When this column originally ran, it was primarily about playing games with your children. To be perfectly honest, I started writing it early. My kids are all two years old. We play Kinectimals together, and I’m looking forward to playing Once Upon A Monster with them when they’re a little bit older. For the time being, though, I am perfectly happy with them being thrilled to play with MegaBloks, stuffed animals and picture books.
What they have done, however, is permanently affect the way that I view the world and how certain things affect me. One game hit me particularly hard this year: Telltale’s The Walking Dead. READ MORE
Adventure games are great to play but hard to review. I can’t really talk about the gameplay, because there isn’t a whole lot of that present. You move with the mouse, pick up items by clicking on them, combine items in your inventory and let the story unfold, because that’s why you’re here.
I can’t tell you about the story, because it’s the only thing that adventure games really have, it’s the big reason that I play them and if I spoil the story for you then I’m doing both the game and you a disservice. That said, the narrative journey that Primordia takes you on is well worth experiencing. READ MORE
Borderlands 2 is the probably my most played game of 2012. Why? The shooting is good, the setting is fun, the characters and their special abilities are all distinct and fun while being useful in their own right (Maya is the exception here as I feel she suffers when running solo), and the side characters are just juvenile enough to make me laugh out loud while playing cooperatively both with my wife in the same room and my best friend in California. READ MORE
There’s a lot of closure in The Walking Dead‘s final chapter, and I haven’t cringed so much while playing a game in a long time. It’s hard to reconcile my feelings that everybody should play this game with my innate want to keep people from being sad. The whole thing is brilliant (especially the final act), but when the credits rolled I had tears welling up in my eyes and I’m not sure that I have it in me to replay the game for a while. On the other hand, I’m absolutely ready for season two to release next year, so that I can buy it as soon as I can. I need to know what happens to this universe and the people who inhabit it. READ MORE
There is a lot going on in Mugen Souls. Where most games choose a concept, flesh it out and put it out front and center, Mugen Souls features so many different systems that new ones are still being introduced via pop-up tips in the game’s third chapter. The immediate comparison here is to another NIS title, Disgaea. READ MORE
