Review: Banished

Banished is the little town sim that could. Built by the one man team of Shining Rock Software, the game sees you controlling a group of exiles from small beginnings to a burgeoning town of several hundred people over the space of a hundred years or so.

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Out Of The Shadows

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is the best TMNT game there has ever been. If that sounds like faint praise: it is. Even though the game pushes the boundaries of what to expect from a low-budget, licensed beat ’em up, by working the strengths of the franchise (do have a peek at… Continue reading Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Out Of The Shadows

Drox Operative

HERE’S HOW: Repair potholes in an asphalt driveway Dear Tom: Asphalt driveways do require maintenance and people are often surprised at how and why they sometimes deteriorate so quickly. You are correct that hot repairs are the best and longest-lasting. Asphalt gets soft and tacky with heat and this makes the patch adhere better. This… Continue reading Drox Operative

Free to Play: Team Fortress 2

Out five years this year, Team Fortress 2 has been played and enjoyed by millions. After a year as a free-to-play game, has Team Fortress 2 retained its unique blend of class-based fun or has the weight of all the items on the Mann Store and all those free-to-play gamers crushed the quality of this… Continue reading Free to Play: Team Fortress 2

Review: FTL: Faster Than Light

I’m outnumbered 4-to-2, but the invading Space Pirates are being held off in an undesignated common room by reinforced blast doors. I’ve got options: try to draw them into the medical bay where I can take them on whilst having my health topped up. Lie in wait in a nearby narrow hallway where I can… Continue reading Review: FTL: Faster Than Light

Of Daughters and Dishonored (Spoilers)

Dishonored is a first-person stealth action game that smells sweetly of Thief and Bioshock. Beneath the sinister cloak-and-dagger gameplay and masterfully realized setting, there lies a chaos system. It gauges your carnage, tallies your eviscerations, considers your subtlety, ponders your disposition toward revenge or mercy and changes the world accordingly. It also changes your daughter.

Review: McPixel

The cardinal sin of adventure games is the “MacGyver”, where players are forced to piece together two unrelated objects to solve a problem. While making gamers think outside the box is always a welcome addition, attaching rubber chickens to pulleys or crafting mustaches out of cat hair feels like translating Morse code backward. “McPixel”, a… Continue reading Review: McPixel

Naval War: Arctic Circle Review

Before I delve into details or specifics, there’s something I should get out of the way. Naval War: Arctic Circle scares me. Staggering in its complexity, this is not a “pick up and play” game, nor is this your average fast-paced RTS. You’re not going to get “Eurofighter-rushed” by your multiplayer opponent, and you won’t… Continue reading Naval War: Arctic Circle Review

Dual Review: Legend of Grimrock

In our modern, indie- and mobile-friendly games market, the term “old school” gets bandied about frequently, the label haphazardly applied to any phone or PC game with 8-bit character art or a chiptune soundtrack. But the recent dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock from newcomers Almost Human Games actually earns its right to wear the title… Continue reading Dual Review: Legend of Grimrock

Hands-On: Wrack

Some time ago, a game under development caught my eye. Strongly influenced by classics such as Wolfenstien 3D and Doom, Wrack brings the player back to a simpler time in FPS history. The demo build I received from the developers, Final Boss Entertainment, may only have contained three levels but it was enough to make… Continue reading Hands-On: Wrack