Cognition An Erica Reed Thriller Episode 3 : The Oracle Review
Erica Reed is back for the third episode of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, The Oracle. By now, you should probably understand why type of game Cognition is. If you want a more in depth review of the mechanics and game play of Cognition, check out my review on Episode 1: The Wise Monkey, or my review on Episode 2: The Hangman.
After The Hangman, we were left with Erica starting to piece together the bigger picture that was being created. Everything from Erica’s brothers death, to her friends being targeted, none of it was a coincidence. Somebody is after Erica, and this someone has a bigger plan that Erica never thought was possible.
The Oracle is easily the most story focused episode so far of the Cognition saga. From the first couple scenes of the episode, you learn some new things about characters that turn the story upside down. You learn that another character Erica has been talking with, has Cognition powers similar to those of her own. This revelation becomes the main focus for Erica, since she can now view important memories right before her eyes, instead of sometimes getting little pieces of a much bigger puzzle.
Omerta: City of Gangsters Review
Omerta: City of Gangsters gets the presentation spot on, but falls short in every other area.
Omerta: City of Gangsters has you attempting to achieve one goal: become the biggest crime lord in America. It’s an idea for a game that would seem to be easy to execute. By making tons of dirty money and shooting your way to the top, it should be quite a ride getting to the top, but sadly that is not the case with Omerta.
The game play is split into two parts. A majority of the game play is an isometric strategy title. Players will recruit different gangsters to join your squad, and send them to different buildings to complete tasks and take over the city one building at a time. The second part plays out like a turn based strategy title. Each mobster has their own unique set of skills, such as being able to shoot two guns at once or being able to heal their wounds for a single turn.
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.
Cognition An Erica Reed Thriller: Episode 1 The Hangman Review
Episode 1 of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller offers a compelling story, but is a little rough around the edges.
Detective style games like CSI have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I have always been fascinated by mystery novels and games, and have continued to play games of the genre since the 90’s. Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is a new title in the genre from Phoenix Online Studios, and is the first part of a four part episodic adventure.
Cognition put the player in control of Erica Reed. A detective with a haunting pass which continues to drive her every day as a detective. Players get a brief look in the tutorial to Erica’s past, and learn that she lost her brother to a murderer who was never caught, and discover Erica has somehow developed post cognition powers. Erica has a gift that allows her to touch an object, and learn of its historic past. These powers end up playing a huge role for Erica. Cases that might have been impossible to solve, suddenly become clear due to her powers.
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
007 Legends Skyfall DLC Review : Simply Horrendous
The Skyfall pack for 007 Legends is just as horrific as the rest of 007 Legends.
Not too long ago 007 Legends was released. Needless to say, it is probably one of the worst games of this generation. Check out our 007 Legends review here to see why.
Now that Skyfall has been released in theaters, I patiently waited to see if the Skyfall DLC would somehow redeem 007 Legends. Skyfall is a fantastic movie, and part of me hoped that a lot of the development went into the Skyfall missions. Sadly, this DLC pack is just a horrendous as the rest of 007 Legends.
If you have not seen Skyfall yet, I warn readers that there will be some spoilers in this review.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review : More of the Same
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 offers very little in terms of innovation, but Veteran players will feel right at home.
It’s another year, and that means it’s time for yet another Call of Duty title. 2012 is Treyarch’s turn with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Treyarch hopes to bring some fresh content like new Strikeforce missions to the Call of Duty mix, and at the same time offer Call of Duty veterans an experience they know and love.
Black Ops 1 was such an amazing game. There was just something about it that felt right. The campaign was very focused and didn’t consist of character jumping every other mission, and had a story that was really intriguing. The multiplayer felt incredibly balanced, and the map design was the best the series had ever seen. Black Ops 2 had quite a big name to live up to.
The Campaign in Black Ops 2 is very average.
Players take control of a few different characters, some that are new and some that are familiar. The main character is David Mason, son of Alex Mason from Black Ops 1. David is in pursuit of Raul Menendez, and believes that Frank Woods, Alex Mason’s partner and friend, can lead him in the right direction. From there Woods tells a story through a series of flash backs detailing events that took place when David was just a child.
Halo 4 Review: Master Chief’s New Legacy
Halo 4 is a reminder of how Master Chief changed gaming forever.
There was a time when Halo was the king of gaming. When it came to online multiplayer, that is what console gamers played. Halo started a revolution among console gamers, and without Master Chief who knows where Xbox Live and console online gaming would be. Halo 4 is indeed a Halo title, but there is something about it that makes it feel like something special. Maybe it’s the fact we haven’t seen Master Chief since 2007, or it could be that the new ideas from 343 make Halo 4 feel fresh, but I would bet that it’s the simple fact that Halo isn’t complete without its main character and the simplicity of it’s multiplayer.
A lot has changed since Halo’s inception, and the basic story of stopping the world from being destroyed with the help of a blue female AI named Cortana isn’t sufficient. Halo 4 needed to breathe new life into the series, and 343 managed to do just that. Halo 4 feels like a new beginning for not only the franchise, but for Master Chief as well.
