Avadon: The Black Fortress

If you don't have any experience with Spiderweb's previous games, your first moments with Avadon are likely to come as a shock. The single-player-only game could almost have been developed in 1989. Crude isometric visuals and paltry sound recall the 286 era. By 2011 standards, the game is ugly. Characters and monsters are soft-focus multicolored blobs, and you can't zoom the camera in to get a better look. Dungeon furniture and architecture mainly consist of standard chests and wardrobes like the set dressing in summer stock theater. Outdoor locales are loaded with symmetrically arranged cacti, rocks, and other terrain features that make the landscape look surreal. Only some of the textures stand up to scrutiny: the gravel roads and stone walls look pretty good. There are virtually no audio effects. The game has no music or voice acting, and monsters share a handful of attack noises. Oddly, a near-constant wind seems to blow whether you're indoors or out.

Game options are sparse in the beginning. You start off with no real character customization options. You get to type in a name and pick from four set Dungeons & Dragons-inspired classes that touch on the standard fighter, wizard, cleric, and thief archetypes. The only difference is their names: the warrior is called a blademaster, the wizard a sorceress, the cleric a shaman, and the thief a shadowwalker. There are some variances, most notably in the way that the classes veer off into slightly innovative directions. Still, there is no way to roll up a custom character, so you're stuck with a quick choice before delving into the action.

Thankfully, Avadon has a lot of appeal beyond this admittedly off-putting surface. Some areas feature a considerable amount of detail when it comes to furnishings, with elaborate layouts in bedrooms, libraries, and other locales. You're given just enough for your mind's eye to work with, so suspending disbelief isn't a problem. Performance is also very good, making this a good choice for older machines or even netbooks. Some user interface flaws get in the way, however. Levels are typically massive and confusing, which isn't helped by the hit-and-miss minimap. Quests aren't noted on the minimap, and neither are some key characters and locales. Even vital spots like stairs up and down aren't given icons, which can be incredibly annoying given the mazelike nature of many of the levels. The developer has at least posted more-comprehensive maps in the official forums on its website, but they're hardly an acceptable substitute.


Redbeard is good, bad, or some blend of both.
Despite the flaws, you can't help but be drawn in once you go deeper into the game. Even though the graphics don't do a complete job of immersing you in this fantasy world, textual blurbs bridge the gap between what you see and what you're supposed to be envisioning. They tell a story and bring situations to life without being overly wordy. The generic medieval fantasy setting and plot are somewhat predictable, though. Events center on a fantasy land of magic and monsters dominated by the Midlands Pact, an alliance of five nations dedicated to protecting all that is good from evildoers. The heart of the Midlands Pact is Avadon, a fortress ruled by the ominous Redbeard, a hero who might be going a little too far when it comes to guarding the realm from the bad guys. You play as a newcomer to Avadon, one of Redbeard's warriors dedicated to helping the big guy keep the peace. The story keeps you interested, even though it offers few surprises--or at least few surprises that you don't see coming a mile away

Quests mix inventive tasks like playing PR man to an irritable dragon with typical go-fetch and locate-missing-people busywork. There is a lot of combat during these assignments, although you're never overwhelmed. Battles are not so numerous that you feel numbed by monotony. They actually fly past pretty quickly, with characters and foes moving as though they're under the influence of a haste spell augmented with liberal shots of Red Bull. Fighting is handled from a tactical perspective, in a way that hasn't changed much since the aforementioned Gold Box games of two decades ago. Whenever you spot a foe, the real-time exploration mode switches to a turn-based perspective, and grids pop up on the screen to show you how and where characters can move. It's an easy-to-learn and intuitive system for anyone with a background in RPGs. The main drawback is a lack of monster variety. There are a fair number of creeps in the game, drawn from fantasy archetypes such as giant spiders, lizards, wizards, orcs, and the like, but they mainly attack in straightforward melee styles. You don't need to get too fancy with combat strategies, save in some of the boss battles, which can be brutal on the regular difficulty and above. The visuals aren't detailed enough to make monsters distinctive, either, so you're often facing off against blurry groupings of pixels that need to be identified by the text blurbs beneath them.


There aren't any big surprises here, especially if you pay attention to what's going on with the average folks living in the Midlands Pact.
Character development also offers a fair number of options. Experience points are earned for combat and other tasks and are used to level up party members. Skill points are doled out for each level and are then spent on buffing core stats as well as special class abilities that boost attacks, defenses, spells, and so forth. Basically, this gives you extra goodies to employ during battle with the use of a vitality pool that sits alongside your hit points. These features lend an added dimension to combat strategies with souped-up attacks and healing spells or buffs to core functions like hit-point regeneration and the percentage chance to inflict a critical hit. There isn't anything dramatic or new here in the character skill trees, although there are enough options to give you the sense of growing and customizing your party.

If you crave up-to-the-minute 3D visuals and bombastic sound, Avadon: The Black Fortress is not for you. But if you want to immerse yourself in a fantasy adventure and don't mind letting your imagination take over where the graphics end, this RPG can be involving and satisfying. You might get the feeling that you've played this game before, but in this case, that is sort of the point, and one of the big positives to this retro treat.

Men of War: Vietnam

At least Men of War: Vietnam is honest up front. The very first mission tosses you into the deep end without any life preservers. Denied even the benefit of a brief tutorial or some tips on how to handle the first few enemy encounters, you're thrown into the midst of a battle between the US and a small group of Russian advisors and Vietcong soldiers. A Huey incinerates your convoy in the scripted opening seconds and then returns to obliterate the paltry four survivors in your squad within moments. Either you get your guys off the road and under cover in less time than it took you to read the start of this paragraph, or everybody dies. It's an abysmal introduction. It's hard to imagine anyone new to the Men of War series sticking around for very long after this greeting. Even series veterans can't help but be taken aback by how brutally the game begins. Playing on easy helps a bit by reducing enemy numbers, but the game remains incredibly punishing.

The two-part campaign that sees the first five missions focusing on Russian and Vietcong troops and the second five missions swinging over to the US is unforgiving all the way through. You go into missions with tiny squads ranging from just four guys to around a dozen or so, and you have to fight and/or sneak your way through huge maps crawling with countless enemy patrols and dotted with umpteen goals. The playing field is so tilted against you that you're at risk of it falling on your head at any moment. Enemies can spot you from long distances, hear you even when you're firing silenced rounds, and shoot you with unerring accuracy even when you're hunkered down behind brush. The entire squad can be wiped out in mere moments, at almost any time. You need to creep forward very cautiously, experiment with a lot of trial and error, and save every time you do anything even remotely good. Kill a bad guy? Save. Find a great cover spot? Save. And so on. At least the game helps out by autosaving at smart, frequent intervals.

There are a couple of saving graces. Mission maps are extremely detailed and come with multiple options to get past every enemy troop position. Granted, sometimes none of them are pleasant, but at least you have many choices, ranging from open assaults to flanking maneuvers to firing locations and weapon selection. Enemy artificial intelligence is lacking, too, though at least the stupidity of your foes makes it easier to complete scenarios against the incredible odds. Foes typically respond to attacks by going back to standard patrol routes, oblivious to the corpses of their comrades and the burning wreckage around them, or by walking mindlessly into the jungle until your lads shoot them to bits. When you're beaten, you're beaten through sheer force of numbers or by superior enemy positions like bunkers, but never from being outsmarted.


Zoom in close for all the glorious battle detail, like your men being overrun enemies.
Unfortunately, your own troops aren't very smart, either. They often switch weapons for no apparent reason in mid-battle and ignore enemies gleefully murdering the whole squad from a few feet away. Maybe it's the cover itself, or maybe it's dumb soldiers not standing in the right spots, but your boys often seem to think they're hidden when they're exposed enough to take a bullet to the head. Targeting isn't very accurate, unless you micromanage troops with direct control, which is hard to do in the middle of a big scrap. You can order your squad to assault a lone VC hiding behind a truck, for example, and watch in horror as your lads line up behind the bumper and fill it full of holes…while your enemy pops out of cover and slaughters everyone.

Special abilities and weapons offer some chance at survival. There is something of a role-playing flavor here with named squadmates who come equipped with gear and combat skills. At times, the game resembles the Commandos series. Troops with silenced SMGs, sniper rifles, and big M60s provide you with a shot at whittling down enemy numbers. That said, the small size of your squads makes it devastating when just one man is killed. Lose your sniper, and it's pretty much game over unless you're in the home stretch.

Jungle terrain is both an ally and an enemy. The engine does a great job rendering the foliage of Southeast Asia, and it isn't just for show. It's so thick that you can ably stage hit-and-run raids where you blitz enemy positions and then fade back into the green. Bad guys take advantage of the green stuff as well, though, and it's so voluminous that you often can't see anything. Events develop so fast that your men might be slaughtered before you can get the camera properly into position. You expect a lot of jungle in a Vietnam game, of course, but it seems like you wind up with a big frond in your face every time you adjust the camera the slightest bit to better view a firefight.


The plan: Kill, or be killed.
All of the campaign missions can also be run through cooperatively with up to four other players. This is the best way to play the game, as it mitigates the extreme difficulty of going solo. It also lets you tackle objectives more efficiently via coordinated attacks. Some missions seem to have been designed with co-op in mind. The first mission, in fact, features a section where you must detonate three US Hueys before they take off. This is hard to achieve playing solo without sacrificing at least one man during the assault, because the choppers head to the skies almost as soon as you open fire. But when you're playing with a buddy, you can divvy up the targets to blow them all up before the pilots can get the rotors spinning. Unfortunately, there are some technical problems with online play. Connection errors frequently pop up on the server screen, making it impossible to join many matches. This may be because of conflicts between various versions of the game sold by different retailers or conflicts between those who purchased the DLC pack released alongside the main game and those who did not. Either way, a patch is desperately needed. Even when you can get into games, the play is a bit laggy, and synchronization issues frequently arise.

As frustrating as Men of War: Vietnam is, it still provides some satisfying moments. Emerging hale and hearty at the end of a mission is always cause for celebration, seeing how the odds are so slanted against you, and the opposing forces are made up of what seems to be the entire US Army or Vietcong. Still, the extreme challenge is a tough sell, and it makes it so difficult to get past the first mission that you might never get to the point where you can get hooked.

Dragon Age II

o many people gave Dragon Age II flack when it came out back in February, but despite some of the drastic differences between the sequel and Origins, it’s grown on me a little bit.  That’s why I was somewhat interested in checking out Legacy, the first major downloadable chapter for the game since its release, which expands on the Hawke’s family storyline.  Is it serviceable for fans of the series?  Yes, but it doesn’t quite go that extra mile like the Mass Effect 2 DLC did.
In the story, Varric, being the fool that he is, fails to fill on some history that Cassandra should’ve known about.  It was mostly for his own convenience, but better to hear it now rather than never, right?  It deals with someone who, in the past, went hunting down members of the Hawke family, mainly the siblings who couldn’t defend for themselves.  Varric manages to track down the source of the threat – a Dwarven crew that’s holed up in a peculiar area off the map – only to find there’s more to the story, something involving the Hawke’s blood itself.

To go any further into detail would spoil the story, so I’ll save those little surprises for those who actually buy the expansion.  Bioware has done a serviceable job making this content fit in with the rest of Dragon Age II’s folklore.  The visuals in this new area, particularly in the dungeon, are very well done, and there’s no shortage of enemies to cut down to size and characters to interact with.  You might even learn a new thing or two as you traverse through these areas, which will take you a few hours to do.
That said, that magic spark is missing from Legacy.  We’re not sure if it was something in the storytelling department, or perhaps a lack of extra oomph to the gameplay, but it almost feels like you’re performing the same old grind that you were in your original run-through of Dragon Age II, rather than going off in an exciting new direction.  See, the Mass Effect 2 DLC didn’t quite go that route, especially Lair of the Shadow Broker.  It introduced a new dynamic that was both captivating and exciting.  With Legacy, that feeling never comes across.
That said, it’s still more serviceable than most useless DLC on the market, thanks to good voice acting, a series of choices that will guide you along your journey, and some strong graphic design that makes the area worth checking out multiple times.  Just don’t expect your world to be shaken to its core.  Where Dragon Age II Legacy could’ve really set out to be something unique, it feels like the same old tale we’ve been reading through.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is finally upon us. If you’re a purist who will be looking at Deus Ex with a very skeptical eye, you’ll find that the game has definitely lived up to its incredible amount of hype.
In a quite dystopian future, a Globodyne-like company named Serif Industries is hard at work trying to unlock the full human potential. It’s this society, people replace their existing limbs or organs with enhanced robotic ones called augmentations. However, not everyone sees these “upgrades” in the same light as Serif does, and they stand firm by acting against the human evolution. You step into the role of Adam Jensen, head of security for Serif Industries that mildly looks like Neo from the Matrix—he even has the same manner of speech. On top of it all, Jensen’s love interest, Megan Reed, was in the process of making a huge scientific breakthrough when the “purists” made an attack on the building, taking out your beloved and nearly killing you in the process. Jensen wakes up six months later to find himself armed with Augmented body parts that make him a force to be reckoned with, as he tries to figure out the real motives behind these attacks.



The big deal about Human Revolution is the fact that it touts itself to let you play how you want. Do you want to go the Metal Gear Solid route and sneak your way into facilities without alerting the guards, or go Call of Duty and unleash a hail of bullets? Unfortunately for fans of the latter, the game lends itself to be played using stealth, and the biggest reason is the AI. It seems to react (or not react if you don’t get caught) more naturally to you when you try sneaking in, rather than when you’re running and gunning your way in. Even something as trivial as a door will confuse them and will leave them just aiming at it, rather than opening it and trying to take you out. On the flipside, the stealth gameplay feels so fleshed out, that I don’t understand why the game doesn’t opt to use it when fighting bosses. Even MGS let you use a tranquilizer gun to deal with bosses, but here you’re forced to rely on pure gunpower.
A cover system which is usually not prevalent in First Person Shooters is not only available in DX:HR, it’s almost a requirement. A quick hold of the Left Trigger will make Jensen hug a near object or wall that you can move along. It’s a necessary tool both in stealth and gunplay. When sneaking, it allows you to move unseen and generally as long as you have the trigger held down, you can rest assured enemies won’t detect you. In gunplay it’s an effective way to ensure Jensen’s survival from a hail of bullets, but it also enables you to move from cover to cover quickly to get better vantage points.
Making choices on how to tackle your enemies isn’t the only thing Deus Ex presents players with. Facilities usually have multiple ways of getting in, whether it’s from a roof ventilation shaft or a side door. Locked rooms can either be hacked into or codes can be found to gain access without the alerting suspicion. Even side-quests can be tackled in various ways. Do you try to win back the favor of an old friend who holds you in disdain to gain access to the police station, or do you say f*ck it and climb your way in through the sewers enter through the police station’s underground prison. It’s these underlying choices that make Human Revolution a joy to play through, not only the first time, but again, if only to figure out yet another way you can accomplish the same goal.

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning

It’s very refreshing to come across an RPG that’s both self-aware and joyously humorous. Comedy RPGs are a real rarity, so whenever one comes along, it usually provides something different from what most other entries in the genre have to offer. Sure, the underlying plot may deal with destruction and evil creatures, but the dialogue and writing are different from most RPGs and warrant a play-through by gamers. This is especially true for those who want to take a break from the typical turn-based title. Breath of Death VII: The Beginning does just that—it offers a unique RPG experience that’s fun, retro, and totally hilarious, even if it is a bit short.
Don’t let its name fool you. Breath of Death VII is actually the first (and currently only) game in the series. The game starts out with a nice, old-school cutscene that depicts a brutal war. After a massive weapon destroys the entire planet, a civilization of undead creatures rises and rules peacefully over the land. These friendly monsters create an ideal world and live happily within it—until an evil entity makes its presence felt across the land. That’s when Dem, the skeleton knight, rises to the occasion and goes on a quest to save the world from destruction.

If this all sounds a little quirky to you, that’s because it is, and the characters are just as strange as the tale itself. For starters, Dem doesn’t talk because he believes that a true hero should never speak. How do I know this? Because the narrator immediately turns on the Thoughts-Subtitle-O-Matic, which allows players to read what Dem is thinking. The rest of the cast is just as colorful, and the many characters you meet along the way often have hilarious things to say. The humor in Breath of Death isn’t so much about jokes or delivery. Instead, characters make references to other titles like Resident Evil, Castlevania, Pokemon, Earthbound, and Zelda. If you’ve played a lot of different franchises, you’ll instantly get plenty of the references, and they’re sure to bring a cheesy grin to your face.
Though Breath of Death VII emulates classic RPGs in terms of its graphics and menu design, the gameplay is actually a lot more forgiving than the punishing titles of old. You must travel to various towns in order to receive your next objective.  While in towns, you can purchase upgraded weapons and armor. Along the way, you traverse an overworld map full of random encounters. In between the towns and overworld, you must clear dungeons and increase your party until you have four total members—each bearing his or her own special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Dungeons are completely maze-like and require plenty of exploration and backtracking. As you explore caves, cities, and sewers, you engage in battles with enemies and collect upgrades and gold. If you want to find everything in the game, you’re definitely going to have to do some backtracking. This can be a bit of a hassle, especially in the bigger stages later on, because exploring the large mazes isn’t always enjoyable. Now, normally it would be a total pain having to deal with random encounters, because many of the dungeons’ paths lead to dead ends, while others lead to weapons and treasure. Thankfully, the random encounters within dungeons are limited. So once you’ve beaten all of the foes in a dungeon, you don’t need to worry about any unwanted surprises, and you can explore the mazes at your own pace.

Battles are also a lot simpler than most retro RPGs. Though the basic turn-based setup remains intact, you have several different attack options at your disposal and a combo system that allows you to perform strong finishing attacks. Tallying up your combo with constant offense allows you to set up a devastating attack that’s increasingly powerful based on your combo count. These moves can be used to finish off stronger enemies rather quickly, and they definitely come in useful in boss fights. Breath of Death VII puts a lot of emphasis on quick battles. You won’t spend several minutes on these encounters, and don’t be surprised if certain sequences take you mere seconds. This will either be welcome by RPG fans or it will be slightly disliked. Personally, I prefer longer, more complicated battles. That said, there’s no denying the fun factor in taking out baddies with a couple of high impact moves.
Upon clearing battles, you are rewarded with experience points. Once you level up, you can choose from two different upgrades at a time. Sometimes the game asks you to upgrade either your characters’ stats or add a new move to your arsenal. Other times you can choose between upping your defense or adding HP to your party. Depending on how you like playing, and whether you prefer magic or physical offense and defense, the game lets you decide what type of characters you want in your party, which is pretty cool.

One element that Breath of Death VII decided to keep completely old-school was its presentation. The game looks and sounds like a retro RPG through and through. This isn’t a bad thing, though, and the game’s presentation shines through as remarkably stylistic. That said, the plain black backgrounds during battle sequences are really drab and offer nothing in the way of graphical eye candy. The music, though largely enjoyable, is definitely not as pleasant as that of Cthulhu Saves the World, developer Zeboyd’s other comedy RPG.
Breath of Death VII is a fairly short game, especially for an RPG. The main adventure should take you about five hours, which isn’t too bad, as the game tends to drag a bit toward the end. There are three difficulty settings, and beating the game gives you access to Score Attack mode, which is a fun addition. Overall, the value is really good, because for just $3 you get Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, which is lengthier and better overall. If you’re a fan of old-school RPGs or crazy games with a good sense of humor, you simply can’t go wrong with Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. Even with its few flaws, it’s still a highly enjoyable parody adventure worth plaything through.

Hard Reset

Forget run and cover mechanics, regenerating health, or constantly reloading weapons.  Hard Reset is straight-forward, shoot-anything-that-moves game that harks back to the simplistic days of first person shooters.  This action-packed shooter will test your skills, reflexes, and patience as you run-and-gun your way through a cyberpunk environment destroying everything you see.
Don’t expect much in terms of plot.  Between the mayhem are comic-style drawings that poorly attempt to explain what is going on.  It’s your typical man vs AI story.  Hard Reset takes, what I like to call, “the Michael Bay approach”.  Ridiculous explosions and nonstop action.
Though simplistic in design, this game is definitely a challenge.  Armed with two bad-ass transforming weapons (more on that later) and an environment filled with explosive barrels, cars, and electronic machinery, you must annihilate hordes of enemy robots as they endlessly swarm from all around.  Don’t expect a second of downtime in Hard Reset.  Lurking behind every corner is a wave of merciless enemy robots waiting to tear you limb from limb.

Watch the Hard Reset story teaser
Hard Reset successfully combines the nostalgic feel of an old-fashioned shooter with the glorious HD environment of a modern game.  Though fairly linear in design, with only slight room to explore in search of “Secrets”, Bezoar City is as nice to look at as a lifeless, futuristic city overrun by rampaging robots can be.  The city’s sprawling skyscrapers are loaded with art deco styled detail and corporate advertising reminiscent to Blade Runner.  The cluttered streets and tight alleys are littered with abandoned vehicles and run-down architecture defaced with graffiti.
The environment isn’t without purpose, however.  The futuristic Bezoar City is filled with cold, neon-tech and explosive debris which you must use to your advantage.  Strategically placed cars, machinery, barrels, and boxes can all easily be ignited, sending electric currents and burning shrapnel in all directions.  You can (and definitely will) use the volatile environment to your advantage and take out large numbers of enemies, but one stray bullet could also spell doom for yourself.
As I mentioned earlier, you are armed only with two weapons that transform to meet your needs.  These are the CLG, which uses a more primitive bullet/explosive ammunition, and the N.R.G., which gives off a more futuristic vibe using electricity.  As you earn experience, you can upgrade each weapon enabling it to transform into other configurations like a shotgun, grenade launcher, or mortar.  Eventually, upgrading each weapon further will lead to secondary firing modes like stuns and AOE damage.  In addition to weapon upgrades, you can choose to go with the more passive upgrades, like greater damage resistance or a radar to track the enemies.

See the chaotic gameplay of Hard Reset in this video
Those of you from the less-forgiving generation of games will find Hard Reset as a refreshing challenge.  You will often find yourself in small combat areas filled with explosive objects that splash damage or a wayward bullet will easily ignite, resulting in your death.  Or there may be times when you are thrown in the middle of two giant robots with little navigation room, while smaller robots chomp away at your health.  These “cheap” deaths, as they are often referred to, are a testament to the challenges and difficulties we faced when playing old-school games that didn’t coddle it’s players.  Is it sometimes frustrating?  Of course it is.  But when it’s all said and done, and you complete the level, by carefully plodding your movements and strategically blowing up your surroundings, you get that sense of fulfillment and completion that many modern games don’t offer to today’s generation.
The game is not without flaws, however.  Switching weapons is often difficult and they don’t necessarily respond in the timely manner that you need them to.  In a game that depends on quickly equipping the right weapon for the situation I would’ve liked it to switch more quickly.  The textures, while nice from far away, are not as detailed as you’d expect form a modern game.  Lastly, the game is very short (roughly 4-5 hours), but it does have some replay value if you are looking to find all the “secrets” and get a high score for the level.
While Hard Reset is a fun play, it is by no means groundbreaking.  It’s a fun throwback for old-school gamers looking to get their fix of explosions.  It may appear like mindless running and shooting, but there is more strategy involved than that which meets the eye.  The game depends on your reflexes and carefully timed, precise shots to fully maximize the environments destructive potential.
A simple rule to play by: if it moves, shoot it.  The second rule to play by: if it doesn’t move, you should still shoot it because it will probably explode.

Dead Island

Dead Island had, what many consider, the roughest launch in gaming history.  From the accidental Xbox 360 developer build release on Steam to the “Feminist Wh*re” code to the PS3 trophy bug, Dead Island has had quite the rocky start.
Looking beyond that, Dead Island is still a fun play.  Dead Island strands you on a “small” vacation island off the coast of Papua New Guinea during the midst of a zombie outbreak.  Though labeled “small”, the island is actually quite large, featuring lavish environments filled with side-quests and hordes of zombies.  The game begins with you selecting one of four characters, each equipped with a unique skill-set that takes advantage of the types of weapons you’ll find scattered around the island.
Though Dead Island borrows features from other successful zombie games, like Dead Rising’s weapon creation and Left 4 Deads first-person, co-op action gameplay, Dead Island really is a totally different beast.  Though it’s a zombie game, the primary focus isn’t about the blood and gore.  At its core, Dead Island is a game about survival.  From the strategies you’ll use when playing to the side-quests you’ll pick up in your journey, the main goal is survival.
In most zombie games, you survive by shredding through the hordes of zombies.  Not in this game.  You survive by using what you find, and what you find is scarce and with limited durability.
You must pick and choose your fights carefully.  Strategy is a key element in this game; and sometimes, it’s smarter to just run from the wave of zombies than trying to bash your way through them resulting in a broken weapon.  These constant decisions you are forced to make is what sets Dead Island apart from other zombie games.

Check out the Dead Island Launch Trailer
Dead Island does a great job of making you feel like you are in the midst of a zombie outbreak.  The constant worry about lack of weapons, few med kits, and a limited stamina bar leave you with an unsettling feeling.  It’s a zombie game;  you should be scared.  You should be worrying about zombies lurking around the corner.  You should be worried about scavenging for weapons.  You should be worried about finding a workbench to keep your weapons repaired.
Unfortunately, the fear of dying is somewhat diminished by the lack of real punishment.  When you die, you must wait five seconds before resspawning in another location with slightly less money.  Any zombies you killed and the damage you inflicted before dying remain.  If you’re like me, and rush into fights resulting in death, you’ll appreciate the leniency.
The strength of Dead Island lies within the environment created and the open world RPG-element that results from it.  As you explore every nook and cranny of the massive world, you will run into plenty of survivors begging for your help.  There were so many side-quests that I actually found myself getting annoyed and asking why I’m the only person who could help them.  While you don’t have to, helping these survivors will result in rewards that will only make your main objective easier to achieve.
The great thing about Dead Island is you really become the character.  As you complete quests and kill zombies, you’ll be rewarded experience which you can use to level your character.  As you level, you unlock different skills by investing your XP points into them.  All of the characters each have unique skills that take advantage of the various weapons you’ll find.  There are three skill trees for each character so even if you’re playing with a friend who is the same character, you might have different specialties.

An extended, 20-minute gameplay clip
Speaking of multiplayer, Dead Island plays better when you have a buddy with you watching your back.  Not only does it give you a sense of camaraderie in a game where you’re constantly alone, but they can help with the more difficult quests.  Even if playing alone, you are given the option to join a player who is close to you via a pop-up message notification.
Dead Island is not without flaws though.  The combat is entertaining, though somewhat hindered by poor collision detection.  There are times when you can be aimed right at the zombie, swing, and still miss.  Though it isn’t game-breaking, it takes away from the enjoyment of zombie skull-bashing.  Don’t fret, there are plenty opportunities to make blood spurt out the top of a headless zombie in the game with the game’s dismemberment system.  The story, which offers 20-30 hours of gameplay, is pretty flat and filled with bland acting.
Dead Island may be a little rough around the edges, but it offers enough good things to make up for some of the more unpolished gameplay you’ll experience.  It does have some replay value when playing with friends and the announcement of DLC should add additional hours of gameplay.  It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a fun game.

The First 60 Minutes of RAGE Made Me Want More - PC

I had the privilege to have a full hour with Id’s RAGE at PAX Prime 2011. I was able to start from the very beginning and try out a handful of the initial missions. The brief glimpse of the intro sequence taught me that I was an ARK survivor who is meant to restore civilization along with his other fellow survivors. You quickly learn that all of them are dead except for you, and that is when you get thrust into the open world and experience its savage nature.
I was immediately attacked by a bunch of bandits which would have easily disposed of me, but I was saved at the last second by one of the occupants from a nearby settlement. This prompted the start of my initial questlines. Immediately thoughts of a few different games to mind. The post-apocalyptic setting that puts you in a role of a survivor gives the game that sense of Fallout, though the gunplay and RAGE’s crazy cast of enemies leans more towards the styles of Borderlands. I was immediately introduced to one of the game’s first vehicles, the ATV, which is just one way of getting around the vast wasteland, along with the buggy that we’ve all seen in many of the game’s early trailers. The ATV is super quick and extremely responsive and makes getting from point A to point B a breeze. Add in a high powered boost and you got an extremely fun, and quick way of exploring the vastness of the wasteland.

The early quests that I was able to play through were mostly fetch quests, though they were definitely the most action packed fetch quests I’ve ever played. You’re sent to a remote location, which is usually an instance of sorts, that you must make your way through, surviving a constant onslaught of enemies. Speaking of the enemies, they surprised me how quick and agile they were. No longer are they either running towards you, or simply hiding behind a piece of cover, these enemies are smart and acrobatic. They’ll leap and jump through corridors which not only keeps you on your toes, but makes it challenging to actually hit them. This is yet another aspect of RAGE, ammo conservation. Ammo is scarce, so making your shots count is key. Aimlessly firing off at bandits and mutants will leave you defenseless.
It’s a good thing then that the gunplay is so fast and fluid. If you’ve played other shooters, you’ll find yourself quite comfortable with the controls. Switching out weapons and ammo types can be done on the fly and quickly let you get the upper hand on the situation. I was told that a big component of the game was crafting, and though I didn’t get to see it extensively, I was able to craft a few things, namely a lock grinder which opened some previously locked doors for me.

Rio Review

Rio is inconsistent and short on personality, but there's some enjoyment to be had in this multiplayer party game.

The Good

• Many enjoyable minigames   
• Just $30.

The Bad

• Doesn't take advantage of film license   
• Some games are too basic to appeal to players of any age.

In the tradition of Fuzion Frenzy and the Mario Party games comes Rio. Rio tosses the vibrant avian stars of the animated film of the same name into a host of simple minigames. Not all of the games here will hold the interest of even young players for very long, and Rio fails to capitalize on its film license, squandering its story and giving its characters short shrift. But young players (and their parents) will find some enjoyment in the better minigames here, and the reasonable $30 price makes its shortcomings a little easier to overlook.

If you've spent any time with party games, everything about Rio will feel immediately familiar. You, and hopefully one to three friends, progress through a series of games simple enough that brief instruction screens before each one tell you everything you need to know about how to play them. There are 43 games in all, but don't take that to mean there are 43 entirely different types of experiences to be had here. Many of the games are very similar to each other, and they can be grouped into just a few categories.

Welcome to Rio, where birds engage in reckless activities for your enjoyment!

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There are some basic rhythm games in which the characters dance or play a musical instrument, and you need to push a thumbstick in a certain direction in time with onscreen prompts. These games move at a pace that most players of any age will find easy to keep up with and some will find too easy to be interesting. Then, there are shooting galleries in which you move an onscreen reticle to target fireworks or marmosets. The fireworks minigame is absorbing because your score multiplier increases each time you score a hit and gets wiped out if you miss, which encourages you to take shots carefully. Shooting marmosets is much less interesting. The screen is constantly filled with the animals, so you just move your reticle around and fire as much as possible, which quickly gets old.

In some games, players drop fruit from a high ledge onto marmosets or onto another player below. Being the one the other players are targeting is exciting; you dodge left and right and try to mislead your opponents about which direction you're going to head in next. But dropping fruit from above is less engaging. The camera is too far out to give you a clear view of the action, and when targeting marmosets, there are so many creatures and so much movement down below that it's difficult to keep track of who's hitting what. As a result, there's little satisfaction to savor when the watermelon you toss strikes true.

A number of games are variations on musical chairs. You and your competitors run around trying to collect as much fruit as possible, and when the music stops (or when villainous cockatoo Nigel appears), you scurry into a hiding place or leap onto a perch. As in actual musical chairs, there's a rush of excitement when the time comes for everyone to hurry to safety and someone is left in the cold. A few games are pure tests of your reflexes. One, which is conceptually identical to a game in Fuzion Frenzy, places you atop a moving vehicle and requires you to press buttons to leap over and duck under obstacles. Another has you and the other birds flying down a street, moving up and down to avoid fire hydrants, awnings, and other hazards. These modes start out slowly and progressively get faster and faster, ratcheting up the excitement as players are eliminated until only one is left standing.

These birds spend a lot of time either collecting fruit or kicking fruit.

The largest group of games are those that put you and your rivals in a small, contained area. These have you collecting fruit while avoiding an incoming tide; collecting fruit while jumping over a rope; running around and throwing snowballs, mud balls, or soccer balls at each other; or doing some other simple activity to try to earn the most points. These games move quickly and control well, making it satisfying to snag those bananas and mangoes from an approaching opponent or nail your friend with a soccer ball to the beak in dodgeball. Power-ups that provide brief score multipliers, speed increases, or other benefits like stealing points from a competitor lend the action an element of unpredictability without being frequent enough to make the contests feel purely like games of chance rather than skill.

There are a number of ways to play Rio. A Story mode loosely follows the events of the film. You play a few games in a given location and then a character from the movie updates you on your standings and tells part of the story before you move on to the next location from the film to play a few more games. The characters who narrate the story--Luiz the bulldog, Mauro the marmoset, and Nigel the cockatoo--repeat sections of dialogue so frequently that kids may be reciting them along with the characters before you've even finished it once, making this mode one you won't want to return to after completing it. Carnaval Wheel mode has players spin wheels to determine which game will be played next and the point value of that game. In Garland Gala, you earn garlands based on your performance in the minigames and then toss them at targets to score points and determine the game's victor. Carnaval Dance has you competing with other players to get a certain number of marmosets into your conga line, and it awards you four marmosets for each first-place finish in a minigame, three for each second-place finish, and so on.

The problem with all of these modes is that the selection of games you play is random. Initially, this is fine, but before long, you've seen all the minigames and inevitably will prefer some to others. For this reason, Party mode, in which you can create custom games with whichever minigames you want to play and lets you compete as individuals or on teams, is likely to be your go-to mode. There are also quiz variations in Party mode. In quiz games, players are asked questions between each minigame, with correct answers contributing to your position in the standings. These multiple-choice questions cover both places related to the movie ("Do you know which country Minnesota is in?") and specific plot points from the film, which make them as much a test of whether you've seen the movie as they are a test of knowledge. Additionally, repeats start cropping up in these questions after just a few games, so you won't select the quiz variants more than a few times.

This is Nico. He wears a bottle cap on his head for some reason.

It's a shame that the game doesn't take better advantage of the film on which it's based. The six birds that make up the playable characters really stand out on the screen, thanks to their vibrant feathers, but their personalities don't come through at all. Each has a few lines that he or she rattles off frequently during minigames, but that's about it. The disappointing Story mode uses snippets from the film so brief that you might miss them if you blink. Where other games aimed at kids, like Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, have used their characters to great effect, Rio's failure to capitalize on the source material feels like a missed opportunity.

There's no online support here; you can only play locally. Given the game's party vibe and target audience of young children, this isn't much of a setback. It's the sort of game that ought to be played with people in the same room. Not every minigame is a winner, and they could have benefitted from more charm and personality, but there's enough family-oriented fun here to make this good-natured game an enjoyable diversion.

By Carolyn Petit, GameSpot