Review

Korea, meet your new pastime. Blizzard was tired of seeing a decade-old game broadcast on television all over the country, so they did what no one ever expected: make another. Yes, StarCraft II continues the long-standing legacy of the original RTS, maintaining its true form and balance while updating all else: mechanics, visuals, interface, and storytelling. It keeps your nostalgia while pulling you into the new age of the series and real-time strategy in general.

The first thing people always ask me when they see me playing Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is whether or not you have to pay for cards.  This is a clincher for most people, and I’m happy to assure you all that the only thing you’ll want to purchase after purchasing the game itself, is whatever DLC manages to find its way out onto Steam.  I pre-purchased, so I got the first DLC package free.  Go me.  For everyone else, they ask me if it gives you the same feeling as you do playing Magic: The Gathering in real life, and I can’t answer the question because I’ve never played Magic: The Gathering in real life.  In fact, I don’t think outside of a standard deck of playing cards I’ve ever played a card game in my entire life.  Needless to say I was a little shocked when I had logged my 15^th hour on the first week of purchase.

If you were to hand me a list of arcade games that I would like to see get a graphical update and released on a modern platform, it would be pretty lengthy.  It's no secret that I'm a big fan of just about everything even remotely retro, so when asked to review Sega-AM2's After Burner Climax I was cautiously optimistic.  After all, I had enjoyed the time I spent playing After Burner 2 in the arcades of Shenmue 2.  Hit the boost to find out if After Burner Climax holds up! 
 

Stealth games have a history of being a genre that, unless you're a natural, always has a steep learning curve.  Attempting to play any stealth segment, or even worse, a game built entirely around stealth, can be a very fustrating experience, with even the slightest wrong move resulting in either player death or a failed mission.  In my opinion, the Splinter Cell series has been no exception to this.  However, there has been a recent trend of stealth based games hitting a balance between stealth and playability, that feels just right.  Splinter Cell: Conviction is Ubisoft Montreal's shot at getting on that bandwagon.  Has Sam in his old age found a sweet spot in the shadows, or does he fumble head first into a well lit mission failed screen?  Hit the jump to find out!

Final Fantasy has been a long standing series that has captured the hearts of gamers around the world. From the ground-breaking 3D introduction of Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation to the tragic tale being told in Final Fantasy X on the Playstation 2, the transitions to next-gen consoles have always been huge milestones in the series. Does its new installation, Final Fantasy XIII live up to such expectations? Find out after the break.

The God of War series has always been a "play it once and shelf it" kind of game for me. I enjoyed the first two games in the series immensely, but could never bring myself to play through them multiple times. At the same time, I was incredibly satisfied with the experience the original games offered. Now, SCE Santa Monica Studios has offered its first true HD God Of War title with God Of War III. Is the 4th and final game in this trilogy as satisfying as previous efforts? Hit the jump to find out!

It’s a mystery!  It’s a heresy!  It’s both!  Dawn of War II’s first expansion Chaos Rising breaks the expansion pack mold by offering more content than you can shake a stick at.  I’m not kidding; I wasn’t paid to say that this expansion was well worth the wait.  Over a year after release, Chaos Rising brings you all the blood, guts, and litany from the Warhammer universe and presents you with even more than you would expect.  Dawn of War II gets bloodier with the addition of the Chaos Marines in all aspects of the game, including the recently added Last Stand mode.  What you may not know is that there was a patch added in one day before expansion release that allowed everyone who didn’t have the expansion to take advantage of some of its features.  Even without Chaos Rising you can still experience the new characters in multiplayer modes, and you can play with or against people who own the expansion.  There’s no segregation here.  But that’s all there is on the multiplayer front.  If you sank your teeth into the single player like I did, you’re really in for a treat with Chaos Rising.

Just two weeks after the first Resident Evil 5 DLC pack, "Lost In Nightmares," comes the 2nd DLC pack, "Desperate Escape." Once again we get a chance to revisit the mystery of Kijuju and even get to view it from a different character's perspective. Was it anywhere near as good as the last one? Hit the jump to find out!

When it was first announced that a sequel was going to be made for the Bad Company series, I immediately thought of all the talent at Dice that I felt was wasted. The fact that they had taken a previously PC dominated franchise and turned it into the consolified, toned down game that appealed to the lowest common denominator that Bad Company was, I had lost any hope that I would relive the appeal from Battlefield 2. When I had seen what Bad Company 2 looked like, and heard the explanation of what multiplayer would be like, I was intrigued. When I got to actually play the multiplayer and experience Rush mode for the first time, I was impressed. Upon finally touching the finished product, playing hours and hours of multiplayer and sitting down and playing the single-player, I realized that Dice had become a developer that wants to try new things, and to take those new things and build on them. While some have said Battlefield is always more of the same, I can't help but agree in that you can never have too much Battlefield.

Quantic Dream doesn't want you calling Heavy Rain a game. By self definition, they are referring to it as "Interactive Fiction." Since its unveiling at E3 2006, the game that plays more like a movie has been on most gamers' radars. Being a big fan of Fahrenheit, Quantic Dream's previous offering, this was a game I did not want to miss. But how would it hold up on its release? Is "interactive fiction" something that we would want to play? Or would it just be an extra long, bad movie? Press on to find out!