Retro review: Ancient Domains of Mystery

A long time ago, in a fantasy realm far, far away… there was a bit of this, and a bit of that, and then suddenly monsters and a prophecy and a Chosen One who will defeat the great and terrible tide of evil that threatens to engulf the entire world, etc.

YOU ARE [NAME HERE]! And this is where I always got stuck for about two hours, randomly generating characters over and over until I had a dark elf thief vaguely resembling Per Gessle from Roxette. What can I say – I was way into my roguelike RPGs, but I was also a teenage girl, and even when it’s just ASCII graphics, looks matter.

Posted by Tarryn Van Der Byl Jan 09, 2012

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Feature review: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Naughty Dog is back to take us on a whirlwind tour of the globe in chase of the seductive Iram of the Pillars,pulling us back into the sweaty jeans of our favourite wisecrack adventurer, Nathan Drake. Following 2009’s mighty Among Thieves was no easy task but Naughty Dog have stepped up their game in almost every conceivable way, crafting what is quite simply the best made and most beautiful looking game in existence.

The narrative leaps from a brilliantly realised pub brawl in London, across to France, Yemen and beyond as it explores the relationship between Drake and his moustached mentor Sully. While the story is enjoyable (throwing in many nods and jokes to fans of the series) the narrative is a little weaker in construction than its predecessor and the villains are less cleverly motivated, resulting in a climax less fulfilling than it could have been. Despite this, the cut scenes telling this story showcase the very best animation in the industry thanks to the fact that the voice actors are the ones in mocap suits, boasting nuanced animation traditional processes would simply not yield. Accentuating this is exceptional voice acting which is effortlessly delivered along with some of the finest facial animations to date.

Posted by Rhys ap Gwyn Nov 16, 2011

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Review: The Next Big Thing

Ayo! What if horror movies’ monsters were played by real monsters? What if the situation was not all beer and skittles and they decided to rebel?

This is the stellar concept behind Pendulo Studios’ The Next Big Thing. It’s such a good idea in fact, that the game struggles to live up to its potential, but comes pretty darn close.

Posted by Rhys ap Gwyn Sep 16, 2011

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GC 2011: Hands-on with Saint’s Row: The Third

Gamescom 2011

Saint’s Row: The Third is all about having crazy good fun. If you’re the type of person who spends hours on end in sandbox games finding new and creative ways to murder the populace of whichever city you’re supposed to be saving, or exploring the various routes through the streets in a dumpster truck because it lets you smash through traffic better than anything else, then you should pay close attention to this game.

My hands-on time included a main story mission and about an hour of free-play on a small urban island within the Steelport city limits.

Posted by Geoff Burrows Aug 19, 2011

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Feature review: Alice: Madness Returns

American McGee’s Alice was probably the first sleeper-hit of the 2000s. It used the popular Quake III engine to deliver something that was much more of an adventure than the slew of straightforward shooters we got at the time. It also had a compelling, psychological tale to tell, which was also unusual for the time. I know a lot of people who have the fondest memories of this game and the disturbing, gothic take on the Alice in Wonderland story.

I also knew a contingent who hated it for this very reason, because they knew what kind of people it would attract. Fair enough, someone as prejudiced as me can’t call anyone out on that. Goths make me vomit in my mouth too – but to avoid these two games for that reason is to do yourself a tremendous disservice. Oh, and if you haven’t played the original, don’t worry. With every first-hand purchase of Alice: Madness Returns, you get a voucher to download an upscaled, HD, widescreen version of American McGee’s Alice for free. That’s frickin’ awesome, because I played the original, but never quite got around to finishing it. Now I can.

Posted by Matthew Vice Jul 04, 2011

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Telltale’s Walking Dead carves its own path

We haven’t learned much about Telltale Games’ upcoming episodic series based on comic book/TV series The Walking Dead since its announcement. Seems the focus is squarely on Jurassic Park for the time being. We’ve now got another snippet of info that’ll be interesting to fans of the franchise: it won’t retell the story told by its counterparts.

This means that Rick Grimes is not the star of Telltale’s interactive show. Instead we’ll witness the zombie apocalypse from the perspective of Lee Everett. Lee is a criminal who runs into a spot of luck when those pesky undead politely rid him of his police escort. He’ll be joined by a seven-year old girl named Clementine. Telltale has revealed that Clementine will help keep Lee’s morality in check as the pair struggle to survive a world gone all decrepit and gross.

It seems that even though this is an all-new tale, we’ll still cross paths with familiar characters like Lilly and Glenn. While Lee and Clementine fight to escape Atlanta, Rick Grimes is battling to get into the city, so the two stories still coincide.

Posted by Dane Remendes Jun 09, 2011

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Review: The Tomb Raider Trilogy

Blimey, the gaming industry really does go through some unexpected changes sometimes. If you told me back in the days of the original Tomb Raider trilogy that one day Square Enix would publish it, I’d have thought you were completely off your axle. But still, stranger things have happened, I think.

Regardless of who brought it to us, The Tomb Raider Trilogy may or may not get you excited depending on what you expect from it. It’s not the original three games, but rather the trio of Tomb Raider games made by Crystal Dynamics when they took over the floundering franchise. Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld – all on one disc and remastered in glorious, widescreen HD.

Posted by Matthew Vice May 16, 2011

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Retro review: Return to Zork

For fans of the point-and-click adventure genre, playing through Return to Zork could be seen as a necessary pilgrimage – the game is practically one of the grandfathers of the genre and if you want to imbue some gaming time with a bit of historical appreciation, then the title is well worth looking into… if you are insane. Still, Return to Zork does show some of the earliest examples of when the genre began moving away from text-based inputs to one that utilised a GUI and mouse cursor. What’s more, the extensive voiceovers and digitised actors must have made this quite a game back in the day.

Despite Return to Zork being a veritable cradle of adventure gaming, it is quirky as hell and unnecessarily arbitrary in many instances. This, obviously, will not appeal to many gamers of today.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Apr 19, 2011

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Review: Back to the Future: Episode 2

Marty and Doc are back in the second episode of Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game. Entitled Get Tannen!, you are indeed plunged into a tale which sends you after Hill Valley’s most notorious citizen. The game picks up exactly where the last episode ended, with Marty in peril thanks to space-time-continuum fondling. The story is infinitely more engaging than the last time round, with an actual mystery to unravel, interesting characters and less painful pacing, resulting in me becoming invested in the characters and plot.

Posted by Rhys ap Gwyn Mar 15, 2011

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Telltale walks the dead

A videogame based on the The Walking Dead TV series (which is in turn based on the excellent comic book series of the same name) has been rumoured since long before the show first aired last year. Now those rumours have been made official and it turns out that Telltale Games (Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, Tales of Monkey Island) are at the helm for this project.

Speaking with All Things Digital, Telltale’s Steve Allison said that they want to see “one million digital downloads” for this new title and believes that “The Walking Dead could become a $20 million to 30 million franchise if all goes well.” Those are some bold claims, but we hope Telltale pulls it off. Also revealed was a Telltale-developed videogame adaptation of the absolutely brilliant comic book series Fables. Both games are expected to be episodic adventures, but we’ll keep you posted as details trickle out.