Review: Skylanders: Trap Team (PS3)

"We have seen the evil of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in our midst; let us try prohibition and see what this will do for us."

- Thomas Jordan Jarvis

Swap out "intoxicating liquors" for "Skylanders" and you'll know where I'm going with this review of Skylanders: Trap Team. In fact, I really wanted to write this review in the spirit of a 1920's speech on the evils of liquor and the shortfalls of Prohibition because this is the era that Skylanders has started to conjure in my mind. Not just for the addiction angle and the corruption of youth, but because it would be pretty interesting to see what homebrew figures would look like.

Review: Destiny (PS3)

Because of lofty aspirations, Bungie’s first title following the phenomenal success of the Halo games was destined to leave many gamers disappointed in some way or another. It’s a difficult task in any entertainment arena to attempt a follow-up to such an overwhelming success as the Halo franchise was for Bungie. Destiny is that game.

And it has its share of disappointments, primarily in failing to be the massively multiplayer offering it had aspired to be, and having a primary focus on repetitive missions. But it clearly sustains many of the stellar qualities that made Halo a universally well-regarded and lucrative gaming hit, and has even showed improvement in first-shooting game-making, showing lessons learned from the past were implemented by Bungie in its present.

Preview: Skylanders Trap Team (Multiplatform)

Just like all those times when Joker breaks everyone out of Arkham Asylum, Skylanders: Trap Team features a dramatic prison breakout thanks to the perpetually evil, Chaos, which plunges Skyland into a diabolical hell of violence, drugs, corruption, and organized crime. (I may be slightly overstating this.) Only this time, once the crazy guys are captured, they work for Batman.

Preview: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare *Hands-On*

Last week, Activision held a press event to unveil Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer in San Francisco. Activision flew us out to get a first glimpse at the game's multiplayer, prior to it's "official" unveiling at Gamescom. The Developers talked about the new features in multiplayer and gave us some hands-on time with the game.

Review: Child of Light (PS3)

What can be best described as a video game fairy tale, Child of Light is almost like stepping into one of those beautiful short stories we used to read as kids, complete with fantastical watercolours.

The story follows Aurora, the daughter of a widowed Duke who one night wakens from her sleep in an alternate universe called Lemuria, which has had its moon, sun and stars stolen by the Dark Queen. Aurora's first inkling upon waking up is to return home, but in order to do this she must defeat the Dark Queen and return Lemuria's stolen celestial belongings.

Preview: Destiny (Multiplatform)

Unless you've been sleeping for the last fifteen years or so, it should be a point of common knowledge that Bungie makes some really excellent shooters.  They did it with the Marathon series, they did it again with the Halo series, and they're looking to make the hat trick with Destiny.  Bungie faithful have been following the project closely and with their public beta test coming up, it's shaping up very impressively.

Preview: Tales of Xillia 2 (PS3)

If fan fiction and official releases are any indicator, there are some fictional worlds that we just can't get enough of, even if the stories of the original heroes have long since been finished.  Such is the case with Tales of Xillia 2.  A direct sequel, it takes place a year after the conclusion of the first game, but gives us a new story set in the brave new world that was created.  Since it is a new story, a new hero with all new problems is introduced, though some old friends from the first game will be showing up.

Review: Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PS3)

The original Tales of Symphonia was easily a "must own" on the stately GameCube for any RPG fan; while the follow up Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World on the Wii… well it was certainly available to be owned.

The original was a progenitor to some of the RPG elements that are common place today or used to a greater effect in other franchises later – live action combat rather than turn-based or the ATB-gauge style combat; setting up AI commands for your colleagues during combat (which the Final Fantasy franchise used extensively under the "Gambit System" for Final Fantasy IX).

Review: Bandfuse: Rock Legends (PS3)

Music, suffice it to say, has always been a big part of my life. Long time readers know that my gold standard for a game's soundtrack is one that I would want to throw into the CD player in my car and drive down the road with it. Back in junior high school, I took up the guitar, since I didn't necessarily want to be in band and I did want to learn at least some instrument. I've kept up with it off and on over the years, picked up a couple guitars along the way, and learned to pick out a few songs here and there. When the big rhythm game fever hit with Guitar Hero, I knew that it might have some small application with actual guitar work, but more along the lines of finger speed and timing.

Review: Strider (PS3)

The original Strider games in the Arcade and for the Nintendo Entertainment System hold a place in my young-gamer heart. The Arcade game was ridiculously cool (if not ridiculously hard to match) and was easily one of the set pieces of many an arcade in the late 80's whereas the Nintendo version shortly followed with one of the better action based games of that era. It feels rather odd to refer to the current game as a "Metroid-vania" as this game came out in the exact same time period in gaming… but when you've only made 3 games in your life span, you tend to get overlooked.

Review: The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS3)

In some ways it seems like it's been years since I explored the world of Joel and Ellie in the Last of Us. It was a gaming experience unlike any other and it's one that doesn't quickly leave your mind even after it's over. From moments of heartache to ones where your skin crawls at the thought of a Clicker biting your neck, The Last of Us had it all.

Review: A-Men 2 (PS Vita)

A-Men 2 is a game that suffers from murky instructions, ho-hum graphics and a difficulty curve so steep you may as well just jump off a cliff. It’d be a whole other matter if the game gradually introduced mechanics in a clever and subtle way, which sadly is not something A-Men 2 does well.

Review: Atomic Ninjas (PS3)

The growth of the indy games community has certainly brought forward some brilliant minimalist games; Fez, Super Meat Boy, and FTL are the first to my mind.

Unfortunately for every one of those, there are the titles that could have used more fleshing out. Atomic Ninjas goes the route of the multiplayer brawler – a multi-leveled frantic experience not too dissimilar to a good game of Super Smash Brothers. The visuals are simple yet grab the eye – bright popping colors and frantic action meant to suck you right in. The problem is that when you get there, you get the feeling that you arrived a little too early to the party.

Editorial: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 We Hardly Knew Ye

So, with a new generation of consoles here, it's time to eulogize the imminent passing of the previous one. We look back on all of the good times we had, the bad times, the high and low points, all the things that made the generation special for us. My problem is that this past generation was the first time I genuinely found myself not caring about console games, and I can see that opinion galvanizing in the future.

There were plenty of games that I liked that came out on those systems, but they also came out on PC where they were often times prettier. Even better, if I waited until something like a Steam Sale, I could get a lot of those games for a sack of nickels, which is quite the savings over their console equivalents where I was hard pressed to find a lot of those games for under twenty bucks.

Review: Call of Duty - Ghosts (PS3)

Since the series went yearly in 2005, the gaming community has come to expect a new iteration of Call of Duty each holiday season.

Each year it seems like the latest instalment in the series breaks the previous years sales records.  Regardless of sales figures, many gamers feel the series has grown tiresome and stale. In addition to that, Electronic Arts Battlefield series holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. So, Call of Duty: Ghosts has it's work cut out for itself.

Review: Rocksmith 2014 Edition (PS3)

I reviewed the original Rocksmith for the PS3 when it first released in the fall of 2011. At the time it came out, I had never picked up a real guitar so it was a great entry into the music world for me. However, even with all it offered, the game was held back by a clunky user interface, long load times and the fact that you had to retune your guitar between every song (even if they are tuned the same). Rocksmith 2014 (RS2014) fixes all of the problems of the original game while adding some great new features.

Review: Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (PS3)

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (DOA5U) is an upgraded version of DOA 5 Plus for the Playstation Vita and DOA5 for the PS3, both of which were released within the past year.  Like the title suggests, DOA5U at its core, is a Game of the Year Edition featuring several DLC packs, some new features and gameplay tweaks to round out the package.

Review: Skylanders - SWAP Force (PS3)

As a series, Skylanders has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide and presumably multimillions in additional toy sales.

Skylanders can be best described as a toy-game crossover that at first glance seems like it's primarily aimed at children, However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll quickly learn that Skylanders offers something cool to players of all ages.

Review: Disney Infinity (PS3)

It's difficult to begin a review of Disney Infinity without providing an ample warning to parents about the real-world action figure economy that Disney has created in some respects (and takes a few cues from the popular Skylanders series).

Besides a video game, there are real-world figures to collect that can be plunked down on the "Infinity Base" which interact with each other, along with optional/additional "Power Discs." Setting these items on the base makes them "live" in the game. The base set comes packed with Mr. Incredible (The Incredibles), Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Sulley (Monsters U) and one Power Disc. In practicality, this means three fair sized campaigns ("Play Sets") and plenty of options when it comes to Toy Box mode.

Feature Preview: Skylanders Swap Force (Part III)

Last week, Sidd was in Albany, New York to take a tour of developer Vicarious Visions studio. During the trip he got a chance to talk to the developers and get some hands on time with the game. In our first two feature articles (Part I, Part II, we took a behind the scenes look at the game talking about everything from the character creation to how the story was crafted. In this third and final article gives us some hands-on impressions of Swap Force for the Xbox 360.

The Skylanders series has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide, which is to say nothing of the number of toy sales that has generated.