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Good science fiction creates future worlds in order to discuss issues important to the present day. Remember Me, an action adventure game set in 2084 Paris, does just this by looking at class disparity through a setting where the rich enjoy access to memory manipulation technology and the poor live in slums haunted by the monstrous cast-offs of this uneven system. This story is the most successful...

Naughty Dog’s Great Experiment Kevin Smith—via Ben Affleck—once said in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, “You gotta’ do the safe picture. Then you can do the art picture.” Naughty Dog has made three safe and very profitable “pictures” with the Uncharted Series. Each title is a familiar, conventional, roller coaster ride that leaves players thrilled and at ease with the world and their place in it....

Another Reason To Break Out The Vita The Vita, despite being probably the best portable gaming unit currently available, is having a rough time of it. The technology is impressive to be sure, and some games, like Gravity Rush and Persona 4 Golden are great games to play regardless of platform, but those games are few and far between. The rest of the time, Vita owners have...

The inclusion of state-of-the-art realism in modern videogames is a tricky topic with many avenues available to development teams keen to push the envelope. Some will burn through millions of dollars ensuring that the latest and greatest shooter to hit the market has the most ultra-realistic environments available. Others will be content with engineering a lopsided museum of modern art and merely encourage...

Mere weeks after LEGO City Undercover debuted on the Wii U to deserved acclaim, Traveler’s Tales has dropped a prequel onto Nintendo’s other system the 3DS. It seems somewhat odd given that the game could so easily have been released alongside its console buddy as cross-platform cross-promotion. However, after spending many hours with the 3D prequel, it’s all too easy to see why there was a delay. The LEGO...

Guacamelee — a game in which a Mexican wrestler can transform into a chicken to reach hidden areas, where he might learn from his mystical goat master how to suplex skeletons in sombreros. Sure, it may sound like someone drank too much tequila out in the hot sun, but it’s also one of the best indie experiences on your Playstation 3 or PS Vita. The creation of...

  Revisiting The Rage The tale of Kratos came to a pretty definitive conclusion with God of War III, but naturally, with a series this successful, it’s hard for Sony to walk away. As a result, we once more travel to the past of the god/family/everyone else killer to get a little more insight into what drives a man to such extremes. Mind...

New Beginnings Reboots have been a pretty big thing in recent years. They have a singular purpose; taking an established property that is well known—and perhaps a tad too familiar to audiences by this point—and going back to the start. Reboots tinker with origins, change details and subsequently perceptions of the property, hopefully also changing the attitude of the audience, making a stale character seem new, fresh...

Real Men Wear Cybernetic High Heels   Hideo Kojima just won’t give up on Raiden. After a somewhat dubious debut as an effeminate, angsty product of child soldier training in Metal Gear Solid 2, the fans cried out in dismay as Raiden took centre stage over Snake. Things took a turn for the surprising when Raiden returned in Metal Gear Solid 4 as...

Sly Is HD AND New This Time Not too long ago, Sanzaru Games treated the gaming world to a pleasant surprise with the HD collection of the past Sly Cooper games. Once another mainstay of the PS2 era, this crime caper based, open world game was full of charm and fun, something that’s been in short supply in the current generation. It turns out that HD port...

Strike Suit Zero demands three things of its players: the audacity to engage in hectic dogfights in a fighter jet that can often seem as if its constructed of tissue paper, a desire to play pretend pilot to the point of overlooking a handful of significant design flaws . . . and, of course, the strong stomach necessary to withstand the motion sickness of air combat. Those with the...

This Ain’t Your Grandfather’s Dante Capcom took a pretty bold chance when they handed off one of their beloved franchises to British developers Ninja Theory. The Devil May Cry series was one of the most uniquely Japanese and hyper kinetic 3rd person action games of the previous generation. With the transfer of the property to Ninja Theory, there was a lot of controversy, and even death threats...

Set ‘Em Up, Run ‘Em Down Zombies may have plateaued in terms of relentless exposure in pop culture, but plateaued does not mean obsolete. It just means that the downturn is beginning, and we’re still in for loads more of the same before the fashion finally wears itself off. Enter Zombie Driver HD, a game that originally debuted on PCs, now finding itself everywhere including mobile platforms...

Labyrinth Legends is the latest game from Creat Studios, a company that used to produce disc based games in the previous generation. If you’ve played Cuboid, Hamster Ball or their variant on Mahjong you’ll know that this is a budget gaming company that wisely backed away from packaged software and brought their wares to the cheaper, digital side of the market. Labyrinth Legends continues this, although it feels like...

Gotham, Take Control There are lot of ports from the 360/PS3 era that are now making their way to the Wii U. Most of them are doing minimal, almost resentful, obligatory tweaks to their mechanics to incorporate the Wii U’s new tablet controller, the GamePad. This new version of Arkham City does not fall into that category. There are a few noticeable additions to one...

Wii Are In America Assassin’s Creed III is looking good on the Wii U, and on the strength of its gameplay alone, it’s a decent buy for the new console. What it is not good at is showing off its strengths as a Wii U specific title. Like many of the ports that are coming over to the Wii U from the Xbox 360 and PS3, this...

Skylanders returns to the skies with some new friends, the Giants. Skylanders Giants, while geared towards a younger crowd, can be a simple pleasure for mature gamers. If you have kids or younger siblings, Skylanders is a great game to sit down and play with them. The controls are easy, the puzzles are simple and the gameplay is straightforward, but its writing throws a bone to adults every now...

It's funny how time works. Between the ages of, say, five and eleven years old I would have been absolutely bowled over by a game that allowed me to play as — or try to survive against — a dinosaur. Now, having experienced what is, strangely, one of the only recent videogames using this common childhood scenario as its premise, I can only assess Primal Carnage on the strengths...

Hitman Absolution is an attempt to roll the tenets of a 12 year old stealth franchise into an accessible package that will appeal to the broad console demographic, while simultaneously delighting the loyal fanbase. IO interactive are certainly not the first developers to attempt this high-wire act this generation, and for the most part, they have been successful, but there’s a lot of inconsistencies that will grate on every...

Assassin's Creed is one of the biggest AAA franchises out there but while consoles enjoy the robust, full featured entries, more often than not handheld platforms get the shaft. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation has ambitions to convey a similar experience to its console counterpart, but ultimately fails in its execution of key mechanics, a well-crafted story, or even a fun experience. A Complicated Lady There...