Reverb

Studio Wildcard has now brought giant beavers, handcuffs, the terror bird and the grapple hook from the PC release of ARK: Survival Evolved to the Xbox One version. Wildcard says …
Read More

ARK: Survival Evolved is getting another new dinosaur. And also beetles. Dung beetles. Developer Studio Wildcard today gave gamers their first look at how these creatures will appear in-game after …
Read More

As ARK: Survival Evolved players continue to await this week’s patch, v730.0, developer Studio Wildcard has continued to expand upon the already announced features of the update. Some of the larger …
Read More

Ark: Survival Evolved is constantly receiving updates from Studio Wildcard. Recently, it was announced that the Procoptodon, a gigantic prehistoric kangaroo-like dinosaur, will be coming to the Xbox One some …
Read More

We’ve known since last week that ARK: Survival Evolved‘s upcoming patch would bring new content to the game later this week. Now developer Studio Wildcard has elaborated on some of …
Read More

Xbox One players of Studio Wildcard’s ARK: Survival Evolved are getting something new early next week. The Procoptodon that was added to the PC version of the game in December …
Read More

In Strike Vector EX players will be able to use 10,000 different combinations to customize their mech-inspired ships. Whenever a game has that level of customization options, gamers understandably …
Read More

“Can it really be that easy?” is the question you’ll ask after completing Fenix Rage‘s first stage. It’s a stage with that most simplest of video game objectives: move the player-character from left to right and reach the end goal. Accomplishing as much takes only a few seconds, since there are no enemies present and the distance between start and finish could practically be measured between your thumb and forefinger. Still, developer Green Lava Studios managed to insert an optional side objective into the stage. It’s possible but not necessary to collect a cookie during this almost literal hop, skip and jump from beginning to end. You would have to go out of your way not to obtain the optional cookie in this first level, but it is optional all the same.

Collecting each level’s cookie and successfully reaching the end goal naturally becomes more challenging the deeper you get into the game. In fact, it was only a handful of stages later before I was dying multiple times in the pursuit of another tempting cookie. So it’s somewhere in the game’s opening Red Forest zone that you’ll get your answer to your question: no, Fenix Rage is most certainly not that easy.

Much has been said about the game’s meeting at the intersection of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Meat Boy. And yes, Fenix is a diminutive blue creature that is not unlike Sega’s depiction of a hedgehog. He has a dash ability that gives him some of the speed for which Sonic is known, and successful navigation of the game’s 200+ levels — a few dozen of which I’ve completed — requires liberal use of it. That really doesn’t even come close to doing justice to the frequency at which you’ll be pulling the right trigger while simultaneously pressing the B button to perform a dash. As long as there is room to do so, it’s possible to dash (and jump) endlessly.

Some levels require you to abuse the maneuver in order to take linear horizontal routes to avoid certain death by touching electrical beams above and below you. Others have blocks of ice that can be melted due to the heat generated from the friction of moving at such rapid speeds. Others still send a giant, unstoppable enemy chasing after Fenix the moment you nudge him forward from the start point. At first you might think you’re dashing enough times to win this deadly race, but you’re not. Oh, you’re so not. If you’re not dashing seemingly as many times as is physically possible, you’re going to die.

Read More

Dungeon Defenders looks to be March’s Games with Gold offering. One of our favorite games of 2011, Dungeon Defenders offers a deep co-op experience merging tower defense with action-RPG …
Read More

Alien Spidy is hard. I watched helplessly during PAX East as the game’s public relations representative repeatedly subjected himself to the rigors of a particularly nasty stretch of platforming in a cave level. He died. A lot. The level required the game’s space spider protagonist to fire off strands of webbing, which he can swing from to progress through the game world, at a series of stalactites with pinpoint accuracy. Missing the dripstones meant his webbing would uselessly hit a section of the cave ceiling that it wouldn’t stick to, sending the spider to his doom. Certainly this could be overcome by the simple act of slowing down and carefully lining up shots, no? No. The stalagmites begin to crumble and fall under the strain of Spidy’s weight.

It didn’t get any easier from there. Another portion of the same level required a deft hand to guide Spidy carefully through a narrow space flanked by rows of pink crystals that were as sharp as they were shiny. More dying ensued. There is no life bar in Alien Spidy; one careless brush with an environmental hazard or enemy results in death. The development team at Enigma Software have offset the high degree of difficulty by liberally sprinkling checkpoints throughout the game’s stages. As a result, death is less likely to inspire a controller throw than it is another go…and another one, and another one, and so on and so forth.

Read More