PlayStation 3

Downloadable LSD The Datura is a flower native to California, revered by the native tribes of the area as a tool for communicating with the gods. Like Peyote, it was used a psychotropic drug to induce a trance-like, hallucinogenic state for spiritual questing. Now Plastic, the Polish demo group responsible for the 2008 PSN “game” Linger in Shadows has taken the plant and its symbolism, and used it as the dominant element of their first person, Move-based adventure game. Like Journey, this is a bold experiment. Unlike Journey, this one doesn’t succeed. Novelty At The Cost Of Accessibility In many ways, one of the first things that Datura invokes in older gamers is the sensibility of Myst. Like Myst, this is in first person, primarily centered around solving puzzles. It’s got an empty, surreal landscape in which many things are hinted at, but...

Robert Kirkman Is A Proud ManWhen it comes to translating a comic into a game, most properties have had a bad time of it. In recent years, there have been only two IPs that have made the transition with great success. Rocksteady’s Batman series, and The Darkness as stewarded by first Starbreeze, and now Digital Extremes. We can now add a third name to that list, as Robert Kirkman’s fantastic The Walking Dead makes the jump from the pages of Image Comics to the television, and finally consoles and PCs. Despite its transmedia hopping though, there’s no question this game is aimed squarely at the comic fans.Bleak Adventure For The 21st CenturyAdventure games have been on an undeniable market decline since their heyday in the 90s. The old point-and-click mechanics so beloved by Sierra-Online and Lucas Arts fans has fallen out of favor with most gamers, and more importantly,...

The Sword. The Guns. The Trench Coat.There was time when the name Dante was neither confused with a badly executed game based on classic literature, nor was it referred to with a fearful shudder of apprehension because of a possible, badly misdirected reboot. There was a time when you mentioned the name Dante to gamers, and they immediately thought of a cocky, white haired, gun shootin’, sword swingin’ devil killer that cracked wise and broke out into ridiculous, glorious bouts of frenzied, brutal action. This HD pack from Capcom brings us back to those days, and it’s definitely one of the better collections out there.A Rampage Of Red & Semi-Auto BulletsDevil May Cry is, of course, one of the more notable turn of the century franchises, ushering in 2001 with the first, sterling example of how to do fast paced, 3D combat that equalled the old 2D beat em’...

A Story Of TraditionThere aren’t that many “good old JRPGs” out there anymore, but the Tales series from Namco’s Tales Studio—now defunct and absorbed into Namco proper, by the way—has always clung stubbornly to the idea that their formula was cut from a cookie that the audience would be happy to eat up again and again. In light of Square-Enix’s innovations in gameplay at the cost of a compelling story, they might actually be right. Tales of Graces f isn’t going to win any awards as a work of technical genius, but as a cliché ridden yarn that you can’t help but feel guilty for enjoying, it’s a resounding success.Wii Are Moving To Another ConsoleTales of Graces f is actually a port of the original Tales of Graces that debuted on the Wii in Japan back in 2009. It eventually got a PS3 port a year later and that...

Whither Goest Thou, Reiko?Once again, there is racing going on, though with a noticeable lack of ridges (at least in the beginning) and the conspicuous absence of everyone’s favorite vacuous yet pretty girl-mascot, Reiko Nagase. Still, Namco is calling this a Ridge Racer game, despite the fact that it’s not even developed in-house anymore, but instead created by the Finnish studio, Bugbear Entertainment. What do you get when you take an established racing IP known for its unrealistic drifting and give it to Finnish people who are best known for their penchant to create races where stuff gets wrecked? You get an interesting new game that probably deserves to have its own IP.The Ridges Got TaggedThis is not the Ridge Racer you remember. Nothing about this is a sequel in the traditional sense. When Namco handed the reins of the franchise over to Bugbear, those crazy Fins looked at...

I shot a lot of robots. I did it by myself, I did it with friends and I did it with strangers. Each time I did it, it felt good. Whether they came in pairs or in massive waves, I shot them down with increasingly powerful weapons while wearing increasingly ridiculous clothes. The fact that many of the places I shot robots in looked very similar to one another and that the tone of the game I’m talking about so closely resembled one I’ve already played didn’t matter. By the time I finished up Shoot Many Robots my prevailing thought was simply, “what a lot of fun” and that, to me, seems like one of the best things that can be said of a videogame.The game opens with a short introduction to your main character, a man living out of his RV and preparing to defeat the robot menace...

That Special Place. In Hell. Konami continues their Month O’ Horror ™ with the much awaited release of the Silent Hill: HD Collection. Like its cousin the Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection, this game is also missing a critical title, namely the original Silent Hill from the PS1 era, but fans of the series get Silent Hill 3 and, most important of all, Silent Hill 2, arguably one of the greatest survival horror games ever made. The question then becomes, if you’ve already got these two games, did Konami do enough with this collection to make it worth buying them again? HD Grunge As to be expected for an HD collection, Hijinx Studios, the developer handling the porting duties, didn’t just cut n’ paste the original PS2...

Evolution or De-Evolution? When a series has been around as long as Ninja Gaiden has, it can become quite a challenge to keep things fresh. A series needs to evolve and grow in order to keep discriminating gamers and fans interested. Yet, sometimes change is bad, especially when you begin to forget things that made a game great. Ninja Gaiden 3 is the third entry in the modern Ninja Gaiden series that debuted on the original Xbox back in 2004. Ninja Gaiden (2004) was a critical hit and was praised for it's slick visuals and challenging difficulty. In 2008 Ninja Gaiden received a sequel that continued with the story of serial protagonist Ryu Hayabusa. Ninja Gaiden 2's gameplay was centered around completely over the top violence and gore which drew the ire of some censors and with its awkward camera and nonsensical story yawns from some critics....

Closure is a fantastic, innovative new puzzle game which has been released on the Playstation Network. The game is a deceptive platformer, which is actually quite a nuanced puzzle game which experiments with light, and challenges players to approach the game differently than most puzzle games. Puzzle platformers have a certain formula to them, and it’s with that formula in mind that Eyebrow Interactive has created this game which deviates from that formula.There’s no real story mode to speak of in this game, but there are three different levels to tackle and master. Within each of the three levels are various sub-levels or stages, which have players trying to enter a door with their character. Sometimes the door is unlocked, and other times the door is locked, and necessitates players first locating and picking up the key, and then making it to the door...

The conclusion of the Warriors Orochi trilogy, WO3 is going out with a bang. KOEI’s latest game builds on aspects that have made their Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series fan favourites. Full of non-stop action, great story and characters, a great weapon crafting system and endless replayability. The Warriors titles are KOEI’s action games based in ancient China and Japan, following the events of historical figures through endless battles and scenarios, naturally with a degree of artistic license. The Warriors Orochi games bring the characters from both Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors together into one mystical world. The mighty demon Orochi brings together the heroes of the ages in a world made up of sections of the battlefields from both games and corrupted by his power. Warriors Orochi 3 increases the cast of playable characters to 132. The largest roster such a...

The Mob Versus The Undead That, in a nutshell, encapsulates the premise of Yakuza: Dead Souls. Sega has taken the rough n’ tumble gangster soap opera and dropped it into the middle of Romero-Land for a bizarre fusion that is—as expected from a Yakuza title—melodramatic, chaotic, or just downright surreal from moment to moment. It’s an unexpected experiment in departing from the formula that has made this one of the most popular series in Japan. It’s just too bad it wasn’t very well executed in this case. Zombie Otaku The fictional district of Kamurocho—which is a virtual digital copy of the Shinjuku area of Tokyo—is inexplicably being invaded by zombies. As with the previous title, Yakuza 4, Dead Souls takes the narrative mechanic of telling the story through the view of four different characters; Shun Akiyama, who was a main character in the...

Feel the Darkness, be the Darkness. The Darkness II's story picks up a few years after the events of the first game that had the protagonist Jackie Estacado discovering that he could wield dark powers as old as life itself. This power appropriately named the Darkness is a malevolent force with a taste for blood, violence and suffering. Jackie tries to control the Darkness as he wages a one man war against the mafia who foolishly killed his life long soul mate, Jenny, in an attempt to get to him. In The Darkness II it's a few years later and life is okay for Jackie, he's a respected crime boss who's managed to keep the Darkness inside and dormant for a few years, but the pain of loosing Jenny still lingers. Things would appear to on the up and...

Czech Horror Over the last few years, the Silent Hill franchise has undergone quite a few changes. It seems like ever since the radical departure from the series roots that was Silent Hill 4: The Room, the property has wobbled along on unsteady, uncertain feet, trying to get on solid ground again, and only partially succeeding. In recent times “Team Silent” has taken the exit stage right from the series, and developers like Double Helix Games for the 2008 release, and now a move to Europe with Vatra Games of the Czech Republic, have moved in to fill the empty space. This newest game is a mixed—though ultimately positive—step forward for an uneven franchise in need of some good old fashioned dread. Apparently the depressed, conflicted people of Prague, home city of Vatra games and Franz Kafka, do understand dread, and while it’s not quite the same...

Storm is a challenging new puzzle game which relies upon physics-related problem solving in order to complete each level. The purpose of each level is to move a seed along through the level, starting from a tree, and eventually getting to a dirt patch, where it is planted and a new tree grows from it. The levels are split into four major sections, which are patterned around the seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The game is definitely an experience, which takes time and consideration to come up with the solution to each level. The game makes the user utilize rain, wind and lightning to help move the seed through the level, from filling up a gap with water so the seed can float through, to zapping it with lightning to make it jump...

With the release of any sports game belonging to an established franchise, there’s always the question of whether or not the game is different enough from the most recent instalment to merit purchase. With the price of sports games routinely being $59.99 plus tax, and their clockwork release structure, it’s easy for fans to grow resentful of a sports franchise, despite enjoying the games, because how much could the game really be improved in order to merit the new purchase? Over the past few years, each new instalment of The Show has introduced new modes and tweaks, to help ensure that the gamer gets more bang for their buck, and not just slightly more polished graphics and updated team rosters. When MLB 10: The Show came out, it added the Home Run Derby game mode, and last year’s major update was a completely new control system,...

Closure at LastFive years and a whole of licensed products later, gamers have finally arrived at the conclusion of the first Mass Effect trilogy. What started as an experimental RPG science fiction shooter published by Microsoft in 2007 has turned into a flagship franchise for Electronic Arts with novels, comics, statuettes, action figures, social media games and even an upcoming direct to video anime. But when all is said is done, the important thing here is Mass Effect 3 is the close to one of the most beloved new series in this current console generation. It has a lot to live up to. And right up until the final, closing minutes, it does....For fans of the series, this is the last hurrah. Characters, decisions and questions all get addressed here. The story is told with a gravity...

The Name Says It AllReviewing something like Journey is a tough call. Those that are informed enough to have followed its progress already know that this is something special, that it is probably going to win a lot of awards this year. But those same people already know that those awards will likely not be game of the year. While Journey is an amazing experience that everyone should try, it’s also exactly the kind of game that is lost on the mainstream audience that thinks games begin and end with the first person shooter. It is, unfortunately, the game that could have the biggest impact on a mainstream gamer, showing them that games can do more just provide an adrenaline rush - and yet the audience that needs to learn this lesson most is the one that will shun it.A Thousand StepsThe name Journey is both accurate and at...

The “X,” She Is Back Remember the 90s when everything was “Xtreme?” A time when you were a more intense person who lived on the edge simply because you drank Mountain Dew instead of Coke or Pepsi? Are you pining for a return to that youthful time when all that mattered was doing crazy stunts and stickin’ it to The Man? If you are, then you’re in good company with EA Canada, because after a long hiatus, they’ve come back with a new SSX game, and while that rebellious attitude has the unmistakeable sheen of calculated, corporate polish, it still feels mostly like the same old anarchist on a board trying out some new tricks, only one of which doesn’t work very well. I Can See My House From Here EA Canada and SSX have never...

More Lost Hours of Your LifeWhen Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was first announced, there was a lot of potential on show thanks to the big names involved, but there was also a lot of doubt. An RPG in an FPS market? A new IP going up against the current monster, the Elder Scrolls series? Art direction that was colorful instead of dark and gritty? Could this possibly survive in a market that has defined anything successful as needing to adhere to Modern Warfare or Skyrim? The answer, at least in the case of this game, is a resounding yes.Destiny Forgot YouKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning begins with players (after some character creation) finding themselves atop a pile of bodies, and quickly realizing that they are A) the first successful resurrection in a long line of failed experiments and B) removed from the tapestry of fixed, linear destiny as a result....

You Are Not ReadyThese days the word “epic” is often thrown around to describe things that are above average, or just remotely interesting. It is a word that has come to occupy a space slightly above “good” but below “legitimately unique and special.” Everything from a nice shade of pink on slippers to the delightful froth on a well poured mug of root beer can now be “epic.” But there was a time when people used this word in its classic, dictionary sense to describe things that were so far beyond the sphere of normal human experience that they approached the godlike. It was reserved for feats or people worthy of inclusion as myth and legend. While the game as a whole doesn’t live up to the word, the scale of action portrayed in Asura’s Wrath is just that. Epic. I guarantee that this is a game that will...

In preparation for the release of Shank 2, I went back and replayed the original Shank. Doing so made the experience of playing through Shank 2 much more informative, to see how Klei Entertainment tweaked the gameplay mechanics for the new game, updated them, and gave them a new level of complexity compared to the first game.Shank`s story was an intimate one, that focused on Shank’s quest for vengeance after the brutal murder of his girlfriend Eva. The quest featured Shank taking on all those involved in her murder, culminating in a fight against mob boss Cesar. Shank 2’s story takes place sometime later, as Shank heads home, only to find out that terrorists have taken over the area and are terrorizing the locals. As he takes a bus into town, it’s hijacked by terrorists, who Shank must fight off in order to protect the...

The cyberpunk genre is ripe with opportunities to tell stories of a dystopian future overrun by technological innovation; Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner explored what separates a machine from humankind, the Deus Ex series touched on the moral issues of augmenting human abilities. Now, Starbreeze’s reboot to the Syndicate series, besides being the first FPS of the year, tries to follow suit only and finds itself with a mixed but enjoyable final result in the process.During the course of Syndicate’s campaign, the developers behind The Darkness and Riddick’s more successful interactive adventures take players to the year 2069. There are hover-cars, building-sized billboards, dilapidated tenements to fight through, and a sprawling urban future that is one giant, corporate mess. This is a future run by corporations specializing in cybernetics and electronic warfare. It’s because of the DART chip, an invention that allows these corporations to start connecting people to...

The battle between good and evil rages through the ages and now a new generation of hero is needed to continue the fight against the darkness. Soulcalibur V is Project Soul's sixth entry into the Soul series and brings with it some changes to the core gameplay and a new generation of heroes. “Critical Finishes” and the “Soul Gauge”, long time staples of the series, have been replaced by the “Critical Gauge” and a few other mechanics have been changed to bring the series more in line with some of the other fighting games on the market. We're also introduced to Patroklos and Pyrrha, descendants of longtime series heroine Sophitia. Will these new heroes be able to meet their destiny and finally wipe evil from the earth? In Soulcalibur V we travel to 17th century Europe to find out. I know it's...

A Return to Extreme NostalgiaFor many people the 90s represents a time in gaming when graphical resolution and processing power finally let gore and violence be properly conveyed on a screen. It was a time of guilty pleasures—or not—such as Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Night Trap. Twisted Metal, debuting on the original Playstation waaaaay back in 1995, was another example of developers, specifically David Jaffe, realizing, “Hey, look at the crazy stuff we can do in games now!” His gift to the world was this vehicular combat series that embodied everything that was over the top, juvenile and excessive about 90s gaming violence. Well, now he’s come back to the franchise, and the results are mostly in keeping with the spirit of what you remember. And that’s a good thing.Adolescent Darkness in HDTwisted Metal has always been about conveying a certain kind of “forbidden” adult sensibility. In the same...

Crystal Chronicles RevisitedAs with Final Fantasy X, Square has seen fit to do a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, a game which was commercially successful, but less so critically. The original game, while hailed for its high quality graphics, received a lot of criticism for its gameplay, story and most of all, its linear nature. The new game meets all the criticisms heads on, and with the exception of one glaring aspect, largely succeeds in being a better game than its predecessor.Sisters in TimeFinal Fantasy XIII-2 side-steps the characters and story of the original in favor of taking up a new tale. Serah, the hapless sister of protagonist Lightning from the original, is now the main character. It is three years after the events of FFXIII, and Serah has settled down to her new life as a teacher in the seaside town of New Bodhum. Everything is idyllic,...