As previously gushed about, Zen Studios makes a mean pinball -- and with Pinball FX 2 they really raised the bar in titles that in my opinion surpassed their efforts with Zen Pinball on the PS3. Since PFX2 is more a platform for pinball than just another game, it was a nice surprise to see that new tables were coming out so quickly after the release of the engine, and the first four tables released fall under the banner of Marvel Pinball. Available as a standalone release on the PS3 but coupled with Pinball FX 2, Marvel … [Read more...]
Splatterhouse Review
Any gamer around in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s may remember the Splatterhouse series, you know the Friday the 13th mask wearing protagonist named Rick who has to rescue his girlfriend Jennifer from the evil Dr. Over 20 years have passed in the real world and apparently it was time for a reboot of this franchise which was among the first game to feature a parental warning due to excessive violence and gore, and remember this was 20 years ago when graphics were a lot less detailed than they are now. Once … [Read more...]
Call of Duty: Black Ops Review
Earlier this year, gamers everywhere bemoaned the apparent nasty divorce of Infinity Ward and Activision, thinking that surely the Call of Duty series was bound to wither on the vine. Treyarch had served as an "off year" developer for the Call of Duty games, but Infinity Ward was always the king. So went the theory, anyway. Considerable angst thus surrounded the development and release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which was always slated to be a Treyarch-developed title, but now seemed even more subject to scrutiny. With … [Read more...]
Namco Museum Megamix Review
Game collections seem to be quite commonplace these days, as a sucker for nostalgia they always seem to call me. Also not too new to the fray is remaking titles, and adding a modern twist such as the excellent two games in the Pac-Man Championship edition series. Namco hit two winners with those games, and I had some excitement when the Namco Museum Megamix showed up at my door. That joy was short lived however. Megamix features a grand total of 24 titles, six of which are subtitled as Remixes of classic games and the … [Read more...]
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Review
Assassin's Creed is another series I've had a love hate relationship with. I was impressed by the scale and scope of the original game, but was left feeling quite disappointed in the monotony of the gameplay. I was intrigued by the premise of a person from the future going back in time via repressed memories to learn and extract information, so when the sequel came out I was interested enough to give it a shot, and was very happy to see that the issues that plagued the first had been mostly rectified. Then the third … [Read more...]
Rock Band 3 Review
I'll admit it outright, I'm a Rock Band geek. I never thought I would be one to spend money almost monthly to get more songs to play in a video game, but here I am with a substantial library of Rock Band songs to play. Rock Band 2 was a great update to the game, and everyone knew that Rock Band 3 needed to elevate things somehow. Some evolution happened with the Beatles title, including harmonies and the much needed countdown timer after a pause during a song (gleamed from the Guitar Hero franchise) - so those were a … [Read more...]
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review
Castlevania has had a tough time in the past when trying to make the jump to 3D graphics, and I along with most out there were a little hesitant seeing a new title making the move to 3D environments. But as footage was making its way around world and people started to get some hands on time, things started looking promising. Sadly we've been inundated with God of War titles and clones, and even Lords of Shadow was poorly lumped into this knock off genre by almost everyone out there, myself included. After diving into … [Read more...]
James Bond 007: Blood Stone Review
Seeing as it's going to be a while before we see the next James Bond movie, it's no surprise that the worlds most famous spy should make a quick pit stop on home consoles in an entirely new adventure. Written by Bruce Feurstein, the man who penned the GoldenEye screenplay and was at the helm of Tomorrow Never Knows, this 007 adventure is in capable hands and it shows as the storyline could very easily have been from the next movie. The title starts with Bond having to prevent a bombing taking out the top twenty world … [Read more...]
DJ Hero 2 Review
I absolutely adored DJ Hero when it came out last year, it was a change to the storied 'Hero' franchise that was a required breath of fresh air. After countless iterations and critical missteps in the guitar and band based games, it was refreshing to see Activision create something so familiar, but also outrageously new and intriguing. Yes, the musical select was very different than what other rhythm games have been churning out and it was not likely to have much crossover appeal - even myself despise the styles of … [Read more...]
Mafia II Review
A couple of years back, I embarked upon a self-imposed mission: to bring back the spirit and style of the 1940s and '50s. I began wearing a tie to the office every day. I bought a fedora and brown derby, and made sure to wear one of the two Monday through Friday. I even bought a trenchcoat, for crying out loud. All I needed was a tommy gun and I'd have been eligible for digitization in 2K Games' era-dependent game Mafia II. Minus the Italian accent, mind you. If anyone was made to eat this game up, it was me. I love … [Read more...]