If you aren’t especially into the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre, Blizzard Entertainment is determined to change your mind. I’ve played both of the biggest MOBAs in the world – League of Legends and DOTA 2 – and neither of them took. I’ve tried Smite, I even gave the ill-fated DC Comics MOBA Infinite…
If you aren’t especially into MOBAs then Blizzard’s latest game, <i>Heroes of the Storm</i>, really wants to change your mind. I’ve played both of the biggest MOBAs in the world – <i>League of Legends</i> and <i>DOTA 2</I> – at different stages and neither of them took. I’ve tried <i>Smite</i>, I even gave the ill-fated DC…
With only a few days notice before release, Telltale Games have launched the fourth episode of their ongoing <i>Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series</i> onto Steam with other platforms to follow in the coming days. The story of the permanently embattled children of House Forrester continues as small victories have larger consequences, the past…
<i>The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt</i> is finally here. Years of waiting, delays and many, many trailers with glimpses of what Geralt of Rivia’s next adventure would look like have built fan hype to fever pitch. The question everyone seems to be asking now is: can CD Projekt Red deliver a game that achieves its lofty…
When Machinegames released <i>Wolfenstein: The New Order</i> in 2014, it took the industry by surprise. A near-perfect blend of shooter mechanics both classic and modern, with a bizarre, pulpy story that cheerfully embraced the ridiculousness of its aging premise, <i>The New Order</i> was a sorely needed shot in the arm for modern-day single-player FPS design….
<i>Project CARS</i> is that rare sort of game that boasts a healthy ambition in the run up to its release and then actually manages to deliver on it. It gives itself to you, completely, the moment you fire it up and encourages you to play it your way. This, alone, sets it so far apart…
It’s been a while since a strategy game really grabbed me. The last one that really sparked my interest was Sid Meier’s Civilisation: Beyond Earth which wrapped me tightly in its addictive embrace and refused to let go for weeks. I had a similar reaction to Age of Wonders III’s new expansion Eternal Lords.
Following a rather painful 16-month delay following one of the biggest narrative reveals in recent gaming history, the second act of Double Fine’s point-and-click adventure Broken Age is upon us. Have Double Fine been able to leap over the crazy high bar they set for themselves with the first installment? When last we saw our…
Zombies have become the sort of thing you either love or hate. They’re ubiquitous these days and nowhere more so than in video games. I’ve cleaved my way through an unthinkable amount of shambling video game corpses in my time but State of Decay still managed to come as something of a pleasant surprise to…
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is a 2.5D stealth/action side-scroller downloadable title that introduces a new female assassin and a reshuffling of the familiar Assassin’s Creed sneaky-stabby gameplay mechanics and serves as the first chapter in a new Assassin’s Creed series. But is it worthy of the Assassin’s Creed mantle?
It’s been an exceedingly long wait for PC gamers who were looking forward to getting their hands on Grand Theft Auto V. It finally released, after a nearly two-year wait that was punctuated by delays, with a few new features that allow the PC master race to really make the most of their time in…
Ride is Italian developer Milestone’s first original IP after almost two decades of creating licensed products and it is something of a love letter to motorcycle enthusiasts. Pitched as Gran Turismo for bikes, does Ride manage to ascend to those dizzying simulation heights?
With Mortal Kombat 9 receiving such universal acclaim, heralded as a major revitalisation for the long-running and controversial series, and deemed ‘the best MK so far’, it’s only right that Mortal Kombat X completely top it’s predecessor. With the NetherRealm team jogging in the right direction, they have managed to take make their first foray…
In an extremely bizarre twist of fate, two of From Software’s latest titles have found themselves up against one another in the same release window. The current-gen remaster Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin arrived on shelves a mere week after From’s PS4 exclusive Bloodborne exploded onto the market with a lot of…
Let’s make no bones about this: EA’s reboot of Dungeon Keeper on mobile devices was a straight up sham. After the furore that that freemium title created, a lot of players were left with the realisation that they’d really like a new, actual, proper game in the series (that obviously didn’t nickel and dime them…
This might vilify me in the eyes of die-hard series veterans but I feel like Final Fantasy, as a series, has been in a bit of a rut for years now. And with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, we see exactly the sort of fresh perspective that could return the series to greatness.
The third episode of Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series resumes very shortly after the conclusion of Episode 2: The Lost Lords. Things aren’t looking great for the imperiled Forrester family and, if this new episode is any indication, their trials show no signs of abating any time soon. Episode Three, titled A Sword…
Picking up where the previous episode left off, (and to “Something Good” by Alt-J) Life is Strange: Episode 2 – Out of Time continues Max Caulfield’s story, but not especially far. There’s not a lot of narrative ground covered in this second episode – instead, Dontnod devote more to the development of their leading lady….
Battlefield Hardline takes the venerable combat FPS series in some pretty new directions. Eschewing military combat for a cops-vs-robbers angle, Hardline works hard to make the most of it’s premise. If you’re reading this review, it’s probably to find out what the game’s multiplayer is like – Battlefield’s multi has long been it’s big draw….
Ori and the Blind Forest marks a return to a kind of game we haven’t seen for a while, that most enjoyable of beasts, colloquially known as a “Metroidvania”. It bears all the hallmarks of those 2D exploratory juggernauts but looks for clever ways to update that formula for the modern era. In this, and…
It’s been almost four months since the first episode of Tales from the Borderlands was released and the wait for the next installment has been an especially long one. Telltale are obviously aware of the delay, opening their “Previously on” intro with the line “Yes, yes, it’s been a while. Everyone knows.” This cheeky, self-aware…
Created by Defiant Development, an indie studio in my home town of Brisbane, Hand of Fate strives to be different. It combines elements of a deck-building CCG, a roguelike dungeon crawler and action RPG’s to come up with something entirely new and, while it doesn’t always completely succeed, there’s still a lot to like here.
2014 was a pretty rough year to be a fan of Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft’s attempt at bringing the series into the latest console generation was calamitous at best, but in all the tumult surround Assassin’s Creed Unity, it was easy to forget that it wasn’t the only AC title being released. Assassin’s Creed Rogue, previously…
Oscura: Lost Light the third game in a series of platformers by Australian developer Chocolate Liberation Front. Based out of Melbourne, CLF has many tendrils in many Australian media avenues with ventures into TV and online projects as well as games. Oscura: Lost Light combines the old-school, challenging platforming of the 16-bit era and combines…
The Bright Lord is the latest DLC to be released for Monolith Soft’s 2014 surprise hit Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Surprisingly substantial, as DLC goes, it’s a welcome return to Mordor’s barren, Uruk-infested plains and allows itself to tell a rather important story in Middle-earth history while it’s at it.
Remember Roller Coaster Tycoon? Man, that game was awesome. Building crazed, malevolent roller coasters specifically to make anyone who dared ride them barf up a lung the moment it ended? Brilliant. It’s clear that the people at Frontier Games have played a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon because Screamride is both an ardent homage to…
Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the latest in a line of over a hundred video games based on Akira Toriyama’s enduring manga and wildly popular anime adaptation, Dragon Ball Z. With the best and most true-to-the-anime visuals of any DBZ title to date, and a story that messes with the established DBZ story, you could be…
Nintendo’s recent foray into more mobile games has been cause for jubilation for some long-time fans, determined for Nintendo to survive in an industry more cutthroat than ever before, and dismay for others who would prefer Nintendo not dive into the cheap-and-cheerful world of mobile gaming. This new willingness from Nintendo to embrace cheaper and…
What can you say about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask that hasn’t already been said? As the first Zelda title to follow the revolutionary The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask had it had its work cut out for it. Pushing the Nintendo 64 hardware to its limit, Majora’s Mask dared to…
The Total War series is a venerable one. Releasing one game after another over the last 15 years, it remains willfully experimental, seeking a way to combine real-time strategy with turn-based strategy into one cohesive whole. Total War: Attila not without its problems but, like its namesake, it’s more than willing to take a few…
