Tag Archives: Paste
Mice and Mystics Review (Board Game) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
Broadly speaking, board games are really just light role playing games. Monopoly simulates being a turn-of-the-century robber baron, while Risk asks you to step into the spurs of a primary-colored Napoleon. Even chess uses the tropes of feudalism to abstract out its two-toned power struggle. However satisfying board games are mechanically, they’re not known for telling a good story. That has traditionally been the domain of such role playing games as Dungeons & Dragons, and the complexity of the rule sets that facilitate that storytelling has meant these games are, again broadly speaking, only accessible to teenaged minds and older. Something wonderful happened in 1989 with the release of Hero …
Under Defeat HD Review (PlayStation 3) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
If Halo is a rugged Walmart sweatshirt of a videogame and my game ZiGGURAT (buy now on iOS (please (it’s only a dollar (I am so hungry)))) is a holey vintage metal band T-shirt, Under Defeat is a Burberry cashmere scarf. You might scoff at a Burberry scarf’s $ 400 price tag, because, hey, it’s just a scarf, right? Wrong: it is a connoisseur’s scarf. And it is a scarf not just for connoisseur’s of scarves—it is for connoisseurs of fabric. Before it was a recognized brand, it earned that recognition. Unlike a $ 400 Burberry scarf, Under Defeat HD will only cost you $ 30. You can buy thirty …
Tokyo Jungle Review (PlayStation 3) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
December is a slow month for new games, so over the next few weeks we’ll look back at notable 2012 releases that we haven’t reviewed yet. Today Casey Malone reviews Sony’s unusual downloadable game Tokyo Jungle. I’m starving and running through the streets of the Shibuya Shop district. I’ve killed my share of housecats and rabbits at this point, but now I’m finding only puddles of water and birds that constantly fly outside my reach. Then, creeping through some tall grass, I see it. A potential meal. A dairy cow. I leap at it, my floppy ears trailing behind me like tiny capes on either side of my head, and …
Far Cry 3 Single-Player Review (Multi-Platform) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
Shut out the story. Ignore the yellow exclamation points that litter the map one at a time. Focus on conquering enemy compounds, slinking over hills and through tall grass, scoping out the fort below with your camera and plotting the most painless route to victory. Target the radio towers, which are dispersed throughout the archipelago and which act like the vantage points in an Assassin’s Creed game: Climb to the top, hit a button, and a wide new swath of land will be added to your map. Hop on a jet ski or hang glide out into the ocean, where you can stab a shark and make yourself a fancy …
Nintendo Land Review (Wii U) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
LegoLand exists. It’s a popular attraction. They ripped out the food court of a local mall to install a micro-sized one here in Atlanta. And Legos are just about building things. Lego doesn’t have characters or stories to ride some kind of a vehicle through, like Disney Land. If LegoLand can thrive in the real world then there’s no reason to think a Nintendo Land couldn’t. But this isn’t real life. This is just a game. Nintendo Land is the pack-in software with the Wii U Deluxe Bundle, and like Wii Sports its goal is to introduce players to the new controller at the heart of the system. That new …
Assassin’s Creed III Review (Multi-Platform) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
The Assassin’s Creed games have a lot in common with the secret societies they portray. They are obscure, trading in mystery with an elaborate Russian doll narrative; they are steeped in tradition, portraying a pageant of history replete with double meanings; and, most of all, they are divisive, inspiring fervent love, scorn and confusion in turns. The first game, in retrospect more a proof of concept than a fully realized game, followed Altair’s adventure in the Holy Land. Assassin’s Creed II introduced players to Ezio, an assassin of the Italian Renaissance, and his story continued through two additional games, Brotherhood and Revelations. The common thread throughout the entire series has …
Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review (3DS) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
Paper Mario: Sticker Star really, seriously, is all about paper and stickers. While previous Paper Mario games used the newsprint nature of Nintendo’s mascot largely to justify flat, 2D sprites in a boxy 3D world, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is origami to its core. The game’s Mushroom Kingdom is rendered in construction paper and cardboard, its inhabitants constantly discussing their papery nature. This commitment to Sticker Star taking place in a pliable reality lets developer Intelligent Systems free their imaginations to fold, tear and, of course, sticker the game into a collage of fresh visuals, platforming and puzzles. Before we get to anything new, though, we have to sit through …
Need For Speed: Most Wanted Review (Multi-Platform) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
It’s hard to imagine a more insidiously dangerous modern invention than the car. We position ourselves in the front seats of these giant hunks of metal, glass and plastic and careen down roadways at incredibly high speeds. Their invention and success meant that transportation transitioned from a leisurely jaunt to a fast-paced thrill with the inherent risk of death or destruction of property. We take these risks for granted now, but to really stop and think about driving is to acknowledge that our safety is never certain in these moments. At any given instant, the person driving in the other lane in the opposite direction could fall asleep, or spill …
Halo 4 Review (360) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
I think a lot of people were asking the wrong question when they pondered whether 343i would make as good a steward of the Halo franchise as had Bungie. What I wanted to know was whether or not 343i could drag Halo out of the miserable hole that was Reach. During the first few months of Reach, you could wreck ¾ of the player-base by abusing armor lock. Then, the top players perfected their jet pack skills so that anyone who didn’t know how to fly-and-headshot was hopelessly outclassed. It made the game a lot harder to come back to if you have a life outside of playing Halo, because …
Retro City Rampage Review (Multi-Platform) :: Games :: Reviews :: Paste
If you can say nothing else about Retro City Rampage, you can say this: It has the best chiptune diarrhea sequence ever committed to 8-bits. Rampage, a doubly parodic fusion of early Nintendo and open-world gaming, is packed with—no, scratch that, almost entirely made of—references both classic and modern. Hence the Dark Knight-inspired “Jester” and “Biffman” characters, a Paperboy-style mission supplied by a Doc Louis (à la Punch-Out) lookalike, scores of cameos from current indie developers such as Phil Fish, and the aforementioned digital bowel trouble that opens up a Saved by the Bell chapter. Plus so many, many more. There are plenty of gags aimed at open-world grandaddy Grand …