Game Critique Redux: Super Meat Boy

In December 2010, one of my all-time favorite games was released. I remember hearing little murmurs here and there about this game earlier that year. It was another one of those New Grounds flash games that was about to make it to the big time. I mostly dismissed it, but the game stayed in the back of my mind, if only because of its weirdness. Finally, towards the end of October it released, and at the promotional price of $10, no less. So I thought "What the hell, why not give it a try?" and I downloaded the demo. I nearly passed it up because I thought it would be too difficult for me to enjoy. I've never been more wrong. And so a game I almost didn't give a chance ended up becoming my Game of the Year pick for 2010. I am, of course, talking about Super Meat Boy.

Game Talk: Limbo

The game is this cheerful all the time!

Limbo had a lot of hype behind it when it was released. I remember hearing about it here and there and basically everywhere, but I never payed it much mind. Then, of course, the reviews came out and Limbo was receiving a ridiculous amount of praise, maintaining a 90 on Metacritic. So I figured I had to check it out. I downloaded the trail version of the game which was actually pretty engrossing. Good enough to show off to all of my friends, at least. As the game starts off, you are a young boy lying in the woods. Continuously mashing any button wakes the boy up and then you're on your way. That's it. No explanation. Apparently, he's out to find his sister or something. Immediately I was sucked into the atmosphere and style of the game. It's all grayscale with a kind of grainy old film filter on top of it with a vignette effect that blurs out the edges. To add to the atmosphere, there really is no music in Limbo. For the most part it's all ambient noise, except for a few occasions where a couple of eerie chords sneak in. So the game was able to suck me in. Good.

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning: Worth Playing?

Faeblades are really awesome!

My first impression of Kingdoms of Amalur were based on about 90 minutes of gameplay. I've since played for 10 hours and I've realized that this is a game far too massive to do a single writeup for. Instead, the review will come in parts. In this first installment, I'll explain what Amalur is and is not as well as commenting on what works and doesn't at this point in the game.

Ex Post Facto: BioShock

I've been wanting to do writeups like these for a while now, when we discuss or review some old, now seemingly irrelevant thing, but I couldn't come up with a cleaver name. Since the stuff is old, I figured "retro" or "rewind" but they both sound boring and overused. So I settled on "ex post facto" a Latin phrase meaning "after the action." Seems to fit alright. And it's memorable. So, anyways, not having played BioShock 2 yet, I set out to play me some Bioshock 1. I have come to the conclusion that BioShock is not all that. Maybe it was all that back in 2007, but it's not any more. Why would I cut down BioShock? I'm not, but I just don't think it's as fantastic as people made it out to be. I think maybe people were so blown away with "OMG THIS GAME HAS GOOD STORY AND PLAYS FUN YES!!!1!!!" that they were easily willing to look past all those flaws. So here is a review of sorts of BioShock more than two years after the fact.