Action RPG

If you’ve been living in a dark world of Japanese-free gaming, you’ve been sadly missing out on the magic that is Monster Hunter. This franchise has been huge in Japan for years, but has been given only brief moments of North American glory through small PSP and Wii releases. Well all that changes now with a massive blockbuster release of an updated Monster Hunter 3 available on both...

The allure of Skyrim has always been the ability to "speak" to dragons, and the Dragonborn DLC enhances and expands upon this concept in several valuable ways. This DLC packs a 10 + hour wallop, side quests not included, and it's certainly a larger departure than the bite-sized and inconsequential Hearthfire. Solstheim is rife with additional dungeons, mystery, and best of all, dragons. Dragonborn must be accesed...

Looting & Killing In A Cartoon World. With Friends. You would think that with 2012 being the year that Diablo III finally released, that would be the end of that. The king of all action-RPG loot games had finally arrived and everyone else pretending to the throne could just go home early. But no, that’s not the way it’s shaping up at all. On consoles, the shooter...

Death Goes Into Overtime It took a little over a month, but the promised Argul’s Tomb downloadable content is finally here. This new addition is free to anyone who pre-ordered Darksiders II, and for everyone else who didn’t, is going for $6.99 or 560 MS Points. For those who are getting it free, there’s really no point in reading this review, it’s there if you want it....

In Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character is trapped in a never-ending time loop where he is forced to relive the same day. Before the film ends with Murray discovering the value of acting altruistically, he spends much of his time doing all of the petty stuff that most of us would if we were trapped in the same samsara style existence: using his clairvoyant abilities to steal...

Dust: An Elysian Tail hearkens back to a simpler time in the action-RPG genre, where the plot advancement, character development, and exploration factor depended on you. These are all common traits of games released with the PlayStation 2 era, and it’s coincidental, as Dust is reminiscent of the cult Vanillaware hit Odin Sphere. Just without all the pesky chugging while knee-deep in combat. Dust is, in fact, a slicker,...

Death Takes A Holiday The first Darksiders came out in the summer of 2010 and surprised everyone by being a decent, Zelda-esque romp through a post-apocalyptic world as imagined by comic artist Joe Madureira. It was a game that was as much about puzzles, exploration and getting new gear/abilities for further puzzle solving and exploration as it was about the 3rd person, brawling action in tradition of...

The lovable little 3DS has been given grey cartridges containing games of nearly every conceivable genre in its short lifespan, with the notable exception of RPGs and first person shooters. Well, we shouldn’t hold our breath on a portable shoot em’ up coming out on the 3DS anytime soon (a shame because it would look glorious in 3D), however Square Enix just dropped a title onto the 3DS, so...

The world of Skyrim, like so many previous Elder Scrolls titles, is immene. To fathom how many hours it would take one to completely scrutinize all corners of the in-game world is immeasurably difficult. Think you spent a lot of time with Persona 4? Skyrim can certainly rival that. So what's next after creating an expansive, exhaustive adventure? Releasing DLC, of course. Dawnguard is the first piece...

Diablo III (D3) is here. After a 12 year slumber the spawn of hell are once again clawing their way up from the pit to rain destruction on humanity. A select group of warriors fight the menace and bring peace to the land once again. Diablo defined a genre, indoctrinating a generation in the hack, slash, loot mentality. Many games have taken up this style (Torchlight, Titan’s Quest, etc)...

Grimrocking it old school. Legend of Grimrock is a great game from Almost Human Games available now on Steam and Good Old Games. It harkens back to the old classic games of yesteryear, like Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Hack. Classic dungeon crawlers where your party of four explore the dungeon from a first person perspective, moving along a grid based map. You have to overcome varied enemies,...

This Is Not The Aya Brea You’re Looking For The 3rd Birthday was originally announced—to the disappointment of many—as a game feature Parasite Eve heroine Aya Brea, and it was going to be headed for phones as a mobile game. Then somewhere along the line, it switched up gears and went over to the PSP instead. Still not exactly the console revival people were hoping for, but it was...

Round 2 In a bizarre turn of gaming déjà vu, we’re right back at our February issue with a review of a game that we covered in… our February issue 2010. Mass Effect 2 (which won our game of the year and RPG of the year for 2010) is now happily running on the Playstation 3, with a boatload of recompiled extras. It’s time to dig in...

Just two years after the return of the Fable franchise in Fable 2 comes Fable 3, Lionhead Studio’s exceptional realization of the original game's promise. For most of its 20-plus-hour playthrough (including the hefty number of sidequests, plus there's still plenty more to do post-game), Fable 3 maintains the reckless charm of its predecessors. Beyond just delivering the best Fable game to date, Fable 3 also delivers one...

Welcome to Dotnia, a small land rendered completely in 2D and protected by six orbs and six sages. Once upon a time, a long time ago, a Dark King called Onyx captured the sages and stole the orbs. Monsters invaded Dotnia and the land fell into chaos until a young hero arrived to rescue the land with his sacred sword. The hero challenged Onyx and sealed the Dark King...

DeathSpank is only a couple of months old, so when faced with DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, I’m tempted to hit copy/paste and recycle my original review from July. Most of what I said then still applies now, and if you liked the first game, you’ll probably like the second, because it’s essentially more of the same. Is that worth another purchase? It depends, but you could definitely do a...

Tactical Espionage Role-Playing Action Making choices is fun but, for this reviewer at least, making choices regarding dragons and mages (or aliens and robots) is not much fun. Alpha Protocol, the latest title from Obsidian Entertainment— and touted as the “first ever espionage RPG”— , is designed for people like myself — those that love to customize characters and get wrapped up in...

After three years, the folks at BioWare bring us back to the world of Mass Effect with the second game in their remarkable trilogy. Released in 2008, the first game was a solid title that took the choice and dialogue found in RPG Games like Oblivion and mixed them with the action found in 3rd person shooters like Gears of War. Ultimately, it was a...

Nier claims to be an Action RPG, and it does its best to live up to the title. Health, magic, and combat are based on your character’s stats, but there’s no turn-based nonsense and battles are fast-paced affairs involving a lot of blood and a lot of dodging. But Square-Enix’s latest title falls a little short of epic, settling for a more personal narrative...

To be perfectly honest, there’s no reason not to buy DeathSpank. The latest downloadable action-RPG from Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert features hilarious writing and serviceable gameplay, which is far more than you normally get for $15. With that said, the overall experience is so mundane that it almost defies description. DeathSpank is the kind of game that fades as soon as the console is off, even if it...