Should Games Reexamine the "Super Soldier?"

  Few tropes are as prevalent in the action game as the super-soldier. While early shooters didn’t even bother to explain why the player character could absorb a dozen bullets, the last decade has seen more and more games try

Retelling Nier Replicant into Nier Refrain

  (Warning: complete Nier spoiler, head to toe.)   NieR isn’t particularly well liked by the critics. This commercial failure also didn’t manage to save the studio from dissolving, and the game is likely to be forgotten. For good reasons

Assassin's Creed 3 is true, speculation is permitted

It’s hard to decide whether to praise or berate Ubisoft for putting out an announcement for AC3 with nothing more than a release date (October 30th) and the news that it’s been in development for three years. The fact that game announcements can even happen like this especially coming from a company that could afford twenty seven marketing departments if they were needed is truly surprising. Whether you’re Half Life 3 or Primal Rage 2, it doesn’t make sense to announce a new product without at least something for people to look at or some news to get excited about even if it’s teaser trailer with some simple motion graphics of the game’s title or juicy details like, “Assassin’s Creed 3 will feature a third hidden blade hidden in the new protagonist’s boot!” Everyone already knew AC3 was coming out this year, but it just seems like the inevitable kickass trailer we’re going to get at E3 this year has been soiled by this squeezed-out fart of an announcement.

That said, it’s a few days later and we’ve had time to calm down.

The 5 worst things from Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 did not deserve the highly positive response it received. The game is flawed at every level. Sadly, our love of its predecessor has blinded us to the ME2’s many problems. This post examines the five worst elements.

This is the final part of my four part series on the flaws of Mass Effect 2. The first post in the series was about the awful characters. The second examined the hellishly bad decisions in the game’s design. Part three enumerated 20 instances of terrible writing in Mass Effect 2.

These are the 5 worst things from Mass Effect 2.

5: All geth are good geth.

I would like to bring to your attention the codex entry for the geth from Mass Effect 1. Please note the last line:

“It should be stressed, however, that in all forms the geth are universally violent creatures.”

Let’s talk about why suddenly making the geth mostly good-guys in order to teach us a hackneyed lesson about sapience was a terrible idea.

Why Doesn't Valve Spill The Beans On Episode 3?

There’s few things us gamers anticipate more than a big game release. It starts when you first see and hear about the game, and you make a mental note to keep an eye on it. A few trailers later, an

Fighting in the Neighborhood: What Guerrilla Games Can Teach Us About Sympathy

In March 2011, a game called Homefront was released. You may have heard of it. It was THQ’s attempt at joining in on the fun in the modern shooter genre. It was also a dull experience that relied on holding

You are the main character in Fire Emblem Awakening

Details on the new Fire Emblem for the 3DS have been scarce after Nintendo revealed it during their 3DS conference last year, but Jump finally gives us a clue as to what the game is about. Fire Emblem: Kakusei, or

Dofus Review: A pretty gem with one too many flaws

I’m just going to start with this. I hate the standard MMORPG gameplay. I hate cool-downs, auto-targeting, and watching arrows curve to hit me because the shooter’s accuracy stat defeated my agility stat. I often look at games with a system like this and wonder, “Why don’t they just be honest and make it turn-based? It’s all decided by ability scores and dice rolls anyways.” Dofus, while quite enjoyable in many ways, has made me eat my words on that opinion.

A Muddled Fountainhead

Some of the greatest works of art were inspired by mythology. Michelangelo’s David and the entire complex of Angkor Wat were both inspired by legends, stories and religious teachings. Nothing resonates like stories divined from a culture’s pantheon. They’re great

GGJ 2012 Melbourne(2) – 25 no 24 hours left no tiem for spell check ohmyg

(Part 1 here)   Sunday Spent the night dreaming that I lost my ability to walk, could only roll in circular motions. Breakfast consisted of cereal and coffee. Ate some coffee ground too. Running out of space on paper, just