All posts in Preview

Preview: Battlefield Academy

Battlefield Academy has quite the peculiar background. Its first iteration was a flash-based tie-in created specifically for the BBC TV series Battlefield Britain. The free-to-play adventure attracted a healthy drove of gamers because of its slick interface and surprising substance hidden behind the surface. It came as no surprise then that Slitherine, a small developer who specialises in niche strategy games, would swoop in to shape this fledgling browser game into something with more oomph.
Continue Reading →

Hands-On Preview: Frobot “Multiplaya” (PAX East)

We all know the Wii’s motion controls encourage us to shake it. Fugazo’s Andrew Lum (whom you may know as the “Nintendo Fanboy” kicked that notion up a notch and created a video game that’s based entirely on a robot with an affinity for getting funky. Frobot, starring a glammed-up, Afro-sporting, smooooooth mutha-robot who’s on a mission to reclaim his five (yes, five — he gets more action than you) ladybots from the clutches of certain evil, is just as zany as it sounds. Frobot’s crisp white leisure suit metal body, his foxy red shades, and his smarmy disco-bot attitude are certainly unique. I’m not sure I can say I’ve ever seen a character quite like him. Fro-bot-miiiiite!

Continue Reading →

Hands-On Preview: Shank (PAX East)

If there’s anything I love to see combined, it’s flashy animation and gratuitous violence. Happy Tree Friends makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. There’s nothing quite like the juxtaposition of kid-friendly caricatures rife with color and oozing style, wacky personalities, and copious amounts of blood. Entrails do an animated character good. The upcoming 2D side-scrolling Xbox Live Arcade/PSN/PC title Shank, brought to us by the good fellows at Klei Entertainment, delivers all of this and more in full force. If Quentin Tarantino, Penny Arcade, and slasher film junkies had a meeting of the minds, they’d likely submit this game for our gaming pleasure. Forget the delicate worlds of Braid or P.B. Winterbottom. Shank is hardcore. And if you don’t believe it, he’s got a Head-On chainsaw — to be applied directly to your forehead.
Continue Reading →

Hands-On Preview: Mafia II (PAX East)

In the wake of Grand Theft Auto and the inherently similar titles we all like to compare to Rockstar’s powerhouse, we tend to forget that many of those titles that are cut from the same cloth are veritable great choices to turn to if you’re not feeling the Tommy Vercetti or Niko Bellic vibe. It’s the God of War phenomena. Sure, Dante’s Inferno was largely inferior, but it could stand on its own as a decent alternative. I’d liken Mafia, released on the PC back in 2002 via Gathering of Developers, to the Bayonetta position in the great God of War/Devil May Cry-styled game wars.  While it shares the same elements that its “parent” games possess, it makes a name for itself through its finesse and campaign that’s an absolute blast to play.
Continue Reading →

Preview: Battlefield Heroes

With all of the fervently-paced, action-packed FPSs available for various types of gamers, when a brand new one is released it really needs to stand out above the rest. Something needs to give it that extra oomph so that it will move units, draw more players in, and rise above the rest of what’s out there.
Continue Reading →