The indie scene abounds with platformers, horror themes and the video game equivalent of album names in music: cryptic and asking for a deeper meaning. The latest, They Bleed Pixels, has an innovative performance-based save system that turns this platformer into an entertaining and effective mix of brawling, platforming and scoring. Most platformers have times and points, but in They Bleed Pixels, you are encouraged to kill everything, and to do so with style and combo points. Sometimes you can just kick a monster off a ledge. Or you could throw it up in the air multiple times in an air juggle, then pummel it, and then make sure that it lands on the spikes instead of the ground. READ MORE
Over the past three years, the kingdom of Ultherst has been traumatized by three Scourges, a massive famine, a plague and a rain of fire. The population has been decimated, and those who’ve survived have begun turning from the Church to long-forgotten pagan beliefs and rituals for comfort. As a result, the Church has begun an Inquisition to root out heresy and bring people back to the faith. You have been charged to work with the Inquisition, investigating crimes and uncovering the truth. READ MORE
MMOs are too large in scope to be covered by our traditional review process. So here’s what we’re doing instead: giving you a “first draft” with thoughts from the initial days of a world, then circling back in a few weeks with a fleshed-out look at the final game and high-level experience.
The term “free-to-play” is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to MMOs these days. Many of them are initially free, though most often, you cannot have the same experience without paying for something. Often dropping a monthly fee and going for microtransactions is seen by the community as the last resort of an unsuccessful game. In my experience, this is not always true, as I know of several games that have done this with great success. READ MORE
There was once a time when we had an abundance of new open-world action games released every few months. It seemed like we couldn’t escape them. Thankfully, the releases of have slowed significantly in the past year, leaving us with only a select handful every so often. The games we do see released are often unmemorable, with the exception of a few excellent action titles that excel beyond their basic premises. Sleeping Dogs is one of those games, taking the best of the best and adding a little bit of new, exciting flavor to the mix. READ MORE
Quality or quantity? That’s a more divisive question than you would expect, and a number of games are made each year that appeal to those who prefer each answer. Unmechanical is the kind of game that definitely prefers quality, and that’s a great thing. It’s only about a four-hour game, but any attempt to make it longer would be a detriment to the whole package. READ MORE
