Latest Articles (Page 2362)

Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves, new Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light DLC and PSP platformer Prinny 2 are among the highlights of the latest PlayStation Store update.

It's early November and EA has taken over an imposing nightclub in London's not-so-stately pleasure dome, the O2, for a showcase of its typically bulging 2011 slate. It's the usual round of presentations, interviews and hands-on slots in 20-minute chunks – but one game is getting special treatment, an entire working day all to itself.

When Jonathan Blow released Xbox Live Arcade game Braid in 2008 his life was changed forever. Almost universal praise greeted the captivating downloadable game - even Eurogamer awarded it 10/10. Braid, and by association Blow, became overnight sensations.

Oops - that still-warm Call of Duty: Black Ops patch seems to have amplified problems with PS3 online multiplayer.

As this maturing medium grapples with the intricacies of interactive storytelling, it's little wonder we're seeing digital worlds expand beyond traditional boundaries and into other media. From novels to comics to viral web campaigns, publishers are understandably keen to explore other ways of keeping a brand name in the popular consciousness. An interactive comic with hacking mini-games is a new one, though.

Suspension of disbelief is a beautiful thing in the hands of Level-5. The developers of Professor Layton and the Lost Future are asking players, for the third time, to buy into the ludicrous premise of the Layton story: an obsessive archaeology professor solves mysteries for the public, under the implicit contract that they repay him by feeding his hunger for bite-size brainteasers. Everyone obliges this deal. And by the way, there's time travel in this one, too. Because that always makes sense.

If a myth grows in the retelling, then small wonder Kratos is Sony's biggest hero today. God of War's muscle-bound fighter has taken on gods and monsters in six outings now and, while the heavenly cast of Olympia in each has rotated, the core message of the series has stood resolute, only amplifying with repetition. These are hack and slash games that prize spectacle over mechanical fussiness, experiences that shroud solid but simple systems in jaw-dropping set-pieces, screen-filling Homeric visions that strike fear in the heart and mind, in much the same way they did for the Grecians three thousand years ago.

Given that she's apparently responsible for the prosperity of Arland – for reasons too complex and frankly uninteresting to detail here – junior alchemist Rorolina Frixell isn't particularly well treated by its residents. Within minutes of this game starting, her shop is threatened with closure unless she completes 12 assignments in a three-year period. Her lazy alchemy master, Astrid, is too busy making suggestive remarks to do any work – and judging by her understudy's lack of knowledge, she's clearly failed to impart a great deal of wisdom during her calamitous tenure.

It's a testament to Rockstar's confident design work that they've been able to drop zombies, that most played-out and over-exposed cultural meme, into their epic western landscape without the end result feeling like a silly distraction or gimmicky Halloween mash-up.

I've barely started playing Sony's gritty Move-enabled beat-'em-up and Danny Trejo is already shouting at me. "YOU'LL BREAK THE GAME IF YOU MOVE AROUND" he barks, his grizzled face looming at the screen like an angry testicle with a moustache.

If the rumours are true, at the heart of Sonic the Hedgehog's creation was a desire to simplify things: Nintendo had laid out the template for platformers, and now SEGA was going to refine it. So where Mario used two buttons, Sonic would use only one. While the plumber liked to dawdle, the hedgehog, for the most part, preferred a breathless dash to the finish line.

For 13 years it's been the critic's go-to reference point for Bond games and movie tie-ins. Endless review introductions have pondered: 'Will this be the game to match GoldenEye 007's triumphs?' before meandering to their inevitable conclusion that, while a valiant effort has been made, the answer is still no. Double-oh-seven out of ten.

The world may have had enough of games involving plastic guitars and rubber drum kits, but that doesn't mean the music genre is dead. Dancing titles like smash hit Just Dance and Kinect-enabled Dance Central are making sure it's stayin' alive. But is there room for one more, or is SingStar Dance a step too far?

There's something oddly poetic about the fact that, on the same day that Microsoft cast its arms wide to embrace a new audience of casual players and non-gamers, its console witnessed the release of one of the most ferociously challenging games it's ever likely to host.

Trying recently to explain the appeal of Lord of the Rings Online to an MMO-playing friend of mine, I could only come up with an analogy of flavours. The market leader we all know and love represents an infinitely long conveyor belt, funnelling colour and content down your throat as though they were Kola Kubes while you struggle gleefully to fight off diabetic shock. The Lord of the Rings Online, by contrast, is like a fine cheese: matured to perfection and best savoured with a glass of port in front of a roaring fire on a cold winter's night.

Sometimes, a game gets by on its character alone. That was the case with last year's Drawn: The Painted Tower, an unassuming little point-and-click adventure which might have passed you by. It was hampered by some unfortunate puzzles, a dreadful hints system and a slight lack of variety, but it exuded something special.

Can a man really escape his destiny? Jumpman changed his name to Mario, moved to a Mushroom Kingdom, and went on to become a Walt Disney-like amusement park mogul. Just when he thought he'd left it all for good, he gets pulled back to face his oldest foe... construction work. Oh, and Donkey Kong.

There are two types of videogame: those in which you develop an avatar's skills, and those in which an avatar develops yours.

007 373 5963. That's the code, passed around schoolyards like Chinese whispers, to catapult you to Punch-Out!!'s final bout. You'll whizz past Piston Honda, skip Don Flamenco and bypass the rest of the NES game's vaguely racist stereotypes to find yourself staring up at the pre-tattooed mug of Mike Tyson.

That title is a curious contradiction (if the sun really is golden, how can the dawn be dark?) and there's another that lies at the heart of Golden Sun. It seems creators Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi can't make their minds up whether the magical force of Alchemy – which either binds the world of Weyard together, is responsible for its current state, or perhaps both – is a bad or a good thing.

God, motion games are a bossy bunch. Before you can even play the bloody things, you have to stand there like a lemon while they tell you all the things you have to do to make the game work, all the things you absolutely mustn't do if you want the game to work and all the things you might want to do if the game doesn't work.

Who has Sony tasked to remaster two of gaming's most treasured creations, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus? Bluepoint, the company that remastered God of War I & II for Blu-ray.

The shower scene in upcoming PlayStation Portable game The 3rd Birthday is so steamy it has forced Japanese censors to raise the game's content rating.

Veteran members of legendary developer id Software last night celebrated the 20th birthday of its first game: Commander Keen.

More cars in the Gran Turismo 5 garage are to be given the premium treatment, according to creator Kazunori Yamauchi - which means they'll soon be more detailed and allow an interior view.

Cult Square Enix role-playing game Chrono Cross will release as a download from the Japanese PlayStation Network.

Irish PlayStation 3 owners received a BBC iPlayer rival yesterday when Sony added the RTE Player to the console.

Chair Entertainment, the developer behind Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade, has put Ender's Game on indefinite hold.

It looks like former Capcom R&D boss Keiji Inafune is about to resurface with his own new company.

Modern Warfare studio Infinity Ward is still bursting with talent, owner Activision has claimed, despite the spate of high profile departures earlier this year.