Category: Uncategorized

Review: Orcs Must Die 2

Recent years have seen the tower defense genre branch off in new and exciting directions. While more traditional entries in the genre, like Defense Grid, hold a warm place in my heart the trend towards splicing hands-on action into the traditional TD has created a chimera of wonderful possibilities, and some might even argue that this hybridization is necessary to avoid stagnation. While it might have been rough around the edges, Defenders of Ardania demonstrated that there are other interesting ways to avoid the set-it-and-forget-it tedium which has long been associated with the genre without fully hybridizing, but I digress.

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Review: Sorcery

Earlier this month I panned Kinect: Star Wars, and I had some harsh words to say about the Kinect as well. Sony’s more traditional attempt at motion control is just as deserving of criticism. Though the Kinect, and to a lesser extent the Wii, both hold the promise of untapped potential and unique advantages, Move’s advantage over the Kinect lies with its more corporeal ‘wand’ form and buttons, and also tends to feel more fluid and accurate than the Wii remote. Yet both of these advantages have been rendered moot for the same reason that the Wii had a reputation for sheltering a glut of shovelware, and for the same reason that Kinect is currently coping with the same stigma. It lacks a killer app.

Sorcery, announced at E3 2010, promised to end the drought of good Move games. How well it has succeeded at doing so is debatable.

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Review: Max Payne 3

Much has changed since Max Payne’s last outing. Nine years have passed. In that time Remedy moved on to hit Alan Wake out of the park and, in their absence, Rockstar Vancouver stepped up to the plate to develop Max Payne 3.

Even more has changed within the game. Max has abandoned his bleak, snowy, noir setting and hung up his trench coat. The trappings that typify the series, though, have remained familiar.

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Review: Diablo 3

It has been 11 years since Lord of Destruction, the last entry in the Diablo series, was released. Now that Diablo 3 is finally available for all of us mere mortals, the question that looms above the incredible cloud of hype is, “does it live up to its namesake?”

The answer is more complicated than I would like it to be.

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Review: Twisted Metal

A new Twisted Metal – I used to wish for that as if such a thing were unthinkable. The name oozed with nostalgia that warmed me like a blanket. And then, without warning, a life-sized SweetTooth ice cream truck rode onto the stage at Sony’s E3 2011 press conference like a stallion delivering a message of hope to everyone who felt as I did.

Now that the game is out, it pains me to say that, though my wish was granted, it may have been granted by Calypso himself.

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Review: Trine 2

For a game to warrant a sequel, two conditions should be true. From a commercial perspective, the original must have been successful enough to inspire the belief that a new iteration would yield a good return for the money and time invested. Secondly, the creators should have a clear vision for how they can improve the experience through iteration.

Frozenbyte’s Trine was a charming, beautiful, fun, and remarkably tight experience. It was one without significant glaring flaws, and it was one that sold well for a quasi-obscure downloadable title. Trine 2 was a sequel worth making from a commercial standpoint, but how could Trine 2 improve upon the ideas put forth by the first game?

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Review: InMomentum [SP]

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a single multiplayer match and therefore cannot comment on the game’s multiplayer. This will be a review of the single player only. If I can manage to find enough matches to inform my opinion on the multiplayer I will post my impressions at a later date.

What initially caught my attention about InMomentum was its similarity to Mirror’s Edge. Both games revolve around a fundamental free running motif, and both games feature very bright and sanitary looking art styles. After having played the game, this comparison holds up in only the most shallow of ways. Read on to find out why.

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