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Publisher: Electronic Arts / Developer: Spicy Horse / Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Kate: Alice: Madness Returns is a surprise sequel to 2000’s American McGee’s Alice, a game praised by critics at the time for wonderful (though now dated) visuals that made up for the average-to-mediocre gameplay. So how does the new installment stack up?

The gameplay has improved, thankfully. American McGee once stated that he wanted to be “the next Walt Disney, only a little more wicked,” but I’d posit that what he actually wants to be is a wicked Shigeru Miyamoto. He doesn’t quite reach Miyamoto’s level of brilliance, but it’s difficult to ignore how much the 3D platforming in Madness Returns owes to games like Super Mario 64, right down to the occasional rides on long, winding slides that containing lines of “coins” for you to try and collect. Read More

It’s said you should never judge a book by its cover. But the simple fact is that we all do it. We can’t help ourselves.

The job of a cover …
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As many of you have heard already, the Tomb Raider series is getting another reboot, this time in the form of a prequel.  The Tomb Raider series had already …
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Publisher: Ignition Entertainment / Developer: Access Games / Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

I did not know much about Deadly Premonition before putting the disc into my Xbox.  I had read a few things here and there, and I watched the “Two Best Friends Play…” video.  There I stood, in front of the used Xbox 360 games section of GameStop, a used copy of Deadly Premonition in hand.  It was in a generic used box, void of any sort of design.  In a way, this seems to fit it better than the original box art.  You go into it having absolutely no expectations other than that the game – from what little you’ve seen of it – is supposed to be so terrible it loops back to “awesome.”  Little did I know I would soon encounter what is probably one of the most strangely compelling, surprising experiences in the history of videogames. Read More

When the Wii came out in 2006, the style guide for the brand made the declaration that it should be called “simply Wii, not Nintendo Wii,” making it the first Nintendo console to not include “Nintendo” in the name.

Most companies would kill for the sort of name recognition, and yet for reasons unknown they wanted to slightly distance their name from the Wii. Today the Wii is a successful brand in its own right, but one that everyone assumed Nintendo would move on from with their next console, as they’ve done with every previous one. Instead, it appears that perhaps they’re following Sony and Microsoft’s lead, and creating a “sequel” console rather than a new “Nintendo.”

Unfortunately, this is already leading to brand confusion, with many people understandably believing the Wii U to be just another Wii peripheral. Even a usually knowledgeable source like CNET initially reported today: “At E3 2011, Nintendo unveils its new iPad-like game controller called the Wii U, due out in 2012.” Read More

Looking at Terraria, you wouldn’t be in the minority if your first impression of the game was simply “it’s a 2D Minecraft,” and while Re-Logic’s first outing into the world of …
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A cutesy puzzle game starring two lovable little creatures navigating a folksy arts-and-crafts style world is probably the last place you’d expect to find a sentimental story about star-crossed relationships and mortality.

And that’s what makes ilomilo (pronounced “ee-lo-me-lo”) more unforgettable than the average puzzle game. It charms your socks off, before blindsiding you with a brief moment of melancholy, only to continue on as if nothing happened. The result is a game I can only describe as wonderful yet bittersweet.

Warning: The following article contains major spoilers. If you have yet to play ilomilo, I would highly recommend doing so before reading any further. If you figure it’s unlikely you’ll ever get around to playing it, yet found the opening paragraph intriguing, you are of course welcome to continue. But if you change your mind and decide you want to play it after all, you’ll have only yourself to blame… Read More

Kate: Brink is a multiplayer first-person-shooter that touts a high degree of character customization, a parkour-inspired movement system, and a set of team classes that put emphasis on teamwork and …
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Publisher: D3Publisher of America, Inc. / Developer: Treasure / Platform: XBLA

What do missiles, robots and assorted fruits have in common?  The super-obscure , super-hard Bangai-O.  With its newest release on the Xbox Live Arcade, this newest Bangai-O game might reach a larger audience than the previous two games (released on Dreamcast and the Nintendo DS).  The only problem is, will anyone want to play it?

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Yesterday, Bethesda Blog posted some impressive numbers to let people know just how deep the character customization will be when Brink comes out this Tuesday. 102,247,681,536,000,000 unique character variations, or …
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