PC

Here’s a game that should make all those obsessive-compulsive gamers very happy for countless hours on end. For the others, A Valley Without Wind is still a decent game and a pretty fun platformer. The basic story is, after the apocalypse the world of Environ is in ruins and only a brave few souls with special powers can help save what’s left of humanity. There’s also the problem of rebuilding civilization, and defeating the evil overlord thus bringing peace to the shattered land. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Into this backdrop, the player controls a “glyphbearer”, a person possessing ability to use great magical power. The game plays out in standard Metroid-vania fashion. It’s a 2D sidescroller with intricate levels, many abilities and varied enemies to fight. It might seem very basic but there is a surprising level of depth and difficulty...

No Longer Prototypical Prototype first came on the scene in 2009 and went head-to-head with inFamous for the crown of “super-hero-open-world-sandbox-game.” It was a fight that it ultimately lost. Fast forward three years later, and now Prototype 2 craters onto the scene all by itself, with a new hero and enough angst to choke even a hormonally starved Twilight fan. It’s also had the benefit of seeing what inFamous 2 did nearly a year earlier when updating its super heroics for a sequel. Unfortunately, lessons have not been learned. A World Where Everyone Is Horrible Alec Mercer, anti-hero of the last game, is now a full-on bad guy, seemingly responsible for another outbreak of Killer Tentacle Virus in New York, and the massacre of one Joseph Heller’s family. Heller, the new anti-hero, has just one goal; make Mercer pay. From the start to...

Some of the most impressive horror films of the last 20 years have not been the resSome of the most impressive horror films of the last 20 years have not been the result of big budgets. Massive blockbusters (and two movies that, embarrassing or not, I found extremely chilling when I first saw them) like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity were both made by passionate and thrifty filmmakers who understood that no amount of lavish special effects can ever achieve the level of terror that the human mind creates on its own with just a little bit of prompting. Jasper Byrne’s Lone Survivor, a game made by one designer without the benefit of publisher funding, understands this, too. Like the best entries in the Silent Hill series, Lone Survivor knows that the most frightening experiences take place in our heads and, much like...

Addicting. That is a nice simple way to sum up this game. I sat down one morning to start playing the game so I could get a feel for it and the next thing I knew it was night. I’d lost a day to a deceptively complex yet incredibly fun little space combat game, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.Space Pirates and Zombies (SPAZ) is a top down RTS with exploration, research, trading missions… and zombies! It’s not what you’d call your average space shooter. It has a lot in common with many of the old classics like Star Control and Space Rangers and similar games. You explore the stars, gathering resources, working with or against the main factions and basically trying to strike it rich.Combat is a main focus of the game and it’s wonderfully done. There are various size classes of ship and within each...

I would recommend Vessel not just to anyone who enjoys a more cerebral gaming but to those that enjoy videogames in general. It's that good, and that charming.The debut title and personal brainchild of Strange Loop Games’s John Krajewski , Vessel is the sort of game that only comes along once a year. It’s a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania adventure that shows off a complex mixture of tight gameplay, quirky story-telling and is overall, a testament to the rock solid indie development that went into it.Creative The main quest follows your playable character M. Arkwright as you guide him through a story, which, although interesting, has its highs and lows. What’s not in question is the presentation, which is so delicately and thoughtfully portrayed it helps to keep you invested in the narrative. You’ll feel like every pixel of this game was perfectly planned. The puzzles from...

The Tribes series has been around for many years, the first iteration dating back to 1998. Now, 14 years later the developer may have changed (along with the business model), but I'm happy to say that Tribes is back! This latest iteration, titled Tribes: Ascend, is developed by Hi-Rez Studios, is completely free to play and is poised to breathe new life into a series that fans thought might be lost forever in development hell. Fly Like an Eagle Tribes: Ascend is a futuristic Sci-Fi first-person shooter, but what's sets this game apart from other multiplayer shooters is the lightning quick pace of matches and the sheer variety of gameplay that can be found from match to match. Like most other multiplayer shooters, Tribes: Ascend features persistent character progression, various game types, and several classes to choose from. Unlike other shooters, Tribes: Ascend also features lightning...

Grimrocking it old school. Legend of Grimrock is a great game from Almost Human Games available now on Steam and Good Old Games. It harkens back to the old classic games of yesteryear, like Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Hack. Classic dungeon crawlers where your party of four explore the dungeon from a first person perspective, moving along a grid based map. You have to overcome varied enemies, solve fiendish puzzles and traps, and try to make your way through the dungeon.While the game might have its roots in games of the past it’s managed to keep quite up to date. The graphics of the game are beautiful. The level design is gorgeously done with intricate detail everywhere, down to the last mossy cobblestone. Enemies are full of fine detail that gives them an almost lifelike appearance.The lighting effects are amazing. Your party should always have at least...

Hack, Slash, Loot is a new Roguelike game on the market by David Williamson. It’s an attempt to give players a throwback to the classic days of gaming with an old school graphical feel to it. Unfortunately, while the graphics may be charming, the game itself is rather terrible.I’ve been playing Roguelikes, well, since the original Rogue some hundred plus years ago. I’ve tried countless games out there. Naturally, not everything will appeal to everyone, but there are some things to consider. One of the key aspects is a sense of balance. This game has none.HSL is literally designed to have you die. Constantly. And while there are other Roguelikes out there like Iver Vehemens ad Necem (better known as IVaN) that are designed to be an incredible challenge and even makes the game harder the more powerful the player becomes, HSL is hard because of poor design.First off,...

The name of the game has a double meaning. A hard reset is shutting something down completely before turning it back on. In the game the player is essentially doing the same to the various robotic enemies they encounter. Of course, it’s also the reaction some people might have to the challenge this game presents. Shutting off the game in frustration to try again later. The dark and gothic future where humanity is beset by killer robots is nothing new. We’ve seen it in countless games, movies and books. But Hard Reset does do a beautiful job of putting you in such a world. While it may not be original, it certainly is nice to look at; if you like the dark and grimy world where humans struggle to survive against a relentless foe. Hard Reset plays much like the old classic shooters. There are...

It’s very difficult to review Dear Esther using the kind of standards that would apply to the average videogame or, for that matter, even the average film or book. That’s because it doesn’t really belong to any of these forms of traditional media. It isn’t interactive enough to be a game and too much so to fit into either of the other categories. Since the plot and the sense of exploration that goes into Dear Esther is so instrumental to the impression it makes, it also doesn’t seem possible to go forward with writing the rest of this review without putting a big fat warning up front: play the game first. Whether you think it is good, bad or even a videogame at all, Dear Esther is worth your time if you’re willing to take part in a fairly successful experiment in videogame narrative. Though it will...

Your Name In Garbled Lights It’s getting to the point where it’s difficult to say anything about a Sims expansion because the audience for this franchise is so well defined that everyone has their minds made up. The fans are going to go out and buy the new content regardless, and the skeptical will continue to remain just that. Having said that, with the latest addition, Showtime, The Sims 3 adds some new professions, a new town, and, dips its toe back into the online realm in a much more cautious fashion than the failed Sims Online game that ran from 2002 to 2008. Showbiz In Simlish The various expansions for 2009’s The Sims 3 have done everything from allowing people to finally see their Sims at work, to just creating more stuff to buy and decorate homes with. Showtime continues the trend...

History — especially ancient history — is always made up of a hazy mixture of record and myth. Rather than try to gloss over this fact, King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame embraces it, resulting in a strategy game full of gleefully absurd historical fiction and a personable mixture of British legend, truth and original invention. In developer, Neocore Games’ version of the Arthur myth, ancient Britain is populated by very normal men and women, but also wizards, ghosts and armies of monsters taken from the pages of Celtic myth. The game is set after the highlights of the Arthurian legend have already taken place: Britannia is united, Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table have been founded and the Holy Grail has been recovered. Instead of allowing the story to rest here, at its logical conclusion, King Arthur II has the Once...

Swear To Me When Batman: Arkham Asylum first released in the summer of 2009, it had a lot going against it. Rocksteady was a largely unproven developer, and there was a long legacy of terrible games based on comic properties, with Batman himself being one of the more visible examples. The naysayers and doubters—myself among them—were all proven tremendously wrong from start to finish, as the game showed itself to be not just a top quality game, but a loving, accurate rendition of the Dark Knight that just felt right to both hardcore fans, and casual acquaintances of the Batman property. Now, two years later, Batman: Arkham City has, in some ways, even more going against it; incredibly high expectations, and the dangers inherent in any sequel following up a big success without falling into repetition. It succeeds. Gotham’s Time Has Come Batman:...

I’ve never wanted to be a city planner — but then again I’ve never wanted to be a Marine, a ninja or a plumber, and videogames have made those jobs fun enough. A lack of passion for zoning issues, the creation of virtual economies and management of public infrastructure (vote for me in the next municipal elections) made for a few ounces of trepidation as I went into reviewing Cities XL 2012, a city-building simulation. Yet, somehow, on the other end of it I gained an appreciation for the game as a niche experience with a lot of love for its subject matter. It’s important to note that Cities XL 2012 is, essentially, DLC for Cities XL 2011 — a title that looked to fill the void left behind by Will Wright’s Sim City series (which hasn’t had a proper iteration since 2004 or even a spin-off...

Writing a review of a game like Battlefield 3 seems a little bit like spitting into the sea: you may be doing your part, but it doesn’t seem like it will change much of what’s already going on. Chances are, those who have already decided to buy DICE’s latest shooter will be buying it, and those who plan to pass it over will pass it over. That’s okay, because in the end, BF3 is the kind of game that gives players back exactly what they put into it. The campaign mode, as in most multiplayer-focused FPSs, is something like a tutorial merged with a tech demo. Gone from Battlefield 3 is the kind of Catch-22 by-way-of M.A.S.H humour that characterized the series’ other current gen entries, Bad Company 1 and 2. In its...

Don't you hate orcs? They're smelly, disgusting, beastly creatures who wish nothing but death and destruction on us humans. They attack in large numbers and leave nothing but blighted earth in their wake. From Tolkien to Warhammer, orcs are vile evil hordes that will step over their own mothers (do orcs have mothers?) just to taste some of that tasty man-flesh. So when the crew at Robot Entertainment says Orcs Must Die!, my reply is an enthusiastic “Where do I sign up?”. Some orcs just need killing. Orcs Must Die! is the first original title from Robot Entertainment, after having worked on both Halo Wars (X360) and Age of Empires Online (PC). The premise is simple: your mentor is dead and the orcs are attacking, so it's up to you—a young, brash, and arrogant sorcerer’s apprentice—to defend the “rifts” and keep humanity safe...

Fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of books (or of the first novel’s recent HBO adaptation) are usually drawn into the author’s world through the appeal of political intrigue and feudal warfare. Half the fun of A Game of Thrones is in watching the intricate manoeuvrings that go into defining an invented history that says as much about our own world’s past as that of Martin’s fantastic creation. So, it follows that a videogame of thrones (ha!) should allow players to feel some of the thrill of its source’s rich layers of manipulatory diplomacy and large-scale combat. A Game of Thrones: Genesis developer Cyanide has certainly tried its best to incorporate these elements in the world’s first foray into videogames, succeeding in some cases while failing in others. Genesis, like its source material, is concerned more with the...

It isn’t really possible to start off a review of The Binding of Isaac without mentioning two things: the pedigree of its developer and its setting. The game comes from one half of Team Meat, Edmund McMillen, and, like his studio’s breakthrough, Super Meat Boy, Isaac is a throwback to old-school game design mixed with irreverent humour and a stomach-turning (but ultimately charming) visual style. So, then, the setting: a nightmare series of basement rooms that the player navigates by controlling a sobbing five-year old named Isaac. See, Isaac’s mother is a God-fearing woman who hears the voice of her lord and, like all God-fearing people, does whatever it takes to obey. At first God is vague, instructing her to keep Isaac pure from corrupting influence. She takes away his Gameboy and stuffed animal. God isn’t satisfied — so she strips Isaac down...

The WWII fad is long gone. It used to be you couldn't walk two feet in a game store without coming across some type of game set during one of the darkest periods of human history. Now, most developers have moved onto the greener pastures of “Modern Warfare”. As with any fad, there is a point where everyone's into it, but once the dust clears and people move on, it's only the hardcore who remain. Hardcore people like those employed at Tripwire Interactive. These developers eat, sleep and breathe WWII, so it's no surprise that Tripwire has created on of the best simulations of mid-20th century combat ever seen on a PC. Kids, this isn't Call of Duty and it sure ain't Battlefield, this is what real warfare was like. This is Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. Red Orchestra 2 covers both...

Viva la Isla de Tropico! Congratulations, El Presidente, you've been re-elected. As the leader of the banana republic known as Tropico, it is up to you to build your island empire into a tropical utopia. While maintaining basic living conditions for the residents of your island you'll also have to contend with the various political factions on the island, as well as keeping the international superpowers happy, less you find Tropico surrounded by warships. You may not have guessed it, but unlike the previous games in this series, Tropico 4 actually features a story this time around. You play as El Presidente, a dictator who wants to bring peace, civility, and profit to the small nations of the Caribbean. The story I speak of is played out across the game's 20 missions. Each mission will task you with working your island and its populace...

Arrgh mateys, have ye grown board with life on the lan? Well then set sail for the Caribbean and pirate days of yore in Pirates of Black Cove. Pirates of Black Cove is a blend of two familiar genres mixed with a healthy dose of salty seawater from the scallywags at Paradox Interactive. You play as one of three pirates in quest for plunder and the title of Pirate King. There are all sorts of mysteries for you to explore, and several missions to undertake as you try to become the saltiest scallywag in all the seven seas. Pirates of Black Cove provides and excellent mix of adventuring and strategy. You'll find yourself sailing around the Caribbean while collecting items and trading cannon fire with various other ships. Additionally, once you decide to enter a port the gameplay changes almost completely. Entering a port...

In Puzzle Agent 2, you play as special agent Nelson Tethers of the F.B.I.'s Puzzle Research Division. Essentially, the Puzzle Research Division is like the X-files for crossword junkies. After wrapping up the Eraser Factory Case which took place during the events of the first Puzzle Agent game, Agent Tethers is ready for a nice long vacation… except there's one loose end that's troubling him: the whereabouts of former factory foreman Issac Danvers. The F.B.I. has closed the case, but Agent Tethers can't seem to let it go. Determined to tie up the loose ends and mark the case as solved, Agent Tethers returns to the sleepy, snow-covered town of Scoggins, MN. Will he be able to find Issac Danvers and the rest of the missing Scoggins townsfolk, or does the evil Brotherhood, a gnome worshiping cult, have other plans for the ambitious agent? It...

Magic: The Gathering has been around for many years. I was first introduced to the world of powerful spells, big beasts, and deadly dragons during my middle school days and have had an on again off again relationship with the game. Not being much of a tournament player I would often have a very hard time finding matches. That was until I saw Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers make its debut on PSN. I instantly fell in love with it and was really impressed that developer, Stainless Games, had succeeded in capturing the mechanical genius that is Magic: the Gathering. There wasn't much style or flash but the mechanics were solid. Fast forward to now and Stainless Games has just released the 2012 edition of Duels of the Planeswalkers with new decks, match types, a complete visual overhaul and most importantly the mechanics I have come to...