The tube, the underground, subway or metro. Call it what you will, but there’s a lot to be said for subterranean train systems and their vital contribution to inner city transport networks. Saying that, I think that anyone that has habitually used one would agree that they are a means to an end; a necessary evil. We need it, but we don’t really like it. It smells, it’s dusty and it’s full of rats.
Spare a thought, then, for the citizens of post-apocalyptic Moscow who, when the bombs went off retreated into the city’s metro system and made it their home. It is a bleak and dismal place that they share with die-hard communists, fascist neo-Nazis and irradiated mutants. Continue reading Metro: Last Light PC review→
After a five year break the only street-racing game worth playing returns. Codemasters seem to have really outdone themselves this time with GRID 2, the long awaited sequel to Race Driver: GRID.
Back in 2008, almost lost amongst all the other racing games vying for first place, Race Driver: GRID had them all beat. Whilst other racers concentrated on simulating the driving experience, for GRID it was about the fun and the excitement of taking a car up to and beyond its limits. It was about hot rubber on sticky tarmac, not clutch plates and drive shafts. The result was a racing game for everyone, from Supercar V8 to Japanese drift racing. GRID had a heart and soul that provided a racing experience that took your breath away. Continue reading GRID 2: exclusive Q&A with Codemasters’ producer Iain Smith→
Take a group of gruff mercenaries, a sci-fi setting, a strange alien power source and some stupendous weapons and you’ve the recipe for a interesting game. Design it from the ground up to be drop-in drop-out four-player co-op and you’ve got the potential for something rather special.
Welcome to Fuse, the third-person shooter from Insomniac Games, the same outfit the brought us Spryro, Ratchet and Clank, and the Resistance series.
I recently attended a special preview event hosted by Insomniac Games’ co-founder Ted Price over at EA Games’ Sydney HQ. I got to play the first few hours of the Xbox 360 version of the game in a two player co-op campaign session as well as a little of the game’s “co-petative” Echelon mode. Continue reading Fuse Xbox 360 preview→
1910. Abilene, Kansas. A car narrowly misses a lone man on horseback. What was once the Wild West has now been tamed. After tying up his horse, aged former gunslinger and bounty hunter, Silas Greaves pushes open the doors of Bulls Head saloon.
As he enters Silas is immediately recognised by a young man, Dwight, who is familiar with the gunslinger’s exploits as published in pages of one of the notoriously exaggerated pulp novels. Sitting himself down with the bar’s patrons Silas recalls his past adventures to a fascinated, if somewhat sceptical, audience. Continue reading Call of Juarez: Gunslinger PC review→
Unlike Sony, who famously revealed their upcoming PlayStation 4 without actually showing us the thing, Microsoft has kept quiet about their new console offering. Apart from rumours, including that little Twitter-based always online drama, we’ve known absolutely nothing about the new Xbox.
Well, that has all changed now.
At 3am this morning Microsoft finally spilled the beans on their new console: Xbox One.
During an hour-long presentation from their Redmond HQ, Microsoft introduced what they hope will change the way we view and interact with visual entertainment. Continue reading Introducing Xbox One!→
When there’s no more room in hell the dead will ruin your holiday. Well, at least that is what Dead Island: Riptide developers Techland would have us believe in their gore-fueled follow-up to the zombie-fest Dead Island. My Dead Island: Riptide PC review was originally published on the pages of Shanethegame.com the other week. I thought it would be the perfect review to eXtend and reprint here.
Two years ago Techland’s co-op first-person zombie slasher, Dead Island, surprised us all. Coming seemingly out of nowhere the game garnered a sizable amount of praise, in spite of arriving with more than its fair share of bugs. Continue reading eXtended Play: Dead Island: Riptide PC review→
VicBStard.com special guest contributor Judalene Cheetham returns with another game review. Jude has traveled all the way back to ancient Greece to bring us the secret origin of the PlayStation’s iconic anti-hero, Kratos.
Enjoy.
God of War: Ascension is a PlayStation 3 exclusive third-person action-adventure game that is brutally fun and takes you into a world of Greek mythology and madness. Being the fourth entry into the hugely popular series, God of War: Ascension has a lot to live up to but does the game ascend Mount Olympus or should it be sent to the depths of the Underworld.
For any one unfamiliar with the God of War series, Ascension is as good a place as any to start. It begins one cut scene into the first game. So all you need to know is you are Kratos, a Spartan super-soldier, who sells his soul to Ares, the God of War. After much deliberation Kratos decides to ditch the son of a bitch. And it is on this premise you set out acquiring trinkets, solving puzzles and last, but sure as hell not least, killing all manner of absurd creatures. Continue reading God of War: Ascension PS3 review→
It’s been almost a year since my move from New Zealand to Australia and honestly say that my feet have hardly touched the ground. It all a blur; a whirlwind of games, events and previews. I’ve never written as much as I’ve done in the past year and things show on signs of abating.
On the review pile at the moment I’ve the DC Comics inspired beat ’em up Injustice: God Among Us, Namco Bandai’s Star Trek and Techland’s Dead Island: Riptide.
I’ve also a few bits of DLC that I need to talk about at some point, namely The Tyranny of King Washington DLC for Assassin’s Creed 3 and all those lovely bits of DLC for the most excellent Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I also need to drop some words about the Fuse and Grid 2 hands-on previews that I attended last week.
