BioShock Infinite does what the BioShock series does best, weaving a thrilling narrative into a rich and captivating world. Like any medium for artistic expression, video games can allow us to experience fantastic new worlds that entertain and inspire us. Unlike most other mediums, though, games also allow us to interact with those worlds. This…
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…
We’re well into 2013 (actually, it’s about 4% over at this point), and that means somehow I made it through another holiday season. That previous statement is a bit disingenuous… saying “somehow I made it through” implies that I didn’t knowingly leverage my other responsibilities (such as work and home repair) to escape from the…
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,…
One of the problems with writing game reviews is that the process compels you to rush through each game as quickly as possible, so that you have an opportunity to share your opinions on a title while most people are still talking about it. While I enjoy having an excuse to tear through in a…
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…
October has been a hell of a month. First of all, on October 20th I completed the Extra Life 24-hour gaming marathon, and (with the help of some very generous friends) raised $1,462 for Boston Children’s Hospital. Other exciting events included catching a debilitating stomach virus during which I literally lost a week down the…
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…
The following is an account of my squad’s activities during the first 6 hours or so of gameplay of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. A remake of the classic PC strategy game, XCOM asks you to command an elite international task force defending Earth against a mounting extraterrestrial invasion. Pretty much everything I’ve written here is exactly…
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…