Review of SSX (XBOX 360)
Years ago, when "next-gen" meant the PS2, I was introduced to what would be one of my favorite sports franchises of all time when I played the original SSX back in 2000. I still remember the commentators telling me that "Snow plus Dream equals SnowDream." From then on, the franchise has always had a soft spot in my →
HST’s Best of 2011: Video Games
Last but not least, here is HST’s list of favorite video games from the past year. And what a year it was, with huge titles coming out and an epic fall season to cap off the year. Plenty of sequels and a few new IPs to boot, so there are plenty of games to mention even without the honorable title →
Gaming Review – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Despite his effeminate, childish looks, Link is actually older than me, as the screen full of 25th anniversary excellence will inform you when starting the game. Yet somehow he still manages to be far more active. Granted I have a really comfy couch, and am not the one destined to save the world. He can keep that burden, which he →
Review of Dead Island
I love zombie games, movies, shows, and literature. I really do. Me and my friends would go around the worlds and courses of Left 4 Dead for hours, blowing the heads off of countless zombie hordes, and then becoming the infected to punch people off of tall buildings to watch them plummet to their death. So once →
Gaming Review – Rage (Campaign)
It is obvious why the title Rage was given to this video game. Two seconds out of the pod and some angry albino is trying to shove a knife into my chest. Clearly there is some much needed anger management on this planet. Or times have definitely changed from when I was last awake. Let’s set the scene. In a post →
Gaming Review – Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Campaign)
With the number of Assassin’s Creed games that have been released in the recent past, I am starting to wonder if they are trying to outdo The Sims with that series's affinity of releasing expansion packs. Thankfully each game is a full adventure on its own, with this 3rd installment of Ezio’s trilogy within a trilogy finally bringing two characters →
Review of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Activision really knows how to drive franchises into the ground. From X-Men, to Tony Hawk, to the genre-defining Guitar Hero, the developers keep pushing sequel after sequel every year, hoping that the fan bases continue to hand them your money. But once fatigue starts to set in, the franchises get old and played, making each other game that →
Gaming Review – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Campaign)
I don’t mean to brag, but when I was little I was decent at climbing trees. I mean, I would get at least 10 feet off the ground. Ok, so that’s not that grand, but I had sensitive hands, and bark is all scratchy… The point is that for people with childhoods like mine, living vicariously through characters like Monkey →
Gaming Review – Batman: Arkham City
As I had to do when I wrote up Batman: Arkham Asylum, I must start this by apologizing to Superman. As much as I like to believe that I am a Man of Steel kind of girl, I just can’t stay away from The Bat when he makes video games like this. Batman: Arkham City follows the events of the first →
Video Gaming Review: Batman Arkham City
Batman Arkham City is finally here and to say the least, it is a far cry from disappointment. Batman Arkham City is the perfect sequel to Batman Arkham Asylum. Rocksteady studios has done something truly remarkable with this franchise. They went from being a company no one had ever heard of to a huge name in the gaming industry all →
Delayed Gaming Response – Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
With all of the big name games stealing the public’s attention last year, from Mass Effect 2 to Red Dead Redemption to Call of Duty: Black Ops, it’s understandable that some pretty amazing games didn’t get the recognition they deserved on the grand scale. For me, the most overlooked would be Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Like many games and films →
Gaming Review – L.A. Noire
The sweltering summer day’s perspiration trailed down the outside pane of glass, clinging to the hope of making it inside. The scene inside was not much better. The shadow of the day cut across the wounded body of the young woman, broken and bruised from the deep cuts in her abdomen as she waits for a savior to come take →
Delayed Gaming Response – Dead Space 2
When it comes to science fiction, space is always presented as a pretty action oriented place, from space battles to asteroid fields to roaming cannibals (you thought I was going to get through that without a Firefly reference? Silly you, you thought wrong). But from way down here where the majority of us are standing it is nothing but a →
Gaming Review – inFamous 2 (PS3 exclusive)
As far as I am concerned controlling electricity is not a power I would want to possess if I had my pick because I don’t plan on forgoing showers anytime soon. Good thing this isn’t The Sims and hygiene really isn’t a concern to Cole, the protagonist reprising his role in InFamous 2. At the end of game one I happily →
Review of Brink (XBOX 360)
If you are on my friends list, you probably have heard me talk about Brink; Bethesda and Splash Damage's new class based, wall-climbing, objective-completing first person shooter. With all of the beautiful videos (look up the E3 trailer), awesome graphics, and gameplay that looked smooth as silk. I was so ready for this multiplayer epic to come out →
PS3 Players Rejoice! Mass Effect 2 is Finally Here
Here’s a little thought about console exclusiveness. When a game is released solely onto one console (I’m ignoring PCs cuz I’m a Mac person and PCs scare me) it sucks. Boasting ensues, lines are drawn in the sand and suddenly we’ve got a full on battle over which console is the best among the fans. For those of us claiming →
Gaming Review – Fable III
Similar to the promises made by the hero of Fable III on his path to the throne, there have been a lot of promises coming from Lionhead Studios building up the hope of the people for what this game could be upon completion: Morphing hero weapons! The power of touch! An interactive “menu” that will bring those before to shame! →
Gaming Review – Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
With the DVD release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time this week many may be looking for a way to continue the fun action adventure without having to put the movie on repeat. Luckily enough there is another option, which is to rent Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, the game that was released in conjunction with the →
Gaming Review – Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions
For years games starring superheroes were kind of a joke, hardly giving the player an adequate experience to live up to the hype of the character. Then Batman: Arkham Asylum came along and showed how it should be done. While Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions might not live up to the Caped Crusader’s game, it is still far above most of what →
Gaming Review – Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC
Throughout the Mass Effect series there have been many elusive presences in the galaxy, none more so than the Shadow Broker (the Illusive Man falls short on a spelling technicality). Thankfully with the new DLC for Mass Effect 2, titled Lair of the Shadow Broker, we are finally getting some answers about this mysterious character. Back in January Commander Shepard’s world →
Gaming Review – Mass Effect 2: Overlord DLC
The last playable DLC for Mass Effect 2 (Kasumi’s Dream) didn’t exactly cause any mass faintings due to how excited people became while playing, but with the DLC Overlord we are definitely getting the tingles. A long time ago the Mass Effect universe learned about the feared robot uprising of today (it’s gonna happen) with their experience with the geth, a →
Gaming Review – Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
The slowly creeping presence of zombies in mainstream popular culture means that they hardly need an introduction, but Capcom proves with Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, the prequel to the upcoming Dead Rising 2, that sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a refresher course. In this installation the player takes control of Chuck Greene three years following the events of the →
Gaming Review – Shank
Shank’s revenge story might be a tale as old as time, but that is where the comparisons to a Disney film end. Instead it provides a gruesome blood bath of 2D side-scrolling violence that would do Quentin Tarantino proud in many ways. The player will take control of the title character, wielding an array of weapons to slice, shoot, and blow →
Gaming Review – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game
For weeks now Playstation 3 owners have known what it is like to be Scott Pilgrim while the rest of us (I am including me because of my achievement whore status) have had to sit and live vicariously through the film and books. Now with the recent release on the Xbox 360 Arcade everyone can feel just how epic it →
