Hurling money at a development team that has been labouring without firm creative leadership for close to a decade now has led to a game that is, in many ways, as disjointed as its world, as rambling as its lead character. In those fragments excellence, confusion, beauty, strangeness, wonder and loss may all be found.
Alex
Past Zelda games empowered players by giving them the ability to shape the world, which is exactly why Skyward's puzzles seem so uncreative in comparison -- they're mostly tied to the game's motion-control input, rather than the inspired tools of Zeldas past. Even the series' day/night cycle has been excised in Skyward Sword, replaced with a binary option (the equivalent of a virtual light switch) used to solve a handful of side-quests in a shockingly small number of locations. The former ability to tinker with so many elements of Hyrule gave this fictional world a certain sense of veracity; in comparison, Skyward Sword comes off as a look-but-don't-touch Zelda museum.
Bioshock Infinite fan art by AlexGarner
Also, did you see this recent blurb about Bioshock Infinite's 1999 mode?
It may be the largest entertainment production in history. More than 800 people on four continents have spent six years and nearly $200 million creating it. The story runs 1,600 hours, with hundreds of additional hours still being written. Nearly 1,000 actors have recorded dialogue for 4,000 characters in three languages. The narrative is so huge that writers created a 1,000-page “bible” to keep the details straight, and the director recently asked a colleague not to spoil moments he hadn’t yet seen. It’s not a movie or a TV series. It’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, the most expensive, ambitious and riskiest video game ever produced.
Resident Evil 6 represents a giant stride forward in the evolution of the series. The development team, led by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, is working tirelessly to deliver the most impressive Resident Evil title ever both in terms of scope and production values.
The next title in the Resident Evil series will build on the heavy action-oriented gameplay of Resident Evil 5, with less emphasis on the survival and puzzle elements of the earlier games in the series. Read on
A fan game that recreates the original Super Mario Bros. and allows you to play it as characters from other games like Mega Man, Metroid, Castlevania, and more!
Here's a preview of the new features coming in Super Mario Bros. Crossover version 2.0! It includes updated graphics, new abilities, and two new characters. This version isn't coming out till Spring, 2012, but you still can (and should!) play the original right now.
pooI was super pumped about Amy - it had an interesting look and concept behind it. Surivial horror that's more about surviving than killing hordes of zombies? Count me in. I loved the Silent Hill series and this game me similar feelings to those titles; a creepy atmosphere, a real sense of dread and a strong feeling of being alone (well nearly). The game also has an autistic girl who has strange powers - you have to work together to solve puzzles, hide and struggle on. The problem is it's a piece of dog shit. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. Read on
Alex
BlogThe Darkness II has been rated MA15+ (legally restricted for sale/hire to people over the age of 15) twice by the Classification Board of Australia, after voluntary re-submission to include a newer version containing a sex scene. Coming with the advice of "strong horror violence, blood and gore, sex scenes and coarse language", the game was not refused classification despite very strong violence. Read on
a large part of Square Enix's marketing plan for Final Fantasy XIII-2 has revolved around the message "This is not Final Fantasy XIII!" During preview events and demos, the developer has been careful to show off all of the new elements that the first game did not have: towns, NPCs, sidequests, and so forth.
Abobo's Big Adventure is a parody game which pays tribute to the 8-bit glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Play it for free in your browser at abobosbigadventure.com.
It could be that Pit is sporting this obligatory Angry American Kirby-like scowl for the upcoming March 23 release of Kid Icarus: Uprising in North America, or it could simply just be that those Monoeyes are just a little bit too close for comfort.
European 3DS owners, don't forget to register your games by the end of the month at Club Nintendo for a free download of 3DS Classics: Kid Icarus.
It's Ico with zombies!
Grindhouse styled Lollipop Chainsaw - creative fusion between Suda 51, James Gunn and Akira Yamaoka.
Alex
In a recent blog post at Kotaku, the question is posed: is Nintendo releasing a 3DS Lite?. A more apt question would be when is Nintendo releasing a 3DS Lite? Nintendo has released updated versions of every single handheld it has ever produced: Game Boy got both a Pocket update and a Light version, Game Boy Advance was retrofitted into a folding SP and later scaled down to Micro size, and Nintendo DS got a sleeker, slimmer Lite followed by an i and an XL. Not counting the six years between the original Game Boy release and Pocket update, Nintendo has retrofitted its handheld hardware within two years on average (GBA 2001, SP 2003, Micro 2005; DS 2004, Lite 2006, DSi 2008, DSiXL 2009). Read on
Matt
An old lady's opinions on Skyrim. Spoilers abound for the Dark Brotherhood quest line.
