I’ll admit it: I was one of the people who bought into the Mirror’s
Edge hype. Those first screnshots in February really piqued my
curiosity, and I admit to getting delicious flashbacks to my time with
the Prince of Persia series when I saw the game in action three months
later. I’ve always found parkour fascinating and will forever have a
massive love for platformers, so I was understandably very excited
about this game. As time wore on however I started to have doubts, and
took a more cautious approach. I decided that the platforming itself -
or at least what we’ve seen to that point – looks like it might be top
notch, but the question is if the developers can sustain this
throughout the game or if it’ll be a very short and/or padded
experience. Playing the initial level at PAX and the demo a few months
later only reaffirmed that opinion.

Now that the game is out and I’ve had a chance to play through it, has
it met even my cautious expectations?

In short… sort of…

Continue Reading…

Over the last two articles, we’ve looked at a sequel that failed on its gameplay, and a sequel that failed on its story. This time, we’re going to take a very special look at a sequel that boldly failed on both. Actually, we’re going to look at two sequels, in fact, as a special 2-for-1 deal. Or maybe that’s 3-for-2. Whatever math makes it work.

Continue Reading…

Joel Haddock

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’m still working on pretty much the same three games: Fallout 3, Mother 3, and Tales of Vesperia.  Mother 3 I’ve actually put on hold this week, but only because I’m going on a work trip next week, and I know that I’ll be able to put in lots of time with it while on the road.  I’m in the final dungeon of Vesperia, and it’s a doozy; though, with a couple more hours of time with it I should be able to wrap it up and move straight into the new Tales of Symphonia for the Wii.  Fallout 3 continues on as usual, and while I’ll have plenty to say about it in my final review, one thing I can say that’s been bugging me is the lack of variety of weaponry.  In other news, my DS, which had slowly been developing some stress fractures, had its right-side hinge completely snap off, and now the whole top part is hanging by a literal thread.

Joel Haddock

More Fallout 3 this week; discovered I enjoy the game much more when I get out of the city itself and just spend my time exploring the wasteland. Another big complaint I would raise about the game in general is the use of minigames to handle lockpicking and hacking; they are pointless and take me out of the moment.

Pre-ordered Left 4 Dead last night and gave the demo a spin, and was generally pleased with the frantic action despite a few technical glitches. This should be a fun game to blast through with a few friends when you are feeling more cooperative than competitive.

Closing in on the end game of Tales of Vesperia at least, though I just discovered I missed my window to do many of the sidequests; this irks me.

Jeff Feeser
Haven’t actually had a lot of time to game this week, due to excessive amounts of working; I did however manage to pick up Madden ’09 and determine that I do, in fact, still completely blow at sports games.  Still continuing along in Order of Ecclesia…I like the new combo system, not to mention the story is actually halfway decent; complete with a protagonist that’s far less emo than Soma Cruz.  I’m looking forward to playing some Gears 2 (now with more plot!), but I actually have to get through the first one before that.  Also picked up Guitar Hero World Tour; sadly, it pales in comparison to Rock Band 2 in every way.  Next week I’m actually off from my evening job, so i’ll have a lot more time to game!

It’s been long rumored, but Stardock finally confirmed last week that their next title would be Elemental: War of Magic, a 4x strategy game for PC.  This would seem to be the Master of Magic-style title they’ve been bouncing around for quite a while, and for anyone who was a fan of Master of Magic (which should be everyone who played it), we can safely say it’s about damn time.  Little details are available about the title yet, and the projected release date is well over a year away, but Stardock’s track record with GalCiv and their clear admiration of the original Master of Magic gives me some hope that they may do right by this.  Time will ultimately tell, but this is certainly something to keep an eye on.

To all the Americans out there, today is a day to put down the controller for a few minutes and get out there and exercise your rights as a citizen.  I’m not talking about purchasing a gun and a bottle of whisky, I’m talking about voting.  It doesn’t matter who or what you support, just make sure to get out there and rock that vote.