PixlBit

The flash clone died soon thereafter.

As a huge Halo fanboy, I’m happy to take any non-Master Chief content the good brand managers at Microsoft are willing to toss out there. After getting fairly hooked on the Halo novels, and finding that the universe created to support a space marine shooter was actually pretty interesting, I’ve often pined for actual games that use this setting in completely new ways. Halo 3: ODST was a fantastic side-step and Halo Wars reportedly made a great effort at a console RTS, but the latest attempt to get Halo characters not wearing green body armor on your Xbox, Halo: Spartan Assault, smacks of an easy cash grab.

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Sweet eye candy with a bitter gameplay aftertaste

Forza Motorsport 5 is probably one of the most beautiful games I’ve played to date. Honestly, it’s not uncommon for me to stop paying attention when I should be braking into a turn, simply because the beautifully crafted background grabbed my attention -- much like a gorgeous woman gracefully striding past me on the sidewalk. And, just like how I often walk face-first into a sign or lamp post while gawking at a stunning woman, my Forza 5 car often slams into a concrete barrier while cruising at 200 mph with my focus on the magnificent graphics as opposed to the course ahead.

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I love you, you love me...

Howdy folks! Julian here again. It's close to Valentine's Day, or Single Awareness Day as I like to call it. Last year, Patrick came up with a very smart, high-brow topic, but this year I decided to be super uninspired and talk about romance in vidya games. Join us, will you?

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“Amnesia? Again?!?”

There’s a special place in hell for JRPG fans.  Their sin?  Playing the same game with the same story over and over without complaining once.  I suppose there are worse crimes than this, but there is a sort of masochistic glee in which JRPG fans partake in their vice.  Perhaps we love grinding and crafting so much that we don’t really care about the story too much – despite our claims that we play these games for the tales they tell.  Perhaps it’s the newness of the dungeons or the shiny equipment that makes the tedium of saving the world over and over remain novel.  But, despite these tropes, this genre seems to continue on, and sometimes even with some of the most loathed archetypes and clichés, JRPGs can rise to heights other genres can’t. 

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Rise from your grave! And embark on a mediocre adventure!

Altered Beast was Sega’s showcase game for the Genesis debut, doing its best to attract extreme-minded 90s teens with its muscular protagonist who could transform into kick-ass werewolves and dragons. Although I was smack dab in the middle of the game’s focus group at the time, I was dorkier than Sega ever imagined and wasn’t interested in the least. With M2’s 3D conversion of Altered Beast hitting the 3DS, I figured it deserved another chance, and boy am I completely indifferent about my experience.

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