Publisher: JoWood
Developer: Spellbound Entertainment
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.8 GHz dual-core CPU, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or better graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9-compatible sound card, 9 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

There is a formula that RPGs usually follow. You start at Point A with an overarching story objective. Sixty or so hours later (depending upon how many side quests you complete), you fight a massive, sometimes frustrating boss battle to arrive at Point B. Your level of frustration in that final encounter is determined by how well you’ve improved your character during the journey. Developer Spellbound’s Arcania: Gothic 4 fits into that paradigm like a glove. But whereas other games of the genre weigh you down with dozens of useless diversions, Arcania offers a streamlined version of the RPG that helps make that trip from A to B enjoyable.

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Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Straandlooper Animation
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent CPU, 256 MB graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

The reason why no one should ever negotiate with terrorists is because once you’re in such a situation, you can’t possibly win. The only reasonable course of action is to immediately cut your losses. Yes, there will be losses, and you must come to terms with the fact that they are unavoidable. The moment you falter and try do to damage control, they will grow. Moreover, you’ll be lucky if there’s only linear or logarithmic growth, since chances are you’ll find yourself facing exponential escalation. Coincidentally, the same advice applies in situations that involve girlfriends, but that’s of no concern to Det. Insp. Hector, since he doesn’t have one. What he does have is a cop job in the worst city ever, along with a hostage crisis on his hands. If it was up to him, he’d go back to bed, but the higher-ups insist on negotiating.

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Publisher: Tripwire Interactive
Developer: Power of 2
System Requirements: Windows XP SP2, Vista, or Windows 7; 1.7+ GHz or better processor; 1 GB graphics memory; DirectX 9-compatible; 250 MB hard drive space;
Genre: Casual Strategy
ESRB Rating: Everyone

I usually applaud simple, fun games. I’ve been pleased by their resurgence due to the ability to play them on smartphones, XBLA, etc. In general, I think there’s always room for both the giant blockbuster titles as well as the little simple pass-the-time sort of games. Dwarfs?! falls into this latter category, designed for the casual gamer to take a break from their day and go mining for some gold.

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Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

Final Fantasy IV has been released at least eight times that I know of, and I might be miscounting. Despite the original North American release featuring simplified difficulty, heavy censoring and a hilariously poor translation, FFIV is widely considered to be the first truly great Final Fantasy; it helped set the standard for all RPGs for years to come. Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection features the fully remastered original game as well as the mobile phone and WiiWare sequel The After Years. An all-new, in-between chapter has been added to bridge the gap between the two, but does this version really make the game worth purchasing yet again?

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This week’s App Attack presents a wide range of mobile gaming genres. Just by looking at the screenshots you can see that there are some games with high production value, while others have that “indie look” going for them. I am continually surprised at what games turn out to be entertaining. Sometimes I’ll see a screenshot and think “man that game looks like garbage,” only to play it and realize that despite poor graphics, it’s actually an addictive title. Most of the picks for this week have free trial versions so you can try before you buy.

King of Frogs
King of Frogs by Playlithium is an addicting puzzle game. On the screen is an arrangment of lily pads, some are empty and some have other frogs. Your goal as the king frog is to leap over the other frogs onto empty lily pads in an attempt to make it to the goal. Most of the puzzles aren’t very challenging (I could finish them in under 20 seconds), while others can take several tries over a few minutes to solve. The free version comes with over 120 puzzles, and you can purchase additional puzzle packs once you solve them. If you like puzzlers you should definitely check this game out!

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Publisher: GameSamba
Developer: GameSamba
System requirements: Windows XP, 800 MHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 7500/Nvidia GeForce 2 or better graphics card, 1 GB hard-drive space
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: May 3, 2011

Today Realms Online, a new free-to-play MMORPG, opens its doors to the general public. The F2P MMO market is already over-saturated with games, but publisher GameSamba hopes Realms Online will stand out because of the ways it’s different from other games. I spent some time with it before the servers went live, and here are my impressions.

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Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: 2K Czech
Genre: Sports
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Ace, backhand, advantage, deuce, baseline, and slice. These are all tennis-related terms that I learned during my time with 2K Sports’ Top Spin 4. Before I pushed the start button, I knew that you used a tennis racket to hit a tennis ball. Whoever hit the ball the most – won. Now, I’m no Andre Federer, but Top Spin 4 did its best to teach me the game.

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Publisher: Valve Software
Developer: Valve Software
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/MAC OS 10.6.7; 3.0 GHz Pentium IV/2.0 GHz dual-core/AMD64X2 or better CPU; 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista, MAC); 128 MB DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0b support; DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card; 7.6 GB hard-drive space
Genre: First Person Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

Those of you who follow the Avault forums probably remember that, when Portal 2 first came out, I said that I was sad and relieved because I wasn’t going to be the one to write about it. I was sad because this was one of the games I was really looking forward to playing, but I was relieved because, after playing it for half an hour, I realized that it would be incredibly difficult to review. But publication plans changed, and having beaten the game, I spent about a week trying to come up with the best way to write about it. The problem wasn’t that I had nothing to say, but that it’s nearly impossible to talk about this game without mentioning the story. Portal 2 is the story, or rather the story makes up the entirety of Portal 2. After days of trying different approaches, I decided that I can’t review it without spoiling it and making it uninteresting for you to play.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Genre: First Person Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

At the time The Conduit was released on the Wii, there was some praise heaped upon it, labeling it as one of the best first-person shooters…for the Wii. Perhaps the best. This was before Goldeneye 007 and several of the Call of Duty games appeared on the console, I should add. Like nearly every movie that surpasses $100 million at the box office these days, a sequel was quickly ordered, and now, about two years later, we get Conduit 2 (minus the “The” because, no joke, the developers thought it would be easier for people to say).

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Publisher: Sony Consumer Entertainment
Developer: Zipper Interactive
Genre: Tactical Shooter
Rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

These days, modern warfare is all about the set-piece and those scripted pieces of Michael Bayhem where all hell breaks loose and things blow up real good. The world may be toppling all around the player but with the advent of rechargeable shields that come standard with most contemporary shooters, players can afford to stop for a moment and soak in the blitzkrieg (and a few thousand bullets) before getting going again. Most shooters have become the equivalent of the summer blockbuster and as far removed from the grounded reality of real war as a Governator flick. SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals is finally hitting the ground on the PS3, but it remains to be seen whether this series sticks to its strategic roots or heeds the current Call of Duty.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV or AMD 3500+ or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8800/ATI Radeon X1900 or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound card, DirectX 9, 2 GB hard-drive space; Magicka base game must be installed
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Riding the success of their game Magicka, Arrowhead Game Studios has released DLC for it that takes the plucky wizards of the original game and drops them into the jungles of Southeast Asia to fight the Vietnam War. Magicka: Vietnam gives you a new complete mission to play, a new arena fight to survive, a new soundtrack that sounds like it borrows from every rock-and-roll band from the Rolling Stones to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, new weapons (including a wizard-staff version of the American flag), and a new appearance for your wizard that alludes to half a dozen movies set in the war. It’s an absurd premise for a spell-casting game; since its Arrowhead, it’s not surprising that they make it work.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Zen Studios

Originally published in July 2009, reprinted for additional content.

Few things in my life actually bring back childhood memories. Lemons, “The Goonies” and pinball. The lemons is a long story. “The Goonies” is obvious. But pinball? Yes, it was nothing short of magical to go to the arcade with my father and beat that shiny marble ball around inside those exotic tables of gaming goodness. So when I was given the chance to play Zen Pinball on the Playstation 3, I knew I’d be rehashing those fond memories.

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Publisher: Masthead Studios
Developer: Masthead Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista SP1/Win 7, 2.4 GHz or faster dual-core CPU, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9800/ATI X3950 Pro or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0, 20 GB hard-drive space, broadband Internet connection
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

I’m told that, many years ago, there was a saying in the army: Never volunteer for anything. As a member of the Avault Army, this is an adage that I should’ve taken to heart when I put up my hand and said, “I want to review Earthrise.” Bulgarian developer Masthead Studios has taken my favorite sci-fi genre as the setting for this post-apocalyptic MMO and buried it in a sea of drudgery and boredom.

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Publisher: Lunar Workshop
Developer: Lunar Workshop
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.5 GHz or faster CPU, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB graphics card
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

In my book, there are two kinds of night owls in the world: those who stay up playing games, and the others who are wide awake, dreaming about the games we enjoy. Lunar Workshop is the latter of these two, always crafting and constantly trying to improve their product, Digitanks. I didn’t get much time to play it after my review was published, maybe here and there at best to pass the time or to procrastinate from looking at MMOs. The first big addition, dubbed The Artillery Update, was recently released, and I was ready to blow some enemy tanks to digital hell.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: THQ San Diego
Genre: Sports
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available Now

Growing up in the UK, wrestling was quite a rarity on TV. Yet despite its sporadic appearances, it didn’t take me long to work out that those huge, oiled, hulking, spandex-wearing grapplers were in effect acting out a tightly choreographed ring-bound spectacle. Sadly, this realisation spoiled the sport for me—just as when I realised the supposed “crack team of soldiers” that were The A Team never actually shot anyone. What kind of real soldiers were they? No wonder the army was after them; probably wanted to silence them for the embarrassment they were to the profession. Anyway, flashback over, back to wrestling. I never played the Smackdown vs. Raw game from THQ, so it was therefore with some reluctance that I finally unwrapped my copy of WWE All-Stars.

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