Pokemon: Shades of Gray Version (An Exercise In Critical Thinking)

Pokémon. Many a video gamer has grown up on the series, whether the first Red and Blue games on the Game Boy back when Nintendo was king, or the contemporary fourth and fifth generation on the DS. And with the series still going, people will perhaps continue to do so into the future. Still, the classic Pokémon has a special place in our hearts.

Maybe that’s why we don’t think about the world of Pokémon that hard. It has a light-hearted atmosphere, an innocent charm that deflects concentrated attention from the fine details and encourages us to simply have fun playing through the games.

Let’s push aside the nostalgia and give it some scrutiny, shall we?

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Review – Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000 has had a good run of things in the video game arena thus far. The famed Dawn of War RTS series has (with the unfortunate exception of Soulstorm) been expertly made and managed to bring Warhammer 40k into the mainstream. However, with the recent release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Relic Entertainment has tried to bring the player down from their position as commander right into the shoes of the titular superhuman defenders of the Imperium. How did Relic handle the transition to third-person shooter with hack-n-slash action, and more importantly does it live up to the quality of its forbearers?

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Review – Bastion

Bastion. A strong supporter. A fortified place. A location of safety. The title of an excellent debut game by Supergiant Games, a recently founded independent developer. Similar to other recent indie developers like Mojang of Minecraft fame, Supergiant Games has put its best foot forward as it steps boldly out into the world with a superb solid action role-playing, single-player hack-n-slash game. But unlike some other indie games hitting the market, the brilliance lies not in the gameplay, but in the storytelling.
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