Dragon Age 2 is one of those games released carrying the burden of high expectations and predefined conceptions, both based on the standards setting success of the previous installment, Dragon Age: Origins. With the RPG genre being probably the most reluctant in the face of evolution, the new Dragon Age was met by the gaming community with mixed feelings, many claiming that the game doesn’t meet the nowadays RPG quota, while others fell instantly in love with what the game has to offer. Everyone is entitled to a personal opinion, but these opinions can be influenced by factors ranging from previous gaming or game developing experience to one’s personal favorite color, so in the end they might not have much value in deciding if a game is good or bad. … More

War is far from over. The murder of Scholar Visari (at the end of Killzone 2), the leader of the rebellious forces, galvanized once more the Helghast into an unstoppable war-machine seeking vengeance at the cost of the ISA troops. The story picks up exactly where the one in the previous installment left off, focusing on the handful of ISA soldiers which were the spearhead of the last assault against the palace, now cut off from the rest of the ISA forces evacuating the planet and left behind on the brutally hostile Helghan homeworld. The start of the game is surprisingly promising from a plot perspective, with new, interesting and highly promising characters joining the old cast on both sides of the barricade and with a flow of events which leaves no room for breathers. The story that follows is … More

Dead Space 2, the survival horror developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts, was one of the most highly anticipated games of the last twelve months. After its release it sky-rocketed in top positions in software charts across the globe and in the UK alone it stood anchored in pole position for two consecutive weeks with competitors such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and Little Big Planet 2 at its heels. And all this not without merit as the game takes the horror genre one step further. A little step, a tiny one even, but nevertheless taken in the right direction.

The action in Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the first episode which focused on the Ishimura tragedy, … More

Final Fantasy is one of the oldest IPs in the industry and over the years its rich JPRG content has been constantly enhanced with each new installment. Whether it was the combat system, the way the characters developed or simply the beautiful story that held everything together in perfect harmony, a FF game always came with the underlined promise of progress, of taking the whole series one step further on the evolutionary ladder. So it comes as a surprise and not a pleasant one to see the game not following its own rules and going for a simpler and accessible approach, especially for a debut on the PS3 and Xbox360 consoles that has been anticipated by fans for so many years. … More

There isn’t much happening on the MMOG market at the moment. There are a few new titles under the consumer’s magnifying glass and the ones released in last two years are still gathering under their banners a decent amount of subscribers. But overall there is nothing out there that has the chance of becoming the next big popular thing. Warhammer Online is a bitter-sweet memory, Aion is as bad as it was hyped and Star Trek Online will probably be assaulted by a large number of trekkies, but has failed so far to impress anyone else. Of course, there is always EVE with its share of fanatic supporters willing to constantly bash any other MMOG while hiding inside a shroud of elitist arguments and constantly turning a blind eye to the game’s large amount of flaws and lack of accessibility. So, with my choices highly limited, I decided to revisit World of Warcraft … More

Have you ever dreamed of saving the galaxy… twice? Well now you can, as the highly anticipated sequel of the famous BioWare RPG is finally out. Two years have passed since Commander Shepard has defended the galaxy from the Reaper threat and saved all organic life from annihilation. Not much has happened since. The newly formed human controlled Council is wasting no effort in burying any Reaper related information and shifting the public’s attention towards the artificially created life form known as the Geth. All inhabitance from some human colonies based in the Terminus Systems are mysteriously disappearing and no one has a clue as to why or how. A new alien race, The Collectors, makes its dramatic stage entry. Oh yes, and there is also the small matter of your death which functions as the main catalyst of the whole sequence of events that hold Mass Effect 2 together. … More

King’s Bounty: Armored Princess, the sequel to King’s Bounty: The Legend, is a turn-based strategy game with a few drops of RPG. Developed by the Russian based studio Katauri Interactive and published 1C Company, the English version of game was launched on the 20th of November 2009 and ever since we haven’t stopped playing. Armed with great patience, unbelievable courage and unquestionable skill, we took on the greatest challenge the game had to offer and… failed vigorously just before the last boss. But after two months of constant struggle and bloody battles, after 1.2 million skeletons turned to dust, 398 thousand demons sent back to hell and after 471 spells cast, we now know enough to give you the most highly detailed review possible. … More

A sequel to the original installment released in 2000 is finally out. If there were prizes given out for originality and innovative design, I’m sure the Majesty series would at least be mentioned as a nominee. Nowadays it’s hard to find a game that attempts to offer something new and if that game is an RTS then the surprise is many times bigger than in the case of other games genre. That’s because the first thing that comes to mind when mimicking strategic warfare in games is that you can’t improve something that has its current form based on centuries of evolution and development. But the truth is that you can, especially if you do no lose sight of the fact that a game should include the element of fun, something the cold reality which functions as inspiration might lack. So instead of using … More

Do you know what happens when mix all the colors together? Basically nothing, you just get an unimpressive grayish brown that can only be used to describe dirt. And this is exactly what happened to The Saboteur, a game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by EA: they took everything good out there and threw into a blender hoping for a magical result. Unfortunately what came out was not a rainbow, but an abomination that feeds on gamers’ fears.

The first thing that drew my attention was the name.  Saboteur – a game I loved back in the days when Commodore was the tip of the technological iceberg and two-frame animations were acceptable. That game’s main character was an athletic female ninja with no notable background, so because of that name I was kind of hoping for something similar when it came to The Saboteur. … More

At the beginning of this month Bioware released its latest fantasy RPG for both PC and consoles, and ever since then it’s been raining roses, praises and applause. But is it really that good or are we again witnessing the power of EA’s marketing’s machine combined with the strength of the hypnotized masses? We’ve invested a few days of gameplay into it to find that out for you.

The character customization section that you will need to go through at the beginning of the game is decent enough and there is a pretty good variety of elements you can mix together in attempting to create something to suit your tastes. But don’t expect it to be extraordinary, because it’s far from it: you can create something… humanoid, but don’t try to create a character that looks, walks and talks just like you because you’ll be wasting your time. … More