Gaming
Helen K Parker
In the event of an alien invasion it really is important to learn to prioritise. And to juggle. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown you are plunged into the middle of just such an invasion. As the commander of an elite anti-alien unit you are responsible for the building, running and expansion of your XCOM base and its operations.This is where the juggling comes in, because very early on you find yourself asking questions: how many fighter planes am I building for South America? Have my researchers perfected the art of mind control yet? Have my engineers finished building those jet-packs?You have to keep Read more ...
Helen K Parker
Resident Evil ****There’s a war going on in the world of Resident Evil, and it’s not between soldiers and zombies. In one camp there are those who long for the good old days of horror-filled fixed-perspective wanderings through zombie-infested mansions, while in the other are those who are more open to the fact that franchises have to evolve to survive.Resident Evil 6 is set a few years after the action of Resi 5 and brings the characters of the previous games together into four separate but interweaving story campaigns. This narrative chop-up is a deliberate move by Capcom to offer Read more ...
Helen K Parker
It’s been a good month for lovers of bootylicious action games, where the swag is plentiful and the guns are ridiculous. With its novel Grindhouse aesthetic, Borderlands 2 comes hot on the heels of last week’s similarly loot-obsessed Torchlight II, replacing that game’s swords and skeletons with sniper rifles and caterwauling midgets. It also has one of the best, most stylish opening sequences I’ve seen in a game for a long time.Lured by the call of the charismatic and treacherous Handsome Jack, your character (be it the weapon-obsessed Gunzerker, the sneaky Assassin, the magical Siren or the Read more ...
Helen K Parker
It’s all about the smash and grab in Runic Games’ new adventure Torchlight II, which offers up more booty than you can shake a rune-encrusted staff at. Forget story and character, the aim of this slickly designed action RPG is quests, exploration, and killing copious amounts of enemies with a plethora of weaponry.Accompanied by Matt Uelmen’s beautiful soundtrack, your character gallivants through the game’s levels collecting so much stuff that it becomes frequently necessary to load your critter companion up like a pack mule and send them back to town to flog your unwanted gear. And get some Read more ...
Helen K Parker
Ruinous is a harsh word to wield against any artistic decision. However, the Russo/American voiceover chosen by Igor Rezenov to accompany his new PC game Fibrillation, no other printable judgement is strong enough. The game itself is a brief but beautifully atmospheric horror designed to be played in a single sitting. Your comatose character wanders through the grainy and confusing landscapes of his hypoxic mind, attempting to find a way out of the various catacombs, and to flee a terrifying entity which stalks him.As you move through doorways into warehouse storage rooms, geometric mazes and Read more ...
Helen K Parker
Science gone horribly wrong. Paper trails as long and arduous as the Northwest Passage. Rogue detectives, ruthless reporters, treacherous geeks and doctors plagued by recurring nightmares. With the end of the world at stake it’s all to play for in Resonance, the new point-and-click adventure game from Xii Games.Taking place 60 hours before a global cataclysmic event, our four protagonists Ed, Anna, Ray and Bennet, find themselves ensnared in a web of code-breaking, password-stealing, DNA-switching, dream-deciphering and magnet-manipulating machinations, with puzzles harder than the Guardian Read more ...
Helen K Parker
Welcome to Lafcadio Academy for Troubled Young Ladies. In this environment of blood-soaked walls, spinning blades, spikes, ghouls and HP Lovecraft references, the curriculum is simple: play if you dare, and survive if you can. They Bleed Pixels, the new game from indie developers Spooky Squid, is a traditional platformer that serves up more splat than a hamster in a microwave. Upon arriving at the school, your character is mysteriously cursed by an evil book, and finds herself transforming into something distinctly crustacean. As you frenetically traverse the 11 platform levels of your Read more ...
Helen K Parker
Darksiders II **** If you’ve ever wondered what a punch-up between a horseman of the apocalypse and a massive angry ice giant would look like, you need look no further than Darksiders II, which sweeps into the gaming world this week. Death is the equine-straddling quadruplet we are following this time around as he pursues his quest to uncover a plot between deities which has seen his brother War imprisoned and falsely accused of kicking off Armageddon. Unlike the first game, the setting of the game is not Earth but the fantastical Nether Realms of the gods, an opportunity which the Read more ...