The premise is simple. You must guide a small innocent triangle through a never ending spiraling maze of death – and shapes.  It’s a deceptively simple concept made all the more challenging through devilish level design and horrendous speeds. The term “Jedi reflexes” may be apt when describing the kind of skills needed to progress through Super Hexagon’s 60 second nightmares. If you’re lucky enough to endure the challenge, hyper mode is activated and the chance to attempt to keep playing to crack the leaderboards opens up. And you will keep playing, Super Hexagon provokes that hidden compulsion in all of us to exceed and to do better. As complex as the patterns get, they are beatable. Losing is almost always your fault for not being quick enough, or not knowing the pattern well enough.

This is a game that requires some excellent muscle memory. There are only two controls in Super Hexagon; left and right. Holding down allows you to swing your triangle through spiraling hexagons while simply tapping at lightning speeds will help you progress through the trickier patterns. What bodes well for re-playability is that patterns are random. Although a key part of  actually getting better at Super Hexagon is pattern recognition, they never ever appear in the same order, which means a section can always catch you off guard and lead to instant triangle smooshing death. Death is a reward though, learning how to beat each pattern is a joy, and you can watch your skills increase as you progress through the six increasingly impossible difficulty modes.

Visually it looks and it feels like an old Atari game from the 70′s, with the added bonus of lots of lavish pulsating colors. It’s geometric style is as simple as the games core concepts but it’s visually appealing to the eye. If ever there was a game that should have an epilepsy warning, Super Hexagon is that game. As the difficulty increases, so does the games efforts to completely disorientate you – just to make things that little bit harder. It’s great that the look and feel of Super Hexagon is a huge part of the ever increasing difficulty. Out of context, “intelligent design” would be a good phrase to use to describe it. The insanely good chiptune tracks that pulsate with the images are so catchy you’ll find the music invading your brain long after you’ve finished playing. The solemn voice over work is great at provoking rage with a depressed “Game Over” calling out every few seconds. After you die, jumping into a game the disembodies voice wryly says “again”. Every so often you may even get an “excellent”, although she never sounds that enthused, as if mocking you for your efforts.

Super Hexagon was near flawless on PC in terms of framerate and the overall smoothness of the game. I can’t compare with iOS, but I did find on my HTC One X, the Tegra quad core processor couldn’t quite keep up with the speed of events on the screen. While infuriating, I can’t say whether or not this was just a problem with my handset, or if I was using far too much ram with other applications open. Android development can be exceedingly difficult due to the different specifications of smart phones. For the most part it runs smooth enough to play the game without a fault, other than the occasional blip. It’s just unfortunate if said blip occurs when you’re having the run of your life and you can’t compensate for the skip. That being said it’s an easier to play game on smart phones and tablets. The touch screen controls are intuitive and are more immediate then using a keyboard or an Xbox Controller on the PC. It’s faster to react when you have your fingers primed against the screen. Skills are transferable from format to format though, it’s a lot like riding a bike, and the solution to each pattern will remain in your brain.

Super Hexagon is simultaneously an infuriating and rewarding experience. For all it’s simplicity, it’s also one of the most challenging games I’ve ever laid my thumbs on. Costing under £1 it’s also one of the better value title available for mobile gaming, offering hours upon hours of addictive game for a ridiculously small price. For those looking for something simple, addictive, fun and challenging, Super Hexagon is a must buy for any android device. You wont regret it.

The post Super Hexagon Review appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

Why did I bring this up? Because it was while I was musing this that I started to think about what Christmas used to be about, and not in a ‘boys in the street with hobby horses’ way. Growing up in a capitalist, consumerist environment with little interest in religion, Christmas was always less about some clumsy carpenter who nailed himself Mr Bean-style to a massive letter T (I at least know that much from the Bible) and more about what gifts I was going to receive. Specifically, which videogames I would be endowed with that month. I began to think of it as ‘the’ time to be a fan of videogames, and a young one at that. They were seeming like my best years, long since consigned to the dustbin of sentience, never to return. But it also led me to consider something else – namely, that I may have been looking back at this period with perhaps a false enthusiasm, that for every genuinely wonderful memory there were others not so savoury that I’d either failed to acknowledge at the time or I’d mentally glossed over.

Lobotomise me.

The first console I owned, aside from a couple of VTech educational laptops (one of which had six non-functional keys, including the letter E, making it impossible to complete any of the tests) and the TV Boy which was essentially an unlicensed Atari 2600 with built-in games, was the Sega Mega Drive. I didn’t get a Super Nintendo until years later, and in all honesty with some detachment I think the SNES is by far the superior console, but the Mega Drive is still timeless. Obviously the 16-bit Sonic series stands out and is now regarded by many as the only period of consistent quality in the history of the franchise, but there are other games like Ghouls N’ Ghosts, Earthworm Jim, Ristar, The Adventures of Batman and Robin, Dynamite Headdy, Rocket Knight Adventures, Columns, James Ponda in the Aquatic Games, and at least ten or a dozen amazing Disney and Warner Bros games that I can still play today with the same enjoyment as over a decade ago. A few titles – such as Dick Tracy, Hurricanes, Comix Zone, Battletoads, Bubsy, Bubble and Squeak, Global Gladiators, Hook, Greendog, Strider, and some others – haven’t aged quite as well for a variety of different reasons (mostly due to short length, high difficulty, or eventually monotonous gameplay) but still have an appeal to them for newcomers and are still massively gratifying if you grew up with them. SNES has fared even better, with several games not only surviving the harsh technical ageing process but possibly seeming even more impressive today than they did when they were current. Super Mario World, the Donkey Kong Country series, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Super Castlevania IV, and Starwing have all entered legendary status. F-Zero, Zombies At My Neighbours, Wolfenstein 3D, TMNT Turtles in Time, Earthbound, The Lost Vikings, and the Lucasarts Star Wars and Indiana Jones games also remain highly playable, among many others. Needless to say, I had immense amounts of fun with both consoles.

However, through a mixture of peer pressure and genuine desire for more advanced gaming, I bought a Playstation at about the midway point of its lifespan, followed by a PS2 a couple of years later, and also a Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast when I found them second-hand with accompanying games collections. While I enjoyed both of the latter two consoles, the Playstation series became my favourite and still is – marginally – to this day. For my first Christmas with the PSone, I received Fifa 2000, Dino Crisis, and Resident Evil, all of which I had already tried and all of which I continued to play vigorously. The following year, after the discovery of (at the time) inconceivably cheap games via online retailers – I ended up getting quite a few titles that I hadn’t had the pleasure of playing before, some of them new releases and some of them classic ones from years past. These included Spiderman, WWF Smackdown 2, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear Solid. Once again, I played the hell out of them for many months.

But something a bit strange has happened. These games, which I still have fond memories of and still excite me to think about, for the most part haven’t held up as well as their 16-bit ancestors, or even many from further back than that. You’d have thought the opposite would be the case, that with superior horsepower behind them these games would be the more likely to become eternally-recognised classics. And, in terms of their influence to the industry, a large number of games from the fifth- and sixth-generation have left profound legacies. Yet, when I play many of them today, I just find myself struggling to persevere in a way that simply isn’t a problem with a lot of older titles.

When I play Sonic the Hedgehog, it still feels completely intuitive and easy to navigate my way through levels. Same goes for DKC, Super Mario, and even some of the lesser-considered games like Vectorman and Cool Spot. Conversely, Harry’s movement and aiming in Silent Hill is so antiquated that it’s become very difficult for meto make it even a quarter of the way into the game without throwing the towel in and watching a walkthrough instead. Metal Gear Solid is a bit easier to control, but it’s still pretty twitchy and seems a little limited, which is especially sad given how much scope it had in 1998. Spiderman is linear as hell and ends before it’s really had a chance to get started. Resident Evil is, frankly, terrible in almost every aspect other than for unintentional comedy and for eventually leading to the excellent Resident Evil 4. Dino Crisis, a game I once played with a constant combination of dread and exhilaration, is now just a pretty bland, clunky experience with a couple of jump scares.

“I Chew-Chew-Chews You!”

Despite this, I always look forward to seeing which, if any, old Playstation games have been released on the Playstation Network each week – the most recent, welcome additions being the Spyro trilogy – but more often than not the positive recollections are blurred by how badly many of the games handle today. It doesn’t help that the selection available on the network in the PAL region is questionable at best – there’s still no Syphon Filter 2 despite the first and third games being available for many years, no Parasite Eve in spite of its sequel having found its way there ages ago, and no Ape Escape which is pretty disappointing given that it single-handedly revolutionised the use and necessity of the Dualshock. Oh, but we do have The Little Mermaid 2. That’s something, I guess. Then again, perhaps the small range is for the best, as I can imagine my nostalgia for other great games being somewhat tarnished if I were to revisit them today. I know some games like In Cold Blood would piss me off, for one thing – even in 2000 I could see through their problems despite enjoying them, so I can only imagine how awkward they must feel to play now.

But were they always this way? Did I only enjoy them so much because I was a lot younger and could overlook a lot of the flaws? Or is it just difficult to objectively judge them over a decade later, when we’re now used to better? Maybe, but that doesn’t explain why so many fourth-gen games fare so well. In my personal opinion, it’s mostly down to the transition between the two eras. More than any other period in the industry’s history, the difference between the limitations of a mainly cartridge-based format to the more-expansive disk formats saw the greatest upheaval in all technical properties, and that of course (hypothetically, at least) allowed games developers to place extra focus on areas that perhaps were not considered as important before, most notably the narratives and character elements – which, subsequently, were allowed to improve due to the introduction of FMVs and voice acting. True, the N64 still used cartridges, but you could already tell that it was pushing the medium to breaking point, and due to the awkwardness of a lot of the N64′s mechanics the SNES and Mega Drive can still be seen more or less as the peak of cartridge gaming. The Playstation, and to a much lesser extent the Sega Saturn, represents the dawn of the next great shift in console gaming, and as a result it’s understandable that many of these games don’t hold up quite as well as perhaps you’d hope or expect, as they’re literally some of the first of their kind. In that respect, despite their irritations you can still appreciate many of them.

But the same can’t always be said for sixth-generation entries. In particular, the Grand Theft Auto games. I honestly thought when GTA3 came out, that was as far as games could be taken. Same goes for GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas. Every single one of them was an unbelievable achievement. And yet, at the same time, they were really, almost offensively irritating. There’s a few minor reasons why, such as a tendency to glitch (the San Andreas game-breaker glitch on the ‘Madd Dogg’ mission is a particularly horrendous one that occurs late in the game and means the player cannot progress any further) and sometimes overly floaty driving controls, but the worst thing of all is the complete and utter lack of checkpoints during missions. Some of these missions take upwards of 10 minutes to complete, across various different gameplay styles, and can often be failed for reasons outside of your control. The idea of repeating the entire thing every time – including having to manually travel to the starting point which can often take an eon in itself – has now, thankfully, become a foreign concept in today’s games, but it’s a shame that an otherwise fantastic, exulting  series has such a fundamental flaw in its design that could alienate future players from ever experiencing its most unforgettable high-points.

Still, it’s not like we can do anything about it now…

Oh, right.

The introduction of HD revisions of PS2 titles has been both a blessing and a curse, for there are some genuinely brilliant games in these collections. The problem is that even the most excellent examples tend to have at least one or two pretty outdated mechanics and, in some cases, absolutely infuriating design decisions. What makes this worse, though, is the fact that the companies re-releasing them on PS3 and Xbox 360 hold the ideal opportunity to iron out some of these issues, yet consistently decide not to. It’s all well and good presenting them in an HD sheen that doesn’t make much noticeable difference and adding trophies and achievements, but when the games themselves retain the same flaws as before, they’re no less likely to aggravate the player – especially if they’re problems that gamers no longer encounter with as much regularity as they might have done when these titles were originally released.

Case in point – God of War. Ignoring any ideological concerns the series carries - and they are, to some extent, legitimate – the engine itself has always been sturdy and entertaining to play, so even the earliest instalments didn’t require any massive overhauls to still be hugely enjoyable. But there was one clear, obvious problem in the original – the fact that you had to hammer two of the shoulder buttons to carry out certain tasks, most notably opening chests. This was a huge, difficult inconvenience that served no practical gameplay function, and one that should have been corrected in the HD re-release. It’s not like they couldn’t have done this, either – we’re told repeatedly that certain games can’t be released with trophy patches because the developer would still need the original code in order to do this. But, if Sony still had enough control over the code that they could add a trophy list and make it HD, there’s no reason they couldn’t have altered the control scheme for these few sections as well. In fact, due to the chunkiness of the PS3′s L2 and R2 buttons in comparison to those on PS2, these sections actually became even more infuriating in the re-release. Likewise, unskippable cutscenes were sometimes problematic – on two particular occasions, during the re-releases of PSP instalments Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, long scenes were immediately followed by overly-difficult sections without a checkpoint separating the two, and the inability to skip these FMV sequences only made the experience that little bit extra irritating. Again, this would have been a simple fix.

Kratos: The Fleshbreaker.

To be honest though, that’s a slightly petty complaint. It’s not enough to detract from the rest of the game. The same can’t be said for a certain occurrence that takes place in Jak 2, part of the Jak and Daxter HD Trilogy. Buying this, along with the Ratchet and Clank Collection of the first three games, I knew full well that I was entering a world of almost relentless irritation. Unforgiving checkpoint placement, forcing you to replay tediously long sections for no reason other than to pad out the game, were commonplace at the time. At least with Ratchet and Clank you’d always be earning bolts by destroying things, and when you died you got to keep your bolts, so you never felt like your time and effort was being completely wasted. The same can’t really be said for the Jak and Daxter games as all you collect is ammo, and the occasional Skull Gem or Precursor Orb which thankfully you don’t lose if you die. The missions vary in difficulty but many of them inevitably become an exercise in repetition, and given that the action is far more tactically limited than that in Ratchet and Clank, it can get a bit boring as well as frustrating. Again, though, it was just a trend of the games at the time. You grin and bear it because so much else is good.

But nothing – I repeat, nothing – explains or justifies the hair-tearing moment in the mission ‘Escort Men Through Sewers‘ where the game tricks you into thinking you’ve reached a checkpoint (the memory card symbol at around 5:30 is meant to indicate that it’s saving your progress, and checkpoints are literally the only thing the game needs to save automatically as the collectables can be saved manually) only to send you right back to the beginning of the level if you or one of the NPCs get killed by the massive number of Metal Head enemies coming at you from several directions. It’s one of the most insidious glitches I’ve witnessed in a game – aside from the aforementioned glitch in GTA San Andreas – and even worse, it happens again during the final boss – again, note the memory card emblem at roughly 2:40. Means nothing. You die on the final section (which you will, as your health will be almost completely drained from the first part), you go back to the beginning of the battle. Sony had the chance to fix this when they re-released it, but failed to do so. Why? Did they honestly think it would somehow tone down the challenge or be spoonfeeding the player to not have the screen deceive them like that? Difficulty by design is one thing; difficulty by way of a completely avoidable, removable bug is quite another.

It’s a shame, because it seems to me that if you’re going to the trouble of cleaning up these great games to market them to an audience who may not have already played them, or indeed to people who want to revisit their memories of them, the last thing you want to do is alienate both demographics by selling them a product that’s arbitrarily hard due to needless factors while also sending the message that the only difference between the original releases and the collections are the sharpness of the visuals. If anything, the graphics should be the least important facet to revise, especially when the games already looked presentable to begin with and are only a generation below what we’re on now. Games publications have been mentioning the impending HD ‘Director’s Cut’ re-release of Deadly Premonition for the PS3, talking about how this might mean the graphics finally look better than The Ring: Terror’s Realm and there might be more than four background songs playing on a loop, but to be honest neither of these things were any obstacle for me other than maybe one time I got slight eye-strain looking at the grass for too long. For me, the one thing that absolutely has to go before any superficial advancements is the ridiculous mechanic of flicking the left stick from side to side during the chase scenes. That legitimately hurt my thumb, and it’s utterly pointless busywork. A better map and more dialogue during the long, unavoidable driving sections wouldn’t go amiss, either. No amount of visual appeal is going to make something that’s fundamentally broken any less annoying, any more than it’s going to drastically improve what’s already good about Deadly Premonition – aka the interesting and involving characters, story and atmosphere.

Mind you, even games from the ‘classic’ era aren’t exempt from this sort of retroactive cynicism. Until a few months ago, I maintained that Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron was one of the best games on the Mega Drive, and I couldn’t understand why my friends preferred the first Toejam and Earl, which I never played until I was already acclimatised to Playstation 2 and 3, and only for a few minutes with no real foundation on which to understand it. It seemed like an open and shut case of a confusing game receiving a refined reboot. Then, late last year, both games were released on XBox Live and PSN. I downloaded both of them and, to my surprise, I ended up appreciating the innovation of the original for the first time, while finding the sequel to be an uninspired platformer devoid of the variety found in its predecessor. Ultimately I was pleased to play both of them, but it does raise the question of how much of our nostalgia is based on the objective quality of what we’re remembering, and how much is selective rearrangement to try and convince ourselves that things were better than they really were. It seems to be particularly noticeable when revisiting videogames, as opposed to listening to music or watching a film. Sure, some older records will now sound scratchy or distorted, and some films will look grainy or have sound levelling issues or poor lighting, but the core of the product – the melodies, the harmonies, the acting, the dialogue – will always be able to endure if the writing and performance is good enough, and there’s nothing preventing you from being able to experience it. In the case of a videogame, if it ages so badly that it becomes too much of a chore to play, it sadly doesn’t matter if the themes are complex or the ideas are radical. You’re not going to stick around long enough to see them, unless you’re doing it out of pure reminiscence.

And yet, I keep going back to those 16-bit classics, the ones that still hold true 15-20 years later, and wonder why other, more advanced games haven’t followed suit. Maybe it’s because the older games are simpler to play, maybe it’s because they have that colourful ‘primitive’ charm despite being mind-blowingly elaborate at the time of their release, or maybe it’s just because there’s fewer expectations on them other than to provide a few hours of fun. Whatever the case, I find it ironic that the games I grew up with, and that I was looking to move away from in search of the next great evolution in videogames, now seem fresher and more engaging than many of those that have come since.

Games are often compared to art, usually for the most artificial reasons, but to me a piece of art – whatever form it takes – needs to be two things: it needs to be sincere, from a place in the creator’s heart, and it has to have at least some degree of timelessness. In that respect, I honestly think that a number of games on the older consoles come far closer to being artistic than most of the soulless production-line titles regarded by the self-appointed taste-makers as being ‘art’ after two minutes of conception on today’s systems because they have nice graphics and sad musical scores. In that vain, even a game like Deadly Premonition, in spite of a raft of horrendous technical failures, can be considered a work that has a better chance of eventually being deemed timeless by future generations than the majority of the emotionally-prescriptive, incoherent nonsense we’re currently told is art.

“Decent gameplay + bad writing = good writing.”
So say every mainstream gaming publication in existence.

In the days following Christmas, I received a few games that had not been available for delivery before the holiday period – Assassin’s Creed 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Halo 4. So far, I’ve had fun playing all of them – which is, after all, the reason we play games in the first place – but it remains to be seen whether or not any of them endure in the same way as Ninja Gaiden, Contra, or Doom. My guess would be ‘no,’ but it’s not for me at this time to make that call. All I can say is that each new console seems to give us bigger and better games, yet seems to give us less and less reason to play them when the next system comes along. Perhaps that’s why I’m hesitant to accept PS4 and XBox 720 – I’ve grown attached to so many good seventh-gen games over the past six or so years, and the thought of seeing them lose their relevance or be made to look hackneyed and obsolete in short order is something that perturbs me. However, eighth-gen is obviously an impending inevitability, and one that will theoretically lead to even greater titles that we can currently imagine.

I just hope the passage of time will be kinder to current releases that it was to their forebears.

The post Defective Reflectives appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

DLC has certainly exploded with almost every game offering something extra that can be downloaded at a later date. Characters, maps, weapons, songs, cars almost nothing is out of bounds for the developers to cash in on. That is my main problem with DLC, even though there are a few valid uses of it, most of the time it comes off as screwing your fans over.

An Extra Game

Arguably the best use of DLC is to add a large amount of content to a game to provide deeper back story, more missions or new areas to explore. These types of DLC are usually around £7-10 depending on the size of the addition. Some of the best DLC’s I have seen are the ones for Grand Theft Auto 4, The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Both of these introduce new characters, new missions and detailed stories and even new gameplay features. These came out at a fair price and were massively enjoyable and a great example of how DLC works when done well.

L.A Noire also had DLC in the form of extra cases to do, again another good use of DLC regardless of how well they may have been perceived.

Bethesda have also had a good track record of offering DLC in the form of big additions to their games. Fallout 3 had a massive 5 expansions all released at justifiable prices considering what they added. All of these are genuine extra content that has been specifically created for the purpose of providing extra for the fans.

Extra Characters

Another very popular use is to add extra characters. This is especially effective in fighting genres but more recently I was browsing the PlayStation Store and saw extra characters available for LEGO the Lord of the Rings. From the store you can pay £1.60 to download Sauron! Now £1.60 seems like a low price but just think about what you getting for that. You have to really love LEGO the Lord of the Rings to think that it is worth paying £1.60 to walk around Middle-Earth as Sauron and use him in replaying some missions you have already done. It’s just pointless.

Even worse is a weapons pack (even though the game already has more weapons and tools than you could ever use) which adds a few well known items and it comes in at a whopping £2.40!

Now these don’t annoy me that much because I don’t feel they add anything to the game so I’m not missing anything, but it’s just such a rip-off.

In Batman Arkham City you can pay £5.49 to download Robin and another £5.49 to download Nightwing. If you really love Arkham City, and I can see some people REALLY loving it, then maybe, just maybe, you would be tempted. But as for the rest of us I sure would like to have a go with these characters but not for anywhere near £5.49! I can buy whole games for that price! Even if you argue that DLC is made for the die hard fans who can’t get enough of their franchise, then fine I am happy to accept that but you are betraying your fans by making them pay >£10 for 2 characters to use in an arcade mode!

Extra Content

Now here is where we get to the reason why I suddenly lost my cool with DLC. I recently bought Rocksmith (basically Guitar Hero but with a real guitar) and I very much like it. The game comes with some pretty decent starter songs but as it’s been out a while it has built up quite a backlog of really good songs to download from the store. What is the price of these simple little songs… £2.39. £2.39! That is just unacceptable. To make it even worse there is a massive selection of really, really great songs. It just depressed me knowing that I want all these great songs and they are expecting their fans pay through the nose just to get more enjoyment. A massive £2.39 for a song, I still can’t get over it! These songs should never ever be more than £1.

That sums up my whole DLC experience – completely ripping off fans for tiny additions at massive prices. Now I will admit that there are a few times when DLC is great as I have mentioned. But these times are few and far between. One thing I must say is that I feel PlayStation are potentially partly responsible for setting the prices in the store and perhaps it is out of the developer’s control, this could well be true given how expensive everything else in the store is.

DLC either needs to have a massive price cut across the board or we need to stop it, now!

The post DLC is out of Control! appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

Here it is then, the thumbACTIVE team have spoken. Clobbering together 8 ‘Top 10 Games of the Year’ lists (with a legit scoring system we promise) we now have a Top 10 Games list that shows off ‘exactly’ what we believe 2012 should be proud of.

Plucked from 48 nominees, it was clear that the games featured below were enjoyed collectively rather than by just one writer with ACTIVE thumbs. So are ye ready? thumbACTIVE’s Games of the Year 2012 begin…

10. Sleeping Dogs

The fact that the game itself is excellent barely even seems relevant, but it really is something special – especially considering that it was originally planned as nothing more than a sequel to a stagnant franchise (the True Crime series) in a genre that was steadily declining in creativity and popularity.

What we ended up with was a highly-polished title with a solid narrative and interesting characters, superb production values and set-pieces and – most importantly – controls so responsive and intuitive that its varied gameplay styles upheld a level of fluency rarely seen in comparable titles. It wasn’t perfect by any means, with slightly uninspired shooting mechanics and a relatively short story, and on a purely objective level there were probably better games made this year.

However, when you consider what United Front had to overcome in order to even get the game into stores, let alone to make it as refined and fresh as it ultimately was, there can be no doubt in my mind that this game has succeeded on a larger and more improbably scale than any others in 2012. In a culture that increasingly airs on the side of complacency and regurgitation, Sleeping Dogs is everything to celebrate about business ingenuity and endeavour. Toby

9. The Walking Dead: The Game

In general, I hate children. All of them. They trip you up, touch you with sticky hands and can’t speak English properly. I didn’t think this would change. Then I met Clementine, with her charmingly curious tone of voice, timid affection and awesome hair. She was the only one with an unwarped sense of innocence and humanity amongst a cast of characters who seemed to loose theirs so easily.

The Walking Dead broke my heart and I’m not ashamed to say that I cried through the closing credits, and then some. A few technical hitches prevented this game from reaching glorious heights, and I still haven’t quite forgiven it for deleting my savegames, but that’s not to say it wasn’t one of the best games of 2012. #forclementine Aaron

Telltale Games did something with TWD that most developers try to avoid. They sacrificed gameplay for a strong story with memorable characters. We’ve seen this before with games such as Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy. What TWD does differently is that it puts you in situations where you must make the hard choice of keeping Clementine happy or doing what’s best for the group, which can range from leaving a group member behind to die or stealing food. Whatever your choice may be, TWD is one that shouldn’t be missed. Jake

8. Dishonored

Much like the protagonist Corvo himself, Dishonored snuck up on me unawares, creeping out of the shadows fully formed with a knife at the ready. I don’t know how I managed to avoid all the typical hype and bluster that accompanies game releases these days, but it made the experience all the more sweeter.

A rundown, rat infested playground in which to sneak up on unsuspecting prey, with a dash of Bioshock inspired abilities, the game actively rewarded both the violent and the stealthy. With solid game mechanics and one of the best uses of teleportation in a first person game, Dishonored was an original, fresh experience in a year which had its fair share of sequels. Now where’s Dishonored 2? Ryan

Dishonored is case in point that you don’t need a next-gen console to produce an amazing new IP. For all Ubisoft‘s bitching and moaning over the past year, Arkane‘s stealthy adventurer proves that imagination and fanstatic gameplay can easily thwart any offering with a number tacked on the end. Sure the story fizzled towards the end, rather than exploding in the way Dishonored deserved, but stealthily creeping around corners and possesing unsuspecting gaurds, creating inventive chaos has been my highlight of the year. Assassin’s Creed be damned! Alex

7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2012′s reboot of 1994′s strategic classic arrived to appease the gaming sadists. I guess that makes me one. I never played the original -braces for face slaps-, but better late than never this year I managed to plunge into the XCOM franchise. You can keep your safety rings and ladders as I don’t need saving. I’ve had a hundred odd hours of practise now and I’m ready for Ironman mode in all its unforgiving glory.

Regardless of if you’re witnessing your turned based decisions fall apart in a heartbeat, or ordering your beloved Assault trooper to successfully execute a low percentage Arc Thrower capture, every moment is worth the sweat, blood and tears. There was no bigger challenge than XCOM: Enemy Unknown (well apart from maybe Super Hexagon) this year, and that is why I can’t get my mitts off it. Mark

I love this game because it’s the only one I’ve played that has made me feel like a tactical genius – only to kill my beloved sniper, Sally, and reduce me to a blubbering mess, cursing the aliens for their over-sized heads and superior strategies. After that, I stopped naming my soldiers and resigned myself to the fact that they were always expendable. Oh, Sally… Aaron

 6. Hitman: Absolution

After such a long wait Hitman: Absolution was the game I was hoping for and more. I was prepared for some streamlining and I think it has enabled IO Interactive to give the stealth elements a polish that have elevated the game into a mainstream contender for game of the year. It’s my choice and that’s after a bug wiped my save file – I like it that much. Henry

I’m not much of a Hitman fan, but this game came out at the right time as I was still hungry for some sleek, stealth action. Unfortunately, Dishonored didn’t impress me as much as I hoped it would so I was pleasantly surprised when I dove into Absolution for the first time. Plus it gave me a decent excuse to push my new PC to the limit to see how great the visuals could get. Aaron

5. Max Payne 3

Unlike most of Rockstar’s most recent titles, Max Payne 3 abandons the open world, sandbox gameplay that we see day to day in video games and gives us a linear, cinematic, action packed game that delivers with plot twists, tons of violence, a great multiplayer system, and tons of collectibles to keep us coming back for more. Jake

A reoccurring theme this year has been returning game franchises. Rockstar are the new developers of the series and have brought all the qualities we like in their games. The dialogue is brilliant and the animations are spot on. The Brazil level in particular is probably the most atmospheric levels I have played this year. Henry

4. Assassin’s Creed III

While I enjoyed Connor’s story and running freely through the Frontier, by the time AC3 actually made its way into my PS3 I wasn’t really as invested as I would have been if I’d not, say, had to play through two equally adequate but ultimately unnecessary side stories. The only reason I played the game was to get to the end of the story, which, for me, was a complete and total disappointment. That’s not to say I didn’t like the game, in fact I enjoyed so much that I put it on my list. Aaron

Despite my gripes with game it is just too expansive and varied to not be on my list. It’s so varied that the Naval battles could easily be a game in itself and the free-running amongst the trees is one of the best gaming moments this year. Henry

3. Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 is quite possibly one of the best social experiences I have played this year. Of course playing solo and grabbing loot has its merits, more so than the last trip, but the real experience is in getting togther a crew and demolishing the bandit scum from the suprisingly picturesque Pandora. With a billion guns and hundreds of different enemy types, variety is the suprise of life here, betraying the repetitive kill loot repeat mechanic and the fact you just shoot stuff continuously.

Filled to the brim with anarchic humour and a barrage of popular meme references. So many references in fact, that one can play a meta game to find every single one. So far the secret Minecraft cave in Caustic Caverns and the double rainbow in the Highlands are my favourite random meme highlights. Anyway, this latest trip to the Borderlands is probably my favourite gaming moment of the year, and it should be yours too. Alex

Gearbox took the best bits of the anarchic Borderlands and tarted up the areas of the first game that were a little saggy and rough around the edges. After a story that was by its own admission mostly “tentacles and disappointment” they could have let the loot heavy mix of shooter and RPG do the heavy lifting for them, but to their credit they went all out with a game that contains some of the best lines and dialogue since Portal 2. Ryan

2. Journey

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Journey made it into our overall number 2 spot! As you may have noticed this list is chockfull of AAA material (not always a bad thing). I would of loved to of seen more indies cut the mustard, but if there was to be one in particular that would bring it home I’m glad thatgamecompany‘s gaming marvel did.

Few, what to say? I’ve sung praise for this game like a broken record throughout 2012 and will undoubtedly do the same for years to come. It’s made me laugh, it’s made me cry, it made me pensive on life and everything else in-between. Please, please if you own a PlayStation 3 at least give three ponds a month play it once in your lifetime. Because attempting to explain it anymore shall tarnish something of a video game rarity.

I’ve sat upon that famous mountain top with a many anonymous scarfed companion now, and yet to still take those final steps together doesn’t get any easier, I miss them all, every one. No questions asked this is my Game of the Year. Mark

1. Mass Effect 3

I don’t care about the ending scandal. It never bothered me, because in all honesty, a rubbish ending wasn’t enough to sully what was otherwise one of the best gaming achievements in a long time. Now I may have cried at the end of The Walking Dead, but it didn’t have me in tears at the end of every mission like ME3 did.

For me, Mass Effect was never about the moral choices (although that was a big part of what I loved about it), but instead about the game-spanning relationships with a ton of interesting characters, and seeing these relationships reach their peaks in the finale of the trilogy was a high point for me. Nothing quite matches Liara’s heartfelt words that she spoke into her Shepard time-capsule, or the secret snuggles we had after. I genuinely can’t think of a game I enjoyed more in 2012, which is why it’s my Game of the Year, and probably favorite of all time. Ever. Aaron 

Despite THAT ending, I thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect 3. It continued the refinement of the action gameplay and offered closure for many subplots. Henry

thumbACTIVE’s Games of the Year 2012 fin.

All done? Good. And now for some special mentions to a mix of games that didn’t quite make the cut… Dust: An Elysian Tail, Asura’s Wrath, Far Cry 3, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Forza Horizon, LEGO The Lord of the Rings, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Guild Wars 2.

What do you have in store for us 2013? As us here at thumbACTIVE can’t wait!

The post thumbACTIVE’s Games of the Year 2012 appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

So folks, here are my picks of 2012 (could be classed as a games of the year list if you so wish)…

12. A Theme Tune of Awesomeness

I’ve played some pretty awesome titles this year (if you read on all shall be revealed) but none managed to top this one in the opening theme tune department. Awesomenauts a 2D MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) nailed it, 80s morning cartoon nailed it. Hey! Listen…

A game that manages to get you vocalising in the shower is deserved of any list. Musical hijinks aside it’s also a fun little blastathon to boot.

11. Backward Rhythm Action

I’ve always had (and always will have) a soft spot for rhythm action games. I blame being a drummer, that and a papery rapping dog, plus a certain Space Channel 5 reporter. It’s unsurprising then that Retro/Grade made my 2012 wonder limelight. What made it memorable though, apart from its thumping ‘All Your Bass Are Belong to Us level’, was its premise.  Technically speaking you’re playing a sidescrolling shoot ‘em up in reverse. It’s your task to undo all your destruction in a to-the-beat funky fashion, now that’s just ace.

10. Pleasingly Muddy Handheld 3D

Handheld gaming always deserves a shout. PLAY MUTANT MUDDS! There, I’ve done my part. I admit I’ve struggled to correctly digest the Nintendo 3DS’ optical aspects, more often than not I find myself in cross-eyed predicaments. However, earning the award for simple yet well-executed 3D this year goes to Renegade Kid’s tricky little platformer. Background, middle and foreground plains was all it needed to create visually satisfying depth. And for one more shout out: IT’S GOT A CRACKIN’ CHIPTUNE SOUNDTRACK! Done.

9. Surviving One of Alan Wake’s Nightmares

Believe it or not Remedy’s tortured author made a return this year. Albeit in a brief pulpier cranked up one. I love me some ol’ fighting with light, so revisiting Mr. Wake’s turmoil was very welcome. Why Alan Wake’s American Nightmare has made the cut though, is due to it gifting me with the most memorable Achievement pop of the year. I was a juddering wreck after claiming Survivor (Get 70,000 points in any Nightmare Arcade level.) and loved every panic induced second of it!

8. The Sights and Sounds of Point ‘n’ Click Botany

When something strikes you as weird it resonates. Botanicula is weird, but a very loveable and memorable kind of weird. It’s a daft audiovisual phenomenon with a positive moral undercurrent. If you enjoy titles that only require use of the mouse I urge you to check this one out. I don’t think I’ll forget saving a miniature flightless chicken from being the dinner for a family of singing conkers anytime soon.

7. Cel-shaded Looting Addiction Take 2

After my first trip to Pandora I thought I’d just about had my fill of shootin’ ‘n’ lootin’. I was wrong. A fresh slate of characters, sleeker weaponry and a richer mix of environments yanked me straight back in. Borderlands 2 knew how to build on the strengths of its predecessor offering a more rewarding package. As far as shooting things in the face in a first-person perspective goes, this year, this was where it was at.

6. Cracking the Cubic Code

I did it! Somehow I managed to crack the complexities within. Technical hiccups aside Fez is a striking game in many ways. A pixelated homage of yesteryear which was an utter joy to play. It was only the realisation upon a second playthrough that the true depth of this game arose. Like last year’s ilomilo (my GOTY of 2011) Gomez’s adventure put my gaming braincells to the test. The only game this year which required a pen, notepad AND controller to fully accomplish.

5. I Am Alive and Climbing

Ubisoft’s I Am Alive caused a mixed bag of critical reaction. A post-apocalyptic epic shoehorned into a downloadable packet. Personally, I adored it. Exploring the dusty streets of Haventon was harrowingly engrossing, here is a survival game where for once you actually feel the odds are stacked against you. What struck me the most was the desperate and almost tactical approach needed for the climbing sections. You know you’re in for a memorable moment when you clinging off a crumbling skyscraper accompanied by a wilting stamina bar and a dramatically impending motif.

4. 100+ Hit Combos from Anthropomorphic Critters

My biggest surprise this year was courtesy of Mr Dean Dodrill. I was not expecting his solo effort (give-and-take) debut to grip me quite like it did. Dust: An Elysian Tail ticks all the boxes of just how a satisfying video game should be. A robust Metroidvania styled hack-and-slash with a loveable forth wall breaking cast. The most enjoyable quality being that of its combo infused combat. Stringing together endless chains of serrated blade swipes and magical ‘Fidget’ projectiles warmed the gaming soul.

3. Phoebe Shepard’s Farewell

A trilogy of investment drew to a close this year. I already miss my Sole Surviving Sentinel Spacer Heroine (with a dash of Renegade when required) of Mass Effect. She loved her crew, made tough decisions and overall kicked space beastie booty. Yes, Phoebe you were MY Shepard green eyes, scars and all to the bitter end. Mass Effect 3 needless to say was an event, full of moments with emotional payoffs for characters we all grew to love in our very own unique ways.

2. Strategic Punishment from Unknown Enemies

When you sink thirty odd hours into a first playthrough, only to then crave for instant seconds, in short means you have a quality title on your hands. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is just that. It’s a rebooted dream for the turn-based strategist who prefers the ergonomically grooved grip that consoles offer, and a punishing difficulty curve that leaves you begging for more. I’ve lost far too many great men and women to the alien threat, but when I’m bringing back breathing intel this in turn outweighs the KIA consequences. My biggest 2012 gaming addiction right here, right now.

1. My First Journey (and the rest…)

And here it is, 2012 gaming at its greatest. It’s not often I stumble across a form of media that completely strips me away from my surroundings. Yes the hours slip away, but I always know the pause button is nearby. My first experience with Journey managed to cut that cord. An absolutely unforgettable couple of hours where simply put, I became ‘one’ with my telly, speakers and PlayStation 3. thatgamecompany have managed to craft a form of interactive entertainment here which causes anonymous players to grow unbreakable bonds. To me that’s something truly special. No other video game moved me quite like Journey this year and I’m not entirely sure one will ever again…

An intriguing year overall for the industry to say the least. I think this is whereabouts 2013 comes in then.

Other 2012 special mentions: Rayman Origins, Beautiful Katamari, Red Dead Redemption and Super Stardust HD which I also played for the very first time this year. However seeing as they weren’t released this side of 2011 including them in this list would of been cheating!

The post 12 Gaming Wonders of 2012 appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

Skyrim, Tamriel - Skyrim

First stop on our holiday list is Skyrim, the proclaimed (by me) Lapland of Tamriel. It’s a little known fact that Santa is actually a Nord who hails from this polar country, and he has been spotted many a time crossing the horizon on his reindeer-drawn sleigh to spread joy across all the land. Please note that the increase in dragon activity in Skyrim in recent years may have contributed to the fact that Santa has not been seen for the past two Christmas Eves , and that your travel agent cannot be held responsible if you aren’t lucky enough to see him. Skyrim also has a number of cities for you to visit, such as the fabulously metropolitan Solitude where you can tour the Bard’s Academy or, if you’re feeling gung-ho enough, even join an imperialist military operation to help crush the resistance of the local natives. If you do decide to explore the wilderness, please be careful not to wake any undead and do be aware that death by giant is a very real possibility. There have also been reports of a man going around the countryside incessantly shouting the same three words – you will likely hear him before you see him and locals recommend hiding until he’s gone.

Where are you, Santa?

Rook Islands - Far Cry 3

This location somewhere in the Pacific is the perfect, untamed island paradise for thrill-seekers and adventurers alike. If you like lots of sunshine during your Christmas then this could be for you. History buffs will also be at home here as there are plenty of ruins on the island to uncover – from excavated temples of the indigenous people, to unused World War II bunkers. Please be aware that, for whatever reason, many of the bunkers we never cleared out after the war so it’s very likely that you may stumble across the untouched corpses of Allied and Japanese soldiers. If this does happen don’t worry, in fact many locals will be willing to part with money to get their hands on any old dog-tags you might come across. We have also been advised to inform you that the wildlife here is known to be very aggressive and that it would be a good idea to take an experienced hunter with you if you do decide to explore the jungle. There are rumours that pirates operate on the island, but please don’t let this influence your decision to travel as there has so far been no evidence to support this claim. If, however, you do find yourself being kidnapped and sold into slavery, please note that you are worth far more alive than dead and that neither us nor your travel agent can be held liable for any damages done to your physical or emotional well-being.

Paradise

The Frontier, North America - Assassin’s Creed III

Christmas in the Frontier couldn’t be more traditional. When you arrive you’ll discover a charming, snow-blanketed forest dotted with sleepy colonial villages complete with wood cabins, churches and barns. We’ll forgive you for thinking you’ve stepped into a Christmas card. Optional excursions include learning to hunt, sailing the East Coast and visits to the nearby cities of Boston and New York. You should be aware before travelling that due the political climate between the Americans and the English, battles have been frequently known to break out in the Frontier. If you do find yourself in the midst of one, please do your best to ensure your personal survival by avoiding any crossfire and not standing in the vicinity of a canon explosion.

Like a Christmas card

Banoi, South Pacific - Dead Island

This tropical island has seen a decline in tourism over the past year or so, and we can’t think why. With it’s year-round sunshine, stunning beaches and thriving nightlife, there couldn’t be a better place to escape from the stress of Christmas than Banoi. The sprawling Royal Palms Resort contains a luxury, all-inclusive hotel with access its own casino as well as the numerous pool and lobby bars dotted around the area where you are sure to spend a very messy Christmas Eve. The capital city of Moresby is just a stone’s throw away and, although not ideal for tourists, is a great place to do a bit of shopping and to pick out the perfect souvenir to bring home with you. Banoi has recently been host to a very intricate zombie apocalypse hoax which could explain the lack of tourism, although rest assured that we have your personal safety at the forefront of our concerns when sending you on your holiday. In the rare occurrence that you do find yourself in the midst of a zombie outbreak be sure to remember to arm yourself with any available weapons (oars are freely available around the island) and to always aim for the head. Again, we cannot be held responsible for any trauma suffered on your trip and, after checking with the claims department, can confirm that your health insurance will not cover zombie bites, scratches or dismemberments.

Hungover. Literally.

Silent Hill, Maine - Silent Hill

Silent Hill is famous for its charming resort on the shores of Toluca Lake. What makes this small town perfect for a Christmas break is the fact that recent visitors to the town have reported a year-round snowfall – what more could you want out of a festive getaway? The Lakeview Hotel is a lovely building with a restaurant and bar which will serve seasonal treats throughout your stay (although one unfortunate guest did report being served a plate of pickled light-bulbs) and has easy access to the nearby Lakeside Amusement Park, a great place to take the kids. Central Silent Hill isn’t far from the hotel either, so why not go for a romantic stroll in Rosewater Park or do a bit of antiquing at Green Lion Antiques? You may have heard tell of a cult residing here, but we urge you to ignore these rumours and insist that this fictional cult has no connection whatsoever to the excess of missing persons reports which you may come across in relation to the town. It is also worth noting that the year-round snowfall comes hand-in-hand with an nonseasonal fog that has in the past caused several car accidents. We urge any visitors to the town to drive carefully and, if you happen to see a young girl in the road, do not under any circumstances swerve to avoid her – this is paramount if you intend to fully enjoy your stay.

The charming Lakeview Hotel

We hope that this list will be helpful to you when deciding where to go this holiday season and, wherever your travels take you, wish you a very merry Christmas!

DISCLAIMER: We take no responsibility for any deaths, personal injuries, thefts, assassinations, kidnappings, zombie conversions, mental breakdowns or disappearances that may occur during your trip. If you are in any doubt in regards to your holiday, please consult your travel agent or insurance provider who may be able to give you further details. We also advise bringing a blunt weapon and firearm.

The post Festive Holiday Locations appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

A follow-up from last years The Book of Unwritten Tales, Critter Chronicles is a charming yet occasionally frustrating grin-fest that’s deeply rooted in the tradition of Monkey Island era point and click adventures. It follows the adventures of a naive adventurer called Nate, whom seems to be modeled on Zapp Brannigan, and the critters themselves; an alien species which appear to be the Jim Henson answer to purple nostril hair. It’s all dressed up in an adorably cute fairy tale style which often guises the game’s surprising adult tone. Most of this “mature/immature” content would fly over the heads of younger gamers who will probably be enamored by the story telling, slapstick nature and general silliness of the plot, but drunk penguins and chuckle inducing jabs at oh-so-serious organisations like PETA should induce an adult smile.

Critter Chronicles may not be the most technologically advanced game in the world, but the art design is quite beautiful and well considered. Each scene looks wonderful combining fairy tale aesthetic with a colorful Monsters Inc  style playful backdrop for alien interiors. The animation of the critters is fluid and fun to watch. In comparison to Nate’s clunky animation, the smoothness and goofiness of the purple hero you later control is reminiscent of classical stop motion control in the Morph/Wallace and Grommit vein of things. Voice acting in general is fun and in keeping with the tone of the game. The word pantomime springs to mind, with characterization feeling purposely over the top in a very clever grandiose way. They’re the kind of the performances that draw back memories of visiting the local Christmas pantomime and watching defunct soap stars try and claim back some of their “former glory” whilst dressed in drag. I don’t mean that in a negative way, because overall it’s in keeping with over the top and generally silly tone of the Critter Chronicles experience.

Silliness aside there are few problems in the way the story is presented. You take control of two different characters, the always charismatic scene chewing Nate and the dopey Muppet hero who desperately wants to make his girl happy and do the right thing. Whilst the latter is often adorable and cute in a Wall-E kind of way (h1e’s the only Critter who can’t speak English), and his clumsy shenanigans often bring around a smile, he doesn’t quite live up to the boisterous and lively nature of his co-star. Unfortunately as the game progresses even his pop-culture laden comments (there’s a great scene early in the game which parodies Empire Strikes Back) starts to fall a bit flat. Irrelevant pop-culture references are thrown at you at every single opportunity. Whilst they may provoke the odd laugh or two at first, after a while it becomes numbing and you become immune to their charms. That being said Critter Chronicles is still a very funny game, even if at times the humor outstays it’s welcome.

Like most entries into the genre, Critter Chronicles is build around environmental puzzles. Nate may be dimwitted but he sure does have a MacGyver-esque prowess when it comes to escaping impossible situations. Utilizing items in the environment to escape situations and solve puzzles can be a lot of fun, but at the same time it can be incredibly frustrating. Experimentation is key, but because there is specific way and order in which you need to solve puzzles it feels less like creative engineering and more like clicking on stuff till it works. It can become very convoluted at times, with each action feeling like another layer of padding to extend the scene.

The Book of Unrwitten Tales: Critter Chronicles is not a difficult game, but somehow it imposes a kind of artificial difficulty in the way that one must solve puzzles in a very specific way. Sometimes it defy’s all logic, and other times it gets in the way of progressing through the chapter. Don’t get me wrong, some of the puzzles are fun to solve and the outcomes are often unexpected with plenty of twists on the horizon. That kind of ingenuity is what you want to find in a point and click adventure game. Solutions often go wrong with hilarious outcomes and that’s both a refreshing and surprising way of handling the puzzle format.

The Book of Unwritten Tales: Critter Chronicles is not a bad game. In fact it’s charm, humor and artistic style often lift it above it’s problems with frustrating, occasionally lackluster puzzles, creating a memorable experience. But when the game part of the game becomes so incredibly tedious it hampers what’s often a charming tale of hilarious narcissistic captains, evil looking penguins and adorably goofy space aliens.  It’s a shame then because KING Art get so much right with this game, from the tone to the interesting characters that you actually care about. Either way this ten to twelve hour experience should be on the cards for those with an undying love for the point and click puzzle genre. 

The post The Book of Unwritten Tales: Critter Chronicles Review appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

10. Rainbow 6: Patriots

Theres no messing around for these elite soldiers!

Another Tom Clancy game on the list but this time from the awesome Rainbow 6 franchise. One of the new features in Patriots that interests me the most is the supposedly intense and ultra-realistic story line inspired by real life events. I found the story lines in the previous games to be a bit generic and not well told but the gameplay was so good it didn’t really matter.  We can also expect multiple storyline threads where we play as different characters along the way and probably a moral decision feature as featured in a lot of modern games. According to Ubisoft a lot of emphasis has been put on developing the team/squad management and perhaps it will even bring back the detailed plan system of the olden days of Rainbow 6. I hope this one is as good as it sounds.

9. Injustice: Gods Among Us

The Flash fighting Solomon Grundy… why not?

What could be more awesome than being able to take control of your favourite DC characters and make them kick each other’s asses? The amazing Neteherealm studios, responsible for the fantastic 2011 Mortal Kombat game, have turned their heads to the world of the DC super heroes. The new game aims to bring the Injustice storyline from the comic book world to the consoles. I am really looking forward to this as the last Mortal Komabt did an amazing job of creating an interesting storyline with cutscenes for an arcade fighter. Just think what they could do with the detailed backstories from the DC Universe.

8. South Park: The Stick of Truth

Wow just for a minute there I thought I was playing Final Fantasy… Hmm maybe not quite

This one is more of an interest as to just how this game is going to turn out. A South Park RPG based off of the Lord of the Rings inspired episode “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers”. The game has been written by Trey and Matt and they are overseeing the entire project as well.  My main thoughts are that RPG games tend to be successful when they are immersive and create a Universe that you want to be in. I wonder if the novelty of I being South Park characters will wear off soon but nevertheless this one is going to be interesting.

7. God of War: Ascension

Hopefully not all of the effort has gone into the multiplayer mode

After Kratos pretty much destroyed the entire group of Olympian Gods, many of us wondered what need there would be for a new game. Well God of War Ascension is a prequel to the others taking place just after the God of War Ares has saved Kratos’s life on the field of battle. The main game revolves around Kratos trying to release himself from the control of Ares after he submitted his life to Ares to save himself from death. Given that Kratos will be more human than we have ever seen before I can’t imagine that everything has gotten bigger but hopefully the gameplay is better in depth and variety. I really hope that this game hasn’t focused its efforts all on the multiplayer.

6. The Last of Us

The environments and characters are really beautiful

Naughty Dog reinvented themselves and put them back at the top with their immensely successful Uncharted series. This time they have gone a slightly different way and have created the Last of Us. A post-apocalyptic survival game based heavily on the friendship that is created by a man and a girl who are both lost in this world. Now this post-apocalyptic story has been told again and again but hopefully Naughty Dog has intended to focus the story primarily on the friendship between the two characters.  So far the gameplay looks to have a very similar mechanic to Uncharted but with some added survival features.

5. The Last Guardian

It’s part bird, part cat? part…I’m not sure what?

The Last Guardian has been talked about and been in development for years. It is ridiculously overdue and many fear it will never fear the light of day. I, however, am optimistic and expect great things. The game looks like it will mainly be a mix of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. It will feature the giant creatures in the form of the overgrown strange Griffin like creature but the boy and the creature will share a relationship similar to the boy and the girl from ICO. I hope this game really does come out but so far it is still looking uncertain as technical issues are plaguing the gameplay.

4. Tomb Raider

Can’t wait for the much more grittier version of Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider has been running for so long that it did eventually need a reboot to bring it into the more gritty video game era. The new one looks to be just what was necessary. Tomb Raider aims to be more about Lara as a character than just about the new environments she is in. It tells the origin story and will be very emotional and cinematic. I think this one will be great. What we Know about Tomb Raider.

3. MGS Revengeance

Poor Raiden, what have they done to you!

Anyone who has read the recent Should we be Worried about MGR Revengeance post will know that I am not too sure how this game will turn out but nevertheless I still can’t wait to see what it looks like. To be fair even a bad Metal Gear would probably be a decent game compared to most. Given that Kojima Productions is supposedly still responsible for the story and the cutscenes, I am confident that, that part will be interesting and as long as ever! I hope the gameplay hasn’t turned into a generic hack and slash based around the gimmicky sword controls filled with quick-time events.

2. Beyond Two Souls

Cools gals don’t look at explosions…

Heavy Rain is one of my all time favourite games. Having never played Fahrenheit, I hadn’t experienced this type of interactive story ever before and it blew me away. So when I found out they were making a new one I was ecstatic. Beyond Two Souls aims to take Quantic Dream back to their roots of doing paranormal/psychological thriller games. This game looks to be just as emotionally intense as Heavy Rain. It features so highly on my list as Heavy rain really changed the way  see games so I cannot wait to see how this one will turn out. What we know about Beyond Two Souls.

1. GTA V

The Hydra is back!

It is another GTA, how will it not be awesome? This game will take over our lives for weeks upon release.  Initially I was disappointed to see that it was remaking the San Andreas world but after some deliberation I am becoming convinced that this could be a good thing. The San Andreas world has a perfectly justified reason to combine desert, city, mountains and countryside, having this variety of environments allows for a lot of diversity in missions and vehicles. I want this game to be ridiculously huge. I want it to be bigger and more detailed than even San Andreas. Fortunately planes are back and the trailers even show the return of the Hydra. It’s funny to go back to San Andreas and really look again and how needlessly complicated and detailed they made it. This comes from developers having a huge passion for a game and I hope the trend continues onto this one.

The post Top 10 Anticipated Games of 2013 appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

As in these type of games the battles take place over small arenas and the main objective is to win by destroying each others primary tower. You play in teams with other people and you all have control of a particular character or ‘guardian’. Also on your team is a continuous stream of foot soldiers that you use as cannon fodder as you try to destroy the enemies defensive towers.

The main objective is to battle your way down the lanes to the enemies tower!

The map is laid out with your base in one corner, the enemies base in the other, and the lanes connecting the two and both teams battle for control of the lanes as they slowly push towards the bases. As the battles can be quite fierce and evenly match you spend most of your time battling for control of the middle ground.

There are a few different attack types available for you to use as you attack the enemy. Firstly you have the primary attack which you use most of the time for attacking the foot soldiers and then you have 4 special attacks which are more powerful, but they do require cool down time.

At the beginning of each fight your character starts off at level 1 and by defeating footsoliders, guardians, creatures or by destroying towers your character will gain XP and level up allowing you to increase the strength of the special attacks. Another good way to quickly get XP is to fight some neutral characters that hide in the arena, these can be spiders, wargs, trolls… etc.

At certain levels you unlock the ability to upgrade the defence towers and modify the type of ground troups at your disposal. It is essential to keep on top of this as it can make a huge difference in strategy later on. Strategy is definitely important and even though you will fail miserably to begin with you can feel that it will just take some time to learn the strategies before it becomes really rewarding, and don’t worry, it does!

Completing fights earns you money which you can spend on things like new characters. The characters in the game are somewhat different than you might expect and even though the game has the movie licenses it doesn’t really feel like that is fully utilised. There are a few well known characters such as Gandalf, Legolas, Sauron Witch-King, but then there is also a lot of ones only coming about from the books and the Hobbit movie. Anyone who has played Battle for Middle Earth 2: Rise of the Witch-King will recognise quite a few.

Different from in-game levels are ranks. As you rank up you have access to potions and commands to use in battles. The potions can be used to heal and commands can be used to order troups and they act like a powerful attack.

A nice flashback to the Fellowship of the Ring as Galadriel uses a special attack.

Primarily you will be always online fighting other players and working in teams of up to 5 aside. However in the custom match option you can set up a match with purely AI characters if you feel you want some practice but the AI for the guardians is definitely a bit lacking usually resulting in them running in circles doing little to contribute to the fight.

There are definitely some network issues in the form of lag and connection times so you had better be prepared to be patient. If do manage to get started the game does become addictive and you feel the need to keep on fighting to unlock new characters, potions and commands. Also each character has a few character specific objectives to help keep you interested.

After a few minutes of playing the fact that it is Middle-Earth based really becomes forgetful and I feel there is a lot of missed potential considering they had access to such an amazing franchise. For example they don’t even use the official voices and the imitations are somewhat laughable. There is an argument to be made that they are just going for a different art style using the same material but even the arena’s feel rather generic and not using some of the material they could have. However, it is quite well made and the graphics are great for a downloadable game and costs around 1200 Microsoft points for the season pass.

So why would you pay for this when you can play League of Legends for free? Well, Guardians of Middle-Earth has been specifically designed for console play and it does a great job of bringing it to the console. If you aren’t much of a PC gamer and have been looking to get started in the addictive multiplayer arena battles then the Guardians of Middle-Earth is a great starting place.

The post Guardians of Middle-Earth Review appeared first on thumbACTIVE.

[pullquote]Asura’s Wrath is in my opinion the very antithesis of an easy cash grab release. It was never destined to sell anywhere near the quantities of the likes of Call of Duty or Fifa despite being much more interesting than those two franchises.[/pullquote]

Quite frankly, I can forgive Capcom some of their more questionable actions, simply for having the sheer nerve to release Asura’s Wrath. This is a game that must have left scores of traumatized victims in their marketing department reaching for the Prozac whilst sobbing gently to themselves in a padded room. Asura’s Wrath is in my opinion the very antithesis of an easy cash grab release. It was never destined to sell anywhere near the quantities of the likes of Call of Duty or Fifa despite being much more interesting than those two franchises. At the same time, in terms of the actual game experience, it is inferior to those games and what many would consider a standard triple A game release. I pity anyone who had to review Asura’s Wrath back when it came out at the beginning of the year.

At it’s core Asura’s Wrath can be divided fairly evenly into three parts. You got your Rez/Child of Eden style “shoot anything that moves” sections. Then there are moments where you are punching the hell out of legions of enemies and bosses. It has a simple fighting system that rewards timing and picking the right moment to attack as opposed to mashing buttons like someone having a seizure. Then there are the QTE driven cutscenes that usually drive me nuts in games but are so well utilized here that I was gleefully looking forward to the next ludicrous action sequence just to see how they would top the previous one. Combined, they take the shape of a game that I can honestly say is one of the most exhilarating videogame experiences of my life.

Asura is far too angry and intense a man to let such little things such as being impaled multiple times slow him down.

Despite that rather hyperbolic statement Asura’s Wrath has a crippling shortcoming when it comes to replay value, in the fact that it has none. The game encourages you to attempt to squeeze more life out it through achievements and score chasing but nothing can hide the fact that once completed the very nature of the game makes going back for another go an exercise in rapidly diminishing returns. And herein lies the paradox, whilst I would normally recommend anyone play this game without hesitation, the fact that it still commands a high price is enough to make people think twice about such a purchase.

[pullquote]Playstation Plus membership would be the perfect delivery mechanism for a game such as Asura’s Wrath.[/pullquote]

If games were more commonly distributed in a way more akin to say television broadcasts this would be a non issue. You may pay a set amount to access TV or movie channels but once that payment is taken into account no one thinks twice about watching a film or a TV show that may not stand up to repeat viewing. Playstation Plus membership would be the perfect delivery mechanism for a game such as Asura’s Wrath, but it has to my knowledge never been offered to subscribers of the Plus service. Alternatively this game would make an ideal pack in title for new hardware. Microsoft and Sony have been offering digital copes of certain titles for a while now, but it seems they are often the more usual suspects as opposed to quirky and unique titles that could show off your shiny new hardware purchase.

It seems a shame that Asura’s Wrath may be destined to remain one of those niche games that are praised by critics yet ignored by consumers. In that sense, I am reminded of Okami, another Capcom title that despite its brilliance has never seen the success it deserved. As long as Capcom are still willing to take chances and allow developers to make such gems then I guess I can cut them a little slack for their recent misdemeanors. Longevity aside, CyberConnect2 and Capcom have taken what could be considered shallow game mechanics and wrapped it around a fantastic videogame experience. For anyone who bemoans the lack of originality and stagnation in the twilight years of the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 this should be the first port of call to something a little bit different, a little bit crazy and a little bit unique.

The post Anger management issues: Looking back at Asura’s Wrath appeared first on thumbACTIVE.