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There was once a time we now call the “Good Old Days.” In those days, instant classics spewed forth from every developer’s spicket at such a torrid pace that there was nary an excuse to ever emerge from your parents’ basement and absorb so much as a single UV ray.

Ah yes, they were glorious, those days, weren’t they? Every game was a masterpiece of innovation and craftsmanship, and there wasn’t a single rushed sequel or licensed shovelware release in sight. Replay values were always near infinite, color palettes were consistently varied and vibrant and every single game featured stellar multiplayer and single-player modes.

There’s just one problem with the Good Old Days – they weren’t really that perfect. Certainly it was exciting to grow up during the days of gaming’s so-called Golden Age – sometime between the late ‘70s and mid ‘90s, depending on whom you ask. Everything was new and exciting back then, but not everything was necessarily better. There were good games and bad, just like today. One thing that was almost universally true, though, is that every game was much harder than modern games are. But that doesn’t mean today’s developers should rush to emulate that difficulty – at least not without providing some conceits.

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Slice Zombies for Kinect was developed and published by MADE on Xbox One. It was released on May 7, 2015 for $9.99. A copy was provided by MADE for review purposes.

“I don’t want to play this anymore.” Those are the words of disillusion I started to utter within 30 minutes of playing Slice Zombies for Kinect. This is a painful reminder that for every game that tries to raise the bar from its contemporaries, others are happy to coast along as a sub-par, unoriginal effort. It’s not fun to rate a game poorly, but what else can you do for one that aims to be nothing special?

If you’ve ever played Fruit Ninja Kinect‘s classic mode on any platform, you’ve seen most of what Slice Zombies game has to offer. For the rest of us who have not, the one game mode available in this title features players slicing up zombies. Shocking, I know. The player is given three lives (a fourth is available as an upgrade), and each time a bomb is sliced or a zombie is missed, a life is taken away. When all lives run out, the current game ends. Once the round is over, the player is given the option to play again or to go to the shop to buy upgrades earned from playing. In the store, you can buy power-ups to make the experience easier as well as view the modifiers that make the game slightly more challenging. Unfortunately, that’s all there is to the game. For the sake of this review, I decided to play longer, but after an hour I couldn’t take it anymore. It’s the same thing over and over. No more, please.

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Microsoft will hold its annual E3 media briefing at 9:00 AM PST on June 15 at Los Angeles’ Galen Center, the company announced via email invitations today. In what …
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Shovel Knight was developed and published by Yacht Club Games on Xbox One. It was released on April 29, 2015 for $14.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

So this review is a little late. Why, you ask? Five hundred and forty-three deaths, that’s why. I played Shovel Knight for a little over 16 hours, but at times it felt like a lifetime. I cried (not kidding, but I do cry pretty easily), I screamed, I cursed at the television and I threw my controller on multiple occasions. I asked myself several times, “Who the hell would actually enjoy playing this game?” But when it was all said and done, I had my answer — me. Shovel Knight will try your patience from the start, but it will also suck you in and provide hours of quality gaming.

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Syberia 2 was developed by Microids under Anuman Interactive and published by Bandai Namco on Xbox 360. It was released on May 13, 2015 for $9.99. XBLA Fans’ Michael Cheng purchased a copy out of pocket for review purposes.

Gone are the days where point and click adventures were the in-style games. Now it’s a genre that has been relegated to niche status. Benoit Sokoil’s Syberia series attempts to show the glory of the old days and the wonders of simple gameplay with puzzle elements telling engaging stories. Syberia and Syberia 2 were released during the PlayStation 2 and Xbox era well over 10 years ago and have since been brought back to XBLA recently to give the audience another chance to try these titles in preparation for Syberia 3‘s tentative release in 2015.

Syberia features a heroine named Kate Walker and the journey of her everyday life turned completely upside-down through her wild adventuress in search of the fabled land of Syberia. This sequel can be enjoyed without playing the first title, although it’s still highly recommended you do so to get to know the original Kate Walker and some of the characters she encounters in the progenitor. For those that want an interesting story with puzzles without action sequences, this series may be worth looking at.

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Update 1.10 for World of Tanks: Xbox 360 will be adding a brand new feature called the Training Room for players. The Training Room will allow those with with Premium …
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Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, a re-release of the 2008 Xbox 360 game, will launch digitally on Xbox One on June 23 for $24.99. It will feature three new playable characters: Vergil, Lady and Trish. Each comes with their own play styles to complement the original’s Nero and Dante. It also comes with a new mode called Legendary Dark Knight in which you take on massive hordes of enemies all at once. And of course, it renders at 1080p/60fps with upgraded graphics and some technical enhancements.

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Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition was developed and published by Stage 2 Studios on Xbox One. It was released on May 13, 2015 for $19.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

When putting pen to paper on a fresh review, it’s often easy to determine the standard of a game based on how it compares to its peers, but that’s a major issue with Lifeless Planet, because, as far as I’m concerned, there is nothing else quite like it. Lifeless Planet is in many ways an interactive story, rather than a traditional video game. It features a compelling narrative about the lone survivor of a crash on a distant (seemingly lifeless) planet that is steadily revealed through audio logs and other records as the player progresses.

What immediately struck me about Lifeless Planet is how well it hides the fact that it is so linear. From the outset the player is made to feel like they are exploring a vast and limitless expanse, to the extent that each time the sun shimmers on a distant metallic object and guides them forwards, it feels more like a genuine discovery than simply turning the page of a book. Sometimes the clues are more obvious — like following a trail of green footprints — but most of the time the more obvious nods are woven into the narrative in a convincing enough way. Perhaps more questionable, however, are Lifeless Planet‘s core puzzle and platform game mechanics, so I was interested to see if the game stood up to extended play – let’s find out.

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Every cat has its day. From the publishers Team 17 and developers Italic Pig comes an action-adventure puzzle-platformer featuring the legendary Schrödinger’s Cat. One day, a catastrophic event occurs that causes all primitive particles to escape from The Particle Zoo. The zoo is locked down and emergency services are called into action. Join the cat as he collects his army quarks to create up to 14 unique abilities to solve problems across 30+ levels of gameplay to defeat the forces of evil.

Schrödinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark comes to Xbox One for a price of $9.99 on May 13.

Check below the jump for a trailer.

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Minecraft is three years old!
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