Battlefield 3 Goes Back To Karkand Tomorrow on PS3

Dice is not playing around with its first DLC for its big hit Battlefield 3. The promised free expansion that was given to consumers who bought the Special Edition of the game is more than just a map pack. It will give fans of the game 4 new maps, three new vehicles, ten new weapons, five new dog tags, five new achievements/trophies, and lastly a whole new game mode. The game mode while not exactly new, is the return of Conquest Assault which for those not familiar is a hectic version of Conquest. Conquest Assault starts with one team fully in control of every spot immediately putting one team on offensive and the other tasked to defend their territory.

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Review – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I sat inside of an inn, basking in the warmth of the fireplace as I read over a few books that I had collected along my journey. The quaint establishment was full of chatter that ranged from talk of a thieves guild I had helped re-establish to a bard playing his lute while singing a song I had heard many times. Patrons interacted with each other independently of my influence, and even gathered around the singing bard, waving their cups in the air along with the song. It was a small moment, one of many, but one I couldn’t help but to seep myself into as I sat on my own couch in the real world eating a meal that would keep me going for a few more hours. I had barely delved into the main quest to rescue the world from the threat of the dragons that looked to end the world, but I had cleared my way through many dungeons and conquered what they had laid out before me. Uncovering many stories within that I might otherwise had missed. It was this sense of discovery in a world that never ceased to give me things to do that inspired me to impart so much of my free time into a game that rarely failed to immerse me in a way I had never been before in this medium of entertainment.

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Review – From Dust

Xbox live and PSN have proved to be a great place to delve into a different world within gaming. As mainstream titles looks to assault our senses with over the top action, large explosions, and worlds so large that traveling from one corner to the other could take hours. Mainstream games are in essence trying to consistently become bigger and badder than what has come before. The digital market however, has aimed to remind us of a simpler time in gaming. Many of the games on the digital market have innovated upon older gaming conventions and added a sense of artistic flair that continues to prove that gaming can be an art form. From the platformer puzzle games that entered into dark surrealism such as Braid and Limbo, to an action RPG title that introduced us to an ever evolving painted world in Bastion, and to now a beautiful serene landscape that gives us a Populous for our consoles with From Dust.

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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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Review – Deus Ex:Human Revolution

In August of 2011 Eidos Montreal released Deus Ex: Human Revolution and sadly we are just getting around to reviewing a game that helped us get over the sluggish period in gaming that came shortly before the onset of the chaotic holiday season. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the third game in a series that hasn’t seen a new release since Invisible War in 2003. Invisible War received good reviews during its time, but fans saw it as a dumbed down version of a game they loved. The original Deus Ex was a cult classic on the PC and later found release on the PS2. It has constantly been labeled as one of the best PC games of all time and won multiple game of the year awards in 2000. Its revolutionary approach to mature story-telling, player choice, and multiple narrative paths helped win it a dedicated following.

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Review – Dark Souls

In 2009, FromSoftware gave us Demon’s Souls, a notoriously difficult action-RPG that earned a massive cult following. For its fans, Demon’s Souls’ mix of punishing gameplay and bizarre multiplayer marked it as one of the most interesting titles ever made. Now, FromSoftware brings us that game’s spiritual successor, Dark Souls.

Aside from a new open-world structure and story, Dark Souls looks and feels almost identical to its forebearer.

Just like it’s father, Dark Souls is the Tim & Eric Awesome Show of video games.

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Six Games That May Be Overlooked This Holiday Season (Yet Deserve Your Attention)

We are creeping up on November and have already seen the release of the first wave of big games released this holiday season with Rage, Dark Souls, and Batman Arkham City. As all gamers have been aware, the end of 2011 is going to be big. Really big. I have trouble remembering a year that had so many AAA titles being released all around the same time; it is going to be hell on our wallets. There are some other games creeping out during this time that deserve some attention, and attention I shall give them. Games that are going to be innocent bystanders in the FPS turf war between Call of Duty and Battlefield. Titles that may find themselves lost within the wilderness of Elder Scroll’s Tamriel and Zelda’s Hyrule. It’s interesting to me that there are so many smaller games that publishers are pushing out during a time when they are going to have to stand up against Batman’s rogues gallery and the witty action packed life of Nathan Drake. I feel that many of these titles would perform well on their own merit, but I fear that they will be overlooked standing aside these giants. It’s time to shed some light on these titles, and give them a small dose of the attention that they deserve.

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