If there was one genre that truly defined my childhood, it was that of the point and click adventure. Raised on a diet of Sierra and Lucasarts, I’ve always had an overwhelming desire to audibly describe anything I’m looking at, and I remain forever confident that there are no problems in life that can’t be solved by combining two objects from my pocket.
For a video-game character so obsessed with travelling blindly forwards, Sonic the Hedgehog sure spends a lot of time looking over his shoulder. Between the upcoming re-release of Sonic CD, the ongoing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the sidescrolling elements of modern titles like Sonic Colours, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sonic Generations is slightly redundant. Nevertheless, it’s here and pulling no punches about being a celebration of twenty years of Sonic history: even the minimalistic story begins with…
Dark Souls is not the kind of game you can slap a score on and send people on their merry little way. For me, Dark Souls is something beautiful; I feel richer for having played it and having lived through the wretched lows and giddy highs. For others it is a short-lived exploration of extreme frustration, akin to battering one’s head against the wall. The game’s slogan ‘Prepare to die’ isn’t mocking you, it isn’t challenging you to do otherwise,…
“Fuck you Cole!” The moment I said those words was the moment I realised that I was actually involved in the campaign mode of Battlefield 3. I hadn’t been expecting to enjoy the singleplayer story mode at all, in fact the opening levels had nearly managed to stop me from completing it. I had bought Battlefield 3 because of the multiplayer, which is excellent, but the singleplayer ended up surprising me by getting me involved. That isn’t to say singleplayer…
Licenced games have a horrible tendency to be absolute tosh barely worth your hard earned cash, but every once in a while a game like Tintin appears which proves itself to be well worth splashing the cash on.
If a Formula One fan wants a racer that captures not only the passion of the motorsport they love, but the realism that drives it, they only have one place to go. Thankfully Codemasters have nailed both criteria so well, that one wonders if there would be any need for another developer to ever tackle the series.
There is a rule of thumb in gaming, kids’ games and games based on films are usually terrible. Of course there are exceptions to this rule such as LEGO Star Wars and Chronicles of Riddick. Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension, however, is not one of these exceptions.
There are two fantastically obscure simulation games sitting on my desk at the moment which I have been having a play around with. They are FIM Speedway Grand Prix 4 and London Underground Simulator. Hit the jump for some mini verdicts on both.
For over a decade, Serious Sam has been the badass, gun toting, laugh inducing pin-up icon of the first person shooter genre. Settled quite happily in this field, the series has received rather generous reviews, flourished through a committed fan base, and grown from a once PC-only title into to a multi-platform epic. But Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is different. It’s not an FPS.
Coming from iD Software – the creators of the FPS genre as we know it – comes their latest release – RAGE – a game with 20 years of shooting pedigree and some of the most well known figures in the industry working away on it’s innards. No pressure then.