Previews

Getting schooled in MLB 2K12

by David Hinkle (Feb 14th 2012 4:30PM)

I'm a creature of habit. If something works for me, I don't really change it. It's the same across the board, from the type of pizza I eat to the clothes I wear. If it works, why try to fix it? But my habits have their downside. When it comes to MLB 2K12 and the franchise's previous installments, I ...

Once bitten, twice shot in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

by David Hinkle (Feb 13th 2012 3:30PM)

Nowadays, most multiplayer experiences are fairly uniform: two groups try to shoot each other in the face, and maybe steal a flag or plant a bomb in the process. These concepts have become the norm, and while most of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City's varying multiplayer modes feel like ...

Barricading 'Dead Souls' within Yakuza's red-light district

by JC Fletcher (Feb 11th 2012 10:00AM)

In the first hours of Yakuza: Dead Souls, I witnessed the fictional Kamurocho neighborhood of Tokyo's red-light district becoming ravaged by a zombie nightmare, with wrecked buildings, flaming cars, and thousands of hungry undead taking to the streets. With the help of a DVD store's secret weapons ...

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

by Ludwig Kietzmann (Feb 9th 2012 6:25PM)

The signs of a good interface aren't always visible. An elegant in-game display susses out the sweet spot between education and economy, making it an art that is often overlooked by design. And when games aim, claim or clamor to be cinematic, life bars and scores tend to be the first things tossed ...

Rhythm Thief and the art of appropriation

by JC Fletcher (Feb 6th 2012 6:30PM)

With the recent talk of game cloning, it's easy to forget that taking an idea from another game and running with it can be not only inoffensive, but beneficial. When done the wrong way, cloning lets one company divert revenue and attention away from the original, nearly identical source. But when ...

Commandeering Anomaly Warzone Earth on Xbox Live Arcade

by David Hinkle (Jan 30th 2012 3:30PM)

We've read the books, we've seen the TV shows and celebrated the films. Whether it's a skirmish with the neighborhood bullies or full-on worldwide war, everyone knows that you need to have a Keanu Reeves-type person on your side if you hope to win. Yes, that's from South Park, but it doesn't make ...

The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 includes new content, more coming post-launch

by David Hinkle (Jan 26th 2012 1:00PM)

Following the launch of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on PC, CD Projekt Red offered a steady stream of updates and DLC, free of charge. The Xbox 360 version, which I saw at a preview event in San Francisco, will bundle all of that previously released content when it launches this year -- along ...

Warp: From a hypothetical question to an interesting puzzle game

by Kat Bailey (Jan 25th 2012 12:50PM)

Warp is one of those instances in which one "What if" question has blossomed into an entire game. In this case, the question is, "What if we had the power to teleport through objects at will? Wouldn't that be cool?" Yes, I do think it's pretty cool, even if I'd rather be able to forgo the twelve ...

Crush3D: A second look in the third dimension

by JC Fletcher (Jan 24th 2012 4:00PM)

Crush3D might be a new game to many of us, but that's only because nobody seemed to notice the original 2007 PSP game, developed back when Zoe Mode was called Kuju Brighton. And with its emphasis on constantly shifting from 2D to 3D in perspective, it seems like an idea that was waiting for the 3DS ...

League of Legends updates co-op vs. AI mode, more improvements coming

by Mike Schramm (Jan 24th 2012 2:30PM)

When Riot Games first announced that it was adding the ability to play co-operatively against AI bots to League of Legends, it expected it to be used by noobs, says producer Mark Norris. "When we put it out there, we put it out there with sort of the sole intent of having new players get an ...