Jun 18, 2012

Build Details User-Friendliness: A The Proc-Doctah build relies on your pets taking most of the heat, their AoE DoTs constantly proccing tasty crowd control effects to keep enemies grounded and out of your hair. As such, your biggest concerns as a user are managing your pet cool-downs, and knowing when to keep your distance or close in to reapply Locusts or...

Jan 9, 2012

We as gamers should really count our blessings to have been graced with two such games in two years.  It would seem absurd to conjecture back in 2007 that a title was conceived and destined to be born in Japan’s own Bethlehem of From Software.  A savior that could rise above the dismissive label of hardcore niche and absolve the sins of the modern...

Jan 2, 2012

In a world where all our genres have long been decided, the release pipeline for any given year becomes less and less surprising. We are guaranteed to have at least twenty-five First Person Shooters on the Xbox alone – two thirds of those will tend towards realistic military “simulators”, the remainder will be chock full of ‘roided out space marines....

Dec 31, 2011

Too close to call – ultimately impossible to compare because they’re so very different.  Wesker is probably the only character I take seriously within the goofy confines of Marvel vs. Capcom, in large part because of his super pro sunglasses.  Really any taunt from MvC3 could have won considering how risky an affair they are in such a fast paced game. ...

Dec 31, 2011

The various sports mini games in Yakuza go above and beyond the standard gameplay.  So much so that we really shouldn’t even consider this an Action Adventure, Open World Whatever.  Look at this list: Billiards, Card Games, Bowling, Darts, Table Tennis, Bath House…ing, Fishing (sure, why not?), Golf, Batting Cages.  Basically anything, indulge your inner...

Dec 31, 2011

By this we mean the best game from 2010 after a year of hindsight, what game held up the best that we found ourselves playing a year after its launch despite a wealth of distractions.  Really what else could hold this spot?  Mortal Kombat made a valiant effort in April to dethrone it as our go-to title for fighters but to no avail.  The addition of new...

Dec 31, 2011

Don’t be so sure that this title didn’t actually come out five years ago.  Play it.  Do you not shoot aliens with guns that are futuristic bytechnical designation only?  Do you not see the same lackluster imagination hard at work?  The ambitious goal of 1080 HD? Characters flattened by the enormous weight of bloated levels?  Yup, it all checks out. A...

Dec 27, 2011

The award we should really be giving Skyrim is Best Swiss Army Knife.  There are so many different avenues of gameplay running in tandem that any random slice could serve as candidate for some Best Of.  Best New Enemy.  Most Succinct Protagonist .  Best Cross-Age Promotional Tie-In with The Hangover. Add one: Skyrim is the best game out there to play if you...

Nov 27, 2011

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a momentous achievement, not just for video games but the broader entertainment industry at large.  Ignore the rough edges and persistent but minor glitches – there are so many elements packed into this one title that it’s capable of satisfying almost every human compulsion for hobby and leisure enterprises. Looking for an...

Nov 17, 2011

Super Mario 3D Land is a promise fulfilled, a grand demonstration of what the 3DS is capable of, and a glorious mashup of Mario tropes throughout the franchise’s storied history. The 3DS launched half a year ago with the intention of bringing gameplay to a new dimension.  Flashforward a few months and we are met with the release of Ocarina of Time (3D), and...