Author: james

Oh yeah, those lovable eyeliner-wearing, grog-swilling, parrot-accessorising scoundrels have come to Sims Land, in this new expansion – er, adventure pack – for The Sims Medieval. Remember The Sims Medieval? It was the breakaway title from EA that took out most of the spontaneous sandbox play from The Sims 3, but then added quests, and put a crown…

What a difference five years makes. Back in ‘07 I was pondering the fate of a favourite genre; now I can’t believe how decisively Adventure Gaming has come back onto the scene. From Dreamfall to Phoenix Wright, and more recently Heavy Rain and Gemini Rue, gamers are gobbling up titles that focus on story and…

Another day, another adventure game. The renaissance of the point & click is in full effect and, I couldn’t be happier. Today’s title, developed by XII Games, can be downloaded for just a few bucks; to find out if you, too, should jump in, read on… Resonance is set in a plausible, high-tech near-future, in…

What do you get when you take the tried-and-true formula for and flip it on its head? The answer is (apparently) Anomaly: Warzone Earth, an indie title from 11 Bit Studios, where the player controls invading forces battling through tons of defensive guns. First, let’s elaborate on this “Tower Defence in reverse” concept. You control…

Built with the same engine as 2008’s Spore, Darkspore is an action role playing game (RPG) in the same vein as Diablo and its ilk. There are a few things that set it apart: Darkspore has a sci-fi setting instead of fantasy, and also has the player using multiple heroes instead of just one, which…

It just wouldn’t be The Sims without yet more ways for you to make a fool of yourself in public. Fortunately the latest expansion pack for The Sims 3, called Late Night, brings skinny dipping, table dancing, bad cover bands, puking in public, and yes, vampires, to the mix. Late Night is absolutely crammed with…

Although its title places it almost 60 years in the future, Anno 2070 is very much a game for our present historical moment. It takes place in a world ravaged by climate change. Rising sea levels have altogether drowned many low-lying countries, completely changing the face of global politics. The central conflict is between the…

It’s always hard constructing a detective story. They are hard enough to write – let alone to play. There’s just something about cramming that much intrigue and mystery into one discreet package that most authors, creators, and game designers find a little challenging. Not that they haven’t given it a go of course. Detective noir…

CrimeCraft is a gritty multiplayer shooter from Vogster Entertainment, although they like to call it a “Persistent World Next-gen Shooter” (PWNS, get it?). Essentially it’s an MMO shooter with some decent role-playing elements included. When it was first released back in 2009 it didn’t receive the best reception from critics, but developed a pretty large…

Codename: Panzers Cold War is not a benchmark real-time strategy game. With the massive amounts of RTS titles that have recently been released for the PC it seems like it will have a hard time reaching gaming audiences due to a somewhat overbearing obscurity. It also does not help that the game has not been…

Independent games always surprise me – not because they are always amazing, but because they always come up with something new. And that’s heartening, even if it’s just a new take on an old format. The Book of Unwritten Tales, by German Developer King Art, is based on a style that’s as old as they…

Cogs is a classy little game. It’s an indie steampunk puzzle game, that gives the same sort of pleasure as a well-oiled piece of machinery. From the opening splash screen, with its sounds of whirring brass cogs as the main menu rolls into view, to the mind-bendingly difficult puzzles themselves, Cogs is a real winner.…

It’s been a while now since we’ve had a good old-fashioned city building release, so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to play and review CitiesXL, from Monte Cristo, the French simulation games company. While CitiesXL will be familiar to gamers who have played any of the Sim City incarnations, it still comes…

Waaay back in 2010, Conrad took a at Runaway: A Twist of Fate, a.k.a. the third instalment of Pendulo Studios’ Runaway series. I’m sure most of you know it: the adventure game trilogy about Brian Bosco, the nerdy physicist who accidentally saves a beautiful gal from some nasty mafia types, and the related hijinks that ensue?…

Launching an MMO in 2009 is easy enough. Getting people interested in it is challenging. Keeping those people you convinced to try it after their first month is up? That’s something few recent MMOs have had anything more than moderate success with. There’s a giant elephant in the room, and it seems appropriate to call…

Just when we thought it was all over, along comes another expansion pack for The Sims 2! The latest (and last) expansion is called Apartment Life, and includes some awesome new features that really add a great deal to the game – but is this release coming to us too late? Apartments and communal living…

Here’s the deal: this is Resident Evil 5. There’s not much new here. But if you have a decent PC and have a desire to check this one out, you can rest easy in the knowledge that it’s a pretty decent conversion. Not familiar with Resident Evil 5 at all? That’s okay – we have…

If you had told me a week ago that I’d be completely and utterly addicted to a game where the player does little more than push chemical elements around from one place to another, I really, really, really wouldn’t have believed you. Alright, so SpaceChem, from Zachtronics Industries, is a bit more intricate than that…