Stronghold Crusader 2 - trailer and additional info

New gameplay footage to be found in this pre-order trailer, with additional information in the press release.


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The Swapper - PS4 Review

The swapper at first glance looks like it might be some sort of an action game, with a vibrant-looking science fiction visual and an almost creepy, haunting musical score. Before long, despite a couple of basic platforming elements such as the ability to jump, The Swapper reveals itself to be something much more interesting as it is a puzzle game with one of the most unique mechanics to find its way into a video game. The end result? A lot of brain-bending fun that creates a memorable experience.


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Crimsonland - PC Review

Crimsonland brings back a lot of memories of college for me. It was brand new, then, and it was one of the most addictive games I knew at the time. You had no manual, no complex keybindings, no storyline to speak of. You were a space marine/doomguy/random maniac on a planet’s surface with a pile of weapons and the promise of death behind hundreds of thousands of waves of spiders, zombies, bugs, aliens and other foes that promised to turn you into a tasty afternoon snack.


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Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New 'n' Tasty - PS4 Review

How a game can be so dark and so funny, with a protagonist who feels hopelessly clumsy in a platforming genre that often demands perfection can work so well is something I may never understand. A remake of the classic game from way back in 1997 on the original PlayStation, it is amazing to see how well the core game design has held up after all of these years.


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Dragon Ball Xenoverse - more screens and info

Will Dragon Ball make a solid debut on the new generation of consoles? Here's hoping. In the meantime, Bandai Namco Games seems content to tease out small bits of information with their media assets.


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Sunless Sea - PC Preview

“Lose your mind, eat your crew” is the tagline for this title, from Failbetter Games, and they are not joking when they say it, either! My first character came with an engineer whose eyes were close to hatching.  You heard me, hatching eyeballs. If the notion of your eyeballs holding something that was going to mature, burst out and try to eat your brain fails to make your skin crawl, you clearly have a less vivid imagination than I do!


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Enemy Mind - PC Review

Shoot 'em up games, like platformers, are among those I really cut my teeth on when I was gaming at a much younger age, yet seldom get a chance to play one nowadays. Part of that is my fault. If I am asked what genres I like best, I will usually reply with RPG, strategy and sports. My reflexes probably are not what they used to be, back when I was able to beat titles like Contra and Life Force with ease. Every now and then though, it is fun to pick up a title that reminds me of those good old days of gaming, but better still is when the experience still brings something surprisingly new and fresh to the table. Enemy Mind does just that.


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Lightpack - Hardware Review

When I first heard about the Lightpack Ambient Lighting System I was pretty stoked since I remember back in 2006 when Philips released their Ambilight line. I was very interested in it and as I worked for a Magnolia Home Theater, I was able to stare at it all day long. While the Ambilight line of televisions ultimately failed, what they were able to do with the ambient lighting is still ingrained in my memories as being another way to pull you into a movie, sporting event, video game, or TV show. When I cam across information for Lightpack I was near instantly hooked and thought to myself "I have got to get me one of these" and much to my viewing pleasure, I got one a few weeks later.


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Pandora gets a new add-on today

I am just going to come out and say I really enjoyed Pandora: First Contact. When I reviewed it, I talked about how I enjoyed the combat, the exploration and more - it was definitely worth playing. Well good news as more content has arrived for this gloriously hostile planet.


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The Last of Us Remastered - PS4 Review

Is it too soon for a Remastered version of The Last of Us? Probably for some of you. If you beat the game on multiple difficulties (including the new game+ modes), bought all the DLC, lodged dozens of hours on the multiplayer, there might not be much point in coming back to this particular well for more water. If you are like me, and took almost a year off from touching Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 masterpiece and never touched any of the DLC the first time around, well then that is a different story. If you are like my one buddy who never played the game at all? Quit reading this, go grab the game. This article will be here when you get back, I promise.

Back already? Well then, let's talk a bit about The Last of Us Remastered and why arguably last year's game of the year is worthy of your attention in 2014.


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Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front - PC Preview

Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front is the sequel to Slitherine's Battle Academy and follows in its shoes of being a turn-based strategy war game. Armchair commanders will be directing the armor and infantry of the Soviet army during World War II. Touting itself as an approachable, absorbing, and visually impressive strategy game that anyone can pick up and play which is not a common trait found in most strategy games. The majority of your war games will be extremely detailed, will contain massive amounts of micromanagement, and they will typically require superhuman instincts and precognitive capabilities while understand at least a million things at once. The first Battle Academy was positively received and fans certainly felt that it was both simple to pick up and easy for anyone to pick up whether they were a regular war gamer or not. With the Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front development starting to pick up speed I was given the rare and coveted opportunity to play a pre-release build well before it even makes it to Steam.


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Deadbreed - PC Preview

In a world saturated by MOBAs, one sets out to do what none of the others have… and it does quite well actually! Deadbreed takes a few different directions on the MOBA front. Not only are some of these quite interesting, but others are rather fun or terrifying to go up against. Now I’ll start off by apologizing to some of those that I played with as I am not that good when it comes to playing these. I just cannot compare to my brother who plays countless hours of DOTA 2 and League of Legends / Heroes of Newerth before it. I’m still trying to learn as I get the concepts, but the executions - well, I'm not quite there yet!


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The Golf Club - PC Preview

I have been a fan of golf for a great many years. I can remember when my mother used to head down to Augusta, Georgia every year to see The Masters, and I have fond memories of hitting the driving range that was about a mile from our house with my father. As I got older I did not spend much time at all with golf, instead focusing more on baseball, bowling, and video games. At least up until Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 came out; I still remember the day that game was released.


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Table Top Racing coming to Vita soon

It's always nice to see a few new games making their way onto Sony's powerful yet often under-appreciated Vita. Here is one that is coming out in just a couple of weeks.

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Sweet Lily Dreams - PC Review

Sweet Lily Dreams, by RosePortal Games, is an epic RPG with a cute art style that follows the young girl Lily through an adventure that will take you to the Realm of Dreams. You will experience a number of mature overtones and morals while finding yourself at the center of the battle between good and evil; join your friend Faith and Curly Trick ( a dog and cat respectively ) on their quest and encounter literary antagonists such as Dracula and The Headless Horseman. While Sweet Lily Dreams looks to be made in the vein of classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, it is so much more than either of them.


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Dark Souls II and Crown of the Sunken King - Xbox 360 Review

The darkness has been punishing, almost oppressive. Multiple tunnels led to murky shores, perilous cliffs and a host of strange, violent creatures. I dared to follow the nearby footprints near the beginning, and I was nearly slain for my curiosity. Caution is key because success is never guaranteed. However, there is quite literally light at the end of the tunnel. Upon reaching the end of said passage, there is an almost hauntingly beautiful expanse of land before me, stretching out to a village that is quiet and almost - but not completely empty. Still, there is a sun in the distance, fighting to get free of the clouds in the sky. It is a sign of hope, that perhaps my struggles will not end in vein.

I continue through the village and near a well that likely has no water. I have fought dozens of battles, cheated death multiple times along the way, and now I have some much deserved respite before setting back off onto my path.

At least, that was what I thought moments before these angry little mongrel creatures charged me, chasing me through what I thought was an otherwise safe village. I hacked at them repeatedly, but that just seemed to tick the rest of them off because before long all of my carefully planned strategies were ruined because I had forgotten two very simple rules of the Souls series:

1) You are never truly safe
2) You are going to die (a lot)

Yet I can never get enough of it.


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Top 10 games from the first half of 2014 - Gaming Thoughts

The first half of 2014 blew by very quickly in the gaming industry (so fast that we were almost through the first seven months before I finished putting my thoughts together on the year's first six months!). While there are no doubt quite a few quality games coming out in the second half of 2014, I wanted to take a look back and talk about the top 10 releases so far (plus 5 that just missed and the biggest disappointment of 2014 so far). Some of these names are pretty familiar, but others? Perhaps not.


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Sunset Overdrive promotes a new contest

Sunset Overdrive is one of those titles we were excited by when it was discussed during this year's E3. A new contest has been announced, it it definitely is worth a look.
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Some new screens and details for Fairy Fencer F

Fairy Fencer F is a title we have been following for some time now, and this latest batch of screenshots and information has us excited for its September release.
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MAGIX Music Maker 2014 Premium - PC Review

I love music. Most people do, right? My headphones are almost always on, and while I might be listening to a game's soundtrack or perhaps watching something on YouTube, there is also a very good chance that I am just listening to one of my favorite tunes as well. MAGIX Music Maker 2014 Premium comes with more tools and sound packs than the standard edition, but these are simply nice extras - the core program is what I was anxious to get my hands on and try, and it holds up beautiful.


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inFamous: Second Son - PS4 Review

While Titanfall was Microsoft's big game for the Xbox One early on in 2014, probably the biggest push from Sony was focused on InFamous: Second Son. Introducing a whole new cast of characters and some fun new twists, inFamous: Second Son does not veer off of the path blazed by the original games in the series, but it does a good job of taking what worked best in those games and focusing on those elements to create one of the most entertaining action-adventure games to date.


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AR-K - PC Review

"Adventure" games can come in almost any shape or size and the cover nearly any topic out there. I am fairly confident that the application of the term "Adventure" game is tacked on to any title out there that is unique or does not fit definitively into a particular genre (like an FPS or RPG). Given that the "adventure" genre can have anything from a platforming game like Super Mario, to a puzzle game like Super Bomberman, to point-and-click games like AR-K and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the "adventure" genre is the largest genre with some of history's most iconic games in it. AR-K is a title that tries to make its home amidst those great point-and-click adventures like Daedalic's The Whispered World (check out my review here) or The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, but it caters to gamers with a much more light-hearted and comical adventure, foregoing the heavy and oppressive tones that you will find in titles like Myst and Riven. The question though, is whether AR-K manages to shoulder its way into a a massive genre with enough poise to stand out in a crowd of games.


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Styx: master of Shadows has an official site and summer trailer now

Just in time for summer, the game Styx: Master of Shadows has a new trailer out and a website to go with it. If you are unfamiliar with the title, it is best described as a stealth RPG due out this fall. We took at a look at the E3 gameplay of it here if you are curious.


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Wasteland 2 - PC Preview

Wasteland 2 is the product of a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, where inXile Entertainment asked for $900,000 and the fans of the original Wasteland game (as well as other gaming fans, all 70,000+ of them) actually crowd-funded $2,933,252! Returning you to the Citadel from the original, Wasteland 2 takes place in the same post-apocalyptic world that Wasteland previously enjoyed. Wasteland 2 is a direct sequel to the first ever post-apocalyptic tactical turn-based computer RPG game, Wasteland (which was the primary inspiration behind the much-loved Fallout series). What made the original game so unique was the ability to control and command individual party members for tactical purposes as well as the first ever appearance of the now-standard moral choices.


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Warmachine: Tactics - PC Preview

Warmachine: Tactics is in its early stages right now, with a beta via Steam's Early Access that offers limited maps at this point, but gives players a really solid idea of where the title is headed. The gameplay itself is quite polished for this stage of development, with a focus on turn-based tactics leveraging the Unreal 4 engine. The end result? An attractive, deep strategy game that should impress when it eventually releases.


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Qvadriga - PC Review

I have had a hard time figuring out how I feel about Slitherine’s tactical Roman chariot racing game, Qvadriga, an issue I have not really experienced with any other review thus far. And no, you didn’t misread that first sentence, this is a turn based game about managing ancient chariot racers. The game description really piqued my interest, as it seems to have the hyper-specific niche and passion that you find in many fantastic board games like Agricola, Power Grid, or Le Havre. This is a trend that is reaching out into the indie video game development world, where designers can really explore a very unique setting or gameplay conceit. Does this release deserve to join the pantheon of tried and true niche experiences, or does it crash and burn before it reaches the finish line?


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Upcoming action-RPG Heroes & Legends arriving in August

Promising a blend of action and strategic elements, Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar is being brought to Steam in August by Phoenix Online Publishing, and the early returns are looking promising.

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Dark Souls II - PC Review

Dark Souls 2 is the sequel to 2011's incredibly difficult yet utterly fantastic Dark Souls, an action RPG that was the spiritual successor to 2009's Demons Souls. The developers of Dark Souls, From Software, has taken the action role playing game back to its roots. Over the years, games in general have been toned down in terms of difficulty and added features like auto-saving and the checkpoint system where twenty plus years ago we did not have checkpoints and when we entered a dungeon we may find one, at most two save points in the entire dungeon. In those old role-playing games you would need to manage your resources (read: items and magic points) and map the dungeon yourself, there were dungeons in the original Final Fantasy that I mapped myself using a pad of graph paper.


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Black the Fall - PC Preview

At first glance, it is hard not to associate Black the Fall with the ever-popular Limbo. The stark contrasts between light and black colors, the platforming and puzzle elements needed to further advance. The early returns are promising, with visuals that actually look quite slick and a pulsing soundtrack in that first level that thoroughly impresses. The control scheme still feels a bit rough - functional, but perhaps would be better served with a controller option. Still, the title looks incredibly promising at this very early stage of its development.


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Magic 2015 - Duels of the Planeswalkers - PC Review

My foray into Magic: The Gathering began in the late 90’s. Spotting the Portal starter set on sale behind the counter at a chain bookstore, I convinced a friend to split the cost with me. This first foray was brief, as my young self didn’t have the income to fuel a collectible card game addiction. In college, I had a set of friends that fell in quite deep, attending Friday night matches and release tournaments, but cost remained prohibitive. It was not until about a year ago where I really took the plunge, buying booster boxes along with my colleagues and our own dear Editor in Chief here. Spending more money than I care to admit, I loved the act of opening a booster, creating a deck, and then tweaking it after seeing how it fared against my colleagues. Though I have been clean of the physical cards for about a year, I have still picked up the various Magic: The Gathering releases on Steam to scratch the occasional itch.


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Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited - lots of creens, news and a trailer

Of all the games NIS America has a tendency to bring to North America, the Disgaea titles are probably their most popular. Given its blend of RPG elements, turn-based strategy and irreverent humor, it is easy to see why. Now we have a bunch of new media and information about the upcoming title.
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Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year Edition - Xbox One Review

For those of you that have been living under a rock, the Forza franchise is a staple Xbox title and prime opponent to the Gran Turismo line of racing simulators. Since the initial release many years ago, Forza has maintained a dominate place in racing fans’ hearts, giving Microsoft’s consoles a much needed racing simulator. Forza Motorsport 5, as an Xbox One launch title, aims to bring the racing simulation series to the next generation of consoles with an amazing array of cars, tracks, and a new feature called Drivatars. While initially a bit of a joke, the Drivatar is serious business and it brings into play the first truly next-gen feature; unique AI opponents that are based on actual gamers. The “Racing Game of the Year” package is the full game as well as all released DLC packs, including an exclusive Top Gear content pack, adding a good dozen or two vehicles as well as a a number of astonishingly beautiful tracks.


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Starpoint Gemini 2 - PC Preview

As the name would imply, Starpoint Gemini 2 is the sequel to the severely under-appreciated Starpoint Gemini a few years ago. Taking place shortly after the events of the first game, Starpoint Gemini 2 (SPG2) is far more of a sandbox-style space-simulation and tactical action roleplaying game. It is a mouthful, yes, but Starpoint Gemini 2 is continuing the trend of the original game’s willingness to blend genres. While Starpoint Gemini was severely underrated it was not without its flaws but with Starpoint Gemini 2, Little Green Man Games (LGM) is taking the players’ feedback to heart. By being more open and communicative with their niche gaming community, LGM is working hard to ensure we get the best game that we asked for. 


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Starpoint Gemini - PC Review

Starpoint Gemini, developed by Little Green Man Games and published by Iceberg Interactive, is a space simulation / RPG hybrid that was released back in 2010. Trying something a little new, Starpoint Gemini is a mix between sandbox simulation and space-based role-playing and tries to blend a few of my favorite genres and settings. You star as a rookie pilot fresh out of flight school that is trapped in a stasis rift for nearly twenty years, only to emerge and find that everything you know has changed.


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The Golf Club teams up with Greg Norman

The Golf Club has been a title we have been interested in for some time now, including this look at their developer's diary. Now HB Studios has more announcements about this title, including what kind of a partnership they have with Greg Norman.


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Destiny checks all the boxes - but is it enough?

The amount of press that Destiny is garnering is almost overwhelming, but for a game that reportedly took more than $500 million to make, market and distribute, I suppose that should surprise no one. Titanfall was set up by Microsoft to be its killer video game for the Xbox One this year, and while it was good fun, even its marketing push is failing compared to what we have seen out of Destiny so far. This type of media push is both a curse and a blessing. The good news is, with awareness so high, more people are aware of the title and it will no doubt sell well. However, it tends to create expectations that almost no game can reasonably meet, and in the end is almost certain to leave some people disappointed for not having lived up to those lofty goals.

Gorgeous graphics, recognizable voice acting talent, lots of multiplayer options, progressive hooks and a development team with a killer pedigree read like a checklist and Destiny certainly fills all of those boxes. Still, after spending lots of time with the beta, I found myself enjoying it - but those hoping that Destiny will reshape the FPS genre may come away somewhat disappointed.


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Contant C - PS3 Review

Time has been used… time and time again (sorry I couldn’t help it) as a mechanic within storytelling. Time is generally a constant within the human perception. Every second, of every minute, of every hour is something that we tend to worry about with our generally short lifespans in the grand scheme of things. Time within games is usually used to gauge how fast something can be accomplished or how much time is left to accomplish a goal. Time has been used to either speed things up, slow them down, or even stop them for a moment. What if time stopped however? What if nothing but you were able to move while everything else remained frozen? Constant C is the story of this “what if” scenario.


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Agarest: Generations of War - PC Review

Agarest: Generations of War was originally released here in the States as The Record of Agarest War and was launched on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 (XBLA) and was then later, much later, ported over to the PC via Steam using the original title, Agarest: Generations of War and is the first title released in the Agarest games.


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The Red Solstice - PC Preview

The Red Solstice is a unique top-down shooter. Unlike games such as Hotline Miami, The Red Solstice is currently focused on multiplayer (that is all that is available tight now in the Early Access build) and it is more than just a simple top-down action-filled shooter. Touting itself as an 8-player tactical co-op survival game, you are tasked with surviving a one-hour mission. During the hour long action-fest you will be given a series of randomized objectives and then it is up to you to survive. Some of the tasks that you will be given would be to set up turret defense or to gather a specific supply to defending an area for a set time against an onslaught of aliens and zombies. As you fight back the hordes of baddies and complete objectives, you will earn experience points which will then level you up, awarding you with new weapons, armor kits, ammo types and secondary gear options. As I mention, The Red Solstice is not your run-of-the-mill shooter and I was fortunate enough to spend some time in the Early Access build.


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Aksys Games announces visual novel Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters

Given how fond we were of the last visual novel Aksys Games released with Xblaze Code: Embryo, it is only natural that Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters also piques our interest.


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Lee Bamber of The Game Creators - Interview

Video games are an amazing form of entertainment, because they let us interact with the stores and environments as opposed to the passive roles we assume with other media such as music, movies or books. Many of us have heard a song and wanted to hum something new, or read a book and jotted down a bit of fan fiction or watched a movie as a kid and acted out a variation of our favorite scenes. Game creation tools have that same sort of draw, giving gamers a chance to create what would otherwise be locked away on in their imaginations. This is the premise behind FPS Creator Reloaded.


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Hand of Fate - PC Preview

I have something of a love/hate relationship going with Hand of Fate right now, but thankfully it is mostly the former emotion. Hand of Fate does a little of everything, providing RPG elements such as gold, hit points and food management with action-based combat. The title works in plenty of luck while using decks of cards to dole out the experience in a way that harkens back to my many hours (okay, more like days, weeks and moths in total) spent at a tabletop gaming with my friends as well. Enjoy collecting cards and building customized decks as well? Me too - and Hand of Fate provides that experience also. Currently Hand of Fate is in its early stages, but what the team has shown is a remarkable understanding of the things that make games fun and addictive.


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Q*bert: Rebooted - PC Review

Q*bert was one of those titles that I adored when I was a kid. Way back before Link was traveling Hyrule and Mario was stomping Gumbas, we had Q*bert doing his best to avoid a cast of colorful enemy characters while navigating a series of cube-shaped platforms. The formula was simple, addictive and a lot of fun. Still, with all of the different games that have gotten the remake treatment over the last few years, most of those titles leaned toward much newer titles than this. I had my doubts that Q*bert would have enough substance to make the effort to relaunch the little guy worth the effort. I am very happy to have been proven wrong.


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PlayStation Now: Built to succeed, set up to fail - Gaming Thoughts

When first announced, there was a great deal of skepticism around Sony's PlayStation Now service. No one could really question the merits as consoles have grown to be backwards incompatible, making those bargain bin last generation acquisitions useless without the matching console. If the plethora of HD reboots/remakes/remasters and collections of older downloadable combined with the ever-popular 'retro' titles like Shovel Knight have shown us anything, it is that gamers love their classic titles.

Given that PlayStation Now is built with technology that actually does a very good job of streaming games to these new consoles, it would seem that Sony is in an ideal position to make a lot of money from the service. Unfortunately there are two major problems that might outweigh this solid foundation and cause the service to flounder when it should in fact wind up thriving.


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Deponia: The Complete Journey - PC Review

The Deponia series has been a beautiful collection of adventure games spanning three different releases. Deponia: The Complete Journey brings these tales together with several extras to create the definitive experience of these award-winning games. The animation is beautiful as always (I would expect nothing less from Daedalic Entertainment), the story is charming and the characters quirky but easy to invest in. This is an adventure game for the PC absolutely worth experiencing.


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Jagged Alliance Flashback - PC Preview

For those of you who do not know much about the Jagged Alliance games, shame on you. Jagged Alliance was originally released back in 1994 for MS-DOS and is a turn-based tactical role-playing game where you are a commander tasked to do some people-pleasing thing with less-than-honorable people. Over the last 20 years, the Jagged Alliance franchise has enjoyed numerous releases, most recently Jagged Alliance: Back To Action and Jagged Alliance: Crossfire just before that.


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Pixel Boy and the Ever Expanding Dungeon - PC Review

Boasting procedurally generated levels, RPG-like leveling elements, crafting, and a sense of humor, Pixel Boy and the Ever Expanding Dungeon is very difficult to explain. Fans of Hotline Miami will likely be on-board with Pixel Boy, however, the game is far more accessible to a larger age group due to Hotline Miami's obvious adult overtones. A top-down semi-twin stick shooter action RPG with psychedelic colors and lighting and an electronica soundtrack, Pixel Boy fits into a genre of its own. Giant Box Games is taking and building on some of the most addicting styles of gameplay, and mashing in not only terrible puns, but about every other gaming fad from the last few years (which is not a bad thing). I think that the biggest question, though, is ... does it work?


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Mechs & Mercs - announcement information

Mechs have been proving to be a popular source of material for video games of late (Robert and PY here both thoroughly enjoy them for example), so Kasedo Games' announcement of their new game is probably of interest to quite a few people.


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Sakura Spirit - PC Review

In recent years I have become something of an anime freak, able to watch entire seasons of a good anime in a single day, or stalking forums and anime news outlets for the latest gossip. Sakura Spirit certainly helps to satisfy that niche interest.


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COCORO Line Defender - Nintendo 3DS Review

Moving Player released a new title for the 3DS on June 26th, and called it COCORO Line Defender. If you are not familiar with what a line defense game is, think ‘Swords & Soldiers’ style gameplay, with less focus on individual units. You only have one ‘ability’ that you can use, and it is on a long timed delay between uses. Outside of that, you select the unit, equip it with a weapon and fling it into the battlefield again and again.


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