Casey
The Cave Review: An Enjoyable Trip Down Repressed Memory Lane
The Cave is like “Are You Afraid of the Dark” with better narration and more violence!
The Cave is a new platform, puzzle, adventure title developed by Double Fine studios and published by Sega; following some of their previous wacky titles, such as Stacking, Psychonauts, and Costume Quest. The Cave follows the obscure misadventures of seven wrongdoers who must face the skeletons in their closets whilst spelunking in a seemingly bottomless cave. However, this cave is no ordinary cave. This cave is self-aware, well educated, and has one of those deep sensual radio voices (Think Vincent Price meets Bastion’s narrator) which he uses to narrate your adventures as you delve deeper and deeper into his madcap depths.
You begin your adventure on the surface where you are given a choice of what three characters you will be taking on your expedition. You have seven choices of characters: the Monk, Adventurer, Hillbilly, Scientist, the Twins, Knight, and finally, the Time-Traveler. Each character has his or her own back-story which focuses on the evil in their hearts and their past; it is this evil that the Cave is feeding upon. The Cave uses the object of an individual’s deepest, darkest desires to attract them into its depths, but first, that individual must relive their darkest moments.
Top 3 Most Anticipated Games for 2013
Garrett: Dark Souls 2
C’mon. If you’re a regular listener of the For the Love of Gaming podcast, you knew that this was going to happen. When Dark Souls 2 was announced at the VGAs this year, I lost my damn mind. Sure, Dark Souls was a popular title and did well, but I had no idea that a sequel would be announced so soon. That being said, while the trailer was completely pre rendered it did give us an idea about the game’s setting and story. On top of that, the concept art that has been revealed shows off some truly grotesque and brutal looking adversaries. The only worrying part is that the director of both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls has been replaced. However, while the new director has expressed interest in making the game a bit less obtuse, this doesn’t bother me in the least. So long as we get another tight gameplay experience with jaw dropping boss encounters and a never ending stream of deaths I think that Dark Souls 2 could very well be my GOTY for 2013.
Intrusion 2 Review: Sidescrolling in a Winter Wonderland
Intrusion 2 is a very intense ride in a historically difficult genre.
Intrusion 2 is an action side scroller developed and published by VAP games which is the solo effort of Aleksey Abramenko. Other than the music, Aleksey spent three years developing Intrusion from the ground up; reminiscent of games like Metal Slug, Contra, and Mega Man, it contains a very enjoyable physics engine and variety of weapons which make for a very entertaining experience. Continue reading
FTL: Faster Than Light Review: A Unique and In-Depth Jump Through Space
FTL: Faster Than Light takes you to infinite and beyond. Then it hunts you down. Like Heroine.
Faster Than Light is a Rogue-like space ship RTS, developed by Subset Games; it is so unique, addicting and magnificently developed that my review may not do it justice. The Kickstarter that funded FTL had nearly 10,000 backers and received 2000% of its pledged goal. Why is this game so amazing? Prepare to be en-light-ened… Forget I said that. Continue reading
Hotline Miami Review: It’s For the Masochist
Hotline Miami Violently Throws You Back Into the 80s.
Hotline Miami is a top down action game that takes you into the gritty and surreal underworld of an alternate 1989 Miami. As a masked hit man you are contacted via answering machine and assigned to carry out missions that will ultimately result in the bloody and ultra-violent murder of dozens of armed thugs. There are goings-on behind the scenes that you are unaware of as you take your sweet calculated time carrying out these hits. While this game may take some cues from games such as Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, it has a difficulty curve that is reminiscent of Super Meat Boy; but Hotline Miami is a fresh new title that really sets itself apart and creates an environmentally appealing action title that keeps you engrossed in all its neon lit 80s glory. Here’s my take on it.
Borderlands 2 Review: Reopening Pandora’s Box of Loot
Borderlands 2 Returns You to Pandora on a Freight Train From Hell
When Gearbox and 2K released the original Borderlands in 2009 it received a very warm reception. Borderlands was a first person shooter touting an unheard of variety of weapons, a class based RPG build complete with skill trees, and an addictive cooperative, loot grinding, campaign that seemingly never ends; Borderlands catered to more audiences than you can shake a stick at but suffered from shallow skill trees and a paper-thin story. I’ve enabled myself to put down the controller and stop playing it long enough to review it. Will the successor iron out the wrinkles? Here is the lowdown on the much awaited sequel: Borderlands 2.
Dungeon Defenders : Summoner Hero Review
Dungeon Defenders: The Summoner DLC Review
Dungeon Defenders is a game near and dear to my heart. I have spent countless hours guarding seemingly “important” crystals from thousands upon thousands of enemies. Trendy Entertainment has recently released yet another new hero to aid in the tower defense against evil, The Summoner. After the mixed reception of the melee machine, The Barbarian; and the overpowered awesomeness of the actual machine, The Series EV; I waited with bated breath for the introduction of the RTS styling of the new hero class. Having spent some time leveling my Summoner, I believe it is time to pass judgment.
Resonance Review – A Point and Click Weapon of Epic Proportions
Resonance will make or break humanity
The world as we know it is on the verge of disaster following the untimely death of a particle physicist. His innovative and terrible new technology is out there and it is up to four complete strangers to come together and find this man’s vault before the power of Resonance falls in the wrong hands. This is the premise behind Wadjeteye Games’ point and click adventure Resonance. Wadjeteye are known for their Blackwell series and, being a fan of their games and the genre, I am going to put their new IP through the grinder.
