The Golden Age of adventure games is long past, but those of us who love them keep searching for games made in that old-school style. Ironcode Gaming's Pahelika: Revelations is one such game, which in an era dominated by social, casual and "lite adventure," is both good and bad. On one hand, it offers a deeper story and more challenging puzzles than those other genres; on the other, its high skill expectation takes it beyond the reach of many of today's new gamers.
When I first read the name Vampires vs. Zombies I immediately thought that there finally would be a sequel to Popcap's famous Plants vs. Zombies. To my surprise this new release by Alawar turned out to be a very different take on the Farm Frenzy formula, basically a humorous mash up of True Blood and Dawn of the Dead. I have to admit that I grew tired of the Farm Frenzy series a couple of years ago, but to my relief this game's approach feels really fresh and exciting.
Our story begins in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Everyone is enjoying themselves when the magician, Visage, unleashes a mysterious fog on the city; a fog that removes the face of anyone it comes in contact with. It is up to you to uncover Visage's secret and stop him before it is too late in Shattered Minds: Masquerade. During your investigations you will uncover other secrets that have been buried. You will learn of the Boudreaux family, who all supposedly died when their mansion burned down years ago. Are they really dead? And what is Visage's connection to the family?
Haunted Manor: Queen of Death looks like your average hidden object game, set in a creepy, decrepit mansion and for the most part it is. However, the main storyline is a lengthy one, and the game's world is quite involved and large, making it stand out from the crowd.
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a heck of a game. For newcomers it's a revelation, for old-timers, a reminder: this is how it used to be, back when men were men and shooters didn't have cover or weapon limits or storylines that people pretended to care about. Instead they had guns, and lots of things to point them at. That, in a nutshell, is Serious Sam 3. It's fast-paced, wantonly violent and viciously disdainful of the modern era of FPSes. And it is awesome.
You don't see too many point-and-click adventures that get the full-on, triple-A treatment these days, but The Book of Unwritten Tales is most definitely one of them. It's an absolutely gorgeous game, filled with oddball characters, laugh-out-loud funny moments and enough old-time adventuring to keep you busy for days. If your heart longs for the glory days of Monkey Island and King's Quest, you need to play this game.
Reviewing any Delicious title is not easy, since there is only a limited number of praising adjectives and phrases - and in the end a review should not be mere advertisement, should it? Regardless, Delicious: Emily's True Love is no exception to the high quality we're used to in this series. In this newest release, the player not only sees Emily's own restaurant in Snuggford for the first time, but will also try to help her find her true love.
There was a time, oh so long ago, where the almighty score reigned supreme in video games. Getting your name to the top of the leaderboard was the only thing that mattered and you would stop at nothing to earn your place among the greats. It seems recently that this mentality is starting to invade the somewhat stale first-person shooter genre. With games like Hard Reset starting to put the focus on doing everything possible to get the highest score, it feels a lot like the new embracing the old. Now we've got this game Xotic that places even more emphasis on score, but how high on the leaderboard will it climb?