Posts tagged @reviews 
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon review: Ghouls' Gold
Ghost busting is a lucrative job. I don't know how much money Luigi makes as a plumber, but it can't be as much as he gets for vacuuming up ghosts. The spectres of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are positively stuffed with coins, cash and gold bars. (And so is the furniture – the mansion's owners ...
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm review: Zerg rushing towards resolution
In music theory, there's a series of notes called a tritone interval. (I'm a writer and a Rock Band player, not a musician, so bear with me, band members.) The tritone consists of three different whole tones: The first sets the stage, marks the spot on the musical scale that our ear can attune ...
Gears of War: Judgment review: Horde mentality
There is a parable at the heart of Gears of War: Judgment, a tale of many people affecting the one. Though the words "Horde mode" are not to be found on its main menu, it is this revelatory multiplayer invention of Gears of War 2 that makes Gears of War: Judgment such a success. The guiding ...
Lego City Undercover review: Chip off the old block
Much like the toy these days, Lego City Undercover is both familiar and unfamiliar. Or, more to the point, it's two games masquerading as one, the first new and the second old. The introduction of a tremendous open world, a plastic parody of a city full of whimsy to discover, and more importantly ...
Ridiculous Fishing review: Acute angler
Vlambeer wouldn't want me to start my Ridiculous Fishing review by bringing up Ninja Fishing – and I kind of don't want to either – but Gamenauts' well-publicized clone actually works as an example of why Vlambeer's iOS update of its own browser game (which "inspired" Ninja Fishing) is ...
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate review: Symphony of the Fight
If the multi-tiered title didn't make it clear, "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate" is a heavy thing. A glut of gothic gravitas manifests in a huge quest that peels out of its handheld frame, even while anchored by burly protagonists and sullen environments. It's a fine action game ...
SimCity review: They built this city to shock and troll
I've written five different openings to this SimCity review over three days. Some felt ignorant of the game's disastrous launch, an element I openly wrestled with before writing this review. Others were too aggressive and awkwardly angry. I fired blindly with some fluffy paragraph about the fun of ...
Vergil's Downfall DLC review: Downfall is right
Important things first: Unlike in the full DMC: Devil May Cry, Vergil wears a total of zero fedoras in his spin-off DLC, "Vergil's Downfall." Aside from that missed opportunity, Vergil's Downfall plays like a disowned, disgraced brother of Dante should. It resembles the main game and pulls directly ...
MLB 2K13 review: Shameless
"Milwaukee Brewers closer John Axford has a sweet mustache. The commentary team in Major League Baseball 2K12, Steve Phillips, Gary Thorne, and John Kruk even spend time talking about it when he's on the mound, throwing strikes. Yes, dialogue was recorded specifically to discuss the pitcher's ...
Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends of the Titan review: The warm embrace of exploration
This year is starting to feel like an embarrassment of riches for RPG fans who own the Nintendo 3DS. Fire Emblem is out, Pokemon X/Y and Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers are on the way, and now we've got Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends of the Titan. Admittedly, Etrian Odyssey is not a series that I ...
