It was the appeal of guiding a World War II plane as gracefully as a conductor guides an orchestra that prompted our eagerness to try WWII Aces' Wii Remote-only control scheme. Visions of smooth, intuitive dog fighting danced through our heads, only to be shattered by the control scheme's harsh reality. Furiously waggling the remote rarely prompted a response, and when one occurred, it was almost never what had been instructed: bending a
A combat sim featuring two of the finest war machines ever to churn turf, sling shells, or shrug off bullets? What could possibly go wrong? Rather a lot, it turns out. T-34 vs Tiger deserves a modicum of praise for helping end a nine-year WWII tank sim famine, but a heap of scorn for being shrunken, shoddy and shot through with historical inaccuracies.
Gunswords! Magic! Constant near-nudity! With just a few short exclamations, you have the overarching concept of X-Blades. It’s most easily described as "Devil May Cry ultra-lite: Thong Edition," but perhaps best summarized as a wholly competent hack-and-slash action title that never really makes a lasting impact – quite a feat, considering main character Ayumi spends the entire game in her butt-flossing underwear.
In the interminable wait for the announcement of a new breed of X-Com games, there’s no reason for you not to revel in this most grand royalty of PC gaming. The X-Com games work like Thunderbirds: your teams are being called out to various hotspots throughout the world from a central equipping station (like Tracey Island) where tech upgrades are researched.
Sure, playing as Wolverine is fun, but being able to feel immersed in a new character can be even better. Letting us choose our own path and create our own story can make us feel like the character is an extension of ourselves, instead of feeling like we’re a kid running around in a Wolverine costume. This is the promise of Silicon Knights’ X-Men: Destiny: to let us live in the X-Men world in a way that other super-powered games haven’t. To let us make our own choices, customize our own hero, and pave our own destiny. Surprisingly, it just about pulls the concept off… but that’s about all it does right....
For the first five hours Wolverine is brilliant. There’s nothing particularly original or inspiring about it – it’s just loads of vicious, bloody, stupid fun. It craps all over recent travesties such as Iron Man, Watchmen and The Incredible Hulk and proves that film spin-offs can be decent if the developers put the effort in. But then it starts repeating itself.
Ah the X series, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways... Every game reviewer has one of these, a game or series that touches them on a personal, intimate and downright naughty level, so enamoring them with their depth, breadth and endorphin-releasing wiles that he will hear no bad word said against them, no minor criticism that won’t be met with a flurry of pre-rehearsed counter points and face punches.
Alien invasions might be overdone, but XCOM: Enemy Unknown presents the same old story in a way that's remarkably engaging, with some of the strongest tactical gameplay in years...
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