Yeah, I’m doing this early, whatever. I’ll update it if needed when july ends.

It may be the summer drought, but there’s still a few interesting releases, right?

Here we have: 1 3DS game, 1 DS game, 2 PS3 games, 1 360 game that was delayed from last month and 3 multiplatform title. Keep in mind this is just “hardcore” games and potentially good games, there’s tons more if you count the shovelware (though I DO include one or two pieces of shovelware this time, by obligation).

So check it out and see what you’ll be buying in August!
Read more…

jobocan 3DS, Console, ds, Games, Handheld, PC, ps3, Releases, wii, xbox 360

I think I’ve made it clear before: I have a very rational hatred of this generation’s flood of crappy first-person shooters that never attempt to be fun and/or original. Only a handful of FPS games this generation have managed to really get me to like them and that’s because they all tried something different. For example (the only examples really): Mirror’s Edge had great first-person platforming and overall fun parkour elements (with the gunplay being downplayed), Portal was a fun/funny puzzle game, Bulletstorm had an awesome scoring system and was fun just due to how many ways you could kill enemies/find ways to maximize your score, DNF was one of the only modern FPS to be just a bit of old-school FPS fun with tons of variety, Borderlands was essentially Diablo with guns… And those are basically the only FPS I managed to enjoy this generation.

I’m always looking for FPS that actually attempt to do something different/more with the genre, because I can see the advantages of a first-person perspective, but it’s sad that it’s almost always used to shoot people behind cover and nothing much more. Most potentially-interesting FPS are disappointments (like Singularity) and very few end up being enjoyable to me, such as the ones I mentioned above and today’s subject: Sanctum.

Read on and see what it’s about.
Read more…

jobocan Games, PC, Review

I never played the first American McGee’s Alice, beyond a demo back when it came out which left me unimpressed. The art I saw for the game was generally very nice, but the actual game didn’t really click with me.

Madness Returns, however, seemed pretty interesting in previews I’ve seen, so I decided I’d check it out as soon as it came out, though negative reviews all around made me decide to just rent it.

Since I haven’t come close to finishing the game (done with chapter 2), this is an impressions post rather than a review, though honestly I doubt the game throws any curveballs gameplay-wise, so I’m pretty sure I’ve seen everything that is to be seen here (considering the total lack of BOSSES in the game…). So read on and see what I thought (I’ll make it short).
Read more…

jobocan Console, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360

The summer in gaming is generally a bit of a drought… well, this month is surely proof of that, there’s pretty much nothing coming out.

We have 1 3DS releases, 3 multiplatform releases, 1 Xbox 360 release.

Read on and see if you’re picking anything up!

Read more…

jobocan 3DS, Console, Games, games of the month, PC, ps3, Review, wii, xbox 360

Well, the 14 year wait is over, we can finally own Duke Nukem Forever and play it. Damn that was a long wait.

Before I even go on with the review, let’s be perfectly clear on one thing: all the negative reviews are wrong (that and they all played the rushed console versions rather than the proper version (PC)), and honestly no one with a brain really expected this to be a masterpiece, since it had the rockiest game development ever. And no, it wasn’t in development for 12 years, it was in development for 4 years at the very most. The game that started development back in 1997 is NOT the same game we’re playing now… obviously. The game was re-started multiple times during the development, so while the DNF project itself is 14 years old, the game hasn’t been in development for each of those 12 years (heck, looking at the screenshots in the extras you unlock after finishing the game, it’s completely different now from what it was back in 2007, and that’s not just graphic-wise). Just thought I’d point that out.

Oh and while I’m at it, the loading times are NOT long, if you’re playing the proper version of the game (AKA the PC version). Most of the problems reviewers talk about, as far as I can tell, come from them not playing the PC version, but rather playing the badly-ported/rushed console ports.

So read on and see if the wait was worth it!
Read more…

jobocan Games

Talk about a stealth release. It came completely out of nowhere on the XBLA, with no announcement or anything by Atari for a release date, and then it came out on Steam out of nowhere. WTF?

Anyways, this is a sequel to the best selling Atari-made game on the Atari 2600, Yars’ Revenge (notice the different placement of the apostrophe in the title). Or at least some sort of revival. Yars’ Revenge is probably my favorite Atari 2600 game, one that I replay frequently, so that alone made this a sure-buy for me. The shift in gameplay styles wasn’t much of a problem to me, since I doubt keeping the original gameplay would have been a great idea here.

Read on and see if it lives up to its predecessor!
Read more…

jobocan Console, Games, PC, Review, XBLA, xbox 360

Wow, we’re really slow on posts, aren’t we? Well, hopefully we’ll speed back up soon, but for now, let’s look at the games coming out in April 2011. There’s basically not much coming out in the month, so let’s do this fast.

There’s 3 multi-platform games, 2 PS3 games, 1 Wii game and 2 PSP games.
There might be a DS release (that duke nukem game that shows up on every release list for every month but never ends up coming…. and wasn’t it renamed? Whatever), but I’m not holding off for it, so I might as well not list it. Surprisingly, there’s not a single game coming on the 3DS in April… not even shovelware (well some sites have 2 shovelware games in april, but others have the same games in May, so it’s impossible to know/care). Strange.

Read on and see what’s coming!
Read more…

jobocan Console, Games, games of the month, Handheld, PC, ps3, psp, Releases, wii, xbox 360

Well, this was the one FPS this year that I was really excited for (other than DNF). The demo impressed me with its fast-paced gameplay and imaginative ways to kill enemies, and the interesting weapons. I had finally found what might be the first really good FPS of the generation (I WOULD give that honor to Borderlands, but I consider Borderlands more of a Diablo-style RPG rather than an FPS).

So now that the full game is out, I got the PC version (thinking that I’d play it better than the PS3 demo) and played through it all. Read on and see if it really is the first good FPS of the generation!

(PS: sadly, I can’t comment on the dialogue in the game… the game automatically set itself to the language of my computer, and, as such, I was stuck listening to crappy french dialogue for the whole game. The best I could do is put the in-game text into english, but not the voices and subtitles… if anyone knows how to fix that I’d greatly appreciate it)

Read more…

jobocan Console, Games, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360

Ah, March. It’s frequently a pretty big month for game releases. This year it’s no exception, but not really because of the actual games coming out. This March sees the release of the next-generation of handheld consoles (note: next-generation will instantly become “current-generation” as soon as the 3DS comes out).

So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.

Read on! Read more…

jobocan 3DS, 3DS, Console, ds, Games, games of the month, Handheld, PC, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360

If there’s one thing you’ll hear gamers complain about a lot, especially more retro-style gamers such as myself, is that the gaming industry in the last 5-6 years has been drowned by First-Person Shooters, and none of them are particularly good other than the online component (if that interests you at all). The only exception, to me at least, has been Borderlands, which is more like a “What if Diablo was an FPS?” kinda thing. And there’s Bioshock, but to me it was good more because of the awesome visuals than the actual gameplay.

Bulletstorm comes in as a game that, while it mimics the crappy grey-brown look of modern games, seems like it might be a lot more fun. But, as I always do, I was incredibly skeptical about this, since every FPS I sort of got excited for ended up being total shit, like Singularity. And, the title… Bulletstorm? Yeah, lots of thought went into THAT one (that was sarcasm, by the way). So I didn’t hype myself up too much, but I still kept a close eye on it.

So I played the Bulletstorm demo yesterday… Read on and see if it might be that one good FPS this generation!
Read more…

jobocan Console, demo, Games, impressions, PC, ps3, xbox 360