Preview: In Destiny, Bungie sees a bright future
After Halo: Reach, Bungie walked away from the series that launched competitive shooters on consoles, signing a publishing agreement with Activision. Then it went completely silent for three years...
View ArticlePreview: The tactile Tearaway is the Vita’s new hope
Tearaway is a game almost solely devoted to its feel. It’s an inherently tactile experience, driven by its desire to simultaneously justify the Vita’s features and make you drawn into the experience...
View ArticlePreview: Lightning Returns with thunderous battles
The Final Fantasy XIII saga is the first true trilogy for the series, and Lightning Returns brings back the titular character for the finale of the story. It is also the first entry in the Final...
View ArticlePreview: Memoria aims to learn from lessons past
With The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, Daedalic took on a darker bent with its point-and-click adventure game style. In Memoria, Daedalic returns to the land of Adventuria, with a sequel that will...
View ArticlePreview: Ys IV finally gets the Nihon Falcom touch
Ys: Memories of Celceta is actually the third game to be called Ys IV, though it is the first to be developed by developer Nihon Falcom itself. Previously, Falcom licensed out development of Ys IV to...
View ArticlePreview: In Project Spark, paint and play new worlds
Microsoft’s Project Spark has its roots in an oft-forgotten initiative on Xbox 360: Kodu Game Lab. Like Kodu, Project Spark is a simplified, console-based programming tool, and the two share many...
View ArticlePreview: The new Thief wants to feel fresh but familiar
First announced in 2009, Thief all but disappeared for a few years, leading many to think it had been quietly canceled. Now, moved to a new generation of consoles, Thief proves itself to be in good...
View ArticlePreview: Blackguards, Daedalic’s new tactics adventure
Blackguards, a turn-based RPG based on the Dark Eye role-playing license, is set in a suitably unsavory world. We got to check out the game with executive producer Kai Fiebig, and learn more about...
View ArticlePreview: Shovel Knight’s levels are modern, classic
Shovel Knight has managed to gain a lot of traction since its Kickstarter debut, showing off at big name conventions and nearing a release on Steam and both of Nintendo’s eShops. Its aesthetic and...
View ArticlePreview: The new 3DS Zelda has links to the past
Nintendo has released a slew of new Legend of Zelda in the last 22 years, each with their own individual charm, but none of the games have returned to the world of A Link to the Past. Revisiting this...
View ArticlePreview: Tank! Tank! Tank! also has fourth tank, monster
Namco Bandai’s Tank! Tank! Tank! has a silly name. Our issue with it, though, is that it’s inaccurate. There are four tanks, you know? And the Wii U version adds a mode in which a player can also...
View ArticlePreview: Lost Planet 3 hopes to avoid an icy reception
The first two Lost Planet games, despite not finding much critical success, were enjoyed by many, and the series keeps going along, albeit with a new dev team. The new installment makes some efforts...
View ArticlePreview: Nintendo Land’s attractions are worth visiting
When it was initially announced, Nintendo Land was almost a punchline. Billed as a “one more thing” in an unnecessarily-stretched E3 press event, it seemed it was a half-baked stand-in for a proper...
View ArticlePreview: Alien Spidy swings and weaves with precision
I hate spiders. They’re basically the worst things, and I don’t want them to be around me. Alien Spidy, though, is an alien, which somehow makes it okay that he’s also a spider. But what is he doing...
View ArticlePreview: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is slick
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, while a fine game in its own right, certainly had elements that felt like a first effort. After all, it was. With time to iterate and polish mechanics, as well as...
View ArticlePreview: New Super Mario Bros. U promotes team play
Of the Wii U’s intriguing launch titles, New Super Mario Bros. U could be the easiest to understand. Building off the success of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the game’s relying on its level design to...
View ArticlePreview: Dollar Dash isn’t just a normal cash-grab
A few games have tried over the years, but none have really captured the spirit of explosive, sometimes-manic arena combat quite like Bomberman. Candygun seems to have its sights on the genre king...
View ArticlePreview: The Wonderful 101 is all about the action
If there’s a Wii U game that’s been exciting to core fans and basically no one else, it’s The Wonderful 101, the Platinum Games project that looks a bit like if Viewtiful Joe got a Pikmin-like...
View ArticlePreview: Level-5, Ghibli both strong in Ni no Kuni
Studio Ghibli, with its huge following in Japan, is only in recent years developing a reputation in the West for quality animation. Level-5’s experience is similar, as a major player in the Japanese...
View ArticlePreview: Game & Wario takes foot off the accelerator
When it comes to turning short tech demos and unfinished concepts into compelling experiences, no series has had more success than WarioWare. The trick has been to throw so much at you that none of it...
View ArticlePreview: Primordia shows us a narrative power
The folks over at Wadjet Eye Games let us check out their upcoming adventure game, Primordia. You should remember them from titles like The Blackwell Legacy, Gemini Rue and, most recently, the...
View ArticlePreview: Toki Tori 2 builds a world around its puzzles
Toki Tori is exactly what everybody needs sometimes: a game to relax with that isn’t insultingly easy. Toki Tori moved as quickly or as slowly as the player wanted, it was beautiful to look at, and...
View ArticlePreview: Anomaly 2 proving the original was no fluke
Anomaly: Warzone Earth put a twist on the usual tower defense genre by putting you on the offense against the towers. It was a success, seeing versions on PC, iOS, consoles and more. The recent...
View ArticlePreview: Supergiant’s Transistor has slick look, action
Following on the massive success of its first title, Bastion, Supergiant Games is sticking to what it knows. Transistor has a familiar feel, similar interfaces and the return of the first game’s main...
View ArticlePreview: Max grows up in The Curse of Brotherhood
Despite being acquired by Microsoft, Copenhagen-based Press Play isn’t abandoning the games it previously created. Its upcoming project, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, shares many of the concepts of...
View ArticlePreview: The recursive chaos of Super Time Force
Capybara Games’ Super Time Force started out as an experiment, and frankly, it’s stayed that way. It’s weird, and it focuses on fresh ideas over polish. That said, as the game nears release, it’s...
View ArticlePreview: Snowbird is mastering Eador’s Broken World
The first Eador game was has somewhat of a cult following. The game brought together many interesting elements from other titles, but a late, somewhat strange English translation and a simple lack of...
View ArticlePreview: Might & Magic X seeks to rekindle nostalgia
Reviving a classic series is always a challenge, but it’s even tougher when its very appeal (at least at this point) is in those nostalgic, dated mechanics. With Might & Magic X, Ubisoft is trying...
View ArticlePreview: Final Fantasy X/X-2 getting the HD treatment
Final Fantasy X introduced legions of RPG fans to an exciting new generation of consoles, wowing them with its vibrant graphics and, for the first time, voiced characters. It was so successful and...
View ArticlePreview: Lots of little pieces, but only one Knack
Filling the family-friendly action-adventure role in the PlayStation 4’s launch is Knack, from Mark Cerny and Sony’s first-party Japan Studio. It shows off the tech of the new hardware in ways that...
View ArticlePreview: The Skylanders are back in full (swap) force
Many, even those who enjoyed it, found last year’s Skylanders Giants to be something of a standalone expansion rather than a true progression of visuals and combat. If you were one of those people,...
View ArticlePreview: Wolfenstein: The New Order’s dark timeline
The Wolfenstein series has always tried to inject an alternate history slant into the usual World War II shooter, but in The New Order, MachineGames takes it out of the 1940s and places you into a...
View ArticlePreview: Sonic Lost World is a platformer potluck
Sonic has had a long and winding past, but after the celebrated nostalgia of Generations, it’s time for the series to once again look forward. Sonic Lost World, a Nintendo-exclusive entry in the...
View ArticlePreview: DKC: Tropical Freeze thaws the series’ past
I may not have been able to go to E3 with Graham and Shawn, but my local Best Buy was cool enough to host Nintendo’s E3 Experience, bringing four playable demos of upcoming Wii U games. Being the...
View ArticlePreview: Mickey’s return to Castle of Illusion isn’t easy
Castle of Illusion isn’t really for kids. The game may star Mickey Mouse, but just like its 16-bit predecessor, this new downloadable title can be punishingly hard. Jumps have to be precise. Levels...
View ArticlePreview: All roads, ships lead to Total War: Rome II
The Total War series has always been about grand strategy meshed with battlefield tactics, but it has grown more refined and complex with each entry. As a result, Creative Assembly has been revisiting...
View ArticlePreview: On console, it’s a very different Diablo III
Diablo III? Didn’t that game release last year? Well yes, there was a game by that name, but with just a few key changes, the console release is shaping up to be something very different. Oh, and you...
View ArticlePreview: Saints Row IV uses its executive superpowers
Saints Row, once just another Grand Theft Auto clone, has become a series that manages to marry enjoyable gameplay with a story that doesn’t even begin to take itself seriously. In fact, ‘serious’ may...
View ArticlePreview: Super Mario 3D World brings back old friends
The addition of a new title to the 3D, “core” Mario series wasn’t a surprise going into E3, but what it ended up being sure was. Most folks were expecting something more grandiose, along the lines of...
View ArticlePreview: Mario Kart 8’s tracks drive you up the wall
Before E3 even started, we knew we’d see the new Wii U Mario Kart. Now that we have, it’s clear that it doesn’t stray too far from the series’ past, but it does add a new element that can turn things...
View ArticlePreview: Fight and negotiate in Shin Megami Tensei IV
Shin Megami Tensei IV is the latest in a series that has, as of late, fallen in the shadow of its Persona spin-off franchise. While the two have similar themes, the story, settings and gameplay differ...
View ArticlePreview: 1954 Alcatraz embraces film noir traditions
1954 Alcatraz is more mature and “American” than most of Daedalic’s work; the game explores and embraces the social diversity of San Francisco, as well as the brutal, fight-ridden despair of prison....
View ArticlePreview: Goodbye Deponia will be a farewell to Rufus
Daedalic Entertainment released a number of point-and-click adventure games over the last couple years. By and large, they’ve all been well-received, though the premiere series to this point has been...
View ArticlePreview: Disney Infinity is about the joy of imagination
Ah, the toy box. It’s a magical swirl of figures and play sets, brought together by the power of your imagination. Wild stories are told, unheard-of rivalries are tested and logic is thrown out of the...
View ArticlePreview: The wide, wide world of The Witcher 3
The Witcher games have been known for being gorgeous and mature, and supported well by the development team. With the third game in the series, an emphasis has been placed on sheer scope rivaling that...
View ArticlePreview: Wii U Smash Bros. makes moves toward Melee
After months of brief gameplay teasers at previous press events, Nintendo finally allowed fans and media a shot at playing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for themselves. We tested out the new title to...
View ArticlePreview: Team up in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Recent titles in the Sonic the Hedgehog series have had varying levels of success, appealing to a certain crowds but never truly pleasing anyone. It’s almost natural that many would feel scared about...
View ArticlePreview: Resident Evil goes episodic in Revelations 2
After the spin-off Resident Evil Revelations franchise made its debut on 3DS, it was ported to home consoles, and with its upcoming sequel, Capcom is tailoring the game specifically for the big-screen...
View ArticleTransformers: Devastation Preview: Punch in, roll out
Developer PlatinumGames is taking on a lot of work lately. The team’s adding to the already-announced Scalebound with the new Nier, a chunk of Star Fox Zero and, of course, Transformers: Devastation....
View ArticleTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 Preview: Younger in my mind
Tony Hawk is back, and it has halfpipes! Manuals! Rails! Reverts! Projectiles! “Yeah, that really shouldn’t have been included in the announcement.” Activision and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 developer...
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