Review by Zach “Ravious” Best Trackmania² Canyon Developer Nadeo Publisher Ubisoft Released September 14, 2011 Available for PC Time Played 20+ hours (including full beta) Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “As a standalone game, Trackmania² Canyon is a well polished racing game that is distinctly fun to play. It is well worth the value cost-of-entry and will provide hours of fast-driving excitement. Within the Maniaplanet system of creations and community, Trackmania² Canyon truly shines.”
Review by Brandon “Dix” Perdue L.A. Noire Developer Team Bondi & Rockstar Games Publisher Rockstar Games Released May 2011 Available for PS3 (version reviewed), Xbox 360 Time Played Finished all cases, including 3 DLC cases (20+ hours) Verdict: 4/5 Thumb Up One of the best detective games to date…but not quite the stuff dreams are made of.
Review by Jason Dobry Total War: Shogun 2 Developer Creative Assembly Publisher Sega Released March 15, 2011 Available for PC (Windows XP, Vista, 7) Time Played – 55 hours and counting Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “CA learned from its mistakes and made a masterpiece of strategy gaming…Everything is better, and most importantly, not so much because it’s ‘bigger,’ but because they refined and streamlined in all of the right places..” My last experience with Total War was the regrettably mediocre …
Review by MrLipid A Casual Revolution Author Jesper Juul Publisher MIT Press Released 2010 Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “Let’s start with the hype. A Casual Revolution is terrific. A succinct, informative, thoughtful examination of the forces that have been, as its subtitle says, reinventing video games and their players. Oh, and on top of all that, it’s just plain fun to read.”
Review by Steerpike Developer Square-Enix Publisher Square-Enix Released March 9, 2010 Available for PS3 (version played), 360 Time Played 91 hours, 17 minutes, 38 seconds Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “Final Fantasy XIII’s real triumph is its incredibly nuanced, sophisticated battle system. The rest is comparatively standard JRPG fare – not bad, but not to everyone’s taste.”
Review by Jason Dobry Amnesia: The Dark Descent Developer Frictional Games Publisher Frictional Games Released September 8, 2010 Available for PC (version played), Mac, Linux Time Played Finished in about 10 hours Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “Amnesia differs from any horror game I’ve ever played. This isn’t just horror. This is dread, the stuff of nightmares.”
Review by Steerpike Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty Developer Blizzard Publisher Activision/Blizzard Released June 27, 2010 Available for PC (version played), Macintosh Time Played Finished (single player) – about 20 hours Verdict: 3/5 Middlin’ “Perhaps the most important question: will I buy the next game? I will not. And neither, I suspect, will the vast and quiet majority of gamers out there who have no interest whatsoever in Starcraft 2’s multiplayer. The single player game… …
Developer: Piranha Bytes Publisher: JoWooD Productions Software AG Released: August 21, 2003 Available for: Windows Time Played: Finished Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “Imagination is one of the main reasons we play games. As the saying goes, our imagination can contain worlds, but it’s also nice when it can frolic in a place already made whole by other, perhaps better imaginations. It’s a two-way street this imaginative back and forth and the people who create these games know that, or …
Review by Mat C Heavy Rain Developer Quantic Dream Publisher SCEE Released February 23, 2010 Available for PS3 Time Played Finished Verdict: 5/5 Gold Star “Anticipated as much for its storytelling narrative as it has been criticised for offering little but a string of elaborate Quick Time Events (QTEs), the arrival of Heavy Rain has not been a quiet one. Sony have even gone so far as to actually market it with an advertising campaign; …
Review by Mike “Scout” Gust Risen Developer Piranha Bytes Publisher Deep Silver Released October 2, 2009 Available for Windows (version reviewed), Xbox Verdict: 3/5 Middlin’ “I think I feel so let down by Risen’s ending because my first impressions had been so positive, the first half so satisfyingly realistic, especially for a fantasy RPG. Risen had purred along like a nice mid-sized sedan, like a Camry shuttling me around town only to be hijacked out …
Noitu Love 2: Devolution essentially bursts with quality. It’s just a highly professional piece of work, from the actual design of the stages and action down to the quality testing. It feels like a proper commercial product despite the low resolution, occasional screen-tear and the campy old-skool aesthetic. It’s a pick-up and play kind of game that anyone can play but that anyone will almost certainly be someone already considered a (dare I say it – hardcore) gamer.
Review by Matt “Steerpike” Sakey Prince of Persia: Epilogue Developer Ubisoft Montreal Publisher Ubisoft Montreal Released March 5, 2009 Available for Windows XP/Vista, Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3 Verdict: 1/5 Roadkill “Employing to great effect its considerable talent for destroying everything it touches, the team at Ubisoft Montreal has produced in Prince of Persia: Epilogue an even more obnoxious play experience, packed even fuller with infuriating Quick Time Events, gorged even further on unresponsive controls, …
Review by Steerpike Defense Grid: The Awakening Developer Hidden Path Entertainment Publisher Hidden Path/TLC Released December 8, 2008 Available for Windows XP/Vista (version reviewed), Xbox 360 Verdict: 4/5 Thumbs Up “While it tastes great, it is less filling. But for all that, it’s simply a joy to play, and I confidently recommend it.”
Review by Steerpike Developer DICE Publisher EA Released November 12, 2008 (Console); Jan 14, 2009 (Windows) Available for Windows XP/Vista, Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3 Verdict: 3/5 Middlin’ “While it is innovative, and very courageous, it doesn’t hold that much needed glass up to the rest of videogaming and say ‘see? This is what you look like. Aren’t you ashamed?’ It could have, but it didn’t.”
Review by Steerpike Prince of Persia Developer Ubisoft Montreal Publisher Ubisoft Montreal Released December 2, 2008 Available for Windows XP/Vista, Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3 Verdict: 2/5 Rotten Egg “…Prince of Persia is a lazy, careless game, both stubborn and annoying due to clumsy mechanics and constant repetition. It is neither innovative nor particularly fun to play. At moments it teeters on the very edge of greatness, but always it falls back, as though afraid …