Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Cobra Mobile
System requirements: Windows/Mac OS, 95 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Tower defense
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

We can learn a lot about life from games. For example, the archetypical tower-defense game requires you to assume a passive role and defend against waves of invaders, yet you’re never allowed to offensively strike back, or even tactically retreat. Victory is impossible; only non-defeat can be achieved. Even then, we merely shift to a new battlefield, often not of our choosing. For all of the genre’s inherent meaning, it’s surprising that there are no bullying or racial minority-themed TDs. Yet, on the genre tree, we must first pass through the “WWII Belt” before reaching more fruitful branches. And yet, as iBomber Defense demonstrates, perhaps this isn’t the worst place to be.

( read more… )

Publisher: Beatshapers
Developer: Beatshapers
Genre: Arcade puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

PlayStation Vita, Sony’s fancy new handheld, released in early 2012 in North America with more than two dozen launch games. Many of them, such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Unit 13, were the type of game that require a considerable time investment in each play session. But most adults who play portable game systems only really use them in small chunks of time, such as on public transportation or while waiting for the end of the final spin cycle. Developer/publisher Beatshapers has helped to fill this void with Stardrone: Extreme, a fast-paced, sometimes-maddening arcade game that only takes a few minutes of your valuable time for each addictive level.

( read more… )

Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7/Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 2.0 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 3 GB RAM (4 GB for Mac), 512 MB graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead graphic-novel series has become a cottage industry since its original publication in 2003. The television series based on the comics has become one of the AMC cable network’s most popular shows, several board games have been released, action figures by Todd McFarlane are available. You can even get drinking glasses and beer steins emblazoned with Walking Dead graphics. And now, adventure-game publisher Telltale has added to zombie lore with the first of five video-game episodes, giving you the chance to guide a troubled hero through the opening days of the zombie apocalypse.

( read more… )

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: 38 Studios
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the first adventure in the brand new world of Amalur, brought to us by 38 Studios, Big Huge Games and the mind of fantasy legend R.A. Salvatore. An action RPG with the Salvatore pedigree to live up to, KoA:R promises fast-paced, customizable gameplay and an epic story set in a colorful, high-fantasy world.

( read more… )

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare
System requirements: Windows XP (SP3)/Vista (SP1)/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Core2Duo or better CPU, 1 GB RAM (XP)/2 GB RAM (Vista/Win 7), 256 MB Nvidia 7900/ATI X1800 or better graphics card, 15 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RPG/Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

The word “epic” is passed around liberally in critical media, be it the movies or videogames. The unquestioned master of the epic film was director Cecil B. DeMille, whose films carried such massive scope and reach that only Cinemascope could hold them. In gaming, developer BioWare has crafted perhaps the first true epic story in the industry’s short history with the Mass Effect series. The 80 to 100-hour journey finally reaches its end in Mass Effect 3, in which one person truly shapes the future of billions.

( read more… )

Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Digital Extremes
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2 GHz Core2Duo/Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU, 256 MB GeForce 8600/Radeon HD 2600 graphics card, 1.5 GB RAM, 10 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

We FPS aficionados love mindless violence. Doesn’t matter how well a developer dresses it up; decapitation, dismemberment and general bloody mayhem get our juices flowing. So try not to judge Digital Extreme’s action sequel The Darkness II too harshly. Despite a minimal plot and an attempt to use some Twilight Zone-style cutscenes to make the game more cinematic, Darkness II delivers the blood-soaked goods, topped off by an ancillary character that you might remember long after the story is told.

( read more… )

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Developer: From Software
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

I’ll be the first to admit I have a problem when it comes to games: I’m a gaming masochist. The first thing I always do is crank up the difficulty. But I wasn’t prepared for Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to Namco Bandai and From Software’s Demon’s Souls. The sequel takes everything you thought you knew about fairness in games and crushes it under hordes of undead and massive dragons.

( read more… )

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV/AMD 3500+ CPU, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 8800/Radeon X1900 graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound card,
2 GB free hard-drive space, DirectX 9, Internet connection for multiplayer
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: February 14, 2012

It’s hard to find something new when it comes to strategy games. Part of the reason so many of them are formulaic is because those formulas work. An examination of sales for games such as Total War: Shogun II reveals that no matter what strategy gamers say they want, they really want the ability to drive their virtual enemies before them in gameplay that is difficult, but not too difficult. They want big battles, economic things to manage, and special perks that are unlocked through strategic choices of some sort. Crusader Kings II is not that kind of strategy game. Yes, it has armies, an economy to manage, wars to fight, and all the other elements you might expect, but it’s really about building up your dynasty and interacting with people. To play Crusader Kings II is to spend time pondering potential marriages for your children, worrying about your in-laws fighting you about claims to your titles, plotting against your liege, ingratiating yourself with the church, making sure your spouse isn’t trying to kill off your older children, and, when all that is accomplished, maybe going on a campaign to conquer your neighbors.

( read more… )

Publisher: Xsyntax
Developer: Xsyntax
System requirements: DirectX 9.0c-compatible hardware, Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0
Genre: Action/Strategy
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Zombies have invaded pop culture, much the way a cannibalistic biological contamination might. Similarly, the tower-defense genre has grown like an invasive species, breeding with everything from RPGs to Assassin’s Creed. Uberzombie USA uses this popular genre mutation to let you turn the family farm into your dream zombie fortress and bring three other friends along for company. Does the hybrid gameplay become a beautiful specimen or degenerate into a feral beast, rejected by all?

( read more… )

Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: InterWave Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.6.7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or better CPU, 2 GB memory, 6 GB hard-drive space, 128 MB DirectX 9-compatible graphics card with Shader 2.0b support, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device
Genre: FPS/RTS
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

My PC brethren, turn in your hymnals to #1337, and sing along with me: “Mods are good, mods are great, mods are things we appreciate.” Some of your favorite games started out as mods, and the others were undoubtedly influenced by them. Indie developer InterWave has been in the Source mod scene for a while now. Both Stargate: Last Stand and Insurgency (which is quite nice) are notches on their collective belts. Tossing the budget-o-meter up from “freebie” to “costs money,” they’ve cranked out the generic-titled Nuclear Dawn, which proclaims to offer a “full FPS and RTS experience within a single gameplay model, without crippling or diluting either side of the game.” Featuring six maps and 32-player matches, Nuclear Dawn isn’t just a funny pun on my mother-in-law’s name. It’s the best multiplayer FPS that you should be playing right now.

( read more… )

Publisher: Zachtronic Industries
Developer: Zachtronic Industries
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.5.8 (Leopard), 2.0 GHz CPU, graphics card with frame buffer support, 1 GB RAM, 300 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

SpaceChem doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it. It’s a simple-looking 2D game about programming machines to build molecules. Yet, under this unassuming surface lies a game of such seething excitement that it’ll have you shouting and yelling more than when you play an FPS. I myself spoke such dark utterances that Khorne himself shivered. How can a science-themed puzzle game go so right?

( read more… )

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo/Athlon X2 4800 or better CPU, GeForce 8800GT/ATI 3850 HD or better graphics card, 2 GB RAM, 17 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Developers take their careers in their own hands when they set out to make a superhero game. If they want the legions of comic-book fanboys to give their game their seal of approval, it has to be almost perfect. All of the canonical i’s have to be dotted and the t’s have to be crossed, over and above the things that the rest of the gaming public want to see (good story, great graphics, etc). Rocksteady accomplished this with Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2010. Now they’re trying to make lightning strike twice in the same place with the sprawling action/adventure Batman: Arkham City. In most ways, they’ve succeeded. In some others, not so much.

( read more… )

Publisher: Muzzy lane
Developer: Muzzy Lane
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7 (Also available on Mac), 3.0 GHz Pentium IV or greater, 256 MB graphics card, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now
Written by: Ian Davis

You’re something of a nerd. When asked what you read, you say “history.” What upset you about the movie Valkyrie wasn’t Tom Cruise, but the liberties taken with the actual facts. You regularly brag that were you Stalin (as you wiggle your thick mustache), you would have made a pre-war land-grab for Africa. Muzzy Lane Software understands you, unlike your so-called “friends”. “We know of your desires,” Muzzy whispers softly in your ear. “We know you yearn for more than just a wargame, but a mature, full-featured simulator of the mid-20th century.” Muzzy slips a disc from its coat and slyly passes it to you. It’s labeled Making History II: The War of the World. A shiver runs through your body. Can it be?

( read more… )

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Nathan Drake, the man with the strongest fingertips in gaming, returns to close out his debut trilogy in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Developer Naughty Dog has thrown in everything save the kitchen sink: foot chases, car chases, scenes on horseback, puzzle solving, fast-paced combat sequences and lots of personal moments, all framed with gorgeous graphics and another evocative music score. It does more interesting things in 10 to 15 hours than half a dozen lesser games combined, yet somehow it also manages to be somewhat less fulfilling than its predecessor.

( read more… )

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: November 11, 2011

In the early days of the Xbox 360, new adopters found one game to rule them all. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released in the Spring of 2006 (a scant six-months after that console heralded this new generation of game systems), and it proved to be one of those bridge titles that united the hardcore RPG elite with the mainstream. Western RPGs have always held court in the console space but unlike the welcoming PC world, they remained a modest, niche success. Since Oblivion’s successful release, big, brawny role playing games have slashed their way to the tops of sales charts. Since then, Fable, Mass Effect and the Fallout series inspiring more and more players to drag dungeons, slay dragons and journey there and back again. With news that the next iteration of consoles is being prepped by the Big Three for debut over the next few years, Bethesda’s latest Elder Scrolls release, Skyrim, makes for a nice bit of symmetry – potentially a fitting swan song.

( read more… )