PlayStation 4 Review: Doom

2004’s Doom 3 was a shooter that focused on survival, pitting the player against hordes of monsters in a progressive environment where opening fire isn’t always the best path to success. It’s a great game, but it’s not a Doom game. Classic Doom is about run-and-gun action, where one brutally clears a map of foes and triumphantly moves to the next area to repeat the process – armed now with cooler weapons and faced with demonic enemies that are harder to put down than the ones that came before. It’s simple fun, providing a constant adrenaline rush and non-stop carnage.

It’s this type of gameplay that has given the shooters from developer iD Software their identity, but recent releases seemed to signal the end of the formula. That is, until now.

Review: Mad Max

'Mad Max' used me up like a bloodbag and, much like the false promises of the warlords, Valhalla wasn't waiting when everything finally faded to black.

If you’re like me, an open-world game set in the universe of George Miller’s Mad Max has always been on your wishlist. It’s a setting ripe with possibilities for great gameplay: The Big Nothing, a barrier of sand, encapsulates an isolated enclave where the last remnants of humanity struggle to survive against the harsh elements of the post-apocalyptic landscape – including the maniacal warlords hellbent on conquest. We haven’t seen Max on a console since the NES, but finally his true sandbox title has arrived. And now that it’s here, I’m sad to report the experience feels devoid of life, but ironically not because it takes place in a desolate wasteland. There is fun to be had, and the game faithfully creates the look and feel of the movies; however, Mad Max falls short in capturing the depth and immersion that make its source materials beloved classics.

Xbox 360 Review: Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW

Adventure Time is one of the most creative, ingenious, and completely awesome cartoons to ever grace television. Considering that, it may come as a shock to hear that this video game adaptation, Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW, is anything but. All of the charm and crazy, random humor from the cartoon is absent, and instead gamers are delivered a repetitive, boring dungeon crawler with so little charm that you wonder if the title was meant to be ironic. Why the hell does this game have me exploring dungeon after dungeon, completing inane quests and doing the same thing over and over again? Honestly, I don’t know.

PlayStation 3 Review: The Last of Us

The opening scene of The Last of Us drew me in immediately. Playing as a young girl, I felt terror when I woke up alone, exploring a dark house, calling out to my father and getting no response. The newspaper on the sink talked about a new virus spreading quickly, the symptoms of which seemed to be aggression and violent tendencies. It was then that I heard a noise downstairs. If I wanted to progress, I had to go investigate. Pushing the stick forward, I felt like I was walking to my own doom.

The opening grabs you tight and doesn’t let go, but somehow the game manages to become even more compelling as it progresses. Despite a narrative that, on the surface, appears to be riddled with horror clichés, somehow The Last of Us manages to dodge your expectations unceremoniously, becoming more brutal and depressing with every moment that passes by.

The story in The Last of Us works because the characters work. The Last of Us is – for lack of a better term – a character drama, in the same vein as The Walking Dead or Stephen King’s The Mist. Yes, it’s a generic horror setting. But it works because the characters feel so deep, raw, and real. Joel, Ellie, and the supporting cast are as interesting as any characters you’ll find on television, and the superb voice acting is largely to thank for that.

Xbox 360 Review: Fast & Furious: Showdown

Fast and Furious: Showdown begins with you driving a car through a lifeless city, smashing into every other vehicle you see without any repercussions whatsoever. When the cops show up, you begin flipping them with your … car-flipper device, all the while continuing to race through city streets that feel increasingly confining. At some arbitrary point, the screen will display the phrase “Busted,” meaning you have failed your mission. Now confusion sets in. What the hell did you do wrong?

I was able to complete the mission on my second try (without making any changes), and then I was rewarded with some horrendous cinematics featuring talent-less D-list actors, all doing their best to mimic the character’s from the movie, with absolutely no success. It is then that things just continued to spiral downhill without ever letting up, and I began to realize that playing this game was a terrible mistake.

Xbox 360 Review: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

After the final boss lay dead before my feet, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment that no videogame has ever given me before. My hands were gripping the controller so tight that there was actually some pain in my fingers – a reminder of the well-timed parries and attacks that made my time with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a success. 

This is not the stealth-action game that fans of the series are used to. Instead, Rising is a fast-paced, sword-slashing actioner from beginning to end, one that is more of a parody of the Metal Gear franchise than a legitimate entry. Yet, as one of the biggest fans of Metal Gear on the planet, I absolutely loved it.

Nintendo Wii Review: Wreck-It Ralph

A word of warning before you play Wreck-It Ralph for the Nintendo Wii: If you haven’t seen the movie yet, stay away from this game, because the film’s ending will be blown for you in the opening segment. However, if you have seen the Disney movie, stay even further away from this videogame version of Wreck-It Ralph, because it’ll taint your pleasant opinion of the characters forever. It’s obvious that this was intended to be little more than a quick cash-in, since the entire game will take you under two hours to finish – and that may be the only good thing about it.

For the most part, Wreck-it Ralph can be defined as a platformer, with a little bit of action mixed in for seemingly no reason. Had we been given a simple clone of some classic game in the genre, that would have been a much better idea. Going in, I expected this to be the Wreck-It Ralph game featured in the movie. Instead what we get to play is strange and lacks any discernible focus whatsoever.

XBLA Review: Double Dragon Neon

I was excited to finally get my hands on Double Dragon Neon, a game that I thought would bring back great memories from the old days of my youth. However, after playing Neon for only a few minutes, I realized that those memories may not have been as great as I thought. Double Dragon Neon isn’t a bad brawler game. But, I will suggest the brawler genre as a whole that needs some serious reimagining.

A couple months ago a friend and I sat down to play Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis Collection. I remembered really enjoying the game as a kid, but this time I wasn’t having any fun while playing. For me, Streets of Rage simply didn’t withstand the test of time.

Brawler videogames come out of an era when you would do much of your gaming in arcades, feeding quarters into a machine with some friends. The ability to play on the same screen with a buddy, working together to conquer mutual enemies, was much of the appeal of the brawler genre. Fast forward to present day, and none of that is really all that appealing -- we’re used to it.

So, what else does the Neon offer besides multiplayer functionality? Well, not much. You roam around a small game area, punching enemies in the face, and occasionally there will be a terrain hazard or new foe to change up the action.