Wish upon a Starwish

Flash game Starwish has only the best of intentions. It combines JRPG style advancement and narrative with shmup style combat reminiscent of Gradius, and endeavors to make an entertaining soup out of them. And while it stands as definite proof

DARK MEADOW and the Monologue Conundrun

We shouldn’t like monologues – particularly in games. Games are about agency. They are about the player acting out its desires. Monologues are contrary to that spirit of agency permeating games. They enforce passiveness and reflection. Above all, monologues are intrusive. Unlike cutscenes, one cannot skip a monologue happening in-game.

And yet here is Dark Meadow! A game that basically works as a one-man show, with a comedian stand-up hoping to entertain our protagonist with his musings via loudspeaker – and it’s captivating!

Tales From The Fireplace – A Trine 2 Review

Tales From the Fireplace – A Trine 2 ReviewMade for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Developed by Frozenbytes, published by Atlus The narrator speaks with a warm, friendly voice. He has a British accent. How could he not? It

Dustforce Review: Cleaning in motion

The question, whenever you talk about Dustforce, is “Is it Super Meat Boy hard?” Super Meat Boy has become the gold standard for difficulty in platformers, so much so that everything has to be compared to it. For instance, I

L.A. NOIRE and the Story That Wasn't There

Hank Quinlan: “Come on, read my future for me.”

In some ways, a game based on Film Noir would be the anti-GTA. Ah, the GTA series! The pursuit of the American Dream! To fight that good fight requires a great deal of optimist, no? The optimist believes the future is within his grasp.

Tanya: “You haven’t got any.”

Noir Films, however, are filled with pessimists who already know that the game they are playing is futile. That what they are playing is actually a poker game of death.

“What do you mean?”

The world is merciless. It’s unforgiving. We are already doomed no matter what we do. In the search of the American Dream, the fall from glory is a surprise; in Film Noir, the surprise would be not to fall from glory.

L.A. Noire isn’t the anti-GTA. It certainly isn’t the gaming equivalent to L.A. Confidential… or Double Indemnity …or even Who Framed Roger Rabbit. L.A. Noire may be many things – but it certainly isn’t Noir.

“Your future is all used up.”

Just won the moon, what else?

Apollo 2 is a Unity-based browser game created by Robert Yang. It can be played here. It was full of gold! That’s what he said. I mean, it wasn’t really gold and he didn’t say anything, not much. He pulled

The Most Dangerous Game: Multiplayer in Assassin's Creed

  The multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed is fun. A lot of fun. The kind of fun that is rare in most multiplayer games and the kind of fun that makes a person want to write an article about it with

Gobbowl Review: An expertly mixed cocktail of sports and strategy

Mixing video game genres is a lot like mixing drinks. You can work with a successfully established mixture like orange juice with vodka or RPG with shooter and likely come out with a hit, but you won’t surprise anyone. You’re

Review: Rock of Ages

Something went wrong here. Let’s not talk about the Terry Gilliamisms. Those are lovely, and why you’ve already played the game. If you haven’t, and you appreciate Monty Python, here is my six word review for you: go watch Life

Rayman Origins is a Roller Coaster Ride

Warning: This review contains detailed narrative spoilers but only moderate mechanical spoilers. Rayman started with a quirky and fun 2D platformer released back in 1995. Then came the 3D sequels, one that was unrelated to the first game but still