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New Super Mario Bros. 2 – The Verdict

New Super Mario Bros. 2 – The Verdict

Mario’s back, Peach has been kidnapped, yadda yadda… you know the drill. If you want a one line review of the game, then there you have it. If you want more, then New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a largely soulless retread of a game you’ve already played several times, with the few innovations it does attempt appearing both ironic and superficial at the same time.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is another 2D Mario game and a sequel to the DS and Wii games that all share the ‘New’ moniker. It’s telling that this hasn’t been updated, partially because ‘New New Super Mario Bros.’ would be grammatically awkward but also because all three games are near identical. The set up is the same as always — Bowser and his Koopalings have stole away with Peach, and Mario must pass through several themed worlds, conquering all the platforming challenges in his way to save her.

Carrier Command – Hands On Preview

Carrier Command – Hands On Preview

One of the first games I ever laid my hands on as a child was Rainbird Software’s Carrier Command. It came bundled with our state-of-the-art Atari ST and from the very first time I loaded it up I was hooked. Providing a futuristic naval simulation, it took place in a beautifully rendered 3D environment, in which you commanded a technologically advanced naval carrier in attacks on gorgeous tropical islands.

Ok, perhaps my memories of the original’s graphical prowess might be a little out of touch with reality, but despite its dated looks, much of what made Carrier Command unique stands out even today. A fully open world with hundreds of miles of ocean to explore. Customisable units, open-ended objectives and a challenging AI to defeat. It was up to you to craft your plan of attack, and defeat could easily come to the unprepared.

Our Week in Games – Week Five

Our Week in Games – Week Five

Gamescom has been and gone, but perhaps the biggest news of the past week broke yesterday with the closure of OnLive. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me as I never really got the feeling the service was going to make it by itself, and without the backing of a console manufacturer it was doomed to fail. A new company seems to have been formed, but time will tell what really happens with the cloud gaming service. If that business talk is too much for you on a Sunday afternoon, hit the jump to read about our week in games.

Flibble – The Verdict

Flibble – The Verdict

Flibble. It’s a word with many uses, and Zayne ‘Zed’ Black manages to cover pretty much all of them in his outlandish new release, Flibble, released for PC on Monday 13th August.

The Flibbles are in peril. Scattered across their planet by evil forces, they now hide in gigantic mazes where they cower from terrifying bat-things and ghost faces. Their only hope is a passing space-wanderer who they summon to their rescue by shooting him down with a space-missile.

Makes perfect sense.

London 2012: The Official Videogame – The Verdict

London 2012: The Official Videogame – The Verdict

What better time to post my review of London 2012: The Official Videogame, than the day after the closing ceremony? If you want to get a taste of the Olympics once again without watching everything once more on BBC iPlayer, you can always try out the game, but you will be missing out on a large number of sports. The game features 46 events from 13 sports, pretty stingy when compared to 304 events from 36 sports that we just witnessed over the past couple of weeks. London 2012 clearly doesn’t quite match the real thing for events to take part in, but the bigger question is, are they any good to play?

Interview With Two Kyle’s On Little Inferno and Tomorrow Corporation

Interview With Two Kyle’s On Little Inferno and Tomorrow Corporation

The team behind new indie developer, Tomorrow Corporation, features three massive names in the world of independent gaming: Kyle Gabler, Kyle Gray and Allan Blomquist. The three of them are currently working on a game called Little Inferno which appears very exciting. I had the chance to ask the two Kyle’s a few questions about the forming of the development team, and about Little Inferno itself.

Interview with Timo Gerken From Ubisoft About The Settlers Online

Interview with Timo Gerken From Ubisoft About The Settlers Online

Earlier in the year I gave my thoughts on the newly discovered Settlers Online. Since my first impressions article The Settlers Online has had its official retail launch and has gained considerable interest from all over the world. With the new-found popularity and new direction I thought it was about time we heard some more from TSO. I managed to pose my questions regarding the new direction for The Settlers to the friendly looking chap in the picture Timo Gerken, the ‘Worldwide Active Game Manager’ for Ubisoft.

Kevin – What made you want to bring The Settlers to a browser-based setting?

Timo – Looking at the current changes in the video game market, The Settlers Online was a logical step to expand The Settlers universe. Ubisoft is always looking for ways to reach new customers by expanding into new territories like the online market. This includes releasing strong Ubisoft brands such as The Settlers and Silent Hunter in the free-to-play arena.

Spelunky – The Verdict

Spelunky – The Verdict

Spelunking is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the exploration of caves, especially as a hobby.” It is also the cover story that Bruce Wayne used in Batman Begins when he was acquiring equipment to explore the ground beneath Wayne Manor to create his Batcave.

There is a slight theme here: exploring caves. This is what you find yourself doing in Spelunky, a hit PC-indie game which was recently released on the Xbox 360 via the Arcade. Having never played the original computer version, I eagerly bought the game on the Xbox, prompted by the passing mention of the real world hobby in the aforementioned Batman movie. I will say this, I have never played a game quite like Spelunky, it is certainly unique and it is very, very good.

The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard – The Verdict

The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard – The Verdict

If there’s one thing I love about Skyrim it’s that it gives the sense of a deep and real, living and breathing world with meaningful consequences. There are various different stories to delve into, different paths to choose and even random chance encounters with a troll or necromancer that could potentially take you halfway across Skyrim on a quest for glory. Dawnguard is the first available DLC from producers Bethesda and adds to this world by deepening your characters story and environment even more.

Having sunk around 125 hours into my original Skyrim playthrough I thought I had more than had my fill of being dragonborn. But after an absence from the game of around three months, Dawnguard has reminded me of my love for the game and made me realise just how much I had actually been missing it. Certainly I had exhausted almost everything my original mage could do, but Dawnguard gives me a good excuse to start afresh with a new class and gives me the chance to do any quests I missed the first time around. Besides I wanted to try out that awesome looking new crossbow and become an evil vampire lord and my goodie two-shoes mage just didn’t seem like the kind of person to do this.

Richard and Alice – Preview

Richard and Alice – Preview

Games journalists are a funny breed. They spend so much of their time judging and critiquing those lovely little bits of art and code, that the inevitable happens. The thought streaks across the mind, “I could do better”, and sometimes, they do. Richard & Alice is such an attempt, from the journalistic minds of Lewis Denby and Ashton Raze, and is shaping up to be something rather special.

The snow is deep in the future. Set in a world of massive climate-change, R&A is a point-and-click story of a story, told through two sets of prison bars. Ex-military man-of-decency Richard, caged for an undisclosed breach of rules, suddenly finds the opposite cell occupied for the first time in a long time by the mysterious and distant Alice. Caged for murder, what follows is a series of flashbacks into Alice’s past – surviving the eternal winter plaguing the world, the evil and desperation that has become the norm, and protecting her slightly hyperactive 5 year old son from all of the above.