A Song of Fire and Ice is a fantasy universe rife with potential in alternate storytelling media, as has been shown with popularity of the TV show based on the series. A Game of Thrones: Genesis, from Cyanide Studios, covers the history of Westeros leading up to the main story. It’s an ideal setting for a strategy game, and the team does a good job of translating the characters and story from novels to cutscenes. READ MORE
Orcs Must Die! is an action tower defense game where you play as a recently slain warmage’s apprentice, charged with defending valuable castles and keeps. The apprentice both sets the towers and traps and engages in combat personally, in the midst of the fray. There are very few other games with this formula (like Lock’s Quest, Trenched and Sanctum) and there are a lot of things that can go wrong in a game like this. It’s difficult to find tower defense games that are appropriately balanced, challenging, and controlled. It seems most either have an unfriendly interface or towers that worthless and a handful that you can stick with consistently. READ MORE
Like any other year, 2011 is a big one for shooters. Intensely anticipated but not as famous as this year’s “three 3s” is Red Orchestra 2, a sequel that has been at least half a decade in the making. World War II shooters seem to have fallen out of style and AAA-budgeted, squad-based, console-port-friendly titles with marines both modern and future are still the rage right now. But for those who never wanted to go away from older weaponry, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad fills a niche that has been unsatisified for quite some time. READ MORE
I grew up in a house full of Sierra adventure games. I led Roger Wilco in his quest to defeat the Sariens, I helped the Royal Family of Daventry defeat all manner of mystical creates, and when I got a bit older, I played through thrillers like Gabriel Knight and Phantasmagoria. And as soon as I found the instruction book and the PC moved into my room, I played through Leisure Suit Larry. It was familiar but aimed at an older audience. There was a focus on adult humor instead of adventure, and it was wonderful. Hector: Badge of Carnage carries on in the tradition of Leisure Suit Larry. It’s aimed at adults, the jokes have some raunch to them, and everything feels over-the-top without hurting the overall experience. READ MORE
It’s not often that you play a platformer in which the main character hasn’t been anthropomorphized in some way. You play as a guy, or a hedgehog made to look and move like a guy, or a guy made of meat, or a guy who’s really pixelated… or a girl. That happens too. What doesn’t happen much is the path taken by iOS darling EDGE: you’re just a cube. You don’t have a face, arms, legs or any of that. While we love iOS games around here, we’re glad to see Two Tribes take on PC porting duties for Mobigame’s abstract title. READ MORE
