The fact that I still hold out hope for Sonic titles speaks directly to just how much of an impact the original Genesis titles had on me as a lad. For two decades, I’ve played Sonic titles. Even though Mario has a more consistent track record of quality, Sonic’s high points have been bigger and better than Mario’s across the board, in my opinion. I think what I’m trying to say is that, in spite of how hard Sonic tries to make it otherwise at times, I am definitely a Sonic fan. Read the full story

Last week, our review for Prototype 2 went live. In that review, we equated Prototype 2 to a movie like The Expendables. Specifically, “you didn’t watch The Expendables for the gripping romantic subplot, and you’re not going to play Prototype 2 for the tragic tale of loss and revenge. You watched The Expendables because they blew shit up, and you’ll play Prototype 2 to blow shit up.” Prototype 2 is unapologetic over the top action. With the recently released Colossal Mayhem DLC, Prototype 2 takes its crazy action and turns it up to 11. Read the full story

Five days ago, I had never played Minecraft. I didn’t understand the fascination, or obsession, with it, and I was content. Having spent the past five days in my personal realm of Doompocalypse, a land of opportunity, freedom, and dreams fulfilled, I begin to understand. Minecraft is the frontier. When Americans were blazing new trails into the west, they went with what they could carry or cart, and built everything else they needed. When settlers participated in the Land Run of 1889 into unincorporated Oklahoma, they traveled as light as possible to get to ground as quickly as possible. From nothing, they build civilization. That is Minecraft. From nothing but the clothes on your back and a map in your hands, you build…anything. Read the full story

New York City lays sprawled below me as I glide through the air in a descending arc. An air dash restores my momentum, extending my flight and allowing me to reach the skyscraper in the distance. I land on the side of the skyscraper, and smoothly transition into a vertical run, defying Sir Isaac Newton and his thoughts and discoveries on gravity with my actions. As I reach the top of the building, I somersault off, and begin a new glide. I send out a radar ping, and find an object of interest in a nearby clearing. I continue to jump and glide until I find the object of interest below me, at which point I dive down and shred the poor man to bits with my giant viral claws.

Did I mention that I did all of that while in the form of a little old lady, bent with age?

Welcome to Prototype 2. Read the full story

If Mortal Kombat is to be remembered for, and associated with, one thing for the rest of eternity, and one thing only, it should be this: bloody gore and incredibly violence. Okay, that’s two things. I find it easier to simply acknowledge the mistake and move on rather than edit my opening sentence. That being said, Mortal Kombat introduced a level of brutality and disturbing visuals that has become its trademark and calling card. The combat, characters, and story all came secondary to Mortal Kombat being the game in the arcade that was just badass. Read the full story

I’m not sure what happened between Peter Molyneux and one chicken whose viciousness and fowlness (heh, get it?) we can only assume were such that the world has never seen before. All I know is that it resulted in the common chicken being singled out and having one hell of a hard time in the Fable universe. From a player stat specifically urging the player to kick a chicken farther and farther each time to the poor chicken getting struck by lightning in the opening titles of Fable Heroes, Fable is not kind. Read the full story

The second entry in the inaugural Arcade NEXT XBLA promotion from Microsoft is Climax Studios’ Bloodforge. Up to this point, Climax Studios has had a nearly unbroken run of ports, spin-offs, and media tie-ins, with the occasional original title thrown in for a bit of variety. From the PlayStation port of the first Diablo to the Ghost Rider movie video game adaptation, it looks like Bloodforge could be Climax Studios’ breakout title. In much the same way that Return of the Jedi is the weakest entry in the original trilogy, but still a great movie (except for those damnable Ewoks), Bloodforge may end up being the weakest title in Arcade NEXT, but a damn good title nonetheless.

It’s good, is what I’m saying. Read the full story

I started playing Trials Evolution Tuesday afternoon, and I knew that I was going to have problems. Immediately, I became intently focused on the track leaderboards. I saw names…I saw targets. Success! I topped the leaderboard for Oil Crisis and sent a celebratory tweet to those hapless fools that had been humbled and shamed by my incredible skill and deft control. Twenty minutes later, my time was thoroughly squashed by a cruel knave. Thirty minutes of replaying Oil Crisis over and over, tweaking and adjusting my playthrough each time, I shaved a full second and a half from my total level completion…bringing me to one tenth of a second short of avenging my ignominious defeat. The next day at work, I kept replaying Oil Crisis in my head, trying to mentally work out how to get past the final set of hills and catch up. Read the full story

Pinball has never been high on my list of enjoyable gaming experiences. I rarely played physical pinball machines, and, aside from Sonic Spinball, the only virtual pinball game I ever played much of, or at all, was the 3D Pinball game bundled with Windows 95 forward. I still remember the space theme of the table, and I can still somewhat picture the table layout in my head. I never got into Pinball FX, or any of the other recent crazes, and that was fine by me. Then a code came my way for The Pinball Arcade on PS Vita, and I thought…why not? Read the full story

Vehicular combat has always been a mixed bag for me. I’ve dabbled with the likes of Twisted Metal, but never found it particularly satisfying. The most recent iteration, in fact, managed to keep my attention for about half an hour before I found myself feeling done. On the other hand, I absolutely LOVED Streets of Sim City, though that may have more to do with my adoration of Sim City than anything else. No, you know what? It was actually fun where Twisted Metal was not. There, I said it. All that now being said, Gelid Games’ Wheels of Destruction, releasing today as part of PSN’s Spring Fever, finds itself closer in my estimation to Twisted Metal than Streets of Sim City. Read the full story