Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in BioWare’s epic space opera. The Reaper threat that’s loomed over the first two installments in the series comes to fruition in the opening sequence of the trilogy’s conclusion. Earth is one of the first systems to fall under siege and it is hit hard. Amidst the carnage, we find series protagonist Shepherd doing his best to survive. He’s quickly reinstated by Admiral Anderson and Admiral Hackett (Shepherd was relieved of duty following the aftermath of Mass Effect 2 and its DLC), and he is tasked with unifying the other races in the galaxy in opposition to the Reapers’ attack.
Josh Vollmer Reviews Mass Effect 3
Posted on 15, May
Brian Robbins Reviews Battlefield 3
Posted on 10, May
As Call of Duty slowly and surely dominated the first-person-shooter genre, the veteran series Battlefield was put firmly on the backburner. EA wanted to change that with Battlefield 3. They mostly achieved their goals in trying to take a piece of Call of Duty’s pie. In fact, this game has one of the strongest multiplayer modes around—though if you love playing single-player you may be extremely disappointed. Regardless of what game mode you choose, the gameplay itself still remains tight and authentic.
Michael Wense Reviews Resistance 3
Posted on 9, Apr
Having very few friends, I hadn’t really been impressed with the recent rash of video games boasting cooperative play or multiplayer features. If I were more popular, I thought, maybe I’d like them. But for all the multiplayer action I usually get I might as well have just one PS3 controller. Twenty-five years ago I might have been able to get by with grabbing two Atari joysticks and playing by myself, but games like Pong don’t quite match today’s offerings in terms of challenge or complexity. Also, I was in diapers and didn’t exactly know what my feet were.
Josh Vollmer Reviews Rayman Origins
Posted on 20, Mar
Rayman Origins is the latest in the long-running platforming series published by Ubisoft, and developed by their internal Montpellier studio. It’s also the first game to make use of the UbiArt Framework, a graphics engine that takes a lot of the technical aspects out of creating games with hand-drawn elements. With other engines, artists have to factor in movement and scaling to keep their images from being distorted. UbiArt Framework makes a lot of these factors moot as it handles them automagically, giving artists a chance to focus simply on creating great art, and then allowing them to animate the pieces by manipulating the individual object’s silhouette. The result is a truly gorgeous 2D platformer that may well be the crown jewel of the genre’s recent renaissance.
Nancy McDonald Reviews James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes
Posted on 5, Mar
I got my Nintendo 3DS at the beginning of the year, along with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is my favorite game of all time and, I’ll admit, the only reason I traded in my DSi for the 3DS was to play Ocarina again. While I love Ocarina, it’s also a huge commitment. It takes dedication, and then there are all the little side quests you can do. Then once you’ve completed the game you get to play the “Master Quest” version. Needless to say, I got my sword and shield at the beginning of the game and…. That’s as far as I got. I wasn’t prepared to dive into a game that I knew would consume my life for the next several weeks. So I began my own real life quest to find a decent 3DS game that I could pick up, play for an hour or so, and then tuck away without going into withdrawal. That game was James Noir’s Hollywood Crimes.
Eight Games to Watch for in 2012
Posted on 20, Feb
With 2011 (a.k.a. the year of Skyrim) behind us, it’s time to start looking forward to the great games that will define 2012. From the apocalypse and killer fungi to floating cities and foul-mouthed fourth graders, here are eight titles to look forward to over the coming months.
