The Bejeweled-meets-D&D smash Puzzle Quest proved serious RPGs and sparkly gem matching puzzle gameplay could tie the knot and keep from strangling one another. Gyromancer treads similar territory but adds in a few new twists… literally. When the leader of a rogue group of revolutionaries launches a surprise attack on a member of the royal family and slays a prominent count and countess, the kingdom’s nobility cries out. ...

Sometimes making a game more realistic isn’t always the best way to go. Learning how to skateboard in real life is an exhausting, frustrating, and frequently painful experience. In that regard, Tony Hawk: Ride manages to hit the reality nail on the head. ...

When the disparate worlds of LEGOs and rock stars collide, strange and wonderful things can happen. Seeing LEGO versions of an emaciated Iggy Pop, a mustache-emblazoned Freddie Mercury, a pretty boy-era David Bowie, and even the guys from Blur bash out their hits amidst a visual rock-n-roll cacophony of plastic toy bricks and rampant silliness offers far more enjoyment then we might first care to admit. ...

Steven Spielberg and Traveller’s Tales are in a similarly tough place, both fine purveyors of last-gen thrills struggling to find relevance in the modern day. Indy 4 showed the director selling out his brand of practical derring-do for a handful of CG monkeys. Tales too try something glitzier, and under the extra weight their creaky design shudders like Harrison Ford’s knees. ...

Let’s get this out of the way up-front: Band Hero essentially IS Guitar Hero 5, but for tweens. There are really no substantive changes made in terms of the core gameplay, features, and extras found between the two. ...

It’s no secret we loved the first Assassin’s Creed – maybe even a little too much. Climbing up impossibly tall structures and stealthily murdering Templar knights during the sharply realized Crusades was so much fun, we accepted certain flaws – like the repetitive side-tasks you had to undertake before each assassination mission could be unlocked, or the way the game sent you back to your home fortress after each successful takedown – as minor irritations. ...

Unlike most other shooters, Left 4 Dead hinges on cooperative multiplayer. You and three friends must shoot, tear and slash through an unrelenting mass of raging zombies. From the moment you leave the safe house to the final rescue chopper, you are completely dependent on each other and constantly hunted by special boss zombies that behave with their own aggressive, strategizing intelligence ...

Hello, and welcome to the Automated Game Tie-In Development Program. Please obey the following instructions to the letter and your game will be produced within the hour. If you would like to make a 3D platform game with hundreds of collectible fruit, please press ‘1’ now. If you would like to make a kart-based racing title, please press ‘2’ now. ...

We honestly presumed, when embarking on this third outing for perhaps the most charmless Pixar franchise of them all, that it wasn’t THQ’s fault. There is, insane though it sounds, a new Cars movie in production, and of course a tie-in videogame is a must (even if we were already charmed quite enough by the first one, thank you very much). ...

Case file no. 06100986. Upon arriving at the scene we checked the victim’s vitals. A thready pulse was found, proving this job was not, repeat not, a massacre as expected. Evidence has been lifted from the area but no witnesses are forthcoming – it seems nobody wants to touch this case with a bargepole. First impressions suggest a sloppy execution by an amateur. ...