to let gamers play as a dragon who wears a jetpack, and for many this single image alone will be enough to convince them to put down coin for Larian Studios' new RPG/RTS steampunk fantasy game…
The highly anticipated Pikmin 3 has finally hit store shelves. The game was once a promising Wii U launch window title before being delayed until the beginning of August which has left some gamers concerned as to whether or not the final product is worth owning the console to experience. While there…
If you owned a PC during the 1990s, chances are you have played an Apogee Software game. Known for their exciting yet repetitive platformer titles, the shareware giant is also known for publishing the great-granddaddy of first-person shooters: Wolfenstein 3D. Released in 1992, "Wolf3D" set the bar for the genre, spawning…
It's been a long hard wait for Wii U owners awaiting the arrival of software on the platform, and Nintendo is finally allowing some content to trickle onto the home console starting with Game & Wario. This discounted exclusive is a much welcomed addition to the Wii U lineup that…
When a game can survive year after year, after waves upon waves of competition across numerous genres bid for gamers' time and money, it is a testament to its impeccable design and function to remain relevant. Civilization V: Brave New World is the second expansion for Civilization V, and despite a…
Games that receive yearly upgrades often seem to take the easy path. Tweak a few things here and there, give those new features a fancy marketing name: “Now With Exo-Blast Precision Tackle Vision!” It certainly would have been easy for Stainless Games to just go ahead and crank out another…
Since the first of Marvel's heroes began making the jump from comic book to video game, fans of Deadpool have been waiting for their turn. The 'Merc with a Mouth' has finally made the transition thanks to High Moon Studios, who have turned to some reliable sources; calling on comic…
While the release of Company of Heroes 2 didn't come as early as most predicted, Relic Entertainment has produced a polished real-time strategy title which does a great job at displaying the chaos and hazards of warfare. Company of Heroes 2 isn't a perfect game, but both its single and…
Undead Labs was founded in 2009, in the thick of the resurgence of zombie craze films like Dawn of the Dead which helped breathe life back into the genre. While the studio's sole focus on the niche market of zombie-related games might be a bit limiting, to pass up on…
Nintendo's Animal Crossing series has always stood out for its uniqueness. This cartoony, animal-filled life simulator has managed to sneak up on gamers and occupy countless of hours of fans' time, and the latest installment, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is aiming to follow suit. Fortunately, the latest AC not only…
Sony-owned developer Naughty Dog has historically stuck to developing one franchise of games per console generation. They had Crash Bandicoot for the original PlayStation, the Jak series for PS2, and on current-gen systems they've seen mighty success with Nathan Drake and the Uncharted games. Sneaking one more title in before the…
Remember Me is a game that wants to tell a story but isn't entirely sure how. Chalk it up to the developer's inexperience, but it's easy to find yourself briefly being distracted by attractive set pieces before being grounded once again by a shaky script and the story's lack of context.…
Like a spittoon that has been getting too much attention, Techland's Call of Juarez series has seen better days. After finding a cult following with the first game, and evolving that concept into a worthwhile mid-tier experience in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, the series tapered off with its…
As Nintendo fans continue through 'The Year of Luigi' following a string of rather solid 3DS titles, Nintendo has seen fit to bring Donkey Kong back into the spotlight. The iconic tie-wearing ape has swung onto the 3DS in a direct port of 2011's very successful Donkey Kong Country Returns (see…
By the 3-hour mark, Metro: Last Light players will have gone through so many different experiences that they will be unsure just what kind of game they're playing. While 4A Games works within a pretty standard FPS framework, what they do to make Last Light feel unique, despite any shortcomings,…
In Star Command, players take on the role of a ship's commander, voyaging across the galaxy and fulfilling the duties of the fleet, meeting new species, and engaging in both ship-to-ship and in-person combat amongst the stars. After nearly two years on the Kickstarter circuit, War Balloon Games was finally able to…
After logging some 25+ hours with Dead Island: Riptide, one thing becomes abundantly clear: this game is more expansion than it is sequel. Instead of a trip back to the drawing board, developer Techland seems to have just kept on working, delivering similar content within the same framework. As a…
One of the best games currently available on the Wii U right now is LEGO City: Undercover (read our review), so the prospect of a similar title made portable on the Nintendo 3DS sounds like a swell idea. LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins tries to incorporate everything that made its…
Far Cry 3 put players in the shoes of ordinary man Jason Brody and threw him into a violent and insane campaign to save his family and friends held captive by the inhabitants of Rook Islands. The events that unfolded pushed his morality to the limit. Its downloadable, standalone spinoff Far…
The studio-funded movie tie-in game. Is there any sadder proposal? Whatever the odds, Star Trek: The Game -- with the cast on hand, a story supplied by the film's writing team, and claims of a new form of co-op between Spock and Kirk -- seeks to deliver a story bridging…
There's an abundance of racing games nowadays, and all of them have their own style and niche that helps them appeal to their respective fan bases. What sets Motocross Madness apart from the rest of the pack is the zaniness of each track, trick, and race, and the end result…
It's an age-old question: who would win in a battle between Superman and Batman? DC Comics writers have sought to answer the question with various story arcs, alternate timelines, and one-off issues, but in each of those instances the fans have no agency in the matter. However, in NetherRealm Studios…
Who is Delilah? That's the question asked - and partially answered - in Arkane Studios' The Knife of Dunwall, the latest piece of DLC for their critically acclaimed 2012 stealth action game, Dishonored. If you haven't played the original game yet, read our review to find out whether it's likely to…
Diehard Pokemon fans have almost definitely been disappointed by the lack of support that the series has received on the Nintendo 3DS. With nothing but Pokemon Rumble Blast and a few eShop offerings to keep them going, the prospect of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity certainly appeared to be…
PC gamers have had plenty of time to get to know Terraria - already one of the best indie titles to arrive on the platform in recent memory. And considering the genre of open-world mining and crafting it tackles head on, the fact that it's survived is no accident. Now…
Developer Drink Box Studios' "Metroidvania" title Guacamelee! never takes itself too seriously, but it's still one of the best entries within that genre. What appears to be a downloadable title built on a single gag — the player character, Juan, is a super powered luchador — is actually a mechanically…
It's only fitting that as we say goodbye to the PlayStation 3, and welcome the PS4, that Sony parade out some of its current-gen all-stars for one last show. We've seen already seen the likes of Nathan Drake and Sweet Tooth give the console its proper send-off, and now it's…
Army of Two and its sequel, The 40th Day, offered over-the-top shooter experiences, that didn't quite live up to expectations, earning mixed to slightly positive reviews. Five years after the original's release, Electronic Arts has released the series' third installment. In Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, Elliot Salem and…
With almost three years between Wings of Liberty and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, expectations have been high that the expansion would deliver an entertaining campaigning and improve the multiplayer experience for all. The fast-selling expansion that is Heart of the Swarm has done with gusto, providing fans of…
It was never going to be easy for BioShock: Infinite. Delivering a triple-A game in today's market is a tall enough order for the best of studios, but living up to the expectations of being 'the spiritual sequel to the highest-rated first person shooter ever' is a monumental task (pressures…
The de facto standard in video game baseball from Sony is back and it does not disappoint. MLB 13: The Show could easily have sat back and rested on their laurels this year, due to the lack of competition (i.e., progress) from MLB 2K13, but rather, they completely revamped their…
Nintendo's tragically overlooked sibling, Luigi, has lived in the shadow of his brother for as long as he's existed, but at long last the green-clad hero is finally seeing a sequel to the GameCube classic in which he starred. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon transitions so well to the 3DS that…
There's usually a fair amount of similarity between core installments in a popular video game franchise. The LEGO brand, for example, is known for featuring a variety of established properties, co-operative play, and being available on a number of different platforms. LEGO City: Undercover, on the other hand, doesn't have…
Gears of War 3 upped the ante and intensity of the gruesome third-person action series in every way, offering a conclusion to the story of the Locust invasion with bigger set pieces, more characters and emotional moments; all playable for the first time in full four-player co-op. Throwing in an…
With six years having passed since the release of SimCity Societies in 2007, a fully committed rebirth of the fabled SimCity franchise was an exciting prospect for its legion of fans. Unfortunately for both Maxis and EA, the launch of SimCity was filled with massive server downtimes, unhappy fans and…
After a string of solid games on the DS, a new Castlevania game has finally made its way onto the Nintendo 3DS in the form of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate. Ever since the game was first announced, fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating it with…
Every origin story is predicated on prying, on digging through a character’s modest, fresh-faced beginnings and exposing the man or the woman before they were the myth or the legend. Few, however, dig so deep as to hit rock bottom, and fewer still do so to a character who before…
Eight years after Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves brought the original Sly Cooper trilogy to a close on PlayStation 2, the series finally makes its way to PlayStation 3. With Sly creator Sucker Punch Productions hard at work PlayStation 4 exclusive inFAMOUS: Second Son, development duties on Sly Cooper: Thieves…
Rare is the game that manages to find room for a frivolous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference and a serious discourse on how euphemistic language is employed to emotionally sanitize the atrocities mankind commits in the world. Both can be found in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a hyper-kinetic, action-focused offshoot…
After many delays and several press events, Aliens: Colonial Marines finally hit store shelves this past Tuesday. Undoubtedly, gamers have already seen many of the gameplay videos out there (check out our first impressions and first 20 minutes video), there are still parts of Aliens: Colonial Marines that are worth…
Isaac Clarke isn't having a bad day; he's having a bad couple of years. After first encountering the Marker technology in the first Dead Space, and then being driven insane by it in Dead Space 2, now it's up to Isaac to stop the necromorph threat for good. Or at…
Fire Emblem: Awakening has been available in the Land of the Rising Sun since April of 2012, but it's just now arriving on Nintendo 3DS systems outside Japan. A tragically overlooked franchise in the Western hemisphere, Fire Emblem has never truly found as large an international audience as it enjoys at…
The Cave beckons gamers to explore the darker sides of their hearts in this new platform-adventure by legendary game creator Ron Gilbert, but is this the spelunking journey of a lifetime? Ron Gilbert is synonymous with quality games, having helped create such classics as Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. Gilbert has been sitting on The Cave for around…
DmC: Devil May Cry will challenge purists of the series with its all-new take on Dante’s story, but is the reboot a heavenly experience that successfully relaunches the franchise while retaining the series' trademark action experience? Ninja Theory (makers of Heavenly Sword) took hold of the popular Capcom franchise back…
With titles like Bayonetta and Vanquish, Platinum Games firmly established itself as a Japanese developer with a certain flair for combining outlandish stories with frenetic combat. Its most recent effort, Anarchy Reigns, works on a similar level but ups the stakes considerably — offering a button-mashing brawler in both a…
It's always exciting to see an indie game spring to life after months, or even years, of planning and development, and Phoenix Online Studios’ first commercial project is certainly no exception. Last year, the fledgling indie studio created a Kickstarter campaign for a point-and-click adventure series, titled Cognition: An Erica…
A Vita port of a PS3 game, which is itself a port of an original Xbox title released in 2005, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD fans already know plenty about anti-hero Stranger and his adventure(s). Still, in that context, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD is perhaps the best of example of how to do…
Double Fine has distinguished itself as a studio that cares about making games as fun as profitable, and the past few years have seen them set their sights on Microsoft's Kinect peripheral. With Happy Action Theater and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster the developers showed their pursuit of fun…
Bethesda didn't stumble onto Dragonborn by accident; we've known since a slice of Morrowind was discovered in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim last year that the developer was reserving the neighboring Tamriel province for future DLC. Even still, a lot has changed in Skyrim since then. After two under-performing DLC offerings (Dawnguard and Hearthfire) and a…
After years spent languishing in sub-par projects, Spyro the Dragon came back in a big and unexpected way at the tail end of 2011. Skylanders Spyro's Adventure, which encompasses both a video game and a line of "toys with brains," proved to be an enormous success for publisher Activision - it was…
The majority of Microsoft Kinect offerings available for the Xbox 360 have ranged from promising to downright forgettable, so you'll forgive us if we haven't been holding our breath for satisfying experiences with made with dedication, delivering games that aren't just intelligent uses of the Kinect, but streamlined, entertaining, and…
Trial modes can be the bane of a gamer's existence. Often added to make up for a short campaign, trial modes and bonus challenges typically offer nothing more than a quick distraction from the core experience of the game. For example, Mirror's Edge had its time trials and Star Wars: The Force…
Barely a month after its initial announcement, the Slingshot DLC for XCOM: Enemy Unknown is invading computers and consoles worldwide. The game itself garnered much acclaim for its revival of the classic series (read our review), but does Slingshot expand upon what Firaxis have created? Read on to find out.…
A couple of years into the original Xbox's lifecycle, Microsoft released a curiosity of a title called Xbox Music Mixer, which provided Xbox owners a way to stream their photographs and DRM-free music from their PC. Oh and it also came with a traditional karaoke mode. Packaged with a microphone,…
Back in 2009, United Front Games wowed Sony E3 2009 Conference attendees with a demo of their upcoming title, ModNation Racers - a modern kart racer with extremely intuitive track creation tools. The demo was easily one of the most-talked about moments of the Sony presentation and, in summer of…
Last year's edition of Pro Evolution Soccer was an enjoyable affair, providing a fun alternative to FIFA. The two titles have been duking it once again in their yearly combat across store shelves everywhere. Konami has focused mainly on improving the AI and ball control in the latest iteration of the…
Traveller's Tales LEGO games are a bit of anomaly. Most of them are wholly charming puzzle platformers that predicate much of their appeal on an associated franchise -- be it Batman, Harry Potter, or Indiana Jones -- that also deliver family friendly humor and an engaging cooperative experience. Over the years, TT…
Crytek's original Far Cry game was praised for its beautiful tropical island environments. For the sequel, Ubisoft Montreal took over development and changed up the formula quite a bit. The game was more realistic, and there was a new story, new characters, new gameplay features, and most noticeably, the setting was moved…
Two years after the release of Disney Epic Mickey, Disney Interactive and Warren Spector's Junction Point development studio are back with Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. This time around, everybody's favorite cartoon mouse teams up with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and, unlike the first game, the new…
Mass Effect 3's main story line may have been concluded, but that doesn't mean players have experienced all the game is looking to offer. While BioWare may be hard at work on their next Mass Effect adventure, Commander Shepard has one more battle to fight thanks to the newly released…
Lee Everett and the remaining survivors have come a long way since his initial police cruise from Atlanta. Having survived countless walkers, bandits, internal struggles and heartbreak galore, it seems almost fitting that The Walking Dead tries to make each of those issues re-appear during Lee's conclusive episode. Entitled No…
While Transformers: Dark of the Moon epitomized everything that's wrong about licensed movie tie-in games, High Moon Studios was able to deliver quality interactive Transformers experiences for publisher Activision in their original takes on the property with War for Cybertron and this year's sequel, Fall of Cybertron. Instead of porting those to the Wii U, Activision…
Warner Bros. Interactive and 5th Cell have finally released the first ever console iteration of the beloved Scribblenauts series. Now that the Wii U offers fans a new way to play with Maxwell and friends on the big (and little) screen, there's no doubt that fans are anxious to see…
When Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006, the company knew it needed a piece of showcase software that could succinctly demonstrate the control potential of the Wii Remote. That software turned out to be Wii Sports, an utterly brilliant, highly compact piece of design that now stands as the single…
Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham series has happily expanded to the Nintendo family with Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, a port of one of the best games of 2011 and a contender for best comic book video game of all time. For the Wii U introduction of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. Studios in…
Treyarch did an admirable job porting the Call of Duty: Black Ops experience to the technically inferior Wii and its unique motion controllers back in 2010, and for all of its graphical weaknesses, it was more or less the same game sans a few zombie maps and splitscreen multiplayer. With Call of Duty:…
The Nintendo brand is synonymous with Mario and no Nintendo console launch feels right without a game featuring his name in the title. For the Wii U, that game is New Super Mario Bros. U and in the same vein as its 'New' Wii, DS, and 3DS predecessors, it's a classic-styled…
Going through a review of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed without mentioning Mario Kart would be extremely difficult, because the similarities are present from the very beginning. Sega and developer Sumo Digital aren't shying away from the fact that Mario Kart serves as their game's inspiration, but, at the same time,…
Despite a solid blend of excitement and scepticism, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has finally arrived for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. Superbot Entertainment's crossover-fueled fighting game has made quite a splash since it was first revealed earlier this year, but many who've been following the title's development have remained…
Of the six Ubisoft launch titles for the Nintendo Wii U, ZombiU is by far the most unique and not because of its strange development history, beginning as a sci-fi shooter dubbed Killer Freaks From Outer Space. ZombiU is not only exclusive to the system and its tablet-esque GamePad, but it's also…
Black Ops was the first Treyarch-developed Call of Duty title that really made a statement of its own. Up until that point, Treyarch had been the neglected stepchild to Infinity Ward's beloved A+ all-star - who was enjoying the spoils of a modern war. However, now that gamers have been…
Beginning in 2000, IO Interactive developed Hitman video games for release every two years, until 2006 when the series came to a halt after the release of Hitman: Blood Money (and the terrible Hitman film adaptation). The studio shifted priorities to create the Kane & Lynch games, before getting back to the long-in-development Hitman: Absolution,…
Dennaton Games might not be a big name in the indie gaming scene quite yet, but they have certainly made their mark with their first retail title, Hotline Miami. The game received a ton of buzz when it made its way through the convention circuit this year, garnering praise, awards,…
There's no franchise capable of conjuring memories of high-velocity, high-octane vehicular action than Need For Speed. And after years of floundering releases and endless sequels, Electronic Arts decided to hand the reins of the franchise to the UK's Criterion Games, famed creators of the Burnout series. After an impressive return…
The Forza Motorsport series, first introduced in 2005 on Microsoft's original Xbox, has gotten better and better with each successive iteration, culminating in last year's unimpeachable Forza Motorsport 4 (read our review). Still, after four essentially similar games, the time for change has come. Enter Forza Horizon. Developed by Playground Games in collaboration…
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a game that needs no introduction. Not just because it is a sequel, but because it is a modern military shooter released during a time when the genre has reached its apex. For those that didn't play Danger Close Games' first Medal of Honor title,…
Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, like many of the Vita titles released since the handheld's debut, promises to faithfully bring its winning console formula to the handheld market. Its developer, Ubisoft Sofia, even sought fit to give this leg of the franchise its own protagonist, story, and setting, and only overlap…
"Just wait for Monster Hunter." Ever heard that phrase before? If so, it's likely you've been on a Vita discussion board or forum thread before. While the Vita isn't in the best place right now, many are quick to suggest that the system just needs more games, with Monster Hunter…
Ever since Ubisoft delivered fully on the promise of Assassin's Creed with the arrival of Ezio Auditore, fans had high hopes for the future. While Ezio starred in two follow-up titles that did little to advance the overarching plot of Desmond Miles' quest to save mankind, Ubisoft Montreal was working…
At long last, the much-anticipated release of Halo 4 is upon us, and gamers are understandably amped, though some remain cautiously optimistic, about the prospect of Master Chief's return. Anyone who has been concerned by 343 Industries' handling of the next Halo title did so in vain, however, because the developer…
XSEED JKS has been adamant in its Vita support, bringing titles such as Sumioni: Demon Arts and the upcoming Ragnarok Odyssey to North American gamers. However, one game that's been pushed under the radar is Orgarhythm, an intriguing music-strategy game that XSEED has deemed worthy of localization. Upon starting Orgarhythm, players will notice that…
BreakQuest: Extra Evolution is a follow-up to the 2004 title BreakQuest — a clever riff on the Breakout formula, which requires that players clear a given stage of its many elements by way of a bouncing object. It's a formula that's been done to death, yet here we are with…
It's been almost a month and a half since the last episode from Telltale Games, but The Walking Dead is finally back. After the events that occurred in the most mournful episode yet, gamers knew that Telltale would continue pushing the envelope in terms of storytelling and evoking emotions. With…
Team17 have released what they hope is an accurately-titled product in their longstanding Worms series, which has been mostly stagnant, as the last few titles provided little new content and barley toyed with 3D environments. This time around, Worms: Revolution aims to provide fresh experiences and breath life into the…
The free-to-play model has been gaining traction across the gaming landscape over the past few years. PC and, more recently, mobile gamers have been growing quite accustomed to tossing developers a few bucks here and there in exchange for a free game up front. Somewhat fashionably late to the party,…
Guild Wars 2 is now nearly two months out from its launch date. Hundreds of thousands of gamers have had the opportunity to explore the world of Tyria, filled with deep trenches, tall mountains, towering cities, and dangerous fauna. Not only was ArenaNet’s sequel poised to topple its fellow contenders…
For most "hardcore" gamers, it'd be easy to write off Just Dance 4. Marketed as a party game, the fourth installment in Ubisoft's best selling franchise is exactly that: a party game. However, much like the myriad of pop songs that fill the game's track list, Just Dance 4 shouldn't…
Fable: The Journey represents Microsoft's latest - and likely final - attempt to prove that Kinect, in its current incarnation, is a viable control interface for more than just dance simulators and mini-game collections. Developed by Lionhead Studios, with the now departed Peter Molyneux serving as Creative Consultant, The Journey puts players…
The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship is nearly at an end (the final event takes place in Brazil on November 25th), but the races can go on and on in Codemasters' F1 2012. Available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, F1 2012 includes every car, driver and circuit…
They've been out in Japan for a few months, but Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 have finally appeared in North America. The first ever pair of Poke-sequels have been waited upon with bated breath, but do the games change up enough to warrant that '2' at the end…
One of gaming's spookiest series' Resident Evil has appropriately launched its sixth installment at the start of the spookiest month of October, just in time to add more scares to horror fans clambering for nightmares, but is Capcom's latest title bigger on thrills than it is on chills? Resident Evil…
When Borderlands released three years ago, it raised expectations for what gamers should expect from co-op RPG shooters. Embracing a cel shaded art style and giving players the freedom to travel where they desire with tons of weapons to toy with, Borderlands helped define the "looter shooter" genre, easily earning a lot of praise,…
Back in September, we at Game Rant expressed our interest in seeing more Japanese Vita games come to North America. While it may be a while until our dream becomes reality, a few titles have been able to slip through the proverbial cracks - New Little King's Story for one.…
The new XCOM series is a modernized recreation of the dated and similarly titled X-Com franchise, which made its debut to the world in 1994. Touted as the pinnacle of strategy games, the original UFO Defense was declared a 'benchmark in the evolution of strategy gaming'. Now under the wings…
Despite being a new IP, Dishonored plays and feels like several games that have come before it. It's rare that a game review requires a preface, but in Dishonored's case it's important so as to not repeat the same qualification over and over again. The game's developer, Arkane Studios, shares…
Gamers old enough to remember the days of putting their quarter up on the ledge of an arcade cabinet’s screen so that they “got next” no doubt have some level of familiarity with both Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. Should those players, as well…
After an over-long wait, Sackboy has finally made his way onto PlayStation Vita, and to say that fans of the series have been waiting a long time for this game would be an understatement. There's no question that the Vita has been severely lacking in the must-have software department, but…
FTL: Faster Than Light is likely one of the biggest indie hits of the year, and stands as more evidence that Kickstarter is a system which simply 'works' for indie projects. The game is the first roguelike title to reach major success since The Binding of Isaac, and hopefully will…
Reviewing FIFA 13, or any EA Sports game for that matter, has become quite the undertaking as most of the respective sports developers, by and large, have locked into a pretty successful formula, and don't deviate too heavily from it. Last year's FIFA brought with it several new features — tactical…
As the first DLC expansion to accompany Darksiders II, Argul's Tomb has the challenging honor of trailing one of this year’s finest action adventure RPG experiences to date. Divinely designed worlds, torrid but intuitive combat, absorbing storytelling and lore: we know from our Darksiders II review this August that Vigil…
The past few years have not been terribly kind to fans awaiting the third chapter of the Half-Life saga. Plagued with rumors and misinformation, development time on the next Half-Life game is beginning to get dangerously close to Duke Nukem: Forever level - though, maybe this time, the wait will be worth…
Hello Games has finally brought Joe Danger back to the spotlight with Joe Danger 2 The Movie. This zany follow-up to one of our favorite platforming/racing games takes everything that made the original great and then proceeds to expand upon it exponentially. Joe Danger 2 The Movie is an action-packed…
Thanks to a fan-driven campaign called Operation Rainfall and the efforts of XSeed Games, The Last Story has finally made its way over to North America. JRPG aficionados have been waiting for this day for quite some time. Acting as an unofficial swan song for Nintendo's Wii console, The Last Story is…
It seems like just yesterday, hockey fans around the world were ready to take the plunge into the brand new, physics-driven gameplay of NHL 12. The developers at EA Sports aim to take gameplay improvements even further this year, introducing what they refer to as the "Next Gameplay Revolution" with NHL…
It feels odd, building a house in Skyrim. After meticulously sculpting perk trees, obsessively managing inventories, endlessly queuing up new quests, and buying (or stealing) and selling (or littering) more items than Belethor’s General Goods could handle in a year, raising up the rafters for our Dovahkiin dwellings shouldn’t seem…
If Rock Band 3 is an all day arena rock concert, complete with a massive stage and a blinding light show, Rock Band Blitz is a club show - stripped-down and intimate. There are no plastic instruments to play and no bandmates to rock out with. Just a solitary player,…
In these days of day one DLC, gamers are becoming more critical of new releases - holding out on games that just don't offer enough bang for their buck at launch. But what happens when a game comes out, that's chock full of content, and reasonable priced - but at…
It's been a long time coming, but the first chance to see what BioWare has planned to extend the life of Mass Effect 3 via single player downloadable content is here. Promising to send Shepard across the galaxy and into the depths of the ocean to uncover a lost secret,…
In 2010, High Moon Studios delivered a Transformers game chock-full of fan service and smart implementation of the robot/vehicle mechanic at the heart of the franchise. Transformers: War for Cybertron (read our review) was a solid step in the right direction for the "Robots in Disguise" but, unfortunately, a lot of the…
Valve certainly has no shortage of gamers still coming back for Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source, which attracts both casual players and those who want to try and etch their name into the still-active professional gaming scene. Now, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive aims to bring a streamlined and graphically-enhanced edition of…
With Rocksmith, Ubisoft set out to raise the bar when it came to music games, by actually trying to teach players how to play a lead guitar. However, despite having a co-op option which was supposedly included so gamers could jam together, Rocksmith did not allow one player to play…
Gamers have been waiting some time for a side-scrolling Super Mario platformer, and it's finally arrived in the form of New Super Mario Bros. 2. This latest 3DS exclusive features a ton of familiar mechanics that fans of the franchise will instantly recognize, with a few minor twists along the…
In 2003, True Crime: Streets of LA took the example set by Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto III and pushed it in a new direction. The well-received open-world title was one of the first of its kind, putting players into the role of an undercover police officer, rather than a mute criminal.…
As summer comes to an end, so to does Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade promotion. We've seen shooting. We've seen wrecking. We've seen dead lighting, whatever that is. Anchoring this relay of downloadable goodness is Dean Dodrill's Dust: An Elysian Tail. Yes, "tail" with an "I" … like TailSpin. Does the…
A journey of redemption on the outside, Darksiders II is a tale of irony at heart. Death, our protagonist, is the reluctant savior of life; realms of Heaven and Hell — angels and demons — are mere tools in a grander scheme; the Makers, creators of entire worlds, stand powerless…
Fulfilling the role of the multiplayer shooter in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade XBLA season is Hybrid, a unique 3v3 shooter from Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell. While 5th Cell has been known for stretching gamers' imaginations in terms of item creation and customization, Hybrid is based on a concrete idea -…
On paper, Lionsgate's summer action movie franchise The Expendables has all of the ingredients to potentially translate into a decent video game. With franchise traits like an ensemble hyper-masculine-hero cast, tongue-in-cheek one-liners and enough explosions to make even the most ardent pyromaniac take pause, one might think they were reading…
Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade has reached the third game in its 2012 catalogue. Deadlight radically changes the tone set by the two previous Summer of Arcade titles, and those looking for a more mature dose of downloadable goodness will find it in Tequila Works' big debut. Deadlight is essentially a…
The fifth-annual Xbox Live Summer of Arcade continues to flex its muscles after Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD took off earlier last week - and hot on its heels is Iron Galaxy Studios' Wreckateer. At first glance, Wreckateer may certainly come off as being Angry Birds in 3D. If it…
Just in case there was any concern that the gaming landscape would go more than five minutes without an HD remake, the folks at Capcom are here to put everyone at ease. Exclusively available on the PlayStation Network, Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection slaps a coat of high-def paint over…
In the family of EA Sports titles, NCAA Football is like the second favorite kid, the one that can never quite live up to the reputation of the "golden child." Sure, NCAA provides a lot of the same experiences as its older brother, but, when it comes to importance, NCAA…
Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade is here, with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD leading the charge. The developers at Robomodo haven't just increased the graphical polish of the original game, but rebuilt skaters and stages from the first two entries in the series in a brand new engine. Can the…
Each year, developers Cyanide bring out a new Pro Cycling Manager for what is admittedly a very niche crowd. Produced in France, where the sport is perhaps most prominent, Pro Cycling Manager has been the go-to option for enthusiasts and management simulation fans for years. It takes a lot of work to…
Racing games are definitely niche games, sometimes not understood by those in other gaming circles. However, taking racing elements of any standard racing simulation and combine that with machine guns, missiles, and oil slick, the package suddenly turns into Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage, a combat-racing game from independent publisher Gamespires.…
Tiny is a goofy young boy on an adventure to retrieve his grandfather's stolen underpants. Big is the goofy young boy who stole those underpants. Big is smaller than Tiny, and the lore surrounding the aforementioned stolen underpants is bigger than either of the two goofy boys. But most importantly,…
A self-proclaimed puzzle platformer from developers Derek Yu and Andy Hall (Mossmouth), Spelunky is cut from the same cloth as Super Meat Boy or Braid, those frustratingly difficult downloadable games seen in recent years, but with a few elements thrown in to differentiate itself. Needless to say the game is…
Sony introduced the PlayStation Move title Sorcery back at E3 2010 - positioning the game as an immersive example of how their new motion control peripheral could appeal to more than just casual players. For many interested gamers, Sorcery appeared to be the first "must-have" experience for the Move controller…
Spider-Man returns to theaters this Summer in Marc Webb's reboot of the blockbuster film franchise. In addition to his new big screen adventure, Spidey once again graces smaller screens in a game tied to the movie. The Amazing Spider-Man marks the long awaited return of open-world web swinging to the Webbed…
Sins of a Solar Empire remains one of the most well-balanced and intuitive strategy games of the past decade. A perfect hybrid of traditional RTS games and true 4X style (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate), the original Sins and its expansions were incredibly successful and popular with players, especially those looking…
For better or for worse Traveller's Tales' LEGO franchise, which takes popular properties like Star Wars and shrinks them down to brick form, has been running like a well-oiled machine. It might sound harsh to say the developer can't make time for evolution of gameplay mechanics or experimentation, but when…
What defines DLC today? Is it the steady intravenous drip of "premium" packages endlessly circulating content through a game's established universe - replenishing singleplayer with missions and sidequests and characters; multiplayer with maps and modes and weapons at every stagnating pulse of excitement? Or is it something larger: the concentrated…
When Spec Ops: The Line was first unveiled three years ago, it promised a strong emphasis on narrative and mature storytelling - an aspect that was arguably missing from military shooters. After numerous delays, the game would later emerge from development hell, looking just as promising as ever. All that's left…
There is no small amount of credit tied to one's name after crafting a gameplay experience as groundbreaking and unique as the original Portal (originally titled 'Narbacular Drop'). Kim Swift has moved on from her headline-grabbing senior project and its remarkable sequel, and taken a lead role at Airtight Games…
The Ys games date all the way back to the late 80s and have spanned roughly eight sequels. Ys Origin is the first game in the series not to star protagonist Adol Christin and is a prequel, taking place 700 years before Ys I — a nice chance for new players to pick up and play…
The Civilization franchise has been one of the most successful strategy series in gaming history. While the original Civilization had a definite cult following, the games definitely hit a wider mark with Civilization II, and continued to hammer out classics with the third and fourth games in the popular series.…
The genre of 'God Games' that has withered on the vine over the past few years has received a bit of life in the form of Babel Rising, with a bit of a twist. Rather than aiding an early people as a benevolent deity, the latest release from Ubisoft on…
Guest contributor Alex Keen reviews Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles For good reason, Marvel Pinball remains one of the best downloadable games on any system. For those players dying for new tables, ZEN Studios has added to their game with four new downloadable tables in Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles. All of the tables…
The entire premise of Lollipop Chainsaw is absolutely nonsensical: a sexy, chainsaw-wielding cheerleader fights off the undead - all without ruining her hair. Those unacquainted with developer Grasshopper Manufacture's previous endeavors may view the game as over the top and ridiculous. But to everyone else, this is just another crazy trip from creative director SUDA51.…
Shortly after the release of Resistance 3, series developer Insomniac announced that they were done with the franchise. Fans turned their eyes to Nihilistic Software, who had been working on Resistance: Burning Skies for the Vita. Touted as the first "proper" portable FPS is one thing - but having to live…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Mad Riders ATV racing games come in all shapes and sizes, but fundamentally they are all relatively similar. Ubisoft's Mad Riders, for example, takes the ATV racing genre, gives it a few clever flourishes (insane speed, high-flying stunts, and detailed locales) and hopes that will…
Game Rant's Ben Kendrick reviews Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock For anyone but casual gamers, it should be common knowledge that movie and television spin-off video games are notorious for translating into buggy and uninspired gameplay experiences. For every success (The Walking Dead), there are countless tie-ins that not only underwhelm…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Joy Ride Turbo. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the kart racer, as measured from the launch of Super Mario Kart in 1992. Since that game's introduction, kart racing has become a gaming staple, and nearly every successful console has been home to a…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Diablo 3 Fantastic wars between good and evil, with wise wizards and demon lords doing battle for the right to rule humanity: this is nothing new to video games, or fantasy storytelling in general. But there is something to be said for casting aside dense…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Dragon's Dogma The company that created the Breath of Fire series, one of the best RPG's in history, brings us Dragon's Dogma, an odd stab at an offline MMO styled RPG that's hardest quest is finding a decent story. Ironically, Breath of Fire designer Makoto Ikehara worked on this game's…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Ghost Recon: Future Soldier In the last half a decade the Tom Clancy brand of Ubisoft shooters has taken a back seat to the company's flagship Assassin's Creed series, but after more than five years, the world's most elite special forces unit is finally back in…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Mario Tennis Open Another Mario game has joined the current line of software for the Nintendo 3DS, this time in the form of Mario Tennis Open. The series stands as one of the many Mario sports-related spin-offs that is actually fun to play, and with…
Game Rant's Aaron Leach reviews Awesomenauts There was a time when dubbing something as “awesome” actually meant something - back when you could watch classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes while eating a bowl of Mr. T cereal. Ronimo Games’ latest downloadable title, Awesomenauts, aims to blast its way into…
C.J. Smillie reviews Dragon's Lair When gamers reflect on classic games, before the NES launched and began a new revolution in gaming, they typically think of staple arcade titles - such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, or Pitfall. These games had simple graphics, simple controls, and simple objectives. Then came Dragon's Lair, the…
Game Rant's Brian Sipple reviews Max Payne 3 Some people can’t catch a break; some can’t have one drift within the ballpark. Max Payne is the perfect embodiment of the latter. The kind of guy who would throw a whiskey glass against the wall after a hellish day at work,…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Battleship. While films based on Hasbro toys exist to push merchandising to a wider audience, they are not immune to the obligatory movie tie-in treatment either. Both G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and the entire Transformers film trilogy received release-date-focused video games that were better off not…
Game Rant's Aaron Leach reviews Skullgirls With the fighting genre in a bit of an upswing over the last few years, tournament champion Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont and the team at Reverge Labs set out to build a fighter that functions as both tournament-worthy and a place for newcomers and…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews The Witcher 2 (Xbox 360). Polish developer CD Projekt Red made a name for themselves in 2007 after releasing The Witcher to mostly positive critical acclaim. Like the Mass Effect series, The Witcher valued player choice and wrapped it in a rich world with an engaging story. Geralt of…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews the SSX "Mt. Eddie & Classic Characters" DLC Sometimes video game franchises have to grow up, and trade in neon lights and fireworks for more realistic simulation and physics. When the developers of SSX first showed that the series reboot would be shedding its more outrageous…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Fable Heroes As the third part of Microsoft's Arcade Next XBLA promotion (which has included Bloodforge and Trials Evolution so far) Fable Heroes fits the casual, family-friendly bill. A cooperative button masher that combines elements of Lionhead Studios' wildly popular series and a more traditional board game,…
Game Rant's John Jacques reviews The Walking Dead: Episode One. It was a wise choice for TellTale to continue with the cell-shaded visual styling they're used to creating - for an episodic title like The Walking Dead, it's a style which simply works. As you can see in the trailer,…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews Risen 2: Dark Waters In Risen 2: Dark Waters, German developer Piranha Bytes and publisher Deep Silver bring back The Nameless Hero from the original Risen to battle more Titans threatening the Lost Realm. In this installment, however, the protagonist takes on his foes as an…
Trung Bui of Game Rant reviews Bloodforge Sometimes, the sheer joy of a hack-and-slash game is just what the doctor ordered. Microsoft Game Studios, in partnership with Climax Group unveils Bloodforge where one stag-skull wearing muscled-out dude, wielding very large weapons, is pit against hordes of Celtic-inspired foes. It's relatively brainless, requires…
Late last month, the Nintendo 3DS eShop began selling UFO Interactive's Zombie Slayer Diox. The downloadable game attempts to give gamers a Rock Band-esque experience with a zombie twist, and the end result is a game that'll fail to impress fans of either genre. The game is more like a…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Samurai Sword Destiny Developed by UFO Interactive, Samurai Sword Destiny was introduced to the masses via the Nintendo 3DS eShop earlier this year. The game is a side-scrolling slash'em up that throws 3DS owners into the role of Akane, a young girl who is trying…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Trials Evolution After storming onto the console market with the release and instant success of Trials HD for the Xbox 360, the development team at RedLynx is promising a new dimension of gameplay with Trials Evolution. As one of the first offerings of Xbox Live's…
Among the PlayStation Vita's many hardware features is augmented reality, the ability to take the game one is playing and superimpose it onto real life. Of course, with the launch of the Vita, Sony would want to create games that show off the system's features. Many launch titles implement touch…
Game Rant's Jacob Siegal reviews Fez Fez has been a long time coming. As the past few years have gone by, indie game fans everywhere have been desperate to see Polytron's final product, and in almost every imaginable way, the game lives up to the expectations. Fez is a natural evolution…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Xenoblade Chronicles. It's finally here. After months of grassroots movements through the organization branded Operation Rainfall, Nintendo has released Xenoblade Chronicles in North America via an exclusive partnership with GameStop. This Japanese Role Playing Game has been at the top of Wii owners' wish lists…
Game Rant's Jacob Siegal reviews Fibble HD Crytek Studios is perhaps best known for either their fast-paced, graphically unmatched first-person shooter series Crysis, or the similarly attractive and award winning Far Cry series. Apparently, in between production on best-seller Crysis 2 and the much hyped Far Cry 3, Crytek decided…
Game Rant's Trung Bui reviews Anomaly: Warzone Earth Not following in the same vein of normal tower defense games, Anomaly: Warzone Earth takes a different approach to the genre and presents a tower offense game. Sound weird? Crazy? It's not. In fact, it's very much a fun game. Already available on PC…
Game Rant's Brian Sipple reviews Armored Core V Past and present are intertwined in Armored Core V. While the last main installment in the mech combat franchise — Armored Core 4 — was an attempt to reboot the series in the current generation with a more user-accessible facade, the game…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews the Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball Challenge Pack Since its release in October 2011, Kinect Sports: Season 2 has been the beneficiary of several content updates. New modes have been added to the game's six sports (Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Football, Skiing and Darts) via two free Challenge…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Uncharted: Golden Abyss It's pretty safe to say that the game that sold most people on the PlayStation Vita was Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Bend Studio was tasked with bringing Naughty Dog's fan-favorite franchise to a portable device, and still retain the action-movie feeling of past titles. Did…
Jacob Siegal of Game Rant reviews South Park: Tenorman's Revenge Scott Tenorman is an unhappy redhead. If you are not familiar with the lore of South Park, Eric Cartman once had a young man's parents killed, turned them into chili, and then fed them to that same young man -…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Diabolical Pitch When the prospect of Grasshopper Manufacture, a developer known for delivering some of the most insane video game properties imaginable, teaming up with Microsoft's Kinect is tossed around, it's a safe bet that the topic of baseball isn't the first thing that comes…
Jeff Schille of Game Rant reviews Rayman 3 HD Rayman first appeared in an eponymous, hyper-colorful side scrolling platformer back in 1995, and promptly established Ubisoft's Michel Ancel as one of the most gifted designers in the industry. Four years later, Rayman 2: The Great Escape brought the limbless protagonist into…
Game Rant's Dwayne Holder reviews Blades of Time Blades of Time is a new action adventure game from Gaijin Entertainment, published by Konami, and on the back of the box it promises guns, swords and booty. That last item is referring to the game's protagonist Ayumi, who provides some significant eye…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Unit 13 Back during the era of the PlayStation 2, Zipper Interactive was among the premiere developers crafting unique experiences for Sony's console. Known for bringing online multiplayer to the PS2 in the form of SOCOM Navy Seals Zipper was a developer ahead of its time,…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Silent Hull: Downpour The Silent Hill franchise is an interesting one, fans will talk about it as though it were a stand-out moment of joy in their past, while those of us who have yet to play the games wonder what makes it so compelling.…
With a wide selection of titles available, but very few sports games yet, SEGA is hoping that Virtua Tennis 4 will be the perfect portable sports experience every Vita owner will crave. It carries the same arcade style gameplay that the console versions are known for, but adds with it…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Operation Raccoon City provides a different take on the Resident Evil series by offering a team-based shooter, and while the game couldn't have asked for a better set of ingredients to create a unique and exciting perspective during a popular period…
Jason Weissman reviews 'Deadly 30' Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews Deadly 30 Deadly 30 is the product of two individuals, programmer Ignatus Zuk and one of Newgrounds' favorite artists, Gonzossm. This 2D side-scroller shooter offers a single-player zombie killing experience with some tower elements thrown in. Did these newcomers bring anything…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 Tiger Woods has finally won another major championship - winning at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It's been quite some time since Tiger has been placed in the winners' circle, and it's been even longer since his EA Sports series has…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Sumioni Demon Arts Prior to the Vita launch, players had many games on their mind: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Lumines and Rayman Origins. These were all of the no-brainer titles, their quality was near-guaranteed. But for the longest time there was one title without a North American release…
Game Rant's Trung Bui reviews Defenders of Ardania The tower defense genre of games compliments quick bursts of gameplay. Perhaps 5-10 minute sessions where a player wants to be entertained with a simple concept of resource allocation to build structures that lay siege. Unfortunately, Defenders of Ardania does not make the…
Game Rant's Jacob Siegal reviews Sine Mora Sine Mora is a shoot 'em up co-developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture. Grasshopper was in charge of concept art and sound design, while the actual story, gameplay, 3D modelling, and general coding was done by Digital Reality. This team effort between…
It's been over two decades since consumers were exposed to a brand new Kid Icarus title, and during this time the gaming landscape has changed significantly. The series remained stagnant until the angelic protagonist Pit was added to the Super Smash Bros. Brawl roster. Finally, fans of the cult classic…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Plants Vs Zombies Vita Plants Vs Zombies has been on just about every single gaming platform ever made, hell, it's surprising PopCap hasn't ported it over to the Commodore 64. Along those lines, the game has received a Vita port, with the main question being: how does the title stand…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Mario Party 9 It's been nearly half a decade since partygoers have been invited to one of Mario's infamous shindigs, but Nintendo has finally decided to give the pudgy plumber one last party on the Wii. In what may be one of the last notable…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews FIFA Street Time to time EA Sports has been known to take their traditional sports franchises, or just a traditional sport, and branch them out into arcade-style titles that lack most of the depth of a Madden, but more than make up for it with…
Game Rant's Brian Sipple reviews Shoot Many Robots The apocalypse has come in a smörgÃ¥sbord of flavors over the years. Today’s chef special in the gaming industry seems to be of the zombie infection (Left 4 Dead, The Last of Us) or natural disaster (I Am Alive) variety, but there used…
Controversy has surrounded the critically acclaimed BioWare title Mass Effect 3 (read our Mass Effect 3 review here) even before the game came out, with several fans angry at the inclusion of launch day downloadable content. This added content, which only comes with the Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition or…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Journey Journey is a confounding game to review. That is largely by design, and one could say the same about thatgamecompany's previous efforts, flOw and Flower. Although it is possessed of mechanics that evolve over the course of the experience, Journey isn't about its mechanics…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Street Fighter X Tekken After the Street Fighter X Tekken announcement, fans of both franchises were unsure of how to approach Capcom's newest crossover - since the two fighting games are distinctly different. However, after spending time with the game, those fears can be put to rest…
Game Rant's Brian Sipple reviews I Am Alive Rarely could a game’s title be so personifying of its own history than I Am Alive. After loudly announcing itself at E3 2008 with an earth-shattering trailer, the Ubisoft Shanghai game bounced through two studios in four years amid constant flurries of cancellation…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews FIFA Soccer for the PS Vita Though the PlayStation Vita has arguably launched with a better line-up of titles than its next closest competition, the Nintendo 3DS did, it's still tough to find a title that really strikes a balance between competently showing off the strengths of…
Roll around, eat objects, grow bigger. Roll around, eat bigger objects, grow bigger. No, that's not a description of Katamari, but the Vita title Mutant Blobs Attack. On the surface, the concept might sound similar to Namco's beloved series, but once players delve into DrinkBox's PSN title they'll find a game…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Army Corps of Hell While fans will continue to clamor for Nintendo to deliver another entry in the Pikmin franchise, many developers will attempt to take from Pikmin's example and create a familiar yet new experience. That's what Square Enix was trying to do with…
Game Rant's Dwayne Holder reviews AaaAaa!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) Dejobaan Games has been around for quite some time, making a name for itself in the indie developer world. Like many indie developers it was only a matter of time before they brought their talents to the exponentially growing mobile…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews SSX In this generation of gaming, so-called 'reboots' or spiritual successors and re-imaginings are certainly common, with a wide range of successes and failures. While large franchises and serialized shooters have improved upon an established formula one release at a time (to massive financial success),…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Final Fantasy XIII-2 From the earliest days of console role-playing games, titles produced in Japan have both defined and dominated the genre. The importance of Yuji Horii's seminal Dragon Quest cannot be overstated, but no series did more to spread the international popularity of JRPGs…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Rayman: Origins (PS Vita) Rayman: Origins was one of 2011's greatest surprises - especially for those who miss the golden days of platformers. Now, the title has landed on the PlayStation Vita. Does it hold up compared to its console counter parts? Yes. Yes it does.…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews WipEout 2048 Accompanying the launch of the PS Vita are some of Sony's most beloved IP's - one of the most prominent being the WipEout franchise. The futuristic racer has always been synonymous with the PlayStation brand, and now Studio Liverpool hopes to continue the trend…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Syndicate Electronic Arts only announced the reboot of Syndicate from Starbreeze Studios in September of 2011, and two weeks before they launch Mass Effect 3, they've released the sci-fi first-person shooter with its own similar four-player, objective-based cooperative mode. Syndicate is the reimagining of the 1999 game of the…
Game Rant's Riley Little Reviews Rhythm Heaven Fever Nintendo has based its entire share of the market off of very weird ideas, and so far they've done quite well for themselves because of it. The Rhythm Heaven series is one such property. Now that the Nintendo Wii is on its…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Asura's Wrath Asura's Wrath is unlike anything gamers have seen before. Whether they enjoy the game is a matter of personal taste, as it brings in a style of gaming that some will find brilliant and others might find irksome - but regardless of whether…
Game Rant's Steve Pendlebury reviews Twisted Metal In every other game that features it, vehicular combat is merely an add-on, a gaming side-dish used to spice-up existing gameplay and add a little variety. It’s nothing more than a gaming trope designed to distract players from the tedium of their main quest-lines.…
Game Rant's Ben Kendrick reviews Alan Wake's American Nightmare On May 18th 2010, gamers were treated by the release of two critically-acclaimed titles: one (Red Dead Redemption) would go on to sell over 13 million copies, the other (Alan Wake) racked up plenty of rave reviews (read our Alan Wake…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Lumines Electronic Symphony With the PlayStation Vita launch just two days away and over 20 titles available, gamers are no doubt wondering what title(s) they should pick up. The most obvious choice, without a doubt, is Lumines Electronic Symphony. Many PSP owners are probably very familiar…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Warp These days the Xbox Live Arcade has grown to become the perfect breeding ground for smaller titles with a unique gameplay mechanic or core concept to find their audience - one that couldn't possibly sustain a full retail release. Enter Warp, developed by Trapdoor and published…
After taking a nearly two year hiatus, the UFC video game series has returned in the form of UFC Undisputed 3. Toting several big enhancements over its predecessors, UFC Undisputed 3 claims to be the best mixed martial arts game on the market, and it definitely lives up to the…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Grand Slam Tennis 2 After failing to make a splash with their first Grand Slam Tennis title, EA Sports is giving it the ole college do-over with the appropriately titled Grand Slam Tennis 2. Developed by EA Canada, and given a complete overhaul in terms…
Game Rant's Trung Bui reviews Shank 2 Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways. In their heyday, 2D side scrolling beat 'em ups could cast hours upon hours of fun for gamers and they have ended up making their return in adaptations of classic games like TMNT or with more…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Resident Evil: Revelations Set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5, two of Capcom's most recent successes with the franchise, and developed with a clear idea of what works and doesn't work for the series thus far, Resident Evil: Revelations is a 3DS title with…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews NeverDead Emily Dickenson begins one of her most famous poems with "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me." Unfortunately for NeverDead protagonist Bryce Boltzmann, Death isn't as nice to him. In fact, the two aren't even on speaking terms - as Bryce…
Game Rant's Brian Sipple reviews Gotham City Impostors Gotham is on fire. A rogue strain of the Joker drug has instilled anarchy and mayhem into the minds' of its users, and while the Dark Knight looms in the background, everyday citizens have split into dueling factions of Batman and Joker impostors—…
Game Rant's Matt Rowland reviews Law & Order: Legacies Law & Order was one of the longest running crime shows on television. It spawned four spin-off series over the years and continues to steadily march along in cable syndication. Telltale Games promptly looked to cash in on the Law & Order:…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews War of the Immortals Online developer, Perfect World Entertainment, is well-known for their large offering of free-to-play massively multiplayer online games. The company's newest entry into the genre is War of the Immortals, an isometric camera MMO that is very similar to Perfect World's Battle of…
Game Rant's Dwayne Holder reviews Puddle Puddle is a unique physics puzzle title that will test both a player's mind and reflexes. The concept seems simple -- guide a puddle of liquid though a hazardous environment -- but the developers definitely put a ton of effort into creating a challenging…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Soul Calibur 5 It's been nearly four years since Yoda and Darth Vader invaded Soul Calibur 4, and brought us one of the best fighting games of the past decade. Soul Calibur 5 is looking to pick up where the last game ended, and the…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews AMY It's hard to think of a genre with a more rabid following than that of survival-horror. With titan franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill to contend with, one downloadable title looks to bring new ideas and game mechanics into the more-than-popular practice of…
What happens when you combine Scrabble, the game of Risk, and Veggietales-like artwork? Quarrel - a game where words are the weapons. Developed by Denki and published by UTV Ignition Games, Quarrel is a game that literary fans might be leaping to play, but is it any good? Yes, yes it is. (more…)
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews All Zombies Must Die! The developers at doublesix (Burn Zombie Burn, South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!) are back with a brand new downloadable game for PC, PSN, and Xbox Live Arcade. All Zombies Must Die! fuses twin-stick shooter mechanics with role-playing elements, but…
From the very first moment of Genkibowl VII, the newest DLC for Saints Row: The Third, the player is drawn in by a familiar milieu of clever pop culture references and whacky, over-the-top scenarios. Genkibowl promises, essentially, a Super Bowl for the insane, featuring silly events that range from skydiving…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Star Wars: The Old Republic Two gaming powerhouses, BioWare and EA, have teamed up on a project that may fine tune the MMO formula and offer a compelling universe to explore. Star Wars: The Old Republic is an captivating and fun experience that still manages to set…
Game Rant's C.J. Smillie reviews Zombii Attack Games that are made for devices such as phones and instant messaging programs are vastly different from the ones made for consoles. They are usually designed for the sake of killing a player's time - something for them to do while waiting for…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews NFL Blitz There was a time and a place when NFL Blitz was a force to be reckoned with. A powerhouse of the late 90s arcade scene, Blitz enjoyed a luxurious career due in no small part to its combination of arcade style football and high-flying…
Game Rant's Dwayne Holder reviews TNT Racers TNT Racers is an arcade racer from German developer Keen Games that may surprise many who have lowered expectations of this title. At first glance it looks like a generic combat racer, however once players get into it, they’ll be pleasantly surprised that…
Building on the success of the original game, Finnish developer Frozenbyte have brought Zoya the Thief, Pontius the Knight, and Amadeus the Wizard back for another round of adventures in Trine 2. Is this reunion a can't miss event or are the members of the Trine better left retired? Read…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Joe Danger: Special Edition Joe Danger originally released on the PS3 over a year ago as a downloadable PSN title and it has finally made its way over to the Xbox 360 in the form of Joe Danger: Special Edition. With over a year and…
Game Rant's Trung Bui reviews Xotic Xotic is a first person shooter with a bit of a twist. Rather than be focused on just pure shooter and survival aspects, Xotic focuses more on playing for points. There are enemies to shoot but they really serve more as a hindering factor than anything…
Earlier this year, Batman: Arkham City released to much acclaim on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. PC owners were forced to wait a little bit longer to get their Dark Knight fix, but upon release, the game was plagued with technical problems, especially when running DirectX 11 effects.…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Scene It? Movie Night Any movie or trivia fan should be familiar with the popular game Scene It?. Requiring both a vast knowledge of the film world and a careful attention to detail, Scene It? has long been the movie trivia fans go to game for parties. Since…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Afterfall: InSanity In a post apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear bombs, the outside world has become inhabitable. The remaining humans have gathered in an underground shelter away from the harsh wasteland outside, attempting to simply survive in their new surroundings — but the yearning to…
The Horde Command Pack, the first DLC content to release for Gears of War 3 was flat out, not worth the money. It's content that should have been included in the game. In fact, it was made up of content included in the game but was intentionally locked to charge…
While hardcore gamers may have immediately looked at the release of the Microsoft Kinect as a chance to expand interactivity, several developers have looked at the full-body interaction as a chance to get players everywhere into shape. After Ubisoft's first attempt to get gamers off their couches and into shape,…
Game Rant's Ben Kendrick reviews Voltron: Defender of the Universe It's been over nine months since we first got word that THQ had secured the rights to produce video games based on the 80's cartoon, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. At the time, it was unclear what exactly the publisher had planned…
Every Nintendo console is graced with the presence of a single Mario Kart title, and that tradition has held true since the SNES. Now we're finally on Mario Kart 7 — excluding those Japan-only arcade machines — and it aims to be a catalyst that propels Nintendo 3DS sales through…
The Rabbids, erstwhile Rayman associates and purveyors of a particularly absurd brand of anarchy, are back in a new mini-game collection for the Xbox 360. Using the power of Kinect, Rabbids: Alive & Kicking aims to bring the titular characters into players' living rooms like never before. Does it succeed?…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews The King of Fighters XIII [Revised] It's no secret that many fans loathed The King of Fighters 12, the game was lacking in many areas and is commonly viewed as the weakest game in the franchise. With The King Of Fighters 13, SNK Playmore hopes to…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews WWE 12 Every year THQ and Yuke's releases another installment in their annual WWE video game series, but this year's edition has made a tremendous effort to mix up the traditional formula that they felt may have become a little stale. One of the most…
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is in a bit of a quandary. From the outside the game looks like a flight sim/aerial combat. However, the game's visual aesthetic is very similar to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, and to call this a flight sim is selling Namco Bandai's latest…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Disney Universe. Into the comparative void of high-profile console games aimed at younger players this holiday season pops Disney Universe, a brightly colored action/platform romp for one to four players. Does the game, developed by Eurocom (GoldenEye 007: Reloaded), deliver a galaxy full of fun,…
Game Rant's Ben Kendrick reviews The Black Eyed Peas Experience on Nintendo Wii Ubisoft has carved out a profitable niche in the "dance game" marketplace with the enormous success of their Just Dance franchise - as well as similarly themed musical act-specific spin-off titles such as Michael Jackson The Experience.…
For anyone who grew up loving dinosaurs, the Jurassic Park movies were pretty much a dream come true. Dinosaurs in the modern world with the ability to observe them in nature? With Jurassic Park: The Game, Telltale has aimed to capture this magic in video game form. Do they succeed? Well, in…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Zelda games don't have it as easy as everyone thinks they do. Every time a new title in the series launches, it's thrown under the microscope and compared to what many consider to be one of the greatest games, not…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Rayman: Origins. After more than six years, the oddly limbless, yet lovable Rayman is back. Since 2005, Ubisoft chose to instead focus on Rayman's spin-off series, Raving Rabbids, which grew to such popularity that they dropped "Rayman" from the titles of their games. Now the original…
Most game series would consider themselves lucky to have their fourth entry even more anticipated than their second or third, but with fame comes high expectations. With Assassin's Creed: Revelations, developer Ubisoft is giving players the third game following the same character, based upon the same combat and traversal, with…
In the lead up to the release of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record last month, Capcom was stating that the game's story is non-canonical. The premise of Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a "What if" scenario in which Chuck Greene, the combo weaponing protagonist from Dead Rising…
Over the years, the game show Family Feud has seen its fair share of updates - new hosts, set dresses, as well as board game and video game iterations. Some, of course, have been better than others (we're looking at you John O'Hurley - no, not you Louie Anderson) but with such…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews The Lord of the Rings: War in the North The Lord of the Rings: War in the North offers players the chance to hack, slash, and loot their way through Middle Earth. Drawing visual inspiration from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, while…
It's hard to fathom that it was 10 whole years ago that Halo debuted alongside the original Xbox. It was 10 years ago where first person shooters on the console, LAN play and vehicular combat took a leap forward. It was 10 years ago where Microsoft's prized gaming franchise began. A…
Guest contributor Ken J reviews Battlefield 3 (PC) Battlefield 3 is the true sequel to the multiplayer hit Battlefield 2. PC gamers everywhere have waited six long years, but the time has finally come. Sure along the way we had a spin-off in the form of the futuristic Battlefield 2142, expansion…
Game Rant's Curt Hutson reviews Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 In the grand tradition of Capcom, a company who enjoys milking their fighting games for all they're worth, another updated version to a previously released title is hitting shelves in the form of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. However, is this quasi-sequel worth…
Nintendo 3DS owners having been begging for a 3D Mario title since the handheld first launched back in March of this year, and Nintendo has finally answered their prayers in the form of Super Mario 3D Land. Nintendo is aiming to end the less than stellar drought that has been plaguing…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim It's been over five and a half years since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion released into the hands' of eager adventurers, an even longer wait than gamers were subject to between that and 2002's Morrowind. Both games were praised by critics…
There's a stigma among gamers that video games aren't as funny as they used to be. Considering this generation's emphasis on realism and gritty action, players are often forced to look to older titles such as Monkey Island in order to get their share of giggles. However, with House of…
Twenty years have passed since the original Sonic the Hedgehog game came out, and as such, Sega and Sonic Team decided to celebrate in grand style with Sonic Generations. The game promises to take players through various stages from the previous games, remastered and remixed for the current generation. Does it live…
If there’s anything that the Call of Duty, or its smaller but no less popular Modern Warfare offshoot, has taught gamers, it’s that war is brutal. But with a prolonged tour of duty comes fatigue - a feeling that what we're doing just isn’t as compelling as it used to…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One Like the Three Musketeers, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One works much better when teamwork is involved. All one simply need do is get together three of their closest friends, put them into one of four characters from Insomniac Games’…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Thor: God of Thunder The Marvel superhero Thor has once again been thrown into the limelight courtesy of the feature film that was released this year - and with the movie license comes yet another opportunity for developers to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the…
Game Rant’s Rob Keyes reviews GoldenEye 007: Reloaded When we reviewed GoldenEye 007 last year on the Nintendo Wii, we concluded by saying it'd be nice to see the game on the more powerful PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles with HD graphics and a better frame rate. As it turns out,…
There's no question that Gears of War 3 is one of the best games released this year, and it's easily a contender for several annual video game awards. So when Epic Games revealed details for Gears of War 3's first downloadable add-on, the community surrounding the blockbuster game was understandably…
Game Rant's Ben Kendrick reviews Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception It's hard to believe that it has only been two years ago since Uncharted 2: Among Thieves won our coveted Game of the Year 2009 reader poll - along with plenty of other industry accolades. Among Thieves was a step-up in every way…
Game Rant's Tim Keyes reviews Kirby's Return to Dream Land It was way back in 1992 when Kirby made his first appearance in Kirby’s Dream Land and almost twenty years later, after a TV series and numerous games and appearances later, he’s returned to his roots in a back-to-basics side-scrolling adventure…
Game Rant's John Jacques reviews Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 While it may not be selling in numbers than can compete with FIFA 2012, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 does offer a variety of unique features on and off the pitch. Is Konami's soccer game the option for you? As it usually…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews X-Men: Destiny Activision teamed with Silicon Knights, developers of Too Human, to bring fans the first true X-Men video game in six years, not including the movie tie-ins. Titled X-Men: Destiny, this action-adventure title is unlike the competition this year in that it's not based on…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews Dark Souls Back in 2009, the critically acclaimed Demon's Souls was a surprise hit for the PlayStation 3. From Software's action RPG featured an incredibly high learning curve compared to other modern era games and a rather unique multiplayer format - where players could help…
Game Rant's Alex Sebenski reviews Aliens: Infestation All Aliens franchise video games tend to get a lot of players excited. The series is scary, exciting, and full of action -perfect for a video game. Sega fell a little flat with Aliens vs Predator last year but Aliens: Colonial Marines is shaping up…
For those of you Kinect owners who have been hoping for more than sports mini-games and dance simulators to utilize the 'next generation' of motion controls, there's a good chance that you've heard of Ubisoft's superhero fighter PowerUp Heroes. Even if you haven't been keeping tabs on the game, the…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Battlefield 3 (PS3/Xbox 360) Fans of the series have waited over six years for Battlefield 3, the next installment in the core Battlefield series, the Bad Company titles notwithstanding. Like Battlefield 2, DICE's first game to make use of the Frostbite 2 engine was designed for the PC…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Kinect Sports: Season Two Microsoft's mega-popular Kinect enters its second holiday season armed with an ever larger arsenal of titles pitched at every corner of the gaming market. While Child of Eden and The Gunstringer, not to mention Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's Kinect controls, target…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Pokemon Rumble Blast It's been too long since a new Pokemon experience has been had on a Nintendo handheld, but Pokemon Rumble Blast is now available on the Nintendo 3DS in an attempt to fulfil the collectible monster-related needs of the masses. Rumble Blast is a…
Game Rant’s William Case reviews Tropico 4 There are just some days when a person wakes up and just wants to rule - which is the name of the game in Kalypso Media’s latest iteration on city building simulation (available for the Xbox 360). While Tropico 4’s PC version has…
Game Rant’s William Case reviews A Game of Thrones: Genesis There are a few out there that have yet to experience the beautifully envisioned world that writer George R. R. Martin has devised in his string of books. Now with a syndicated HBO series, the cutthroat roots stemming from A…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews PAYDAY: The Heist It's easy to knock a game for its lack of originality - but what if sticking to a successful format actually works? One only needs to take a quick glance at PAYDAY: The Heist and brush it off as "Left 4 Dead meets a…
Ever since Rocksteady Studios came out of nowhere with their critical and financial success Batman: Arkham Asylum, fans of Batman and third-person action games have been eager to see what would come next. Now that question has been answered, as Batman: Arkham City has taken the basic setting and fundamentals…
As a huge wrestling fan, mixed martial arts and organizations such as the UFC have always appealed to me. The worlds are pretty closely linked (see Brock Lesnar in WWE 12), but I've never really been a fan of the UFC video games because, often, they're a little too complex…
Game Rant's Vivas Kaul reviews Eufloria Earlier this month, Sony started its 'Only on PlayStation' promotion which heralded the arrival of several console exclusive games for PSN such as Rochard and the recently released Sideway: New York. The promotion is dedicated to offering unique content to PSN at a reasonable price…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews NBA 2K12 Though the future of the real 2012 NBA season is currently in danger, the virtual NBA season, as realized by NBA 2K12, is in full effect. After 2K Sports landed a rim-shaking slam dunk with NBA 2K11, many were left wondering where developer Visual Concepts…
Sideway: New York, developed by Playbrains is aiming to change gamer-perspective on platformers. The main draw of this title is that players traverse the environment as 2D artwork on buildings and various other 3D structures. The mix of the two dimensions makes for some interesting and fun platforming puzzles. The…
Game Rant's Robert Keyes reviews F1 2011 UK developer Codemasters has always been a big proponent of racing games and earlier this year saw the release of DiRT 3, a game we very much enjoyed for it's off-road antics and solid gameplay. Now, their new biggest franchise based on the…
The third instalment in Ubisoft's Just Dance series has shuffled onto store shelves, and for the first time ever it's no longer a Wii exclusive. Each console uses a different method of playing the game (i.e. Wii Remote, PlayStation Move, and Kinect), so each version of the game would presumably feel…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Rise of Nightmares Motion gaming has seen some major developments over the past two years, and while the Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation Move made big splashes when they launched, the list of killer apps hasn't been as impressive. So when Rise of Nightmares first appeared, the…
Game Rant's Jacob Siegal reviews Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X HD It is always difficult to look back at games that were so beloved several console generations ago - and expect them to stand up to their successors. We recently reviewed the first of the two Resident Evil HD updates, Resident Evil 4 HD,…
The Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin DLC has been released - adding another fine layer of mythos and intrigue to the story of the Champion of Kirkwall. Many game fans will no doubt count the new content as the best part of Dragon Age II - simply due to…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Forza 4 There are a plethora of racing titles out there. Players can fight for the lead with tortoise shells, drift past their opponents in style, and strive to be the best in collection of make and model. Regardless of how a person decides to…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Rochard It's not very often that a game like Rochard comes out. In terms of gameplay and story everything is very by the book - but that's what makes the title so polarizing. Rochard has a peculiar quality to it, nothing about the game is really stand-out, but…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews NBA Jam: On Fire EditionIf you’ve ever uttered the words “Boomshakalaka” while shooting a piece of wadded-up paper into a trash bin, then you have undoubtedly felt the influence of NBA Jam. A long time staple of the arcade sports genre, Jam was the game everyone…
RAGE, Id Software's latest shooter has released this week. Is it an interesting new franchise from the FPS pedigree developer or does it come up just short of the mark? The truth is, it's kind of both. What do I mean by that? RAGE may be the title of the game…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Spider-Man: Edge of Time Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Which is apparently never star in a successful sequel. While developer Beenox was able to deliver a compelling multi-Spider-Man experience with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, they took a step back with their sophomore effort, Edge…
Game Rant's Andrew Griggs reviews Orcs Must Die! Orcs Must Die! is a new Xbox Live Arcade and PC game developed by Robot Entertainment, best known for hit games such as Halo Wars, Age of Empires II, and Age of Empires Online. Orcs Must Die! brings some controversial twists to…
Game Rant's John Jacques reviews Worms: Ultimate Mayhem The Worms series is no stranger to repackaged content and bundle packages (check out our review of the repackaged Worms 2: Armageddon game). Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is the next opportunity to offer players some mostly pre-existing content. The bundle game combines both Worms…
Game Rant's Vivas Kaul reviews Castlevania: Harmony of Despair The latest entry into the Castlevania franchise titled Castlevania: Harmory of Despair at first glance seems to have all of the ingredients necessary for a fantastic game. The game reunites Castlevania alums from previous entries into the series and players can choose any…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews FIFA 12 As the sport of soccer has grown in prominence, due in no small part to the United States’ performances during the past women's and men’s World Cups, the FIFA franchise has become much more enticing to gamers curious about the fundamentals of the…
I came into Radiant Silvergun not knowing what to expect but, since the game has been overshadowed by plenty of Triple-A October releases, I did some research. Radiant Silvergun was actually originally released in arcades and the SEGA Saturn in 1998, but those versions never saw an official release outside of…
Yes, the third and final episode of the epic trilogy, Hector: Badge of Carnage has been released - and "Episode 3: Beyond Reasonable Doom" brings the entire story to a gassy (maybe that's a good thing) ending. Does the last entry wrap up the story in a delicious bacon wrapped…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection Whenever the question of whether games can be art comes up, the titles cited by the "pro" faction are almost invariably Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Partially, this is because the games themselves occupy a completely…
As the final quest-based DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, "Lonesome Road" has quite a challenge ahead of it. Not only does it have to follow up the exceptionable "Old World Blues" DLC pack, but it's burdened with the high expectations associated with any finale. Unfortunately, while "Lonesome Road" does offer some…
Resident Evil 4 HD is one of two HD re-releases of the beloved zombie/infected franchise, the other one being Code Veronica X HD, however, RE4 changed the way the series was played and became a big influence in all the subsequent Resident Evil games released. Aside from re-visiting a classic…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Red Orchestra 2: Heroes Of Stalingrad Ever since the success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, few developers have attempted to create a game in the World War 2 sub genre. Instead, the focus has been on a more modern day setting. Tripwire Interactive,…
Game Rant's Rob Keyes reviews Gears of War 3 When Gears of War debuted on the Xbox 360 back in 2006, it raised the bar in what the industry came to expect from third-person shooters. Offering incredible graphics with over-the-top, arcade-esque violence and gun mechanics, mixed into an intriguing war with…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews NHL 12 If you're a hockey fan, then there's a good chance that your calendar has already been marked for the release of NHL 12 for months now. While some sports franchises leave fans wondering if each year's installment changes enough to make a purchase…
Game Rant's Alex Sebenski reviews Dead Island Dead Island sparked the interest of gamers worldwide with a beautifully artistic trailer set to an emotional piano track. The game play videos promised a new and more realistic way to fight that would require the player to think more strategically about their…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews The Gunstringer Twisted Pixel's The Gunstringer is the latest attempt to move Kinect gaming beyond the confines of the casual market and into the living-rooms of hardcore gamers. But does this amalgam of rail-based shooter and platformer hit its target squarely, or could it use…
The popular miniature gaming franchise Warhammer 40,000 has spawned a rich variety of products beyond its standard table top game. Despite franchise growth through books, a movie, and games like the Dawn of War series, a quality full fledged non-strategy game has been sorely missing. Warhammer 40000: Space Marine, from…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Hard Reset Red barrels have become a sort of cliche in modern day gaming. It's near impossible to name a modern day FPS that doesn't present players with a handful of enemies and an explosive barrel or two at least once. Rather than try and…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews SkyDrift Much like grandfathers beget fathers and fathers beget sons so does Mario Kart beget the combat racing titles of today. Such is SkyDrift, a downloadable combat racing game that uses vintage airplanes with which to wage carnage. Spread across seven different stages, including online…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Star Fox 64 3D Nintendo is obviously very keen on re-releasing mega-hits from the N64 era on their portable systems, and the latest remake is none other than Star Fox 64 3D. As it currently stands, the Nintendo 3DS is in need of a few…
Game Rant's Robert Keyes reviews Bodycount In an era when every few weeks a new first-person shooter is released, gamers find themselves eager for something fresh, different and innovative. Codemasters and developer Guildford Studio have attempted to do just that with Bodycount, the spiritual successor of sorts to Black -…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Disgaea 4: A Promise Forgotten Level caps that reach 9999, corrupt governmental workers, and the iconic Prinny are all just the tip of the iceberg in Nippon Ichi Software’s and NIS America’s latest JRPG title. Filled with a plethora of returning, as well as new,…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Crimson Alliance. Poised as a follow up to Microsoft's fantastic Summer of Arcade games (and free to gamers who bought all of them), Crimson Alliance arrives as an approachable take on the dungeon-crawling, loot-driven, action-RPG. But does the game, developed by Certain Affinity (Halo: Combat…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Driver: San Francisco By definition, it’s hard to redefine a racing title simply because, at the core of every racing game, what defines the genre mostly stays the same: racing. It’s an interesting challenge for any title, knowing that the fundamentals are constant while the…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon Back in the year 2001 a game was released called The Simpsons Road Rage. While the title was a treat for fans of the TV show (as well as Crazy Taxi lovers), the novelty wore off fast due to repetitive gameplay. To…
Game Rant's Trung Bui reviews Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 2: Senseless Acts of Justice Telltale Games has been on a great roll when it comes to bringing quirky, humorous, and generally great adventure titles to the gaming public. Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 2: Senseless Acts of Justice continues…
Often, it's a good thing if someone is able to laugh at themselves - showing that you don't take yourself too seriously and are comfortable in your own skin. Even if who you are is a very silly, quirky individual who overflows with false machismo. Which would be a fairly…
While the majority of the focus for the past three Call of Duty: Black Ops map packs has been on the multiplayer, the newest DLC, Rezurrection, puts the attention where it rightfully belongs: on the zombies. Delivering only one new zombie map, and four of the zombie maps from World…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Madden NFL 12 With the NFL lockout behind us, it's time to get to the good stuff: furious player trades, fantasy drafts, and best of all Madden NFL 12. Madden has been a longstanding staple -- arguably the flagship -- of the EA Sports lexicon…
Game Rant's Alex Sebenski reviews Hole in the Wall for Kinect Everyone should recognize Hole in the Wall. The ridiculous and awesome Japanese game show turned American. Contestants have to fit themselves through holes cut out of moving Styrofoam walls - or risk being pushed into water behind them. It's…
Do we as human beings have the right to play God, to physically alter ourselves with the goal of overcoming the limitations of our bodies and breaking the boundaries of human potential? In today's day and age, there are people who can walk thanks to prosthetic legs, but what if…
Game Rant's C.J. Smillie Reviews Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition When people talk about the best game in the Street Fighter series, chances are you'll get one of two answers. Older gamers will point to Street Fighter II, the one that truly kicked off the fighting genre in…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Toy Soldiers Cold War Long before there were devices like Atari and Xbox 360, kids would reenact there war-games the best way they knew how: plastic soldiers and makeshift battlegrounds. Digging in the dirt, imagining the bullets and bombs as the toy figurines made their…
Game Rant's Jacob Siegal reviews Fruit Ninja Kinect If you have taken a look at the top 25 section of the App Store any time in the past year, the sight of dismembered fruit is surely nothing new. Fruit Ninja has managed to hold its ground with the iPhone mega-hit Angry Birds…
Game Rant's Anthony Mole reviews Veks and Silence Many Xbox Live Indie titles typically get a bad rap as low quality - in comparison to their Arcade brethren. The stigma is not entirely unfounded - as there is plenty of shovel ware in the Xbox Live Indie section. Luckily for…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews Call of Juarez: The Cartel Giddy-up partners because we’re heading out West. But our destination is not the Old West of the first two Call of Juarez games — you know, the Old West that featured cowboys and Indians — this is the “new” West,…
Game Rant's Steve Pendlebury reviews Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet For all its budget-title trappings, Microsoft's 'Summer of Arcade' initiative has been responsible for some of the best games this console generation has seen. From the rambunctiously audacious Trials HD to the unsettling and atmospheric Limbo, the Summer of Arcade has…
An impressive new flight game by Bulkypix is out now for the iOS and has no problem standing out from other flight titles in the app store. Based on a real life air race event, Breitling Reno Air Races delivers a great flight sim experience with an exciting racing style.…
Game Rant's Ryan Blanchard reviews From Dust Video games as a medium allow users to escape into a fantasy world where the rules of reality don't apply. They can transport gamers to far away locales, place them in the shoes of powerful heroes, or even allow them to play god.…
If you're a fan of trading card games, the name Richard Garfield most likely rings a bell. Garfield, the creator of the popular TCG Magic: The Gathering, teamed up with Hothead Games (Deathspank, Swarm) to create Kard Combat, a trading card game for the iOS platform. You can hang on to…
Game Rant's Ryan Blanchard reviews Runespell: Overture In the sea of available video games on the market, it can sometimes be difficult to find a truly original concept. While generic first-person shooters are a dime-a-dozen, it's refreshing to see a game that doesn't mind trying something new. Due to the…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Catherine There’s no better way to say it other than just being blunt: Catherine is potentially one of the most original and entertaining games to date. It’s hard to imagine how Atlus’ Persona Team came to the notion of blending puzzle-platformer with the real-life implications…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Bastion There's a good chance that several of you reading this have already made up your minds on whether you'll be downloading Bastion to kick off this year's Summer of Arcade. Given the amount of buzz that the game has generated since its full unveiling…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Captain America: Super Soldier Players who follow movie tie-in games based on comic book properties have learned to be skeptical. With several letdowns from both DC and Marvel properties -- most recently the abysmal Thor: God of Thunder -- it's seemed less and less likely…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Captain America: Super Soldier for the Nintendo Wii It’s a well-known fact that games based on movies are a harder sell than most titles out on the market. Combine that with the game being based on a movie - that was based on a comic…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Captain America: Super Soldier on the Nintendo DS The official portable video game tie-in for Captain America: The First Avenger has finally hit store shelves in in the form of Captain America: Super Soldier for the Nintendo DS. Griptonite Games was the studio tasked with creating…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews 'Ms. 'Splosion Man' The follow up to the popular Xbox Live Arcade title 'Splosion Man was finally made available this past week, and it's so much more than just a cash-in on the fan-favorite franchise. Twisted Pixel easily could have just created a few new…
I cry foul on the creators of Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon - some arcane, other-worldly, black magic must have driven the Vicious Cycle development team. How it is possible for a game to be so thrilling and audaciously enjoyable - while blatantly baring all of its numerous inadequacies for everyone…
It’s hard to shake off the thrill of the Los Angeles beat, especially when there are so many crimes to solve. Thankfully, Rockstar Games and Team Bondi have released yet another DLC case for L.A. Noire to feed gamers' desire to keep the streets clean. Dubbed ‘Reefer Madness,’ this case…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Deadliest Warrior: Legends. The original Deadliest Warrior game came out a little while ago, but it surprised many by being one of the few licensed games in existence that was actually fun to play. That's why everyone was so excited to learn that a follow…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews Dungeon Siege 3 Dungeon Siege 3, the newest sequel spawned from Gas Powered Games' original Dungeon Siege title, returns PC gamers to the world of Aranna as well as its political conflicts - and finally brings console gamers along for the ride. This installment, however, was…
Exercising your brain these days is just as important as exercising your body. What better way to start your mental exercise regiment than with Telltale Games' sequel to their mind bending title, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent? Puzzle Agent 2 has series protagonist, Special Agent Nelson Tethers of Puzzle Division returning to…
In keeping with their promise to continue to bring us solid content Treyarch has just released its third map pack , Annihilation for the record breaking game Call of Duty: Black Ops. After putting so much detail into the second map pack Escalation, can the developers at Treyarch top themselves again?…
Anthony Taormina of Game Rant reviews F.E.A.R. 3 While some games in the horror shooter genre have struggled to find the right balance between high-octane action and well-paced thrills, the past two F.E.A.R. iterations have been a perfect example of how to do it right. Though the game becomes bogged…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews Cars 2: The Video Game Following last year's successful collaboration on the markedly good Toy Story 3: The Video Game, Avalanche Software and Disney Pixar have teamed up once again to deliver a game based on the studio's latest big screen adventure. Cars 2: The…
Riley Little of Game Rant reviews Trenched Trenched is that most recent downloadable game developed by Double Fine and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The latest game from the guys behind Stacking and Psychonauts is essentially a brand new take on the tower defense genre — with the big difference…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition Let’s be clear at the very beginning: unless you’re a competitiveStreet Fighter IV player or have yet to pick up one of the installments in the high-quality fighter, then the content the additional Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time originally launched on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, and is heralded by many as the best game ever made. Because of its extreme popularity amongst gamers everywhere, it wasn't a…
Steve Pendlebury of Game Rant reviews Duke Nukem Forever I must admit there was a tangible sense of anxiety as I loaded up Duke Nukem Forever for the first time. Until last Tuesday the name itself was synonymous with the term 'vaporware,' and rightly so. I was an avid fan…
Ben Kendrick of Game Rant reviews Transformers: Dark of the Moon Nearly one year ago, High Moon Studios debuted one of the most enjoyable Transformers games in the history of the franchise (read our review). It was a competent third person shooter with epic boss battles — and the ability…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Operation Flashpoint: Red River It’s a taut wire when a publisher decides to deliver a title that captures the essence of American soldiers doing what they do best. Harnessing the core of realistic combat, the sounds, action, and interaction between squad-mates is not only a…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Alice: Madness Returns It’s been nearly eleven years since we’ve seen Alice return to the world of the Mad Hatter, Cheshire cat, and dreaded Vorpal Blade. Stepping out of the insane asylum into the stark and decrepit London streets now, still struggling with the who started…
There are few great sports titles on the iOS platform. Due to the limitations in control options, it's difficult to develop an experience complimentary to the actual sport. Icebreaker Hockey, from NaturalMotion, succeeds in becoming one of the better sports titles for the iOS by focusing on what does work…
Game Rant's William Case reviews inFamous 2 It's hard to discern what made Sucker Punch's InFamous such a desirable title: its unwilling anti-hero Cole McGrath, the way the Ray Sphere enticed the imagination, or countless hours of additional side quests and collectibles. Then again, it may simply be that you could…
For some reason, super hero movie tie-in games seem to fare better than most other video game cash grabs. I don't know whether this is because the development teams have more passion for these characters or if Marvel, DC and the like expect a certain amount of quality when their…
Game Rant's Anthony Taormina reviews L.A. Noire When L.A. Noire was first teased back in 2004, not many gamers could have predicted what the end result would have been. As the game finally began to take shape, under the care of Team Bondi and Rockstar Games, new ideas were explored…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews The Witcher 2. In The Witcher, CD Projekt Red introduced gamers worldwide to the gritty fantasy world of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. While the initial release of the game had optimization and localization issues, CD Projekt Red did a remarkable job in resolving them. The…
Social gaming is a genre born from the likes of Facebook and mobile gaming, bringing us titles such as We Rule, Farmville and more. Each title comes with their various hooks and themes, though their polish generally wears away and depth falls short. The most recent title of this genre…
Game Rant's J.C. Reeves reviews Splinter Cell 3D In Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D, Sam Fisher is up to his old tricks, sneaking his way onto the franchise’s first Nintendo 3DS entry. The game is one of a many launch titles Ubisoft developed for the 3DS, a handheld that is…
Game Rant's John Jacques reviews MX vs ATV Alive It's been two years since THQ brought us an MX vs. ATV game but does the successor to Reflex succeed in delivering a worthy sequel that can compete with other racers? Read on to find out. (more…)
Fable 3 has almost all the elements of great storytelling and wonderful fantasy roleplay. Magic, legendary weapons, evil monsters, a kingdom to save and even to rule: all of these things guarantee that Lionhead Studios will draw you into the world of Albion once again. Fable 3 released to mostly…
Game Rant's William Case reviews The First Templar After the immense success of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series, to throw in the name “Templar” anywhere in another video game tends to bring the image of men bounding over rooftops, silent kills and church intrigue. It’s somewhat unfortunate that this really isn’t…
Game Rant's Robert Keyes reviews Thor: God of Thunder (Xbox 360/PS3) After several failed attempts by SEGA to deliver a quality video game experience based on Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man films, has their partnership with Liquid Entertainment helped turn the tide with Thor: God of Thunder?…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Super Monkey Ball 3D There aren't very many games currently available for the Nintendo 3DS, and the few that are available aren't all that great. That's why Super Monkey Ball 3D is such a standout for the handheld that anyone will have fun with. (more…)
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game set sail last week, offering gamers everywhere the chance to play through all four of Captain Jack Sparrow's big screen adventures. Is Traveller's Tales latest king of the seven…
Game Rant's William Case reviews Brink. Imagine a world where the parkour-styled free running is able to blend seamlessly with the high-octane action that comes with merciless gun fights, life-or-death consequences, and the need to survive. This is what Bethesda and Splash Damage were trying to accomplish in their new…
MotorStorm Apocalypse is the fourth iteration of the extremely popular MotorStorm franchise, which first made its debut on the PlayStation 3 in late 2006. Past installments have impressed and are a welcomed departure from driving sims such as the Gran Turismo series. Does MotorStorm Apocalypse improve on the excellent predecessors, or fail…
It has been some three months since the release of First Strike, the first map pack offering for the hugely successful Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now available on all consoles and having been played countless times, Treyarch thought it was high time to swoop in and introduce a new…
For a lot of gamers, SOCOM 4 is a long time coming. As the purported return to form for a series that jumpstarted the PlayStation 2 online craze back in 2002, SOCOM, for many, is all about a combination of skill and teamwork. Though SOCOM’s real bread and butter is,…
When it comes to music and dancing, there simply is nobody like Michael Jackson. So with the recent peripheral technology made possible with the PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect bringing players' entire bodies into the experience, it was only a matter of time before a developer brought the legendary performer…
Yes, that is a ludicrously long title for a game, but Hector: Badge of Carnage just doesn't sound as epic. Is this old school point-and-click adventure title originally developed for the iPhone make a smooth transition to the PC market? Yes, it does. It IS a point-and-click game, after all. (more…)
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce Reviews Portal 2 Game Rant's Andrew Dyce Reviews Portal 2 When developer Valve first released Portal in 2007 bundled with the now-beloved Orange Box, gamers' expectations and thoughts for the future were blown clear out of the water. With such a high standard set by the…
Game Rant's Zak Grim reviews Section 8: Prejudice There’s an epidemic in the gaming industry right now with the market flooded with first-person shooters. Game developers see that games like Halo and Call of Duty are cash cows and think that a FPS is the way to make the most…
Over the years, many fighting series have come and gone, eventually losing the spark that drew people to them - as they fade into obscurity. After numerous sequels, all series lose that luster. Whether or not a series is able to reclaim the original fire is what make a truly…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D Ubisoft released quite a few titles during the Nintendo 3DS' launch, and Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D happened to be one of them. This game is filled to the brim with everything that fans of monster battling games (i.e. Pokemon)…
The first game I ever played on my PSP was Lumines. It surprised me just how much what was essentially a Tetris clone could be enhanced with some upbeat tunes. Chime Super Deluxe is an update to last year's Xbox Live and PC music-based puzzler Chime, and manages to keep…
In what's starting to sound like a broken record, SCEA San Diego has come through again with another web gem in MLB 11: The Show. Most of the game modes from last year's version remain mostly intact, but this year's model adds 3D support, a new analog control system, a…
The Red Faction franchise has gone through several evolutions, but its latest game is a true departure from the series' formula. Developer Volition assigned the creation of Red Faction: Battlegrounds to the studio behind the racing series Juiced. Battlegrounds is a downloadable vehicle-based shooter and is meant to build excitement…
Ubisoft's limb-less hero makes his debut on the Nintendo 3DS in Rayman 3D. The title is a port of the original Rayman 2 game that launched way back in 1999 on the Nintendo 64, so anyone who enjoyed the game all those years ago will probably do well to pick…
Developed by Gameloft and published by Ubisoft, Asphalt 3D promises avid racing fans everywhere "thrilling racing with stereoscopic 3D technology." As one of two racing games that launched with the Nintendo 3DS, the latest Asphalt was expected to be a somewhat legit racing game. Unfortunately, Asphalt 3D just isn't the…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars With a very limited launch lineup, the Nintendo 3DS needs some games that make it worth investing in the new 3D system. Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is one of Ubisoft's launch titles for the 3DS, and it's easily one of the…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews the Tomb Raider Trilogy The original Tomb Raider released within months of Nintendo's Super Mario 64. The two of them, in one way or another, laid the groundwork for nearly all the 3D games that have been released in the fourteen years since. Now, on…
The concept of the side-scrolling beat-em-up is considered by some to be a dead genre. Now that we've moved on to the world of three dimensions, old 2D side-scrolling is a laughable idea to some, outside of games with the intent of creating nostalgia or the special innovative indie hits.…
Game Rant's Dominic Licorish reviews Mass Effect 2: Arrival Mass Effect 2 was without a doubt 2010's game of the year, picking up the coveted GOTY award from multiple awards shows and gaming sites, including us. Mass Effect is also quickly becoming a multimedia franchise, with books, comics, and even…
Game Rant's Riley Little reviews WWE All Stars It's been many years since the last arcade-style WWE game was launched, but to the delight of wrestling fans everywhere, THQ has changed that with the recent release of WWE All Stars. The latest wrestling game from THQ is an over-the-top arcade-inspired…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters EA Sports has made a habit in recent years of gaining repeat customers with their numerous sport franchises, from football and hockey to soccer and golf. With Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, the name says everything…
Steel Diver is one of three Nintendo-made launch titles that released alongside the Nintendo 3DS, and it marks Nintendo's first step into the world of submarine simulators. Steel Diver isn't by any means a game that people will by the 3DS for, but that doesn't mean there's no enjoyment to…
Game Rant's Street Fighter IV 3D Edition review co-written by Kevin Pennington and Riley little Let me start my review by saying I’m a big fan of fighting games, so naturally I love Capcom, the Street Fighter series and all that they do. Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition for…
With a plethora of first person shooters out on the market today, how can developers create a game that will stand out from the rest? Crytek Studios answered that call back in 2007 with the original Crysis and have done it again with their latest offering, Crysis 2. In an…
Ever since Nintendogs launched on the original DS back in 2005, people have been half expecting a Nintencats spin-off. But why settle for two different pets sims when you can have them both compiled into one! Nintendogs + Cats is one of Nintendo's launch titles for the just-launched Nintendo 3DS…
The Pilotwings franchise finally makes a triumphant return on the Nintendo 3DS, and it's a little bit different than the last installment on the Nintendo 64. Pilotwings Resort will lure in players with the promise of some enjoyable flying mechanics, fun gameplay, as well as immersive 3D graphics, and for…
The Nintendo 3DS has finally arrived and with it, the next generation of handheld gaming. With glasses-less 3D and graphics that rival that of Nintendo's own Wii console, the 3DS is certainly going to turn some heads and gain a lot of attention. The system isn't perfect however, and this…
Game Rant's Dwayne Holder reviews Slam Bolt Scrappers We've been posting about Slam Bolt Scrappers for a while now, and some lucky attendees at PAX even got some free copies of the game. After playing through it ourselves, we can safely say that the game is as fun as it looks.…
Change can sometimes be unnecessary, resulting in a product that no longer captures what made something great once. This is not the case with Dragon Age 2. The second in BioWare's fantasy-set RPG series goes through a few changes that make the game incredibly fun and accessible to new and…
Game Rant's Jeff Schille reviews PixelJunk Shooter 2 First appearing in December of 2009, the original PixelJunk Shooter promptly became one of the shining jewels of the PlayStation Network lineup. With a post-ending cinematic that showed the game's protagonists swallowed whole by a creature much larger than the boss they…
It's been a few months since Halo: Reach received its last downloadable add-on and that came in the form of the Noble Map Pack. Finally, after over three months of waiting for more DLC, Reach enthusiasts can now rejoice because the new Halo: Reach — Defiant Map Pack is here.…
Game Rant's Jason Weissman reviews Fight Night Champion Fight Night Champion, EA Sports’ newest entry into its popular Fight Night series, promised to be more than just a yearly refresh. Without any serious competition in the boxing genre, EA Sports could have simply made a few minor tweaks to the…
Game Rant's Andrew Dyce reviews Beyond Good &Evil HD When Microsoft revealed that they would be bringing Beyond Good & Evil HD to Xbox Live as part of their House Party promotion, the cult following of Ubisoft's action/puzzler was filled with renewed hope that the series may not have seen…
