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.

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Team ICO
Rating: T (Teen)
Available: Now

In the age of HD gaming, backwards compatibility is a mixed blessing. While it makes for a “nice-to-have” feature on the back of the console’s box, the truth is many of your old favorites are more visually pleasing when revisited in your mind’s eye. Once you get these ancient treasures running on spiffy new hardware, and splashed across a pristine 1080p widescreen, all those ugly blemishes once hidden by reduced resolution tear at your peepers. So, the loss of backwards compatibility on later iterations of this generation’s consoles is not that big a burden when you consider the care and craftsmanship that Sony has implemented in spit-polishing some of the PS2’s most prominent releases. Taking a long-awaited place alongside the previously released God of War and Sly Cooper collections are two of the PS2’s crown jewels – the sublime Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – fully remastered for a new generation to play and the past to covet.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Insomniac Games
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Perhaps it’s a product of recent economic uncertainty, but the entertainment media seems to be infatuated with the idea of global catastrophe. Whether it’s alien invasion (TV’s Falling Skies; Hollywood’s Skyline or Battle: Los Angeles), viral pandemic (Contagion), zombie apocalypse (Dead Island) or nuclear holocaust (the Fallout series), we seem to be more and more interested in “what if” scenarios these days. But most times, these stories are told in stark terms without a real human component. Insomniac’s Resistance 3 is one of the few entries in the end-of-the-world genre that takes time to tell a human story amidst the universal carnage that surrounds it.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System Requirements: XP/Vista/Windows7, Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+, 2 Gb RAM, 2 GB HDD, NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900, Direct X-compatible sound card, Internet connection for multiplayer
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

With the release of Total War: Shogun 2 this year, it seems inevitable that clones will appear on the market cashing in on Creative Assembly’s success. Fortunately for strategy gamers, Paradox Interactive has decided not to bother making a Total War clone when trying their hand at depicting feudal Japan. Instead, Paradox has finally released Sengoku, a game that they describe as a “…deep character driven strategy game, [where] you play as the head of an illustrious Samurai family.” While armies fight one another and ninja conduct covert operations, at its heart, Sengoku is a game that focuses less on warfare, and more on feudal Japanese politics and people. This is a strategy title that wants players to worry equally about whether a neighboring clan might declare war and whether a disloyal vassal might plot the downfall of your clan’s ruler.

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Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Eidos Montreal
System requirements: 2 GHz dual core CPU; 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB (Vista and 7); GeForce 8 or Radeon HD 2000; Windows XP, Vista, 7 with DirectX 9.0c; 8.5 GB disk space
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: August 23, 2011

2011 has so far been a great year for games in general and for highly anticipated sequels in particular. A lot of favorites got follow-ups; some were impressively good, while others were of the sort not mentioned in polite society. Different types of gamers looked forward to different game worlds getting expanded, and quite a few of us were holding our collective breath for Deus Ex: Human Revolution – a prequel to one of the best role-playing games of all time: Deus Ex. The classic PC masterpiece was released in 2000, and blew away the critics and the audiences alike. In 2003 a sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War was released for PC and consoles, and although it was a decent game in its own right, it failed to live up to the glory of the original and has always remained something of a disappointment to the hardcore fans.

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Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Supergiant Games
Genre: Action/RPG
Rating: Everyone 10+
Release Date: July 20, 2011

Francois Truffaut once said, and I paraphrase, “The best way to critique a bad movie is to make a better one.” He said that as a film critic and went on to lead the French New Wave that swept cinema in the late 50s and 60s. Greg Kasavin is a former game critic and Editor-in-Chief at Gamespot, and after announcing his retirement from the site in 2007, toiled at several of EA’s offshoot development companies, before forming his own game development house. That development house is the small 10-person shop, Supergiant Games. And in the corner of a modest house, this team has toiled under Kasavin’s direction dreaming up Bastion, Kasavin’s bid to put Truffaut’s words into action.

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Publisher: Spiderweb Software
Developer: Spiderweb Software
System requirements: Windows XP/Mac OS 10.4 or later, 800 MHz CPU, 32 MB graphics card with OpenGL support, 512 MB RAM, 200 MB hard-drive space
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

The very first PC game I can remember being enamored with is Dune II (the second game would be Starcraft). In fact, it was Dune II that prompted me to convince my dad that our home needed a PC. My first computer was purchased during my junior year of high school (2000), and if I remember correctly, I ended up killing the hard drive by filling it full of games and other nonsense. It’s now 11 years later, and I’ve found myself transported back to a time when games weren’t regurgitated piles of cud. If you have a moment, go to Avadon: The Black Fortress developer Spiderweb Software’s website and read their Promise page. Spiderweb’s passionate manifesto is a cuff to the ears of jaded gamers everywhere. The company offers a one-year, money-back guarantee with their games, versus the usual return policy we face: “If you’ve played it, you can only exchange it for the same game.”

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Sucker Punch
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: June 7, 2011

Though they all suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous origin tales, once a superhero gets his powers, he usually gets to keep them. That’s one of the perks of getting bit by a radioactive Chihuahua in the funny pages. Until some evil-doer ups the ante and kidnaps his Auntie, these guys are free to wield that great power with no responsibility. But in video games, it’s one and done. Too often, gamers spend an entire title building their abilities, only to see them stripped by some plot inconvenience in the inevitable sequel. And then it’s back to square one. Having built their own powerhouse in the lightning bug Cole McGrath, the question remains, will Sucker Punch let this guy fly high once again in his long-awaited return, inFamous 2?

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Manufacturer: Cooler Master
MSRP: $29.99

When it comes to cooling laptops, my general rule has always been, “If the equipment can’t cool itself at room temperature, then it’s a piece of garbage.” Thus, I have always been a bit skeptical about third party laptop coolers. After all, it seems like a waste of hardware dollars that could be better spent on other things, like a laptop that can cool itself. When my editors sent me a Cooler Master, I was fully prepared to roll my eyes in bored frustration. Yet, it turns out that the joke is on me. Rather than using a pointless piece of hardware for a few weeks, it turns out that I have had the chance to review a well engineered device.

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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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Publisher: Liv Games
Developer: Liv Games
Genre: RTS/RPG
iTunes rating: 12+
Release date: Available now

Legendary Wars by Liv Games is a labor of love. It shows in how the developer continually updates the app in response to user feedback. Their latest update adds retina-display support and improved load times (on most devices), amongst other fixes. All this might seem like business as usual to those of us who are used to PC and console games being patched and updated regularly, but as I’ve found in the world of iOS gaming, 99-cent apps usually don’t see consistent developer updates and support. The game itself is pretty darn fun, and I think you’ll be surprised by what it offers.

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Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Developer: Joshua Nuernberger
System requirements: Not available
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Hello folks! Alaric here, with another report on my ongoing love affair with indie PC games. This year promises to be quite fruitful as high-profile releases go, and I must admit that I’m really eager to get my hands on some of the upcoming goodness. However, out of nowhere comes an amazing indie offering, which, come December, will be a very serious contender for my 2011 Game of the Year. I’m talking, of course, about the recently released Gemini Rue. Much like Auralux, Gemini Rue was developed by a student. One notable difference is that it was created using Adventure Game Studio, a free tool available to everyone. Despite being this developer’s first-ever commercial offering, it won the Student Showcase award during the Independent Game Festival 2010. When I first got my hands on it, I wondered whether it could live up to the honors it received. I didn’t wonder for long.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Beenox
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or better CPU, GeForce 7800 or Radeon X1800 (w/256 MB of video RAM) or better graphics card, 1 GB of RAM, 14 GB of uncompressed hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

“Four parallel worlds, one unparalleled adventure.” The blurb on a box cover has never been so accurate. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is one of the best, if not the best, Spider-Man games ever. Of course, for those who’ve read my other reviews, “Beenox strikes again” is equally apt; these are the same developers responsible for Transformers: War for Cybertron. This time, however, they’re bringing us a tale involving not one, but four different versions of an iconic character that recently celebrated his 50th anniversary.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

In a year when seemingly every new release is a sequel, it’s tough to get excited about some upcoming games. Some sequels fail to capture the magic of their predecessors, while others outshine them. Killzone 3, by Guerrilla Games, is a first-person shooter sequel to the smash 2009 hit Killzone 2. Does it rise to meet the challenge? Or does it belong on the bottom of your already towering sequel pile?

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Genre: First-person shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

It seems like every game today comes with downloadable content one way or another. It can be something to personalize your avatar, themes to customize your layout, or content to expand your gameplay experience. Why would Call of Duty: Black Ops, arguably one of the greatest games of all time, be any different? Now, try not to do cartwheels in excitement just yet, because you might just cartwheel into a room with an untold number of claymores and camped enemies.

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