The prosperous settlement of Castletown had everything its residents could possibly desire. Lumbering giants had turned a once barren wasteland into a fertile coastal forest, and like titanic servants they had places mines, p...

The Plants vs. Zombies IP is a particularly interesting case. After creating one of the biggest casual hits of all time in 2009, Popcap kind of just sat on the property, keeping quiet about future plans despite its popularity...

I don't know why I thought that putting a world back together -- conquering various floating landmasses and combining them through sheer force of will -- would be easy. Eador: Masters of the Broken World's similarities to Her...

Don’t let the screenshots fool you: This isn’t the game you think it is. The first Anomaly was an unexpected sleeper hit that found a successful formula on flipping tower defense on its head by putting the playe...

I've never been scuba diving, though I imagine it can be quite the relaxing affair. Checking out the reefs, the fish, and just marveling at what is essentially a whole other world sounds pretty wonderful. It would stand to re...

The lack of a customizable field-of-view is understandably a sticking point for certain PC gamers. It was no surprise, then, to see a big release like Metro: Last Light take some heat for not having a FOV slider. Today, an up...

To call Victoria II dense would be a gross understatement. It's a pound cake, with each ingredient -- the tangled politics, vast wars, and simulated economies -- adding greater depth and increasingly complex, interweaving sys...

In the virtual reviews from the virtual critics that judge your virtual game company's output in Game Dev Tycoon, depth is never a point of concern. Well, it is here. Everything in the eyes of Informed Gamer (and other fake m...

I have a considerable amount of respect for the studio auspiciously known as Spiders. Its games are not the prettiest, nor the most technically sound, and they're far from the best. They do, however, possess a certain tenacit...

Poker Night at the Inventory 2 is about more than just being a poker game. It tries to capture the most important part of poker: sitting around with you friends and chatting away the evening. Poker Night also does something d...

Last year, an unassuming game came to iOS in the form of Jack Lumber. At first glance, it seemed to be a clone of Fruit Ninja, but upon careful inspection, it was actually a much, much deeper experience. Developer Owlchemy Labs have demonstrated that they can create an interesting, captivating world on top of a solid gameplay foundation, and best of all -- an obscene over-the-top love for puns.

Anodyne is a cool little top-down dungeon crawler with an obvious problem: it isn’t Zelda. Though I would normally feel like a jerk criticizing a small indie title for not stacking up to Nintendo’s legendary series, the game itself forces the comparison, lifting not just the basic gameplay elements of the classic 2D Zelda games, but also various art cues and enemy designs.

I've found that it's a rather fruitless endeavour to guess which games will get a sequel -- mainly because I'm usually wrong. If you'd asked me "Fraser, will there be a Zeno Clash II?" I would have confidently responded with ...

As a life-long Star Trek fan, I was skeptical about the reboot. However, my worries were unfounded as the 2009 film quickly became one of my favorites in the series, and it's attention to what came before while paving a new p...

I sat across the fire from my longtime companion, Philip the pigman, in complete silence. Philip and I had been through a lot together, hunting down terrifying creatures of the night, felling mighty trees, and scoffing all th...

Strike Suit Zero came out just three months ago and already it has a spin-off. Strike Suit Infinity doesn't attempt an epic narrative or try to establish an enthralling science fiction world that you want to live in immediate...

Every so often, a game comes along that gets attention for its basic mechanic alone. Signal Ops is one of those games, as it is a stealth game that shows the player up to four first-person views of playable characters at the ...

The Sims 3: University Life is expansion pack number nine for The Sims 3, and it's essentially a re-hash of the University expansion for The Sims 2. If you decided today you wanted to start playing The Sim...

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine was finally released on PC and Xbox Live Arcade in the past few weeks and creator Andy Schatz held a Reddit Ask Me Anything session where he answered questions about the game's long developme...

Dejobaan Games is probably best known for the crazy AaAaAA!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity but Monster Loves You, co-developed alongside Radical Games, is totally different from the studio's previous title. It's a kid-fr...

Crouching on the rooftop of a dilapidated building in the whale oil-fuelled Victorian dystopia of Dunwall, I felt like I had never left. I'd cleared the name of Corvo Attano, saved a child who would become an Empres...

This was not what I expected. Going into God Mode, I knew it was an action-style third-person shooter which, to me, generally means there's going to be some streamlining going on. Less of the fluff you might find in bigger-bu...

The Sacred series is never going to give Diablo a run for its money, but it's always had its own unique charm. It's a fairly standard dungeon crawler with its own element of silly humor, and that's been enough to earn it a pl...

Despite the fact that Shootmania Storm just came out, there's a new game mode and a weapon already available as a free update. "Combo" pits teams of two players against each other who are tasked with killing enemies at the sa...

I don't have a driving license, and, strictly speaking, can't drive. I had lessons over a decade ago, but I never really saw the point. The narrow roads and strict speed limits in the UK prohibit one from truly enjoying the a...

Those of you who happily bought Age of Empires II: HD Edition for nostalgia's sake only to encounter a slew of technical issues, heads up: a new patch for the game might do the trick. "We’ve got a giant excel ...

I'll suffer through many things if the promise of a post-apocalyptic horror is on the cards. To that end, I've lived through such atrocities as I Am Omega, and once really tried to like Hardware. A game like Afterfall: I...

Receiver, a first-person shooter with mechanics grounded in reality, is finally available on Steam for super cheap. You can temporarily pick it up for $3.99, 20% off its original price of $4.99. If you already own Receiver&nb...

[This post originally ran as impressions on the open beta and is now updated to reflect the full release, which came two weeks later.] Call of Duty has dumbed down the modern shooter to being about planting bombs, capturing p...

Dungeon Hearts is a match-3 game, yet that observation didn't solidify until I sat down to write this review. From music to mechanics, Dungeon Hearts is so ingrained in traditional Japanese role-playing games (think Final Fan...

Evoland, an exploration of adventure games' evolution from independent developer Shiro Games, is currently available for PC through Steam and GOG.com, with an iOS release due later this month. However, given the nature of the...

If there's one thing that's more overplayed than zombies, it's reviews for zombie videogames talking about how overplayed zombies are. Truly, nobody can win anymore. We're worn out on the zombie thing, and worn out by our own...

Downloadable content is a touchy subject among the vocal game playing community. While I personally think such content has its place, the piecemeal selling of a game risks becoming a tasteless endeavor -- and videogame publis...

The original Sword of the Stars games were deep and complex space strategy games akin to the Galactic Civilizations franchise. Sword of the Stars: The Pit takes place onboard a ship in space, but that is where the similaritie...

The coffee in Boston's FBI offices must be a really special kind of black sludge, capable of turning ordinary investigators into relentless machines. Or maybe Special Agent Erica Reed has just transcended the need for rest or...

Irrational Games has teamed up with NECA Toys to produce cute little Songbird plushies. The plushie comes in at 7" tall, has an outstretched wingspan of 14" from tip to tip, and is going for $55. The design was created by sen...

On "Real Talk" with JP McDaniel, a YouTube show that interviews gaming personalities, Greg "Idra" Fields talked about the events surrounding his recent firing from Evil Geniuses' StarCraft II team. He talks about a ton ...

As the elderly, yet oddly toned kung-fu monk decapitated my time-traveling, identity-losing hero-with-nothing-to-lose for the fifth time in as many minutes, I couldn't really be blamed for impotently throwing my mouse at the ...

After climbing down 350 floors of traps, monsters, and ninja ghosts, not to mention the extra levels seemingly without end, I've come to one conclusion: I should never become a ninja. Sure, I should have known that before I e...

Richard & Alice is, ostensibly, an adventure game. It's simply presented, short, indie fare made created by the two-man team of former games journalist Ashton Raze and Lewis Denby. Underneath its brevity and simplici...

When we first heard of The Banner Saga and its success on Kickstarter last spring, it was a single-player focused turn-based RPG. Since then, it has split off into two releases: a narrative-driven single-player game to come a...

Discussing the SimCity launch fiasco in a call with investors today, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau referred to the title as "a great game that has recovered from a challenging launch." Although that sounds disingenuous whe...

Indie puzzle platformers seem like they're a dime a dozen these days. Start with an art style, something unique or just simple pixels, add some cool gameplay hook, and then make some levels. It’s a standard formula that...

I never thought I'd ever say this after the '90s, but there are simply too many interesting adventure games to keep track of. Back in 2011, I had been keeping close tabs on Cognition: An Eric Reed Thriller, after it ticked al...

Development on Driftmoon began seven years ago. Seven years! For some context, this game began development when there was only one New Super Mario Bros. and Saints Row game. It is anybody's guess as to the quality of a game w...

The mod tools from Paradox's grand strategy masterpiece, Crusader Kings II, are now a part of March of the Eagles. This new set of tools will allow players to customize just about any aspect of the game and run multiple mods at once. Hopefully this means we'll get to see some crazy mods, like this one. This update also has a patch with gameplay tweaks and bug fixes. 

By the time Bit.Trip Runner burst onto the scene three years ago, Gaijin Games had already established itself on WiiWare with a trio of some of the best games on the platform. The retro-inspired rhythm series shared certain c...

There is a vast, tumultuous ocean between good ideas and their actual application, and lost in the middle of that ocean is Impire. In fact, it may very well be stuck inside the belly of a whale. I had high hopes for the dunge...

Special Forces: Team X looked to fill a certain void in the PC market. One without the joint effects of chest-high walls, competitive multiplayer, and a cover system. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer helped bring third-person cove...

Proteus has no objectives, no actions other than movement, and no text. It's a game based entirely off of exploration, using intelligent design to guide the player through. It also has a definitive structure; there's an openi...

Dungeonland, the ARPG-ish dungeon crawler, has quite a lot going for it. Chris came away quite surprised with the game, despite hearing some mediocre things beforehand. A large part of the game's charm has been the humo...

If you're curious about Omerta: City of Gangsters on the Xbox 360, a demo is now live. The game itself is basically a bare-bones simulation similar to the Tropico series mixed with portions of gameplay similar to XCOM. There'...

It's impressive to reflect on how far-reaching and influential indie games have become in recent years. Small teams and one man acts are emerging from the woodwork to deliver experiences that rival those manufactured by the o...

I'd like to pay Richard Hofmeier to talk to me about videogames. During last week's Sup Holmes (now on iTunes), he told me about so many great things, like the free online "game" Geoguessr, surrealist interactive text auteur...

When Euro Truck Simulator 2 was first brought to my attention, I'll admit I thought the attraction had to be based in irony. To wake up one morning and find the gaming community is going crazy over a trucking sim is unusual e...

One of the most striking things about Antichamber is how the sound design makes the world feel bigger and more lush than it really is. The sounds and visuals create a hypnotic world that fills the imagination. And now, Antich...

If I'm being honest, I want the Kentucky Route Zero developers, Cardboard Computer, to take as much time as they need perfecting each and every episode of the game. But if I'm being serious, I want them all right fr...

[Warning: NSFW, even if censored, images following.] "At the beginning of the 22nd Century, an anomaly began occurring in the bodies of women," so goes the tale of Boob Wars. "All the women of the world became either E Cups a...

When I was still wee, I often found myself stuck in my grandmother's house, far away from friends and video games and left with little to do other than draw or read. Once I filled every piece of paper in the house with doodle...

Born Ready Games has responded to community and critic feedback with a new patch for Strike Suit Zero which introduces a first-person cockpit view for all ships, multiple difficulty levels with the added promise that some dif...