In Hollywood, the concept of the 'star vehicle' is established, from
Pretty Woman to The Scorpion King, but in games we've rarely seen it
(unless you count The Chronicles of Riddick or perhaps the endless
sports branding.) So, it's odd to see it sneak in as an expansion pack
to Dragon Age II. This DLC should really be called "Roleplay with
Felicia", as it introduces a new team character voiced by internet star
Felicia Day. (Who also appears to have acted as that same character in a
Dragon Age fan film elsewhere, by the way, and for whom the word
"sassy" was invented.)
Once downloaded, the pack can be accessed from your character's home in
Kirkwall; click on the strange statue in the back room and it triggers
another tall tale from your partner / henchdwarf Varric. Thoug
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It delivers scorching multiplayer, fitting of its decade-long pedigree
of famously expansive big-team battles, but stumbles over a generic
single-player campaign that feels like a different game.
While DICE may not deliver a memorable story here, it doesn't need to
when Battlefield 3's online warfare raises every bar imaginable,
delivering one of the best multiplayer experiences of the year. I doubt
Battlefield purists will complain much about the campaign, honestly; I
know you're enlisting in this battle to bring down entire armies online. From the beaches of Kharg Island to the hills of Damavand Peak,
Battlefield 3's multiplayer maps provide an immediate sense
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I was stacking books on a shelf in my house in Whiterun, one of Skyrim's
major cities, when I noticed a weapon rack right beside it. I set a
sacrificial dagger in one slot, an Orcish mace in the other. They were
on display for nobody but me and my computer-controlled housecarl,
Lydia, who sat at a table patiently waiting for me to ask her to go
questing. The chest upstairs was reserved for excess weapons and armor,
the bedside table for smithing ingots and ores, the one next to the
Alchemy table for ingredients. I'd meticulously organized my owned
virtual property not beca
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A video game's first responsibility -- arguably its only responsibility -- is to show the player a good time. To say that Saints Row: The Third
is a good time would be a severe understatement. Running naked around
the fictional city of Steelport wiping out rival gangs with
mind-controlling octopi provided some of the most fun I've had this
year. There may be a tendency to dismiss Saints Row as a Grand Theft
Auto clone (it isn't) or as juvenile antics (it is) but when you just
want to indulge in some mindless violence and sexual depravity, this
will more than suffice. Saints Row the Third takes you out of Stilwater, the setting for the
first two games, and drops you into the new city of Steelport. Three
local gangs are well-entrenched, but the Third Street Saints aren't
going to se
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Sometimes reviewers can't see the forest for the trees. When I finished Batman: Arkham City,
I immediately cataloged what I thought it did wrong. It tossed in too
many villains and didn't flesh them out, it clearly tried to replicate
the Scarecrow stuff from the first game and didn't do it as well, and
Batman still moves a bit stiffly when simply walking around. When I
formed the list, I found myself disappointed with the game. But the days
rolled on and I couldn't stop playing -- in fact, I only wanted to play
more. The hundreds of things Batman: Arkham City nails outweighed my
nitpicky problems. I realized Batman: Arkham City is a brilliant game --
a brilliant ga
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Trading in gunpowder kegs and fields of wheat for missile turrets and high tech underwater algae farms, Anno 2070
brings the popular civ-building strategy series into the modern era
with a much-needed twist. With humanity recovering from a global
ecological meltdown that leaves much of the world's land and vital
resources now well below sea level, you now have to weigh out both the
environmental and economical impact of your actions as you build out
your budding archipelago empire. While the fresh sci-fi vibe had me
hooked from the get-go, it's the shades of depth 2070 adds to the
franchise's already elaborate gameplay that makes the ebb and flow of
expanding my ever-struggling civilization so captivating.
In Anno 2070'
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From the moment you first log in, Star Wars: The Old Republic
puts you in the mindset of a star-hopping badass. The opening
cinematic, where the Sith appear out of nowhere and reclaim Korriban,
introduces you to the conflict between the Empire and the Republic. Then
you choose which faction you're going to play for, and another
cinematic sets the tone of your alignment. For Empire players, the focus
is on power, control, and anger. The Republic cinematic portrays a need
to take back what's lost through planning and tenacity. The cinematics
are spectacularly com
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Who said that epic and expansive fantasy RPGs had to have subpar
gameplay? For as much as I absolutely adore games like Fallout 3, Mass
Effect 2 and Skyrim, gameplay in those titles simply didn't live up to
the amazing standards set by their superb settings, narratives and quest
structures. In Fallout 3, VATS was simply an excuse for its inherently
clumsy combat, and for as much awe as Skyrim instilled in me, in-game
fighting is sloppy. Good news, then, that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has come along. Reckoning proves once and for all that great role-playing experiences
don't have to sacrifice what matters most i
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The PC version of Alan Wake
has followed a long, twisting path and occasionally fallen off cliffs.
Remedy's action game – its first since Max Payne 2 – was initially
announced for Xbox 360 and PC. The PC version was later cancelled for dubious reasons,
and marketed as an Xbox 360 exclusive title when it was released in
2010 for Microsoft's console. But the desire to put together a PC
version never died out at Remedy,
and in late 2011 the studio re-announced Alan Wake for PC, which
includes all the same content
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People love to hate it, but the Call of Duty franchise is successful
for a reason. No other first-person shooter has the same flair for
visual spectacle in its singleplayer campaign, and few can match its
utterly addictive multiplayer. While Call of Duty games have become
formulaic at this point, as evidenced by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
3's muddled narrative and at times frustrating design, Infinity Ward
and Sledgehammer Games have refined and polished the Modern Warfare
experience to produce the best of the series with the third installment.
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A trine is a group of three. It was also a clever 2009 puzzle
platformer starring a trio of adventurers, each with specific talents.
Lucky us, now we have a sequel, Trine 2, that offers more fun physics-based challenges, more beautiful vistas, and adds online multiplayer to the mix.
The first thing I noticed about Trine 2 is its stunning visuals. Each
scene, from forests to caves to lazy beaches, shines with rich detail
and startling lighting effects. There is always something amazing to
distract you. Trine 2 easily makes for one of the prettiest games of the
year.
If you played the first Trine, you'll find a very familiar game here.
Players run from left to right through fantasy spectacles, surmounting
obstacles and slaying a few goblins along the way. You have three heroes
at your disposal: a wizard that can conjure blocks and
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Ridge Racer is known for supporting every system launch window under the
sun, but this is perhaps a new low. Those titles are usually spare
affairs that look to capitalize on early adopters' desperation for
software. Ridge Racer on the Vita goes a step further by giving you even
less content than your standard, already bare-bones launch title. It's
built on the premise that you buy post-launch DLC to fill out its
skeletal roster of three tracks and five cars (with an additional set
available via a free download). Sadly, that might not even be the most
unfulfilling part of this game.
As if the scarcity of
out-of-the-box tracks and cars wasn't galling enough, this game's hollow
overall career structure means that even if it shipped with an
acceptable amount of cars/tracks, it still wouldn't be enough. Everyone
who turns on the game joins one of four race teams, with all
accomplishments earning points that go towards the overa
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Tower defense erupted in popularity through Flash and mobile gaming across
the past few years based on a standard formula: build defenses and fight off
wave after wave of enemies. Defenders of Ardania
attempts to evolve that formula by letting players send wave after wave of
soldiers right back at the enemy. While an interesting twist, this gamble turns
into a stalemate; a simple battle becomes a lengthy and frustrating time sink
that lacks the satisfying end of a strategic battle.
Tower-up and send in the
troops. For
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For all its dense fiction, mountains of loot, and vast exploration, the most
exciting thing about Kingdoms of Amalur:
Reckoning is the promise of power. Consistent, rapid growth is an
encouraging reason to return to Amalur, whether you're one hour deep or 100.
This is what makes 38 Studios and Big Huge Games' first
add-on such a smart addition to the excellent
action-RPG.
The Legend of Dead Kel is an empowering expansion pack.
It isn't just more of the same in a new s
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s been a long, long time since we've seen a great mech game. Chromehounds was
almost six years ago; MechWarrior was even further back. Armored Core,
meanwhile, is a series that hasn't been at peak fitness for over a decade. I
haven't played one of these games since the PS2, and so I came to Armored
Core V with muted expectations. Happily, it has comprehensively exceeded
them.
Armored Core V Video ReviewI've seen two
predominant reactions to Armored Core V. Some people spend an hour trying to
figure out what's going on before dismissing it as boring, convoluted and
incredibly difficult, and others sense that there's something interesting behind
its unwelcoming metal exterior and commit themselves to scaling the entry
barr
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One of the chief creative voices at thatgamecompany, Jenova Chen,
once described his earlier game, Flower, in an intriguing way. He said
it was to big disc-based games what poems are to novels. I can find no
better description to apply to his follow-up, except to say that if
Flower was an abstract haiku about the fragility of nature, Journey is a
narrative ballad defined by discrete images and places. Journey offers
players a brief but memorable glimpse into another world, and through
the confluence of music, images, and play, a quiet meditation on
solitude and the interconnection of people.
As you might expect, a
lot of what makes a game called Journey so engaging is the slow
unraveling of mystery as you learn more about where you are and what
you’re doing. To that end, I’d be
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The original Total War: Shogun 2 is a triumphant balance between
complexity and elegance, a strategy game that offers players meaningful
interactions with economic development and warfare alongside a
diplomatic metagame that is second to none. The one area where that game
tripped up was in variety; many of the one-off units were nearly
indistinguishable from the baseline infantry/cavalry/archers they
modified, and it was easy to fall back on static tactics and unit
compositions. This standalone expansion retains everything that made the
original great while rectifying that shortcoming with style. Every clan
in Japan now has to straddle the line between traditional
spears-and-bows units and modern firearms and cannons, and all of the
diversity that the influx of new weaponry provides.
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Angry Birds Space could have easily been a slightly modified version
of the game we already know and love. As long as the structures holding
the pigs were new and the art was different, Rovio would have still sold
plenty. Instead, the developer released a game that feels like a true
sequel to the physics-based title that has helped define modern mobile
gaming.
Angry Birds Space, as the name so expertly clarifies,
takes place in space. You launch assorted birds at sleeping pigs in
questionable structures, with and without the aid of gravity. Sometimes
you use the gravitational pull of small planets to help slingshot birds
towards their destination, reminiscent of the gravity shenanigans
featured in Super Mario Galaxy. Launching your birds into the black void
is an awesome feeling, as i
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Long before a game like Assassin’s Creed III can be played on a
screen with a controller, the world of that game must be visualized.
Strong concept art guides the vision of a project, informing the
graphical style, locations, characters, and tone of the whole
experience.
During our visit to AC III developer Ubisoft
Montreal, we saw a wealth of evocative images from the project. We’ve
drawn out some of the coolest pieces of concept art from what we saw to
help illustrate some of the game’s most compelling locations, events,
and characters.
For each of the images below, you may click on
the picture for a larger version. Then, read the description below each
image to learn more about what that piece of art illustrates about the
larger game.
Enjoy your illust
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