Though a little on the lean side in terms of content, Gears of War: Judgment is pretty good… provided you like third-person Halo games. Shooters are the video-game equivalent of jazz music. To some people they seem like so much chaos and noise, and many have trouble discerning the subtleties that distinguish one work from…
Ninja Theory’s inspired reboot doesn’t just revive Capcom’s aging hack-and-slash franchise, it transforms it. In 1893, after writing twenty-four short stories and two books chronicling the life and times of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the final chapter on the world’s greatest fictional detective. However, after enduring ten years of hate mail from…
Though it’s a clever and enjoyable enough way to spend a few hours, The Cave is unlikely to impress anyone who knows how great Ron Gilbert’s games can really be. In 1987, the debut works of two great artists were released: Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction and Ron Gilbert’s Maniac Mansion. Each was a…
Incoherent gameplay, bizarre design choices, and frequent bugs squander much of the potential of this visually and thematically stunning game. Disappointment, thy name is Assassin’s Creed III. Disappointment is a peculiar emotion. I can be angry without first having felt calm, and I can feel happy without first having felt sad, but to be disappointed,…
Although Halo 4 introduces great new enemies, weapons, and environments, 343 Industries ultimately plays it safe with this new chapter by skillfully iterating on the canonical Halo experience. One of the most disorienting experiences a critic can have is liking something, but not knowing why. In the context of video games it’s an epistemological hazard I usually…
Though it suffers from some of the common issues of first-person stealth games, Dishonored’s rich world and engaging gameplay make it well worth your time. I’ve always found extremely frustrating the style of gameplay typically engendered by stealth elements. In games like Metal Gear Solid or Assassin’s Creed, no matter how hard I try, I…
Remakes are always tricky, but Firaxis beat the odds to deliver a phenomenal game with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Even those who have never touched an XCOM game before should give it a chance. Remakes and reboots are a dicey business. Whether you’re painstakingly modernizing a beloved classic for the next generation (see: Black Mesa) or…
At times tightly designed and brilliantly executed, while at other times uninspired and juvenile, Borderlands 2 is an idiot savant of a first-person shooter. On the lawless border world of Pandora, four “vault hunters”—a soldier, an assassin, a brute, and a powerful sorceress—are on a quest to find an legendary alien treasure. Guided by a…
Mark of the Ninja not only perfects the stealth genre, it transcends it, such that even non-stealth-game fans are likely to enjoy its rewarding gameplay and captivating atmosphere. “Fun” and “rules” are two concepts frequently placed at odds with one another, and yet one of the basic truths of video games is that they are…
Whether you view it as a visually evocative action-adventure or as a testament to its creator’s talent and persistence, Dust: An Elysian Tail is a game worth experiencing. Whether video games are “art” is a question that has largely been settled, at least by anyone whose opinion I value. These days, someone arguing that “video…