Gamezebo
Open main menu
Search

Long-time PC gamer and shorter-time freelance writer, with work at Gamezebo, The Escapist, PC Gamer, Joystiq and parts unknown. Owner of many cats, drinker of fine beers, eater of too much. A steadfast javelin in a flaccid world.
  • Hands-on with Adventure Park
    News
    • PC
    Hands-on with Adventure Park

    By

    Roller coasters and cost management analysis may not exactly go together like cookies and cream, but Adventure Park promises to blend these disparate disciplines into a sprawling, detailed theme park simulator that lets you control everything from the cost of admission to the G-forces generated by your rides - all in the name of generating excitement for your customers and a profit for yourself.I was advised to play through (and actually pay attention to) the tutorial before leaping into the action in Adventure Park, and it's fortunate that I did, because the game actually has quite a bit going on, and failure to pay attention to the details can be costly. I began the first of five different scenarios with an under-developed island, purchased on the cheap from a park operator looking to get out of the business. The bare-bones basics of the park - an entrance gate, a broken-down ride, and some paths - were already in place, but I was never going to get rich with those. Thus, step one: hire some people to clean it up and get things working."Hiring employees offers the first hint that you'll be doing more in this game than just placing rides and rolling in the dough. Gardeners and cleaners are straightforward enough, but there are five levels of technicians, and more complex equipment requires more highly-trained repairmen. Each worker can be placed in a specific location, and then relocated if it becomes necessary; they also have specific work areas that you can expand or shrink as you see fit.
  • Knock-Knock Preview
    Upcoming
    • iOS
    • PC
    Knock-Knock Preview

    By

    I'm going to try to describe Knock-Knock and you're going to have to bear with me while I do it, because it's not the sort of thing that's easily described. Saying it's a side-scroller with exaggerated, cartoon graphics starring a haggard-looking young man with sunken eyes and wild red hair is simple enough, but the world in which he lives and his role in it is something else entirely.Bear with me.The young lad in question lives in a house located deep in a dark, lonely forest. It's an odd place, seemingly empty and in a poor state of repair; and worse, it's surrounded by twisted, deformed supernatural beings of various sorts who are trying to get in. He needs to keep them out - but some of them are already inside. To banish them, he must go from room to room, turning on the lights and replacing burned-out bulbs as necessary - which is quite often. And once the light is on, he can close his eyes and "imagine" furniture into existence. And other things, too; some of it he can hide behind, while others have their own, different purposes."It's a game of hide-and-seek, really, with a simple goal: make it to dawn without being caught. Time passes as you putter around the house, and every now and then you'll run across a strange, oddly familiar clock which you can use to advance the minutes and hours at a rapid pace. Hiding, however, has the opposite effect. Time runs backwards when you're crouched behind a couch or a boiler, hands pressed over your eyes, so you can't stay there forever.
  • The Raven: Episode 3 – A Murder of Ravens Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    The Raven: Episode 3 – A Murder of Ravens Review

    By

    The final episode of The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief has arrived, and all the secrets of the greatest thief Europe has ever seen are finally laid bare! The third chapter in this international adventure doesn't finish quite as strongly as the first part began, but the payoff is definitely worth the effort.The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief isn't your conventional video game. Set in 1964, it's an Agatha Christie-style romp across Europe and into Egypt, starring a paunchy Swiss police constable searching for relevance in his declining years, a gentleman master thief who's taken a mysterious turn to vicious violence, his young, idealistic protégé, and a colorful supporting cast including an obsessed French police inspector, a German doctor with a dark secret, an Italian ship's captain left broken by two wars, and many others. It's interspersed with puzzles, as adventures generally are, but there's no question that in The Raven, the story's the thing."(Oh - There are spoilers within. Consider yourself warned!)
  • Combat Monsters Preview
    Upcoming
    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    Combat Monsters Preview

    By

    I've been playing a game called Combat Monsters recently, and although it's still in beta, I have to say that I'm very impressed. Rubicon Development, the studio behind the game, describes it as a combination of "a traditional RPG battler with a deck constructing game," and while I'm not entirely sure what that means, the most obvious influence is Magic: The Gathering."I've been an avid player of [Magic: The Gathering] all my life, but it's always annoyed me in a way that the online game is still just a card game, but online," Rubicon co-founder and managing director Paul Johnson said. "I wanted to make something in a similar mold, with similar mechanics, but have a proper tactical element to it; and a game board to move your pieces around on.""Thus, Combat Monsters. The game takes place on a virtual game board that changes in shape and size between matches, rendered in 3D, on which you'll place and equip monsters, cast spells, play magical runes, and more. But rather than simply controlling the action from on high, you're represented on the board as a playable character, as is your enemy. Victory is earned by slaying your enemy's avatar; defeat comes if he does the same to you.
  • Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review

    By

    The fourth and final episode of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is finally here! Does the last piece of the puzzle deliver a chillingly satisfying conclusion and live up to the potential that's been growing over the previous three chapters? Well, no, not really - but there's enough to it that it's worth talking about anyway. Read on!If you've been following along, you already know all you need to know about the graphics, sound, voice acting, and mechanics of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. (And if you haven't, episode four is definitely not the place to jump in - go back to part one and start from there.) In that regard, The Cain Killer is more of the same, with the addition of a new mechanic: your conversational choices now have an impact on how much other characters like and trust you, and therefore how they react to you - and how the game ultimately plays out. Say the right thing and the ghostly face of your conversational partner in the lower-right corner of the screen will slowly fill up with light; say the wrong thing and it will drain out."It's an interesting idea, and obviously it's smart to be on good terms with everyone, but in a practical sense it really doesn't add anything to the experience. Conversational options are almost always binary - "I agree with you/I disagree you with" kind of thing - and there's never any doubt about which one will score the brownie points, nor pressure (or any reason at all) to opt for the negative choice. By the time the game was over I was effectively BFFs with virtually everyone in the game, including a lunatic serial killer and my boss at the FBI.
  • Zombie Farm Battles Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Zombie Farm Battles Review

    By

    Zombie Farm Battles is an interesting twist on the collectible card battle game genre, not because it manages to make it interesting in some meaningful way - it doesn't - but because of the very simplified, stripped-down approach it takes. It's "Baby's First Collectible Card Game," a CCG for people who can't be bothered to figure out CCGs.
  • Star Wars Force Collection Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    Star Wars Force Collection Review

    By

    Star Wars Force Collection is yet another addition to the crowded and bafflingly popular collectible card battle game genre that's entirely unremarkable save for one thing: it serves up a very impressive multimedia overload of all things Star Wars. If you've been looking for a CCG that really caters to your jones for a galaxy far, far away, then now, my friend, is the time to jump in.
  • The Raven: Episode 2 – Ancestry of Lies Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    The Raven: Episode 2 – Ancestry of Lies Review

    By

    The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief: Episode 2 - Ancestry of Lies has arrived - and The Raven is unmasked! This is a big chapter, folks, with lots of secrets revealed and some surprising twists and turns, but it's also something of a letdown compared to the first part, as it lacks a little bit of the quirky charm and a lot of the characters that made the opening act so much fun.