The current video game landscape is a very different one than its most public face.
While this is still fundamentally the same game that TT Games has always made, this simple tweak adds an extra layer of shine to an already strong foundation.
Shooting has actually gotten worse, with an auto-aim preternaturally consistent about never, ever targeting the thing you’re looking at and no way to snap between targets.
Each objective in each galaxy is just long enough to keep things fresh without feeling monotonous.
Just three years ago at E3, all three platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) were content to reach two distinct audiences.
Surgery, the mainstay of the series, is again present as one of the six arms of play and is, for better or worse, intact almost exactly as before.
To some, the lead up to E3, the annual game expo and confernence, is just as big as the event itself.
The game is absolutely gorgeous from the various explosions that happen during a race to how motion blur occurs as your car hurdles through the race track in breakneck speeds.
It manages to reach a Zen-like balance between dumb video-game gimmick and evolutionary brilliance.
Depending on your environment, the type of creature you are hunting, and what your goals are for that particular quest, a solid pre-game strategy is essential for success.
In the entertainment medium, the word “classic” is often interchangeable with “timeless.”
Maps are confusing and over-embellished, making it hard to figure out where objectives are or when you’ve gotten turned around.
HD resolution makes it a lot more playable than the last couple of PS2 games, but the single-set world does the designers no favors in terms of providing any prospect of visual surprise.
Gamers looking for an engaging story or politically charged setting need to keep right on drivin’.
Red Dead Redemption is at once upfront about its cinematic influences and yet not beholden to them.
There’s a terrific mythos behind the game’s universe, with its androgynous masters and mad anarchist prophets, and the latter provide lots of memorable moments reminiscent of the trippier Marvel comics of the ’70s.
The faceless dog-thing that cackles like a clown every time you shoot it will be in my nightmares for a long time to come.
The game has one foot firmly planted in expansive, compelling storytelling, and the other in basic gameplay.
Ultimately, the main selling point here is wielding Shadow as a weapon, and it’s a gimmick whose implementation is frustratingly rudimentary.
The game’s climactic set-piece battles are as tense and exciting as any other action game to date.
Unfortunately, when I play Scribblenauts, I find that the game speaks less about its medium and more about myself.