Fan nostalgia isn't enough in Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar
I walked away from a recent preview of Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar feeling anxious. It's not that Dark Age of Camelot dev Mythic Entertainment has a bad game on its hands, I just don't understand how it's supposed to speak to me as a longtime Ultima fan. Over the last decade, the legendary ...
Bringing horror out of stasis in Dead Space 3's 'Awakened' DLC
If there's any worry at Visceral Games over criticisms that Dead Space 3 strays too far from its horror roots, no one is talking about it. On the contrary, producer Shereif Fattouh seemed completely optimistic about the game's reception and its place within the Dead Space universe during a recent ...
From city-builder roles to caring for citizens in SimCity
Regions are the beating heart of Maxis Games' upcoming SimCity revival. The always-online game places a lot of emphasis on community, but it's less about the global fellowship and more about the ties that bind neighboring cities together. Players face a choice when they're first starting out: break ...
Oddball world of Fuse: Splicing the Insomniac DNA with Smash TV
Fuse is a difficult game to preview; it's a busy experience with plenty of interconnected systems and a HUD that brims over with symbols, numbers and meters of various sorts. Insomniac's coming shooter thumbs its nose at the current era of clean user interfaces, which attempt to disguise vital ...
Molding and shaping Terraria's world with twin sticks
Terraria, the PC creation conceived by the small staff at developer Re-Logic, will finally make its way to the digital storefronts of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Developed by Engine Software and published 505 Games, the console version of Terraria features fresh content, including a new big bad ...
Feeding on undead armies in Skulls of the Shogun
Here's your high-concept, catch-all elevator pitch for Skulls of the Shogun: samurai zombies meets turn-based strategy, and a dash of Words With Friends thrown in for flavor. 17-BIT's charming top-down strategy title captures the action-flavored flow of the Advance Wars series, though it ditches ...
Surviving the Xenomorph offensive in Aliens: Colonial Marines
The stranded squad of space marines makes hasty preparations amid the flickering lights of a ruined former colony's command center. A scrounged sentry turret sits idle in a corner of the room, slowly scanning for signs of non-human life. Raging storms outside mask the sounds of creatures scuttling ...
Assaulting an alien battleship as a Triad defector in XCOM: Enemy Unknown's 'Slingshot' DLC
You probably remember the day that your best friend died on the field of battle in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. One of the coolest features of the Firaxis-developed remake is the ability to customize the names of individual soldiers that make up your army of alien-stompers, fostering a strong connection ...
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge review: Sharpened
Keep track of all of Joystiq's Wii U launch coverage on our Wii U hub page! Team Ninja has always done better on the rebound, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge is a testament to this fact. The technical excellence of the 2004's Ninja Gaiden was one-upped in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Ninja Gaiden 2 was ...
Having second breakfast with Lego The Lord of the Rings
We've seen nearly a dozen games spawned from the revived Lord of the Rings franchise: action games, strategy games, adventure games, RPGs, MMORPGs ... a lengthy list that only grows longer when you take various expansions and add-ons into account. Next up is Lego The Lord of the Rings from TT ...
