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Best Surprise 2011 // inFAMOUS 2

2012-01-14T11:08:00.005-05:00

The "Best Surprise" award goes to the game that didn't have a lot of hype behind it but turned out more awesome than anyone could've imagined. It went from being off my radar to taking up all my time.I loved the first inFAMOUS.Even after I'd beaten the storyline, I spent hours collecting the last of the scattered Blast Shards and finishing up any leftover side missions. Sometimes I'd just glide

Most Disappointing 2011 // Mortal Kombat

2012-01-11T18:49:00.014-05:00

The "Most Disappointing" award goes to the game that seemed like it was going to be absolutely incredible, but for whatever reason, it just didn't live up to the hype. I was expecting to love this game and instead was completely underwhelmed.It's really weird to be giving Mortal Kombat, a game I once called "the most fun fighting game ever made," the Most Disappointing award for 2011, but here we

Most Potential 2011 // L.A. Noire

2012-01-09T13:29:00.008-05:00

The "Most Potential" award goes to the game that sounded awesome on paper and had real flashes of brilliance, but could still be so much more. Hopefully this game will get a sequel that can deliver on its promise.I did not finish L.A. Noire. I made it about halfway through the Arson Desk, which means I'm maybe an hour or two away from finishing the game. But I can tell you right now: I'm never

Review // Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

2012-01-03T12:03:00.008-05:00

Without a doubt, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is the most lavishly produced, highly polished game I've played all year. It's also one of the least fun.That's coming from a guy who beat Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in one ten-hour sitting because it was just that good. Sure, it totally fell apart at the end, pitting Drake against ridiculous blue monsters for no good reason before flagrantly

Review // Batman: Arkham City

2011-12-30T15:22:00.023-05:00

You know, the title of "best Batman game ever" used to be difficult to get.That's before Rocksteady Studios took the crown by force two years ago with Batman: Arkham Asylum, a game I enjoyed quite a bit, let's say. Before that, had you asked me what the best Batman game is, I would've said, "Oh, Batman Returns for the SNES, easily." That game came out in 1993. It took 16 years for a better Batman

Review // Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

2011-12-25T10:20:00.017-05:00

I can't remember the last time such a high-profile game had the odds stacked against it to this degree.Infinity Ward, still reeling from a late backlash against Modern Warfare 2, was torn apart and rebuilt following the sudden termination of its founders. Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed studio that was supposed to be giving a new spin to the Call of Duty franchise, was called in to help

Review // Assassin's Creed: Revelations

2011-11-25T01:33:00.016-05:00

What if the sequel to the best, most ambitious game of last year came out and was surprisingly unambitious, content to merely replicate everything its predecessor did without really pushing anything forward? Would you be okay with that? Because your answer will determine whether or not Assassin's Creed: Revelations is for you.Personally, I think you should just skip it. If you've never played an

Review // Shadows of the Damned

2011-10-16T22:33:00.016-04:00

You're sitting at a bar, frustrated and burnt out, six drinks down with no signs of slowing. You signal the bartender for another. He hesitates."You all right, buddy?""I'll be better once this glass is full."Behind you, the door bursts open. Through the fog and the blinding light steps a midnight woman with a brimstone fauxhawk and a Billy Idol sneer. Her shredded leather pants are falling apart

Xbox Live Indie Games Is Broken, And Here's How Microsoft Can Fix It

2011-08-10T14:02:00.018-04:00

When was the last time you downloaded something from Microsoft's Xbox Live Indie Games service? Have you ever? Do you even know where it's located in the Dashboard? Is this the first time you've thought about the service since it launched in February 2008?I wouldn't blame you for being unaware of the Indie Games platform. It's buried so deep in the Xbox 360's Dashboard you'd need a GPS to find it

Review // inFAMOUS 2

2011-07-31T21:21:00.046-04:00

No game is perfect, right? There's always something that could've been done better, regardless of the game you're talking about, even if it's just a minor flaw. Sometimes it comes down to personal taste or play style, but you can almost always say, "Yeah, that part of the game wasn't so great."A prime example is the first inFAMOUS. I absolutely loved it. I've played through it at least three

Review // Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

2011-07-25T20:40:00.031-04:00

Alone in the center of a desolate city. Skyscrapers loom from all sides, glowering downward. I feel small. There are plain, empty cars scattered on the street around us. Two men in futuristic armor stand near me, silent and waiting. No one else in sight. What happened here?A small group of people tumble out of an alleyway a few blocks from us, their faces twisted in an unnatural expression that I

Looking For That Special Something: The Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta

2011-07-18T19:59:00.030-04:00

The Uncharted series and I have had a pretty, uh, complicated relationship in the past. I thought Drake's Fortune started strong, but went completely off the rails about halfway through, piling on unbalanced enemies and eventually ludicrous zombie/monster/things. I went into the multiplayer beta for Among Thieves not expecting much, and didn't find much. There was potential, for sure, but there

Is Anybody Out There?: The Journey Beta

2011-07-12T10:50:00.063-04:00

From playing its beta, the biggest question Journey seemed to be asking me was, "how do you react to solitude?"Skimming through the desolate, shimmering ocean of sand in Journey might feel familiar if you played Shadow of the Colossus, a game that cast the player as a young man named Wander as he explored an ancient, ruined land on a violent quest for love. The player often had to travel for long

Review // Alice: Madness Returns

2011-06-29T20:18:00.021-04:00

If you were to make a game about Alice exploring a twisted, violent version of Wonderland, what kind of game would it be? A standard platformer and brawler? I'd hope not, though that's exactly what developer Spicy Horse chose to make. But what's done is done, so what's it like to hop around their dark, demented Wonderland?It's so boring.Can I Return The Madness Without A Receipt?As I see it,

Review // Mortal Kombat

2011-06-23T17:20:00.007-04:00

Wow. I know it's a bold statement to make, but I think Mortal Kombat might be the most fun fighting game ever made. Well, offline, anyway.Two Sides Of A Very Bloody KoinNow, I'm sure fighting game purists could say that my bold statement is also a foolish one because Mortal Kombat isn't as deep or technical as [insert fighting game here], but that's precisely what works for it. It's immediately

Review // Homefront

2011-06-17T23:11:00.005-04:00

Talk about your severe disappointments. Homefront's developers promised a bold, emotional first-person shooter that would tug on your heartstrings, but instead delivered a bland, half-hearted shooter that learned its best tricks from other games and feels like it should have been released 5 years ago.Stuck In The PastIn every way imaginable, Homefront looks and feels like a last-generation game.

Review // Crysis 2

2011-06-10T19:18:00.005-04:00

(NOTE: This review was originally written for and published by the UMW Bullet newspaper.)Even with a suit that lets you turn invisible Predator-style or become nearly invincible, Crysis 2 doesn’t do enough to set itself apart from every other first-person shooter game out there.One of the most indicative qualities of Crysis 2 is a message that appears in the middle of the screen during cutscenes,

Review // Killzone 3

2011-06-04T20:04:00.010-04:00

It's hard to imagine a sequel to Killzone 2 being anything less than amazing. After all, that game was really fun and smartly designed, but had obvious room for improvement. So, in a way, it's actually kind of impressive just how much worse Killzone 3 turned out to be.If It Ain't Broke, Break ItKillzone 3 starts hot, opening with a legitimately awesome sequence that sets the rest of the game up

Review // Dead Space 2

2011-05-27T18:44:00.009-04:00

You know what I loved about Dead Space? Everything. From the immersive atmosphere to the fluid controls to the outstanding presentation, I seriously loved everything about Dead Space. And you know what's great about Dead Space 2? If you guessed "everything," you're absolutely right. Anything that was great about the original is improved in at least some small way here, if not completely

PlayStation Rewards Delayed, Beta Ending March 31

2011-03-28T20:17:00.009-04:00

PlayStation Rewards, Sony's crazy program that went into closed beta last year that tries to reward gamers for "doing what you love" (like spending money), is being delayed beyond its planned April launch.Sony emailed PlayStation Rewards beta users today (myself included) to thank them for their participation in the beta, which is ending on March 31, and let them know they'll be getting a free

Game of the Year 2010 // Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

2011-03-11T02:27:00.010-05:00

The "Game of the Year" award goes to the game that had me hooked harder than any other game last year. If I wasn't playing this game, I was thinking about it. It made other games look lazy and deserves to be recognized as the best game of the year.This time last year, had you asked me what I thought my Game of the Year would end up being, I'd have scoffed and said, "What a ridiculous question.

Best Surprise 2010 // Just Cause 2

2011-02-03T11:06:00.012-05:00

The "Best Surprise" award goes to the game that didn't have a lot of hype behind it but turned out more awesome than anyone could've imagined. It went from being off my radar to taking up all my time.I don't think anyone was prepared for just how fucking sweet that Just Cause 2 would turn out to be. That magical combination of a grappling hook that can attach to anything and an infinite number of

Most Disappointing 2010 // Red Dead Redemption

2011-01-06T00:17:00.009-05:00

The "Most Disappointing" award goes to the game that seemed like it was going to be absolutely incredible, but for whatever reason, it just didn't live up to the hype. I was expecting to love this game and instead was completely underwhelmed.Ever since that original teaser trailer back in 2005, I've been pumped to see how Rockstar would handle the Western. Mixing that underused genre with a

Most Potential 2010 // Dark Void

2011-01-01T12:50:00.010-05:00

The "Most Potential" award goes to the game that sounded awesome on paper and had real flashes of brilliance, but could still be so much more. Hopefully this game will get a sequel that can deliver on its promise.Dear Dark Void,Remember the first time we leapt off that cliff together and activated the jetpack? And those UFOs came chasing after us and we had to do some pretty fancy flying to take

Review // Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

2010-12-29T10:46:00.007-05:00

By the time the credits were rolling on Assassin's Creed II, I couldn't even imagine how the next game in the series could top it. The leap in quality from the first game to the second was insane. But after watching the credits roll on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, I can't imagine ever going back.The Deadliest Man Just Got DeadlierIn past Assassin's Creed games, combat tended to devolve into