Genres

Bungie’s involvement with the Halo universe is no more. The longtime developer of the FPS that breathed new life into consoles, shooters and hell, let’s just say it—online gaming—is off to next-gen pastures leaving developer 343 Industries to continue Master Chief’s tale with a new series known as The Reclaimer Trilogy.

When Super Mario Bros. arrived, beating the game was a source of pride for most players. Those with poor reflexes or a low threshold for frustration would fizzle out before finally finding the right castle and saving the princess, but more tenacious players would stick it out, replaying the levels over and over until they could zoom through Mario’s adventure with perfect precision and timing. Eventually, merely beating the game wasn't enough, and the question became “How quickly can you beat it?” This gave birth to the gaming subculture of speed runners ...

Lord of the Rings: War of the North was supposed to be a darker, more adult game for those of us old enough to appreciate the films when they first came out. It was going to have a deeper story, more intense combat (complete with decapitations and blood – adult stuff) and it was going to show a side to Middle Earth we’d rarely seen, let alone in video games. War of the North was also publisher Warner Brothers’ first chance to show the world what they could do with their newly acquired Lord of the Rings licence.

Stealth games are an odd sort. Numerous titles these days feature at least some sort of stealth mechanic, but most of them don't use the concept of “stealth” as the primary gameplay element. In recent years, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored served as examples of developers longing to bring back the stealth genre that was so popular at the turn of the century. While both titles were fine games, to me they still felt a bit lacking in terms of stealth mainly due to the fact both games featured numerous other styles of gameplay which rendered some of the ...

Having received over 50 E3 awards globally, Dishonored has surpassed all expectations and even managed to snag Spike TV’s Video Game Award for ‘Best Action Adventure Game of 2012’ as well as IGN’s award for ‘Best Overall Action Game of 2012’. Hosting a unique water color art style and played from a first-person perspective, this unparalleled experience is meant to be tailored to each player’s preferences and moral compass.

Dishonored came out of nowhere to become the surprise hit of 2012. As a new IP developed by the relatively unknown studio, Dishonored's chances of scoring big with both critics and gamers seemed low. However, through a combination of inventive gameplay mechanics, and a very original setting, the game has managed to prove that innovation is still alive and thriving in big-budget game development.

The Binding of Isaac is a 2D indie game, and is, without much of a doubt, near the top of its respective market. The game is based on the biblical story of the same name, in which a little boy called Isaac flees into his basement after having been imprisoned in his room and is now in danger of being murdered by his deranged mother, who believes that these actions must be undertook after, apparently, she was contacted by God ordering her to do so because of his sins. Whilst down in the basement, Isaac faces intense enemies and the continued wrath of his mother!

Max Payne 3 marks the third entry in the gritty action series, and the first to be developed by Rockstar Games. The previous iterations were created by Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment, who then sold the rights to the series in 2002 to Take-Two. Now, a decade later, Max makes his debut on current-gen platforms; how has the grizzled old cop handled the move?

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series is one that needs no introduction. If you and your friends have ever wanted to take those household names from Nintendo’s beloved franchises and have them throw down (If? Ha!), then that was the series you went to. Well, now Sony has thrown their hat into the mix with its own multi-franchise showdown, PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. Now you can pit Sony’s successful franchise front-runners against each other such as Jak and Daxter, Kratos from God of War, Sly Cooper, Cole McGrath from Infamous, Ratchet and Clank, and a ...

Call of Duty has become a yearly phenomenon, breaking record after record on an annual basis. Black Ops 2, the latest in the series, is no exception, bringing together an action packed single player story and a set of chaotic, fast paced multiplayer games to create what is arguably one of the best arcade shooters of this generation. The addition of Treyarch's popular Zombies mode is only that stretch extra. Call of Duty may have its fair share of detractors, but it remains one of the most popular games in the world, and deservedly so.