Onelargeprawn
Ezio’s back, and this time he’s brought Altaïr with him in another fun-filled, stabby romp around around Europe. This time, Ezio takes us to beautiful Constantinople (now it’s named Istanbul). Is the outing to Constantinople any better than the picnic in Rome? Do we prefer renaissance Turks to renaissance Italians? Let’s go exploring to find out.
It’s not been that great a year for fans of arcade-style racing, with only a handful of titles like Dirt3, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, and Mario Kart 7 vying for our attention. Of course, no year in arcade racing can be complete without a game from the seemingly interminable Need for Speed (NFS) series.
When you think of Need for Speed, you are reminded of thrilling arcade racing with great looking cars and even better graphics. Plot is almost always inconsequential. From face value, it would seem that the latest NFS title (and 18th title in the series), Need for Speed: The Run, has all the hallmark qualities one would expect from the franchise. But something in the machinery is horribly broken. The Run misfires in a quite a few places and didn’t give me the thrill ride that it had promised. Find out why after the jump.
Movie tie-ins are a dime a dozen, and every popular film gets a dumpster-load of merchandise to go with it. So, if you already have your Happy Feet Two™ lunch box, juice bottle, poster, book tie-in, promo plushies, and McDonald’s™ toy, and you’re still wondering what to spend your tie-in budget on, there’s also Happy Feet Two The Video Game, reviewed after the bit that says “Continue Reading”.
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is an arcade air combat game, and the latest in the Ace Combat series, a collection of video games that has a history stretching all the way back to the Playstation 1 and into the video arcades of yore. Find out if the game is any good or whether it crashes and burns in a smoky fireball of metal and pain, after the jump.
If you ask a PlayStation 3 owner what their favourite action adventure game is, chances are high that they’ll yell “Uncharted!” even before you’ve finished the question. Naughty Dog, creators of the Uncharted series have managed to marry the shooting, platforming, and puzzle-solving elements with cinematic action sequences and great storytelling to craft games that leave a lasting impression.
It’s this love both from Naughty Dog and fans of the game that have seen the past two titles, Drake’s Fortune in 2007 and Among Thieves in 2009 pick up many accolades, including game of the year. The game’s protagonist is everyman and treasure hunter Nathan Drake who happens to cause all manner of mayhem wherever he goes. Be it the lush jungles Amazon basin, or the chilling height of the Himalayas the cocky Drake always seems to get the girls and finds the treasure that he seeks. His latest outing, however, is a departure from the norm. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is more of a serious affair, with Drake making more personal discoveries as opposed to material ones. Find out more after the jump.
Every kid has a favourite super hero. Every adult male still does. While there are many who rate the man of steel from planet Krypton, tons who love the steel-clad Iron Man, and even a few who worship that not so jolly green giant, the incredible Hulk (between me and you… he’s not that incredible), I have always been a massive fan of Spider-Man. There are two things that sold me on the arachnoid homo-sapiens: his constant witty wisecracks, and web-slinging between towering skyscrapers. Unfortunately in Spider-Man: Edge of Time, only one of those was present and in a form that only annoyed me. Continue reading and find out how I unraveled the good and the bad in this web.
After months of hype and fanciful trailers taking stabs at Call of Duty I’m not sure I’m man enough to take the fall if this review goes horribly wrong, and the fans of either franchise aren’t quite in agreement with my opinion on the matter. So let’s see if Battlefield 3 amounts to endless hate mail, or fabulous love letters. If I’m lucky, I might just dodge a bullet. The full review after the break.
The Ratchet and Clank series has been going since 2002, and from the first, the little duo has captured the hearts of platform gamers across the galaxy. The series has always primarily been about the insane weapons, and the dynamic duo afterwards. I’d go so far as to say that the series should ideally have been called Weapons of Ratchet and Clank instead. The latest game in the series, All 4 One, is now available, and adds a new twist to the game: 4-player local and online co-op. Does it work? Does it detract from the fun of the series? Let’s find out.
Hard, difficult, frustrating, troublesome, tough, problematic, arduous, herculean, vexing, trying, backbreaking, grueling, challenging, tricky, rough, rocky, baffling, fractious, and down-right embarrassing [Ed: You forgot ‘soul crushingly infuriating’]. These are all synonyms for Dark Souls. In the Oxford English dictionary under the word ‘difficult’, the definition simply says; ‘Dark Souls’. I have never played anything like it; it’s unique. At first I used all the above words and many unprintable ones to describe it, often at the top of my voice and sometimes through my teeth, hissing in frustration. But with time I gradually found other words for Dark Souls; reward, respect, learn, skill, elation, win, gratifying, gain, reach, advance, make headway, satisfying, enjoy, rise, and earn it! Find out how Dark Souls beat me down, tore me a new one, and then slowly built me back up and won me over… after the jump.
Top-down shooters…who DOESN’T love them? Much in the same way that ghosts and pellets are the main dietary source for yellow blobs that only know one sound effect, shoot-’em-up games have been a staple of video gamers since before video gamers were called that. This particular genre been somewhat in decline in recent years, and I’ve become thoroughly sick of Geometry Wars and Super Stardust HD. So it was with pure pleasure and frisson that I picked up Beat Hazard Ultra. Find out just how much of a blast it is, after the hyperspace jump.