Review: Metro: Last Light Season Pass (PC)

The Season Pass for Metro: Last Light has come out and it's an interesting little mix of stuff.
Rather than putting out large new chunks of story, 4A Games decided to go with smaller side stories
from the perspective of different characters and even different factions. Along with that, they've also thrown in some light sandbox play in the form of the Developer Pack and an endless wave mode in the Tower Pack.

The elements that made Metro: Last Light so enjoyable originally are still in effect here.

Review: Charlie Murder (XBLA)

Many a rocker has been accused of bartering his soul to the devil, or some variation of evil entity, for attaining rock stardom. Charlie Murder doesn't sell his soul to become the rock legend he is now, but jealousy has fuelled a rival death metal band, Gore Quaffer, to trade theirs in order to get the power to destroy Charlie and his bandmates. That's the heavy-metal backdrop that drives the brawler hybrid (mostly brawler, a good portion roleplaying game) Charlie Murder for Xbox Live Arcade, the new title from Ska Studios, makers of the excellent Dishwasher brawler series.

While there's a lot to like about Charlie Murder, including good multiplayer and that infusion of RPG character building, it lacks the charisma of both Dishwasher titles and doesn't quite capture the brawler soul either of those two games did.

Review: Fire Emblem - Awakening (3DS)

Fire Emblem is a series that unfortunately is not nearly as popular as it should be. It’s extremely well known among the hardcore fans of role-playing strategy. Though the series dates back to the 1990's, it's still perceived as a niche title for those that love a challenge.

Fire Emblem is well known for its perma-death aspect. If you make the wrong move, the game isn't afraid to slap the player and you’ll lose characters for the entirety of your game. This promotes careful decision making, and really enforces the tactical aspect of the gameplay.

Review: Pokémon White Version 2 (DS)

For all the graphical tweaks and upgrades that the Pokémon games undergo, there's a glaring omission when it comes to accommodating older gamers.

Rather than starting the game with, "Are you a boy or a girl?" the player should be able to hit the option, "I don't care! Skip the story! Let me play! I'm 35-years old and time is precious!" That feature will likely never be implemented but it would help strip out the part that I find completely insufferable about Pokémon: the story.

Review: Mass Effect 3 DLC - Leviathan (360)

Part of the "game" of the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3 is simply finding it after it's been downloaded.

This being the only bit of Mass Effect 3 DLC I've played, it's possible the other available content suffers the same problem but what I don't understand is why, after paying money for something, the player is left to hunt down the starting point of the extra content.

Review: Darksiders II (PC)

 

The Apocalypse has served as the backdrop for countless stories, usually ones focused very intensely on one or two individuals as they grimly make their way through the End of the World.  But the Apocalypse is a pretty big event.  The end of all things certainly offers the opportunity to cover the breadth as much as the finality.  While Darksiders covered the story of War, Darksiders II covers the story of Death, explaining what the Grim Reaper was doing while his brother was busy in the ashes of Earth.  It ties in nicely with the first game in the series, which kinda weakens it when you look at it on its own.

Review: Darksiders II (360)

Two years following a successful launch of a new intellectual property, Darksiders II has galloped full-steed ahead, this time with the star horseman being Death. Taking place parallel to the events of the first game, Darksiders II retains the same high level of quality that the original did. Amazing graphics align perfectly with great, huge environments with expansive dungeons to crawl, plenty of slashing, hacking and looting a la the God of War franchise with a RPG character-building aspect, and 25-40 hours of fantastic action gameplay.

Blogs: Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect 3 DLC

If you haven't been reading Mr. Nash's blog you probably should because he's gone back to Baldur's Gate and he's writing some lengthy commentary on the game as well as how it compares to modern games in the genre:

So, now my party is along the coast, smacking ogres. I haven't had to be too terribly careful with my pulls here, but it's also important not to be careless. At any rate, it's not a bad place to farm up experience, and hopefully level everyone up a few times. Minsc is getting close, and I really want Dynaheir hitting level four as well. She starting to be kinda useful with her magic now. Full article.

And on Aaron's blog, he goes in search of Leviathan in Mass Effect 3's latest DLC. Not only does that form the story arc behind the DLC, it's also a meta game where the player has to figure out how to actually access that DLC content for Leviathan. Full article.

Review: Tales of Graces F (PS3)

Tales of Graces F is a game that may not have wide appeal, however, if you are looking for a fun JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) with a good story and a great battle system, this is definitely for you.

Raving Rant: The Outsider

It sits there on Metacritic's page like a baleful and accusing eye.  It's the only one of its kind on that page, as of the time of this writing, a red square with a number "45" on it, and the name "Armchair Empire" next to that.  It is the review I submitted for Diablo III.  Right now, it's probably the most viewed page on our site.  I remember the email that Jeff Nash sent me after the review went up while I was at E3.  "Should be interesting to see how people react to the score. I suspect some hilarious comments will be forthcoming."

In this respect, our fearless leader was not wrong.

Review: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (360)

Getting weak in the knees thinking about a video game character is 100% ridiculous and a sure sign that the person experiencing such feelings is an emotionally unstable weirdo, who you'd more likely see lining up at City Hall for a marriage license to wed their body pillow than reaching for a bar of soap and having a damn shower

Well, that's what I used to believe.

E3: The Elder Scrolls Online - Preview

When the announcement for Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) was made, the Internet seemed to give a collective shrug.  "This has been done before," the complaints went.  "I liked this when it was called World of WarCraft."  It wasn't quite fear and loathing, but it wasn't precisely a warm welcome, either.  At E3, we were treated to a longer non-interactive demo of the game, and from what I can tell, it's not going to be another mindless WoW clone.