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 – 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 – Halo: Reach
The scene opens on a shot with part of the void of space being filled by a planet. The composition of the frame brings a flash of a memory to mind, but joy quickly dissipates at the realization that the Battlestar Galactica and the ships it has kept safe is not coming in from the right of the screen. That →
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 – 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 →
Gaming Review – Mafia II
In all honestly I wasn’t expecting too much from my time with Mafia II because I was never able to finish the one Grand Theft Auto game I started because the gameplay just wasn't for me (which Mafia II closely resembles), and in all honesty I think The Godfather is pretty overrated. With that said I decided to give this →
Gaming Review – Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
With the current surge in popularity of Nathan Drake’s treasure seeking world travels in the Uncharted series it would be expected that Lara Croft is feeling a little worried. However, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light it is clear that she is too busy using the torch while raiding tombs to pass it off to Drake just yet. At →
Gaming Review – Limbo
Summertime might be all about the sunny days, but the Summer of Arcade on XBOX Live is starting things off a tad bit gloomier with Playdead’s Limbo. At the start of the game the player wakes in the body of a young boy lying alone in a grassy field. Similar to Remedy’s Alan Wake (released back in May), Limbo sets the →
Gaming Review – Red Dead Redemption
If ever there was a time to use the word “epic,” now seems mighty fitting. Red Dead Redemption offers a grand look at the days of the Old West (well… South. This is on the border of Mexico after all) without the fear of family members dying of some random disease or a wagon yoke breaking along the way (first →
E3 2010: Microsoft, Sony, & Nintendo Press Conference Reflections
So the biggest week of the year for the video game world is here and it started these last two days with the annual first party conferences where the Big Three unveil there plans for the year to come. With everyone still on a major console release freeze we are instead being introduced to the current hot properties for Big →
Gaming Review – Splinter Cell: Conviction
Side note: This is just a review for the main single player campaign for the game because I am still waiting for someone (*cough* Zac *cough*) to play the co-op portion to the game. Sam Fisher has gone off the map in Splinter Cell: Conviction without his gadgets, secret government agency backing him up, and without his daughter. The one thing →
Gaming Review – Mass Effect 2: Kasumi’s Stolen Memory DLC
The first DLC pack with a price tag for Mass Effect 2 was released last week, and though it doesn't quite live up to the expectations I had, it is a decent enough experience while it lasts. Kasumi’s Stolen Memory introduces another addition to Shepard’s squad. Keeping with the team of many talents, Kasumi offers up some pretty nice skills thanks →
Q&A Review – Mass Effect 2
Below you will find a Q&A between Lauren and myself in which we had a casual conversation over Mass Effect 2 and what we liked and disliked about the game, or expectations going in, and our outlook on the future of the series. So take a look if you are a fan of the series or gaming after getting pumped →
Perfect Dark on XBLA to have Online Multiplayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! This is the most amazing news ever, I am going to loose myself to this damn thing. Check out some articles from Kotaku and IGN for hands on impressions, it will only cost 800 MS Points ($10) and might get future DLC in the way of maps and weapons if it does well. You will also be →
