Batman: Arkham City was among my favorite games of 2011. Everything that worked in Batman: Arkham Asylum was added to, and that’s all I really wanted. The combat is more satisfying, the explorable sandbox is larger, the challenge rooms are more varied, and there are more villains and mooks for Batman to punch in the throat. Anybody else considering developing a superhero game needs to play both of Rocksteady’s Batman titles, take notes, and hope to deliver as good a product. READ MORE
Virtua Fighter 5 has lived a long, fruitful life through this generation. First making its appearance on the PS3 early on in its life, it was later ported to the Xbox 360 with added online play. For years, the game would stay quiet up until the Final Showdown update for the arcades in 2010. With the addition of new characters and rebalancing the game over the last console release, it would finally reach consoles in 2012 as a downloadable title. This would mark the first “new” Virtua Fighter game that would not be released through physical distribution. READ MORE
Capcom is attempting something entirely different with Dragon’s Dogma. Similar in some respects to their popular Monster Hunter franchise, this fantasy RPG seems to be Capcom’s take on popular western RPGs such as the Elder Scrolls series. It features an expansive, open world and an interesting take on RPG combat. This is one of the strangest games I have ever played, leading me to wonder if I can actually call this a huge success or a complete failure. Maybe it’s a bit of both. READ MORE
A while ago Sega announced a game that would capture the look and feel of the classic 16-bit Sonic games on the Sega Genesis. This game would remind us of some of our favorite gaming memories of our childhoods while creating new ones just as fun as the old. And they made a game like this. Sega put out a wonderful game that was nostalgic, but still a great game on its own merits. This game was Sonic Generations. But before that, they released this thing called Sonic the Hedgehog 4. READ MORE
Before we dig into the whys and occasional bright spots, I am going to come right out and say it. You should not play Game of Thrones. It isn’t fun, it isn’t pretty, it isn’t well-acted, and in all other regards it feels like a bargain title from the previous console generation. What fun there is to be had is cribbed from better games that now retail for a lower price. READ MORE
