With XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis and 2K Games were faced with a challenge greater than an alien invasion: taking a blockbuster AAA game and converting it to an iPad. I loved the idea, but wasn't sure if such a thing could be done. After playing through the iOS version for myself, I can say that the essence of the original is fully intact.
At first glance, The Last of Us embodies the tired nature of gaming at the end of this generation. It's a third-person cover shooter with zombies (or as the game calls them, "the Infected"). Perhaps the only genre more thoroughly exploited in the past few years is the modern military first-person shooter.
While it would be easy to dismiss Naughty Dog's latest as simply an "undead Uncharted," The Last of Us does so much to separate itself from its predecessors. This is the most mature title to come from the Santa Monica studio, and not simply because of the violence and gore on display. Even in the confines of such a familiar genre, The Last of Us dares to challenge many modern gaming tropes. The end result is a journey that is as thoughtful as it is exhilarating, and easily stands as Naughty Dog's best work to date.
More than most other series in Nintendo's library, Animal Crossing is iterative. Since its Gamecube debut, each installment has made very minor tweaks and improvements to the last, culminating (so far) in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. This one's twist on the familiar isn't quite enough to make the experience feel completely fresh, but the friendship simulator is still a welcoming place to while away some time.
Tetris is one of the ultimate universal video game pleasures. Everyone knows how to play Tetris, some can even claim to master it. Either way, it's fun to play in just about any incarnation and EA is aiming to bring out people's primal competitive instincts with a new iOS version of the classic puzzle game. Tetris Blitz offers up enough of a bite-sized chunk of the game to scratch the normal Tetris itch, but the gaggle of in-app purchases prevents it from setting a high score.
I can only imagine the difficulty that comes in creating a debut title meant to launch a franchise. How much do you hew to genre tradition, versus putting your own mark on the new arrival? Fuse is Insomniac's first bounding step into both multiplatform development and what it hopes to make a series. It answers this question by crafting a likable game that is rendered slightly unmemorable by its adherence to popular trends.
For the sake of full disclosure, I never played the original Sanctum. The 2011 title from Coffee Stain Studios was one of the first games to blend together the tower defense and first-person shooter genres. But you don't need to have a full knowledge of the series to appreciate what the Swedish indie developer has created. Sanctum 2 offers a superb shooting experience, though one that's meant more for friends than solo players.
Firaxis and 2K Games have been busy with Apple's iOS platform. On top of Haunted Hollow, the studio behind XCOM: Enemy Unknown has released another free-to-play game for Apple's mobile devices. This one comes from Sid Meier and ventures to the days of World War I. Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is a turn-based strategy game that mixes in enough RPG elements to make you want to fly beyond the free-to-play horizon.
It's been more than three years since Metro 2033 launched, so developer 4A Games has had quite a bit of time to polish and tweak its follow-up, Metro: Last Light. The result is a shooter full of chilling atmosphere and hair-curling intensity, but plagued with niggling head-scratching moments and glitches that keep it from being brilliant.
The sequel returns you to post-apocalyptic Moscow where nuclear winter and radiation still keep everyone underground in the world's largest fallout shelter, the city's subway system. The player returns as Artyom, the hero of the original game who is still on the trail of the mutant, but sentient Dark Ones. The political drama is ramped up significantly this time, with a story that shows that man has learned little from almost being wiped off the face of the planet once. The player must sort through the intrigue, while asking the cliched question of who is the greater monster in a world of man and mutant.
You often hear the expression "Christmas in July," but this is the first time I've seen Halloween come in May. That appears to be the case in the latest 1v1 turn-based strategy game for iOS from Firaxis (XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization V) and 2K Games. Despite its odd release window, Haunted Hollow proves to be charming and engaging, even managing to overcome many typical free-to-play tropes.
It's difficult to describe a game like Hiversaires. The debut game from solo developer Devine Lu Linvega dips players into a nocturnal, ambient environment shrouded in mystery. And it's mystery in every sense of the word, thanks to a completely minimalistic presentation. It's sure to entice curious explorers seeking to unravel wide-open environments piece-by-piece, but it's also just as likely to turn off anyone that needs any sense of direction.
Soul Sacrifice fails to live up to its potential. The debut effort from veteran producer Keiji Inafune's new studio could have been something truly special, but it ultimately compromises its vision. The story is half-baked. The combat is a chore. Worst of all, the one truly remarkable and unique feature of the game, the notion of sacrifice, is hobbled to the point of meaninglessness.
Andy Schatz's IGF award-winning Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine is all about staying in the shadows and avoiding detection. In fact, it's succeeded almost too well, remaining out of the spotlight since it first took the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF 2010. After years of tireless work and dedication, Monaco has finally been released and like a fine French wine, it was worth the wait.
Monaco is a game centered around the heist. The idea is to infiltrate various facilities within the famed principality, making sure to avoid detection from guards, alarms, and dogs. After absconding with the area's loot, players must find the best way to escape and return to their getaway vehicle that awaits them at each level's start point.
If we're honest with ourselves, we can admit that most games are silly. Even the ones that purport to take themselves very seriously are often rife with ludonarrative dissonance, when interaction doesn't match the gravity of the plot. Far Cry 3 was one recent example, but its offshoot, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, doesn't shackle itself anywhere near that level of seriousness. Instead, it strips away the artifice and revels in utter absurdity, all the while retaining the harmonious gameplay systems that helped Far Cry 3 stand out in an overcrowded shooter market.
I was not a fan of the first Dead Island. I thought Deep Silver's zombie-killing adventure was filled with uninspired tasks, ridiculous characters, and more technical glitches than you could shake a barbed wire stick at. That's not to say I found the game to be an irredeemable mess, because it did have some interesting ideas--ideas I had hoped to see shine through in a more-polished sequel. Dead Island Riptide is not that sequel. Rather, it's hopelessly crushed under the weight of the same problems that bogged down its predecessor.
Injustice: Gods Among Us presented NetherRealm Studios with a unique challenge--step away from the franchise that made you famous and apply that same magic towards the DC Comics pantheon. The makers of Mortal Kombat were more than up to the task, adopting a whole new fighting system, while simultaneously refining several elements first introduced in 2011's MK reboot. The result is a fighter that will resonate with devoted comic book aficionados, as well as diehard fighting game fans.
It would have been easy for NetherRealm to rely on the classic Mortal Kombat formula, however Injustice is structured more to resemble a more traditional fighting game, doing away with MK staples like the run and block buttons. Quick button inputs are still required for combos, but the truly quick player can juggle opponents and continue working them over even after they've been slammed to the ground.
"So...what am I supposed to be doing?"
More than any other thought, this was the phrase that echoed through my mind during just about every moment of Defiance when I wasn't actively pursuing a quest. It's an MMO, but it doesn't include most of the tropes we've come to expect from the genre. Namely: a goal. In place of traditional elements like social interaction and leveling, we get a shooter sandbox that is extremely laissez faire about what you do with your time. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on what kind of player you are.
Following the release of Castle Crashers, The Behemoth was riding high as a stalwart of the 2D old guard. It had produced a beat-em-up that lovingly paid homage to its predecessors and injected it with a dose of Monty-Python-styled inanity. Nearly five years later, the studio has finally produced its follow-up, BattleBlock Theater. It leans less on its roots, and while greater ambition gets the better of it, it's hard not to cheer on more of the developer's spirit.
The ability to boil down a game's premise to an elevator pitch can easily do it a disservice. Guacamelee has been called Metroid-vania with luchadors, a description Drinkbox hasn't exactly shied away from. But that description, and its pun-y title, make the game seem more like a gag, and gags don't have longevity by definition. They're an object of fleeting fun, and the game is much more inventive and lasting than this glib explanation would suggest.
Fishing is a tough endeavor, one that isn't as easy as it looks on TV or in the movies. Homer Simpson once had an idea to dump a plugged-in bug zapper into a lake and it resulted in a whole lot of easy-to-catch (if somewhat high voltage) fish. That's a ridiculous idea. Yet it's not as ridiculous as some of the heavy artillery that's used in Ridiculous Fishing, the latest iOS title from Vlambeer (Super Crate Box), Greg Wohlwend (Puzzlejuice), and Zach Gage (Halcyon).
With BioShock Infinite, developer Irrational Games has the daunting task of creating an experience that is as engaging as its genre-defining predecessor, BioShock. Through its fleshed-out characters, believable performances, and thought-provoking themes, Ken Levine and company have created an emotional roller coaster ride that's not unlike grabbing onto a Skyline.
After a short recess, I have reconvened with Gears of War: Judgment to try out the game's multiplayer modes with full servers. While the single-player mode was disappointing with a less-than-compelling story, confined stages, and questionable AI, Epic Games and People Can Fly have given the traditional Gears of War multiplayer formula somewhat of an overhaul. The result is something that feels familiar, yet fresh and enjoyable, even if there's a fresh stench of DLC in the air.
One of the most distinctive new features of Judgment's multiplayer is a new character management feature. Players now get to select which characters they get to enter the multiplayer arena with, creating a distinctive avatar of their own. They start off with Baird, but can gradually unlock new skins and costumes over the course of the single-player campaign or by accomplishing certain feats within multiplayer. Skins for various weapons can also be unlocked the same way.
Uber Entertainment's Super Monday Night Combat has retained a devoted following amongst PC circles. Beyond its varied gameplay style, it's also built a recognizable world blending together elements of a dystopian future with Team Fortress 2-style humor. Now Uber seeks to expand that universe through an iOS autorunner called Outland Games.
Heart of the Swarm is arriving just in time to save StarCraft 2. After three years of experimentation it is only recently that players have truly solved the game. The so-called meta-game (the growth and shift of popular strategies over time) has finally stagnated, and most dedicated players know the best build orders and exactly how to respond to certain threats.
HotS promises to mix up that paradigm for at least a couple of years. The new and tweaked units that Blizzard has brought into the fray have an outsized effect, and actually manage to change the feel of the game in substantial ways.
While many StarCraft 2 fans are all about the intense, competitive action of multiplayer, there is a single-player campaign that evolves the story of the ongoing conflict between the Terrans, the Protoss, and the Zerg. The newest Heart of the Swarm expansion focuses on Sarah Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades, and her ongoing hatred of the Terran Dominion leader Arcturus Mengsk.
God of War: Ascension is a return to Sony Santa Monica's familiar hack-and-slash action series. However, with God of War 3 raising the bar so high and closing the book on Kratos' journey of revenge, Ascension sorely lacks the marvel of the previous games. With little new territory to cover, players are placed in an all-too-familiar journey, with Kratos once again violently dismembering anything in his path.
"This is great to see, other than minor gripes I can't wait to get my hands on this version. ..."
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