The premise for Pushmo is deceptively simple. You control a character whose job it is to scale to the top of a block formation. This is done by pushing and pulling pieces of that formation until they form something scaleable. During the first few challenges, I had a hard time grasping why people loved this game so much. However, it doesn’t take long for that classic Nintendo brilliance to kick in.
Trials HD still stands as one of the most successful games in the history of Xbox Live. You’ll be hard-pressed nowadays to find someone who hasn’t tricked their way through its insane motorcycle obstacle courses. For the longest time, I was one of those people. I’d saw and heard a lot of feedback about the game being difficult, and that was enough to keep me at bay. Had it not been for a Splitkick community game night that featured Trials Evolution, I probably would have passed on the series completely.
It’s sequel won me over in a big way last year, though I’ve only gotten to HD now. While I still have a blast working my way through every course, it’s definitely not a series one should play backwards.
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.
One of the last EGM issues I ever bought was the issue when Ico was declared game of the month. They wrote about it as if it was a game that came out of nowhere and won them over in a big way. Based on what I read at the time, I thought the game wouldn’t be interested in. Even if I were interested at the time, I was a devout Nintendo fanboy, so going out of my way to play Ico on the PlayStation 2 just wasn’t an option.
Years have passed, console allegiances have dissolved and interest has piqued, which is why I find myself writing about my time playing Ico from the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. 10+ years later, is Ico still a game worth playing?
When I first completed the original Portal not too long ago, I did not feel the need to experience any more of it. Sure, Portal is a fantastic game, but within the three or so hours it took me to complete it, I felt like the game had said everything it needed to say. Although I was crazy late to the party and Portal 2 had been out for months, I wasn’t sure what Valve would do to keep the experience going without tarnishing the legacy of the original.
Ever since the release of the iTunes app store, I have been a devout Scrabble for iPhone fan. I took pride in having the real deal, even though there were countless other imitators that were available for free. As much as I’ve enjoyed iPhone Scrabble over the years, I’ve never had any friends to play with online. The majority of them aren’t willing to pay, mainly because they were playing Words With Friends. I’ve heard a ton about it, but my elitist ways have led me to ignore the title for years.
That is, until a few weeks ago, when I found out that a large number of my coworkers who had iPhone or Android devices had the game, and were all playing together without me. Though I may be years late to the party, I figured if there was any time to give Words With Friends a shot, it was now.
Catherine is a really hard game to judge at face value. Unless you’ve tried the game for yourself, it’s very easy to misinterpret Catherine as some sort of perverse porno game. Even by watching the recently-released Catherine gameplay trailer, it may only confuse you further. You might then be asking yourself even more questions, such as:
“Is this a puzzle game?”
“Is this a dating simulator?”
“How does this all even work?”
“How do you play out the sex parts?”
Before I continue with this review, I’ll answer the last question for you: No, you do not play out the sex parts. This is not a porno game and the act of sex itself is not as big of a factor to the game as you may have been lead to expect. What it is though, is likely a gaming experience you’ve never had before.
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Normally, I don’t like to use In Third Person as a means of perpetuating a company’s PR cycle. Not to say that I’m anti-establishment or anything like that, but every professional or amateur video games enthusiast writer is going to write the same stories about the same press releases. Adding my own spin to a public relations piece that has been spun a million times before generally doesn’t excite me one bit.
However, this one is a bit different. The Catherine demo won me over in a big way, and I’m really loving the final product. Expect to see a review for Catherine tomorrow. I had some concerns that this game would fall on deaf ears for looking like a perverse Japanese porno game (which the game is not). Had it flopped and discouraged Atlus or others from releasing more unique products, I would have been a very sad panda. Thank goodness then for the announcement from Atlus that Catherine set an Atlus sales record, having shipped more units at launch than any other Atlus game in the publisher’s 20-year history.
One of the reasons I pre-ordered Catherine once I decided to buy it (besides the ability to avoid the embarrassment of purchasing it in person) was to get the CD soundtrack and the art book for free with what Atlus positioned as the pre-order edition. However, due to Amazon failing to ship my order in a timely manner, I just went out to my local retailer and bought a copy. To my surprise, every launch copy of the game is the pre-order edition, which means if you buy a launch copy of the game, you’ll get the bonus art book and CD soundtrack regardless of whether you pre-ordered it.
As of writing, I haven’t played the game yet. However, I thought I’d at least post my impressions on the launch package in case you were interested in what the art book and soundtrack are like.
When this game was first announced, I immediately wrote it off as simply one of those erotic Japanese games that never make their way to my country. There’s a market for those types of games, but they’re not for me. However, the more I read about Catherine and its premise, the more I was intrigued to learn more.
With the demo out now on XBOX Live and PlayStation Network, I gave it a shot.
In Third Person 
