« Posts under PS3

Tomb Raider (2013) Review

March 30, 2013 / posted in PC, PS3, Virtual Realm, Xbox 360 / Comments Off

tombraiderboxartTomb Raider is an excessively well known franchise possessing a total of 11 games, 2 movies, 3 novels, a series of comic books, a 10-Episode Animated series, and an amusement park ride (formally four). While more recent entries in the game series and overall franchise have been met with mixed critical reception, the first two games in the series are best remembered for pioneering the Action-Adventure genre. I, like many people, know of the series more through its pop-culture prevalence over active participation in the franchise.

Now, that’s not to say that I haven’t played any Tomb Raider games. In addition to a handful of demos, I vaguely remember playing one of the original Core Design-developed titles and one of the lesser Crystal Dynamics-developed games. The fact that the Crystal Dynamics demo and game that I played had rather unfriendly controls and were overall mediocre is rather disappointing. I personally love the Action-Adventure genre and would probably rate it as my favorite overall, and I find the ideas of both the games’ Indiana Jones-esque setting and strong female protagonist very appealing.

Due to this I was quite interested, despite some of Crystal Dynamics’ previous work, in their upcoming re-imagining of the Tomb Raider series. All the way up to the March 5th, 2013 release date I followed information on the games’ development and even got to try a demo of the game at New York Comic Con 2012. Having been impressed with the demo and the apparent amount of work that the Crystal Dynamics’ development team was putting into the game, I acquired it upon release.
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E3 2012 – The Big Three

June 30, 2012 / posted in DS, PC, PS3, Virtual Realm, Wii, Xbox 360 / Comments Off

Well, E3 2012 has come and gone. Overall, it seems to have fallen short of last year’s show, not meeting the expectations that the beginning of a transition to a new generation of consoles generally brings. Though there were certainly some high points as well as some perplexedly odd and perhaps humorous moments. To start of my review/coverage of E3, I’ll begin with, unsurprisingly, the “Big 3”.
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Soulcaliber V Review

June 3, 2012 / posted in PS3, Virtual Realm, Xbox 360 / Comments Off

I have never been a big fan of Fighting Games. I’ve always placed the genre below Action Adventure, RPG, and FPS games in my own preferences. That said, I have always been exposed to them. Growing up, my brother was a pretty big fighting game fan. I can vividly remember growing up with Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter alongside Zelda, Sonic, and Mega Man. And I do enjoy some of those fighting games, though I’m certainly not the best at them.

Soulcaliber is definitely a series that has earned a place as one of my favorite fighting game series. While I’ve never had the chance to play the first game in the series, Soul Edge (AKA Soul Blade), my interest was almost instantly grabbed by the first Soulcaliber game for the Dreamcast. A fighting game which gave it’s characters weapons. This was what really caught my attention- a fighting game where every character didn’t simply punch and kick their way to victory. In addition to the new variety in fighting style, Soulcaliber also introduced (I believe) the 8-way run 3D environment.

It was those games which paved the way for a successful and generally very well-recieved series. So how does this, the Fith-numbered (eighth overall), game of that series hold up?

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A Beginning on Endings

April 8, 2012 / posted in PC, PS3, Virtual Realm, Xbox 360 / Comments Off

So for over a month now I have been mulling over what should be the first article on this site. Because beginnings are important, even if not always memorable in the long run. They create first impressions and set the tone for what is to come. It may seem an odd choice for the first item on a review site to not be what you would normally call a review, but I don’t want this to be a standard review site. So instead this, my site’s beginning, is to be an article on endings.

There has recently been a lot of talk about story, most especially endings, in video games due to the ‘controversial’ [Read: terrible] ending of Mass Effect 3. Now I’ll state right now, upfront, that I have not played Mass Effect 3. In fact, at the time of this writing I have not even played my way through Mass Effect 2. This is because I, unlike what often seems to be the entire rest of the gaming community, did not think Mass Effect [1] was absolutely the best thing ever. But that is a topic for another article. Suffice it to say that I have kept up on the story of the Mass Effect games, and I have seen the ending.

NOTE: AS THIS ARTICLE COVERS ENDINGS, SPOILERS ABOUND BEYOND THIS POINT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. »Read More