Review - Fireburst (PC)

Fireburst is a racing game with an interesting semblance of modern design and a host of major flaws that outweigh any of its potential. Taking a simple boost mechanic and making it both an defensive and offensive measure is a neat idea that is occasionally proven here. Mostly, though, boosting and immolating your way through an attractive wasteland is majorly hobbled by awful collision detection, weird physics, grating audio, and vacant online community. Its concept isn’t totally without merit, but that’s no reason to invest in this poor game.


This review was written for Darkstation. Check it out there.

Review - Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PS3)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a fun but flawed game that incorporates many elements of the open-world racing great Burnout Paradise, with varying degrees of success. Although the multiplayer gives the game its best shot at trouble-free fun, a drab single player and numerous design quirks leave Criterion’s latest a fun racing game that’s clearly short of its full potential.

Read the full review at Darkstation, kid!

Review - Hotline Miami (PC)

Greeted by a council of dangerous men in haunting animal masks, you’re given a series of warnings. This will not end well. You will be punished for your appalling actions. The directives of these creepy figures come for you over your home telephone via some sort of psychosis-inducing hotline. The order is always the same – go to the location given, and kill every last person there. A frightened, long-haired man pays you for your work through pizza boxes, convenience store snacks, drinks at bars, and obtuse chit-chat. And through it all, your character is disturbingly nonplussed by the world around him. Such are the ways of Hotline Miami, a game that merges fairly traditional game elements – running, shooting, snippets of dialogue, high scores – in incredibly gratifying, effective ways that make it more than a summation of its sublime parts. This is a surreal, absurdist action masterpiece, the video game equivalent of a David Lynch film. A nightmarish dive into human depravity, Hotline Miami bolsters its wild and grim presentation with some truly outstanding running and gunning that feels incredibly challenging and responsive. Few games I’ve played are more fun to play, let alone execute so wholly on their mechanics.

This is a game you should most definitely check out.

This review was written for the fine folks at Darkstation. Y'all check it out, y'hear?

What's up on VMU - November

It's Nintendotime for VMU next month.

The WiiU launches in less than three weeks, and I'll be picking up mine the morning of the 18th. I will definitely post a ton of images, and possibly a video or two as well. I'll have reviews of NintendoLand, New Super Mario Bros. U, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and ZombiU before December 1st.

Before the 18th, I'll have a review of Need for Speed Most Wanted, the new Professor Layton, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star. That last one has been my most anticipated game for years. Can't wait to see how it turned out.

VMU's first video feature should begin this month as well. Keep an eye out for that, and have a good, wallet-friendly November.

Review - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (PC)

Things haven’t been going too well for the Tony Hawk franchise in the past, what, decade? Robomodo – the team behind the disastrous skateboard peripheral entries in the series – have taken their third crack at revitalization with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD, a remixed high-def amalgam of the first two Tony Hawk titles. The reworked graphics, new goals, and adherence to the original titles made it a decent proposition for THPS’ many fans on consoles earlier this year, regardless of some noticeably rough edges. Unfortunately, the PC version does not mend any of the wounds that would make this HD celebration of one of the 1990s greatest series a more fitting tribute. In fact, the PC version strips away all of the internet connectivity that made the console versions worth sticking with. With far less to do and a dearth of options, this is certainly the worst version of THPS HD, though that doesn’t mean you won’t get anything out of it.

This review was written for the fine folks at Darkstation. Read the rest there, would'ya?