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Trine 2 Impressions

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A wizard, knight, and thief walk into a bar. No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke, but a bad setup for a Trine 2 review. In this 2D puzzle platformer, your objective is to use the three characters you have at your disposal to get past any obstacles in your way as you search for the a magical treasure. Though it was released last year on PC, Mac, XBOX Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, I didn’t really give it much thought. However, I always did hear great things about it, and I picked it up when it went on sale recently on XBLA.

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Trials Evolution: Origin of Pain DLC Review

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As much as I love Trials Evolution, I haven’t played it since wrapping up my review. Once I unlocked the extreme tracks, which I will never have the skill to complete, I set the game down and moved onto other things. Sure, I could have kept myself busy all of this time with user-created tracks, but it just fell out of my rotation. The Origins of Pain DLC pack aims to bring players like me back to the fold with 36 new tracks, more skill games, and a hundred extra track creator objects to play with.

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Coming Soon: Marvel vs. Capcom Origins

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In just a few days, Capcom is scheduled to open the fighting game vault once again and release Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 1 together as Marvel vs. Capcom Origins for XBOX Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Though this pair of vs. games may not have the legacy that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 does, they were considered great for their time.

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The Walking Dead Episode 3: The Long Road Ahead

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The Walking Dead series has been my biggest surprise of 2012. Going into it with no real interest in the franchise, or adventure games, its first two instalments have taken me on an emotional roller coaster unlike any other game has before. Based on what I’d seen of the trailer for The Long Road Ahead, I had concerns that the base premise wouldn’t be as interesting as the one in episode 2. However, all my fears were quickly quashed as revelation after revelation took place.

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Trials Evolution Review

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Trials HD took XBOX Live by storm when it first came out in 2009. Though it did not have the name recognition of the games it launched with as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion, Trials HD won gamers over in a big way thanks to its wildly addictive gameplay. To this day, Trials HD still stands as the best-selling XBOX Live Arcade game of all-time. Where was I during all of this? Not playing Trials HD. After reading the impressions and hearing people talk about it on podcasts, the game really didn’t sound like my thing. In particular, everyone focused on the game’s soul-crushing difficulty, which did not sound appealing to me at all. Instead of getting in on the action, I took in the horror stories from the community as assurance that I was doing the right thing by abstaining.

Not too long ago, Trials Evolution came out and I was originally set to ignore it just like I did its predecessor. However, after some thought, I figured that I should at least give the demo a shot, as the series has cemented itself within the current gaming zeitgeist. Instead of coming away from the demo with just a point of view, I found a new video game love.

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Impressions on Limbo

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There seems to be a lot of artsy/high-concept games hitting  of late. Games like Braid, Flower, Echochrome and P.B. Winterbottom have really pushed the boundaries of what a game can look and play like. I have nothing but respect for those developers who are actively trying to move the medium forward. However, none of these games have personally appealed to me. I’d much rather watch these games for a few minutes than actually play them, mostly because the gameplay elements don’t appeal to me.

Limbo was just released on XBOX Live Arcade and is the latest in artsy-high concept games. The black-and-white aesthetic is amazing and is matched by equally awesome atmospheric sound. But will it turn me away with gameplay that doesn’t appeal to me? I tried the demo and I’m here to relay my thoughts to you.

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The Perfect Dark You’ve Always Dreamed Of*

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I have made it clear that I love the original Perfect Dark and I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. For its time, Perfect Dark had no equal on console, not even Goldeneye (yeah, I said it). Not to say that the experience was perfect, because it definitely wasn’t. Most of the game’s problems came from the fact that it was just a bit ahead of its time. The Nintendo 64 could barely run this game, even with the memory expansion plugged into your console.

For years, I wished that this game would get a fair shake. It never got the love that Goldeneye did, even though Perfect Dark is arguably better. I also wished for a day where the game wasn’t bound by the technical limitations brought forth by the Nintendo 64.

Well, my friends, that day has arrived.

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Near-Perfect For It’s Time

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It was the year 2000. Clutching my pre-order receipt that I’ve been in possession of for over a year, I went down to the local video game store to pick up my copy of Perfect Dark. Its spiritual predecessor, Goldeneye, blew my mind with a great single player campaign and at the time, God-like multiplayer. I must have put in hundreds of hours into that game, easily. Everything from trying to unlock all of the cheats in single player to all-out assaults on my friends and loved ones in multiplayer. Looking back, Goldeneye is one of those games that defined that whole generation of gaming.

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