The A.V. Club - Games

Games: Sawbuck Gamer: February 13, 2012

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Puzzlejuice Creator: Colaboratory Platforms: iPhone/iPad (Universal Binary) Played on: iPad Price: $1.99 There are people who are good at Tetris and there are people who are good at Boggle. Those who are in the middle of that Venn diagram can count themselves lucky when playing Puzzlejuice, which tests—nay, taxes—players’ spatial dexterity à la Tetris and their jumble-y discovery abilities à la Boggle at the same time. The game starts off like Tetris. Various shapes fall, and you fit them into one another. The shapes are also color-coded, though, and lining up three blocks of the same color transforms ...

Games: Game Review: The Darkness II

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:02:00 -0600

The legend around the 2007 game The Darkness grew from a single, powerful scene. Cast in the role of demonically possessed mobster Jackie Estacado, players wound up immersed in an honest-to-God human moment: sitting on a couch with love interest Jenny, watching To Kill A Mockingbird. Meandering, overlong, and too married to its own mythos, The Darkness wound up being a better first-person relationship simulator than it was a game. The Darkness II feels like an attempt to stick to what worked and cut the fat. The game still plays like a shooter staring Doctor Octopus. In addition to two ...

Games: Game Review: Resident Evil: Revelations

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0600

Just as Resident Evil’s diseased monstrosities mutated from people, the series itself has continued to evolve in maddening, unpredictable ways. While early entries in the franchise were known for their delicate pace and cumbersome controls, later titles gave way to bombastic action. The newest entry, Resident Evil: Revelations, is an inspired culmination of what’s come before that splices the series’ DNA, hacks off some staid traditions, and sews on new legs for good measure. In broad terms, Revelations mixes Resident Evil 4’s manual aiming with earlier titles’ cramped corridors, limited ammo, and creeping sense of dread. You ...

Games: Game Review: Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning starts with your character’s death. How exactly you fell is unknown, as you wake up without any memories of your past life. As the first success of a new resurrection technology meant to help turn the tide in a decade-long war against the evil fae of the Winter Court, you’re reborn outside the weave of fate that has predetermined the destinies of every other mortal. Your path is yours to choose, but it should probably involve doing tons of quests and covering yourself in the best gear. The amnesiac hero is a well-worn trope ...

Games: Newswire: Today in music videos: Bruce Springsteen invites you to sing along with "We Take Care Of Our Own"

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:13:00 -0600

When Bruce Springsteen released "We Take Care Of Our Own," the first single from his upcoming album Wrecking Ball, some took the chorus at face value as a nationalistic call to arms. This interpretation conveniently overlooked Springsteen's history of writing songs expressing the exact opposite of what the booming chorus and rousing music conveys (see "Born In The U.S.A.")—not to mention the actual lyrics to "We Take Care Of Our Own," which explicitly rail against leaving our country's poor and disenfranchised to suffer without a helping hand. Maybe that's why the video for "We ...

Games: Newswire: Double Fine Productions raises $1 million for new graphic adventure game in under 24 hours

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:50:00 -0600

One of the chief things standing in the way of further production of more graphic adventure games, of the sorts that made publishing houses LucasArts and Sierra On-line famous back in the late '80s and early '90s, is the long-held notion within the video game industry that graphic adventure games won't sell well enough to recoup those companies' investments. Thus, pioneers of the genre who are still in the industry have found themselves unable to sell new adventure ideas. Those pioneers include Tim Schaefer and Ron Gilbert, both formerly of LucasArts and now working for Double Fine Productions, two ...

Games: Game Review: SoulCalibur V

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0600

A beautiful sense of movement has always made the SoulCalibur games stand apart from other fighters. More than just Tekken with swords, SoulCalibur characters cut though each other with circular motions and interconnected arcs of force. Conceptually, that’s an obvious approach for a fighting game in which giant blades swing about. But the series, now revived with SoulCalibur V, makes the action flow. Rhythm is part of every fighting game, but linking these liquid attacks creates a unique spectacle. SoulCalibur V is back to basics: The game focuses on one-on-one battles in fairly simple arenas. There are few bells ...

Games: Game Review: Final Fantasy XIII-2

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

It’s hard for veteran gamers to approach a new Final Fantasy game without their arms folded stubbornly across their chests. That’s because the specific kind of foolishness that runs through games like Final Fantasy XIII-2 carries a potent capacity for making sensible adults with a modicum of taste feel old, sad, and incredulous. In spite of ridiculous costumes, clumsily pantomimed dramatic scenes, and an inexplicable plot, Final Fantasy XIII-2 has the miraculous power to pull players in, and scarily, sweep them up in its current of non-sense. The leads are two brooding youths, Serah and Noel. They’re ...

Games: Game Review: Scarygirl

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Scarygirl has lovely scenery and a quirky plot, but that isn’t enough to elevate it beyond a mediocre platformer. Based on the graphic novel by Nathan Jurevicius, Scarygirl sends the eponymous character on a quest to decipher the meaning behind her nightmares. The bizarre protagonist is an orphan raised by a highly intelligent octopus. She fights and swings around using a tentacle arm with a pirate hook at the end. Her journey sends her through levels populated by menacing-but-cute hedgehogs, skeletal birds, angry red goats, and unsettling black-tentacled plants. If the gameplay was half as inspired as the look ...

Games: Gateways To Geekery: Graphic adventure games

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Why it’s daunting: Though they once ruled the software sales charts, graphic adventure games endured near-extinction for most of the 2000s. That makes many of the genre’s classic games hard to track down. Fortunately, graphic adventure games are having an unlikely renaissance in this era of browser-based Flash games and indie creations, though seeking out the best of them may still take some work. Broadly speaking, a graphic adventure game is any game where the player controls a character through a tightly told, usually linear storyline, often helping that character out by solving puzzles. Usually, these puzzles will ...

Games: Sawbuck Gamer: January 23, 2012

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Abobo’s Big Adventure Creators: I-Mockery, Pesto Force, ThePoxBox.com Platform: Browser Price: Free Abobo’s Big Adventure is billed as “the ultimate tribute to the NES,” but if that’s true, it raises the question of what exactly qualifies as a “tribute.” In terms of quantity, Adventure certainly references a greater tonnage of Nintendo kitsch than any artwork heretofore known to man. There’s the Double Dragon connection, of course—Abobo was the muscle-bound boss on the first level of that NES classic—but that’s only the beginning. On Abobo’s quest to rescue his beloved son Aboboy ...

Games: Game Review: Amy

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Chapter five of the new downloadable game Amy will forever be discussed in muttered oaths and expletives. That’s when the otherwise-benign survival-horror throwback takes a jarring left turn in difficulty. Up to the 11th hour, Amy plays like a mild-mannered blend of Silent Hill and Ico. As the protagonist, Lana, players escort the titular child through the wreckage of a near-future city while fending off zombies and mutants. There is much collecting of keys, hiding from monsters, and shuffling through darkened corridors. Amy, unlike her horribly written and voice-acted friends, is blessedly mute. The little girl is otherwise gifted ...

Games: Game Review: NFL Blitz

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0600

It’s appropriate that after nearly a decade of estrangement, Blitz and the NFL are being reunited during Tim Tebow’s rise as the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback. Like Tebow, NFL Blitz also plays a cartoonish, improbable, exciting version of pro football. Now, Blitz has been resurrected for the modern age, and though it lacks some of the happy buoyancy of its reborn sister game NBA Jam, it’s still solid. How Blitz football works: You move the ball 30 yards for a first down, the clock stops after every play, there are no penalties, 400-pound men can leap 10 ...

Games: Game Review: Mighty Switch Force

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Players shouldn’t be fooled by the bright colors and perky cast of blonde bombshells: The world of Mighty Switch Force makes 1984 seem utopian. In this totalitarian society, police have the ability to alter the fabric of reality on a whim. At the touch of a button, your cop character can toggle tiles in and out of the foreground, creating makeshift platforms, or smooshing anyone unfortunate enough to be sandwiched between them and the screen, which leads to a startling bug-on-a-windshield effect. Each level’s goal is to retrieve a series of escaped convicts before extracting yourself in a ...

Games: Game Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

It’s hard not to get excited about playing Star Wars: The Old Republic after watching the opening cinematic. Its stunning graphics, beautifully choreographed fight scenes, and powerful John Williams score promise all the excitement, drama, and charm of George Lucas’ iconic film series. Yet the game that follows is more of a mixed experience, delivering on most fronts, but leaving some significant weaknesses. Old Republic is BioWare’s attempt to go toe to toe with World Of Warcraft creator Blizzard, and the game plays remarkably like a combination of the two companies’ products. It features all of WOW’s ...

Best Of 2011: Best of: The best games of 2011

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:01:00 -0600

‪We assembled our top-10 list in the usual way. All of the regular contributors to The A.V. Club’s game section made a bunch of ballots with numbers on them. We added the numbers up. We talked over the list and tweaked it. We cheated with a couple of ties, because we can. This year, each writer also made a not-top-10 selection. Don’t think of these as the “Tied for 11th place” games. (That pseudo-scientific ranking business ends with the main list.) Rather, this eclectic mix is more like the “Staff Picks” shelf at a video store, back ...

Best Of 2011: Best of: The best browser games of 2011

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:01:00 -0600

‪The Sawbuck Gamer column, our recurring roundup of free and dirt-cheap games, is notorious for destroying readers’ productivity with the siren song of interactive procrastination. While you’re home for the holidays, however, it can serve an even nobler purpose: helping you ignore your relatives. Below are our favorite free browser games from the year in Sawbuck. The list contains more than enough instant-gratification gaming to distract you while your right-wing uncle rants about Hawaiian birth certificates, your sister preaches the benefits of raw-locavore veganism, and everyone has the annual argument over what to do about Grandpa. Just bury your ...

Games: Game Review: The Adventures Of Tintin

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

As a rule, it isn’t bad to kick off a game by playing a dog, but it all depends on what the dog’s doing. The Adventures Of Tintin, a game based on the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson movie version of Hergé’s classic comic series, opens with players in the role of Tintin’s fox terrier Snowy rather than the eponymous cowlick-rocking Belgian reporter. Snowy has had some adventures over the last 82 years of Tintin; controlling him could be cool. Not here. As the jaunty soundtrack Django Reinhardts away, your time with Snowy captures some of Tintin ...

Games: Game Review: Trine 2

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:01:00 -0600

“Something mysterious and magical was taking place in the forest,” the narrator mutters at the start of Trine 2. That’s a vague observation, but an apt one. Something magical is happening, though Trine 2’s pliable physics-based challenges and enchantments owe more to Sir Isaac Newton than to Albus Dumbledore. As with the first Trine, players switch off between three characters to solve a series of environmental puzzles. The robust knight specializes in mêlée combat and has a shield for protection, the nimble rogue can sling arrows and grapple across great distances, while the wizard is capable ...

Games: Game Review: Where Is My Heart?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Whinier gamers often complain that there are no new ideas out there. They sorta have a point: Can you name a single major title this year that wasn’t a sequel? But in a more incisive way, those people are just lazy. Case in point: Where Is My Heart?, the new PSP Mini game out of the wildly creative Copenhagen Game Collective that makes a strong case for remembering and exhuming both Sony’s portable and the Mini format. WIMH? belongs to a rising tide of games from a genre that’s difficult to articulate, like any number of other ...