Before even starting Killer is Dead, the splash screen displays an illustration of protagonist Mondo Zappa shrouded in shadow, holding the sharp side of his sword up to a woman’s neck. Her eyes are rolled back in ecstasy; she finds pleasure in being preyed upon. This image exemplifies the tone of Killer is Dead: it is dark, violent and sexual, more often together than separate. READ MORE
Genre 101 is a series that looks at the past and present of a game genre to find lessons about what defines it. In this installment, Eric Albuen explains the ins and outs of rhythm games.
Eric Albuen: While not necessarily a music game itself, Simon was one of the first games widely available to the public that introduced musical elements to assist in the gameplay. The player would have to play a sequence that the game provides for you. Along with the flashing lights to assist you, the game had subtle tones for each color. Whether players knew it or not, they were repeating back a set of notes in harmony no matter which order they played them in. READ MORE
The Xbox’s local multiplayer lineup was anchored by Halo, which took much of the spotlight and generally crowded out most other contenders. That said, it had the horsepower advantage over its peers and a very PC-like architecture, so it thrived by hosting the best version of most of the era’s multiplatform games. READ MORE
Final Fantasy XIV is a game with a short but rocky history. The original incarnation of this game, commonly referred to as 1.0 by players, was a mess. Compared to other titles on the market, it was a skeleton of a game, with little content and innumerable bugs. After about a year, Square Enix threw in the towel, and the development team was removed from the project. Ultimately, it decided to completely remake it from the ground up. The PS3 version was scrapped, and work began on what would become A Realm Reborn. READ MORE
It’s been three years since we last saw Sam Fisher in action in Splinter Cell: Conviction, an entry that eschewed the usual stealth trappings in favor of heavy-duty tactical action. Many fans of the series didn’t care for the direction the series was taking and, if Blacklist is any indication, Ubisoft paid attention. Blacklist is easily the best, most fully-featured game in the series since Chaos Theory. READ MORE
