Review: Escape Dead Island (PC)

Maybe it's because it's the close of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, and another birthday for yours truly, that I'm feeling too old, decrepit and tired to have any patience for video games that are slapped into lock-step with tried and true formulas that have proven effective in the past but stopped filling me with awe or, hell, interest.

And that, predictably, is where Escape Dead Island comes in.

Review: Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light Redux (PC)

I can't recall a recent game that has so believably created a sense of place. Right from the get-go I bought into the sci-fi setup of the Metro games and the resulting hardscrabble life of living in underground tunnels. Little snippets of what life is like, coping with hardship, the various factions that have risen up in place of a central government, the cobbled-together devices and an economy driven by bullets and the ever-present threat of mutant attacks and the mysterious Dark Ones. During the periods of downtime I found myself poking around in corners trying to understand how these people are surviving. Even during periods of shooting, sneaking, and battling mutants I often lingered in "cleared" areas to soak in the atmosphere.

Review: Saints Row IV (PC)

Saints Row IV is a long drive down the Pacific coast in a silver convertible. The top's down, an endless digital mix-tape is pumping out of the speakers. The sun has just started it's descent to the horizon.

Traffic is light, there's salty air swirling off the surf, and a friend you've known for 20 years (or more) is sitting beside you laughing about a shared memory that is 75% accurate and 25% exaggeration or outright bullshit. You're on a stretch of road you've driven many times, so the turns, inclines and declines are all familiar. There's some sad nostalgia, too. You last travelled this road with your now-deceased father when you were 15-years old.

Hands-on Preview: Saints Row IV (PC)

 There seems to be no limit to what developer Volition won't explore and there's no piece of the "familiar" that isn't somehow warped and given a distinctive "Saints" bent. This is the hallmark of Saints Row and the series has made the most of it by carving out its own open world niche.

At the same time, the first couple of hours was enough to make me wonder how Volition will keep up the pace and deliver action insanity at that same level for an entire game. At least during the story sections, Saints Row IV doesn't waste any opportunity to poke fun at itself, other games, and a myriad of other topics. The dialogue is as sharp (and self-aware) as ever and in the span of couple of hours it took to play through the preview version I laughed more than few times.

Preview: Saints Row IV (360, PC, PS3)

Saints Row IV is setting itself up as one of those games that will feature a launch trailer that is neatly diced by one-off quotes from previews divorced of context and box art that will have at least two quotes on the back saying lines like:

"Saints Row IV is like Prototype 2 with a sense of humour!"
"Taking ridiculousness to astounding new levels!"
"A pimped-out sandbox world!"
"FUN!"
"Super orgasmic!"
"The action is never flaccid!"
"Juvenile? 100%"
"Volition's got your stimulus package right here!"

And so on.

Review: Sacred Citadel (PC)

Queen Digestya is one of the few somewhat interesting bosses in
Sacred Citadel

Growing up, I played my fair share of beat 'em ups. It was a genre that was pretty hard to miss in the early 1990s with games like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe dominating consoles and arcades. Eventually companies got to thinking it would be fun to toss in RPG elements first by adding a level up system, then fancy loot with even fancier stats on it. Capcom was particularly good at this, creating some of my favorite beat 'em up / RPG hybrids like The King of Dragons and a pair of Dungeons & Dragons games. Sacred Citadel appears to try and hark back to those days, being a beat 'em up with some role playing elements tossed in. Unfortunately, as rose tinted as my glasses can be towards the glory days of this genre, Sacred Citadel falls well short. It's biggest problem is that the game is just too easy. AI in the title is so poor that everything feels incredibly tedious while traversing it.