34 public reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
It is hard to envision Nazis in video game form without thinking back to 1992's Wolfenstein 3D . As one of the first major shooters, it helped shape the genre as we see it today. With so many attempts to reboot the franchise over the years, the announcement of Wolfenstein: The New Order was only a surprise in that it was being tried again. In a surprising twist, developer Machine Games has not only attempted to…
It is hard to envision Nazis in video game form without thinking back to 1992's Wolfenstein 3D. As one of the first major shooters, it helped shape the genre as we see it today. With so many attempts to reboot the franchise over the years, the announcement of Wolfenstein: The New Order was only a surprise in that it was being tried again. In a surprising twist, developer Machine Games has not only attempted to bring…
It is easy to imagine the chaos of a zombie apocalypse. Gamers and moviegoers alike have devoured plenty of media related to the shambling hordes. The aftermath of an explosion gifting certain people superhuman abilities, however, is an entirely different type of chaos. Combine human morality with incredible powers and the results can be much more disastrous. Sucker Punch embraced this devastation with the 2009…
The Souls series has all the makings of a terribly frustrating experience: one-hit kills, creatures mimicking treasure chests, player invasions, and a death count totaling over one million in the first week of release in its latest entry, Dark Souls 2. Passing up a game so seemingly focused on destroying a player’s will to exist seems like the logical choice to make, but missing out on what this powerful franchise…
The barrier to entry in a trading card game tends to be enormous. Acquiring enough cards to form a deck can be an expensive endeavor, particularly if hoping to play competitively, and as a fresh-faced newbie nervously shuffling a fresh stack of cards, finding a match or group to practice with is an intimidating prospect in itself. Fortunately, the internet has stepped in to save those cards (and you) from sustaining…
The past couple of years have seen many successful reboots to franchises. Tomb Raider , DmC , and XCOM: Enemy Unknown have managed to raise the already high bar for their respective series while bringing with them the quality and depth their hardcore fans loved. Other reboots, like Splatterhouse or Alone in the Dark , have proven that without the polish, a revitalized franchise is not a guaranteed success.…
South Park has built a strong reputation for being crass, immature, and generally hilarious as well as a surprisingly intelligent parody of popular culture. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have used their brand of over-the-top and often-offensive comedy to poke fun at just about everything. No religion, race, or belief is safe when it comes to South Park , and at one time, the idea of a videogame pushing the limits to…
Ancient Rome doesn’t get enough love in the videogame industry. Outside of strategy titles, few games have touched on the betrayals, wars, and conquests of Roman history. The mythology of Ancient Greece tends to overshadow all when it comes to the loosely-based historical game market and that is fair – the wars of the gods make for compelling narratives after all – but what about the Romans? Crytek sought to bring…
With a new generation of consoles comes higher expectations. We want improved graphics, advanced artificial intelligence, and new, inventive gameplay mechanics. We want a better version of what came before. Unfortunately, Killzone: Shadow Fall actually lags behind previous entries in the franchise. With only its graphical fidelity to boast of, this PS4 exclusive offers little else to the new console owner than a…
With each new iteration of the Legend of Zelda, it becomes easier to criticize the franchise’s inherent sameness and reliance on nostalgia. There are outliers, like Majora’s Mask or the recently HD-ified Windwaker – both introducing some different mechanics – but even in those examples, the core game remains the same: acquire the tools, solve the dungeons, and defeat some great evil. A Link Between Worlds does not…
Read the full review The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
One of the first videogames I ever played was about pirates. It starred a (not at all) fearless, insult-sword-fighting, unlucky scoundrel named Guybrush Threepwood whose only dream was to become a notorious pirate. A lot of other sea-worthy titles have come and gone since the Monkey Island series, but I have had a soft spot for the roguish, grog-swilling brigands of yore since I first battled LeChuck all those years…
I lift the scope to my eye, centre it on the masked man hiding under the burnt-out truck north of my location, and breathe in. I pull the trigger. CRACK! The bullet fires from my rifle, piercing the man’s cranium with a splash of blood and bone. I reload. CLICK! Another man appears from the blasted remains of a nearby strip club. I repeat my earlier actions, resulting in another corpse not ten feet from the first.…
The Caped Crusader has been through some serious changes since Bob Kane introduced him to the world. Beginning as a pulp-noir character, the Bat-man has been a comic book fan-favourite since his introduction in 1939, spawning a multitude of graphic novels, movies, and games. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, one of many graphic novels starring The Dark Knight, is a powerful and defining tale. When…
Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Little Red Riding Hood. One day, she decided to bring a basket of goodies to her ailing grandmother who lived in the spooky woods. When she finally arrived at her grandma’s cabin, a hoarse voice called out to her, inviting her inside. She obliged and entered the dimly-lit cottage. Little Red Riding Hood was always a gullible child, and when a strangely hairy version of her…
Open-world crime games have come a long way since the bird’s-eye view carjacking escapades of DMA Design’s 1997 cult hit Grand Theft Auto. Titles like Saint’s Row and Sleeping Dogs have bolstered our expectations of the once-novel genre and we expect bigger, better versions of our preferred franchises with each installment. It had been five long years for fans since Rockstar blew everyone away with Grand Theft Auto…
After years of lackluster or even non-existent showings from the big horror franchises – Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Fatal Frame – hope was all but lost for terror-seeking genre junkies like myself. Aside from the occasional Dead Space or Metro title, survival horror seemed to have been tossed back through the mirror, left to die in the twisted universe it originally shambled out from. This is not the case. The…
How far would you go to save someone you love? Modern gaming is full of worn-out tropes. We have seen the all-American hero, the damsel in distress, the amnesiac; even the game mechanics themselves have become cliches in a sense. Anyone with even a limited knowledge of how games work can pick up a controller, blast away the invading hordes of the ravenous dead, and ultimately save the universe. Starbreeze Studios…
One Flew Into the Cuckoo’s Nest Fear is the most primal of challenges. When the consequence of failure is death, triumphing over one’s own cowardice for the sake of survival is not only necessary but imperative. In gaming, the stakes are considerably lessened when a Game Over screen or checkpoint reload is the only punishment for giving into one’s fears. To really drive a horror game, developers need to immerse…
Should the strong rule the weak? Should every human be viewed as equal regardless of obvious inequalities? Should tradition be enforced to preserve antiquated ideals? What is freedom of will? When is an uprising justified? Is true neutrality ever a viable option? Aside from possibly seeing the above questions on a philosophy exam, the average person does not ponder their answers on a daily basis – I know I certainly…
Few foods can quell one’s desires like a Taco Bell combo, and like the faux-Mexican cuisine giant is apt to do, Drinkbox Studios have created a delicious new addition to their menu with Guacamelee! for PS3 and Vita. Guacamelee! is the perfect blend of spice and flavour. The game is a 2D platformer with “metroidvania” qualities – essentially a Cheesy Gordita Crunch with Metroid Prime as the flatbread, Castlevania as…
You are sitting in your room, watching television. Suddenly the channel you are watching changes to static and the paint peels off the walls, revealing an industrial network of pipes, barbed wire, and cogs around you.Awful noises pierce your ears and a blood-curdling scream is heard behind you. Welcome to Silent Hill. Welcome to the Otherworld. The Silent Hill franchise has gone through some tough times in recent…
After enough Dragon Ball Z episodes (or similar anime series), it’s hard for anyone not to have a power fantasy. Dreams of charging giant fireballs and using the world’s energy for massive “power levels” are commonplace for any fan. Asura’s Wrath lets the player take our fantastical day dreams into the video game reality, and does an incredible job of it. After playing the demo when it first came to the Playstation…
The prospect of new franchises in the somewhat cramped world of gaming is always exciting for core gamers. When fresh intellectual properties are shown at events like E3 or Penny Arcade Expo, we can’t help but be anxious to see what new niche the title will carve. The reveal of Dishonored was one of the most exciting announcements of the past E3 and for many reasons. The developers promised a blend of the stealth…
I was certain I was going to boycott Visceral Games’ Dead Space 3 . I had followed development, read every article regarding the game, posted on numerous angry message boards, and played a seriously lackluster demo. In the end, my love for the series resolved to find me staring at the loading screen on my PS3, all of my previous anger dissipated. The game is good! Has the relief set in yet? By no means is DS3 a…
We never asked for this! What did Capcom do to our beloved action series? Why isn’t Dante’s hair white?! Feelings of outrage assaulted the brains of the Devil May Cry fan base when DmC Devil May Cry was shown off at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show and until now, we really had no idea how it would turn out. Action game fans rejoice! This game is the Devil May Cry experience we love, and it delivers style like no action game…
Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, told us all that he loves Aliens . He has repeatedly spoken about the time he sat down with Ridley Scott and talked about the franchise, and he insists that Aliens: Colonial Marines is canon. Pitchford wouldn’t lie to us… Aliens: Colonial Marines wouldn’t let us down and neither would Gearbox Software… Right? Aliens: Colonial Marines does show an eye for detail. From…
Of all the popular doomsday theories – mass flooding, meteors, alien invasion, or even heavenly judgment – my personal least expected apocalyptic scenario would have to be a fungal infection. Naughty Dog, the developers behind Crash Bandicoot , Jak and Daxter , and the highly acclaimed Uncharted franchise, have shown us the true horrors of mushrooms in their latest masterpiece, The Last of Us . Super Mario Bros. ,…
The crumbling of society and the conflicts of survivors trying to maintain some degree of civilization amidst chaos makes for interesting stories, regardless of how many times we have played through such events. Zombies have repeatedly pulled us back in, whether they are in the form of Telltale’s The Walking Dead series, Call of Duty ‘s wildly popular Zombie Mode, Arma 2 ‘s fantastic mod Day Z , or in the latest…
The name is Nigel. I’m a surgeon. I may also have a drug problem, but that isn’t important. Double kidney transplant? No problem! Heart transplant? I’ve got it! Brain transplant? Not impossible! I will skillfully sweep my hand across my table of instruments, knocking everything to the floor and possibly getting a needle stuck in my wrist. I will then grasp my trusty hatchet between my pinky and ring finger – to get…
As the unrelenting storm pounds down on us, the two figures clad in raincoats in front of me mindlessly babble about rowing and other such nonsense. I’m not listening to them – what matters to me is finding the girl. The waves splash against the boat. The woman in front of me nonchalantly passes me a wooden box with my name engraved on it – Booker DeWitt, member of the 7th Cavalry of the atrocious Wounded Knee…
Your arm jolts forward on the page, the marker soaking through to the desk below. I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO DIE. Thunder booms through the room, the rain pelting against the windows. It won’t let up. HE IS HERE HE IS HERE HE IS HERE. You’ve been drawing circles upon circles again, a neverending loop. IT’S ALL MY FAULT. You glance to the window. He is here. The lightning reflects off of his pale, smooth…
As the unrelenting storm pounds down on us, the two figures clad in raincoats in front of me mindlessly babble about rowing and other such nonsense. I’m not listening to them – what matters to me is finding the girl. The waves splash against the boat. The woman in front of me nonchalantly passes me a wooden box with my name engraved on it – Booker DeWitt, member of the 7th Cavalry of the atrocious Wounded Knee…
The idea of using a chainsaw attached to a gun to cut enemies into pieces might come across to some as a problem with modern videogames, and the concept of overly muscled dudes with soul-patches and gravelly voices wielding these guns doesn’t necessarily help promote videogames as art. It is easy for critics of the industry to forget that videogames, while they certainly can exist as art, also exist for…
Metal Gear . The name alone conjures up images of giant mechs, cardboard boxes, and generally confusing plot-lines (Nanomachines, right?). Kojima Productions’ critically acclaimed franchise has been lauded as a great stealth gaming experience, and while it does have its issues, the series has maintained a high degree of quality throughout ( Metal Gear Acid notwithstanding). To say Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance had…
