Review – Orcs Must Die

Orcs Must Die is an indie title made by Robot Entertainment which is a recently founded company and a newcomer to the genre, leaving them with a clean slate. Regardless of their lack of pedigree however, there are expectations to live up to, particularly if you take into account the advertisements for the game. This game was advertised as a mixture of a Tower Defense game and an over-the-shoulder Diablo. The impressions from the ad campaign were that it was a brainless, silly game. The important question is, is Orcs Must Die worth the $15? And, is it any better than Sanctum, which came out first for a mere $10?

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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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Time To Offer Saving To The Cloud

It was bound to happen someday, but when I got on the plane headed for home and realized I had left my flash drive on the hotel bed, my stomach sank and I began recounting all the countless hours put into Borderlands, Fallout, Final Fantasy XIII, Alan Wake, Mass Effect, and the other 300+ games I’d played since the Xbox 360 launch. So now what?

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Heeeeerrrrrreeee’s Jill!

Patience apparently isn’t a virtue to teh interwebs. The promised release date of  MvC 3‘s first batch of DLC characters apparently wasn’t soon enough for some, despite it being less of a month away. A group of talented, if not misguided, game-hackers have unlocked the incomplete on-disk code for Jill Valentine. The footage above shows what I can assume is at least a decent array of her combos and move list. However, much like the rest of the game, the “Jill-so-far” lacks the wackiness of her MvC2 counterpart.

Again, I think this is the one of the biggest downfalls of the game. Where the fuck is my horde of zombies? Or the dogs? OR THE CROWS? THE FUCKING CROWS! Sigh, I guess I’ll still hold out on the thought that they can’t screw up Shuma Gorath.

Extreme Home Makeover: Xbox LIVE Edition

Xbox LIVE gets a makeover this month! Kinect formally debuts November 10th, and to celebrate Microsoft has launched a massive update for the entire network.

New additions focus less on gaming, and more on turning the 360 into an all-purpose entertainment machine. A revamped Sky Player contains over 30 movie, sports, and cartoon channels, a fan-based community, and the opportunity to create a customized planner. Music service Zune and internet radio Last.fm bring tunes to your TV and your Windows Phone. Facebook and Twitter make it easier for players to connect, and the new Xbox LIVE Gold Family Pack offers up to four Gold Xbox LIVE memberships at a discounted price. Mommy, Daddy, Junior and Lil’ Sis can use the Pack to access the Family Center, where they’ll keep tabs on each other and trade Microsoft Points.

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Tom Cruise to Invade Xbox and PS3 in Days of Thunder: Arcade

A long time ago, in the kingdom of late 80s/early 90s, Tom Cruise was a plucky rookie whose raw talent and out-of-the-box thinking often led him to victory over rivals and into panties. Young Tom flew fighter jets, banged hookers while interviewing for Princeton, defeated eight feet of half-naked man-devil and exposed a military conspiracy involving Jack Nicholson. Somewhere in the middle of all this, he also won the Daytona 500.

It’s Tom’s NASCAR stint that developers Piranha and Paramount Digital Entertainment are revisiting with their new racing game Days of Thunder: Arcade. Honoring the 20th anniversary of Jerry Bruckheimer’s classic Days of Thunder film, the Xbox LIVE and PSN download — available this winter — pits players against Cole Trickle, Russ Wheeler and other drivers in bouts of good old fashioned stock car racing. Each character’s driving style reflects his personality from the movie and one of them, Rowdy Burns, is voiced by his original actor, Michael Rooker. Possibly a dubious honor, considering this makes it even more obvious Rooker’s wa-haaay less busy than Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid and John C. Reilly.

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Raptr iPhone App Lets You Cyber-Stalk Your Friends Across PS3, Xbox 360 and PC

Recently, Raptr, a free social networking site and computer program aimed at gamers, announced a completely free iPhone App that aims to bring you everything its website counterpart provides, but in a much more convenient form. Gamers can use the app to track what games their friends are playing on PC (Steam, social games), Xbox LIVE, and PlayStation Network, as well as manage their buddy lists and send/receive messages to friends on 360 and Raptr in one unified box. Players can also publish gameplay and achievement info to their Raptr profile, and to make things easier, it automatically imports friend lists from existing Xbox LIVE, PSN, and Steam accounts. Of course, there is a handy section connected to Raptr’s blog that keeps you up-to-date with all the gaming goings-on, and a feature that can be used to access the iPhone’s address book to harass your friends and invite them join Raptr.

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