Star Wars: The Old Republic

For those unaware, this is the new Star Wars MMORPG. It’s Electronic Arts’ attempt at competing with World of Warcraft, a game I never got into but that everyone else on the planet seems to play. Full story

Katawa Shoujo

The name of this game translates to "Disability Girls," though that's inaccurate--the word "katawa" in this context is an unprintable epithet for the disabled, connoting worthlessness. Full story

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

"Revelations" is a decrepit continuation of a once-captivating franchise, which is appropriate given that it's about the aging of its two protagonists, Ezio and Altaïr. Full story

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" is the conclusion to the trilogy of first person war shooters, and possesses neither the faults nor any of the virtues of the two games that came before it. Full story

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

My long perspective on the Zelda series is this: There are hits and there are misses, and just because the latest installment is the latest doesn't mean it's the best one yet. Full story

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

For those unaware, "Uncharted" is Sony's flagship PS3 franchise about treasure hunter Nathan Drake. It's about as close to watching a Hollywood blockbuster as a video game can be. Full story

Saints Row: The Third

"Saints Row: The Third" could be described as "Grand Theft Auto" with all the bullshit replaced by awesome. Or, alternately, "Grand Theft Auto" as envisioned by concerned parent groups. Full story

An Extraordinarily Late Review of Skyrim We Forgot to Put Up Last Week (Sorry)

"The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" is the reason I'm upgrading my computer this weekend. Full story

Dark Souls

The great virtue of "Dark Souls" is the sense of ownership it bestows on those who master it. Full story

Batman: Arkham City

"Batman: Arkham City" is a worthy followup to 2009's "Batman: Arhkam Asylum," but not quite the perfect supergame I was hoping for. Full story

Gears of War 3

"Gears 3" plays like a polished "Gears 2," which played like a polished "Gears 1." It's popcorn gaming, but I think that's exactly what they were going for. Full story

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I've logged 60 hours on Deus Ex: Human Revolution so far, and I've enjoyed every second Full story

Catherine

Vincent is 32 years old and living in a rut. He’s been going out with his girlfriend, Katherine, for five years, but they still live apart. Full story

Resistance 3

In "Resistance 3," 90 percent of humanity is dead, and the survivors are living in squalor underground, evading human-alien hybrid death squads. Full story

Bodycount

"Bodycount" is an FPS. I am tempted to make the preceding sentence, and the legally-mandated italic paragraph way down at the end of this thing, my whole review. Full story

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a beautiful little art game with brawler mechanics. Full story

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia is a first-person horror game with no combat, which is not to say no danger. You play a man named Daniel with no memory of who he is, who wakes up next to a note and an empty bottle in a largely abandoned, collapsing castle. Full story

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Michael Gagné did a series of MTV shorts called Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets, and now he's done the visual design for a video game. Full story

From Dust

From Dust is a decent short god sim that would really benefit from being much larger and running on the next generation of game hardware. Full story

F.E.A.R. 3

F.E.A.R. 3 is a horror-themed co-op shooter featuring two main characters: Pointman, the nameless protagonist from the first game, who has the ability to slow down time, and Paxton Fettel, Pointman’s dead brother, a ghost who can blast, levitate, and possess enemies. Full story

Bastion

Bastion is an isometric action RPG for the Xbox Live Arcade, the first of this year's "Summer of Arcade" promotion package. As such, it's short and inexpensive--1200 Microsoft Points, or about $20. It's also very well done, up until the very end. Full story

Mortal Kombat

The new Mortal Kombat, which is technically the ninth of the franchise, is almost everything I want from an MK game. Full story

Alice: Madness Returns

Alice: Madness Returns is an example of a genre I thought long dead. It's a simple 3D platforming adventure game with combat that doesn't revolve around shooting. Full story

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a rough planning sketch of a good video game. It's like this. A movie takes--or so it has always seemed to me--one to two years to make. A good game seems to take two to three. Full story

Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy

Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy (yeah, that's the actual title) is the prequel and follow-up to 2009's Dissidia Final Fantasy, a 3-D fighting game that featured characters from each installment of Square Enix's long-running Final Fantasy JRPGs. Full story

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is a science fiction third-person shooter with roleplaying elements, those being six character classes that all play differently, a variety of selectable powers as you level up, squad mates who follow you around and who also level up, and lots and lots of good inter… Full story

Yakuza 4

"Yakuza 4" is the latest installment in a series of video games from Japan about (a somewhat romanticized version of) the Japanese Mafia. Full story

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

In Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, you play a nameless hero out to recruit the Majin, a legendary giant who once saved the local kingdom from a dark age, because that dark age has come again. Full story

Minecraft

Technically I guess I shouldn't be reviewing it because it's still in alpha, but I paid $10 for it and I've sunk like 50 hours into it and it eats my time more consistently than any other game I've played in, oh, half a year. Full story

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

How many times has the following happened to you? You're playing a stealth game, and you're having fun sneaking around, when you make a mistake and a guard spots you. Suddenly, you're not playing a stealth game anymore! Full story

Final Fantasy XIII

Sheppard's Video Game Pie

Final Fantasy XIII is a great game, but only if you play it on its own terms. It's a serious break from the way previous Final Fantasy games have played, which can be shocking or disappointing if you want a familiar experience. Full story

Dante’s Inferno

Dante's Inferno is a good game only if you don't want much out of your video games. Full story

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is an excellent game. It is also a giant middle finger to the Silent Hill fan base, which is awesome, and I say that as a member of said fan base. Full story

Heroes Over Europe

I'm actually not sure whether this game is any good or not. I am sure I hate it. Full story

Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 really is quite good, in a lot of clever ways. Once again I am reminded that I like a good racing game, even though I hardly ever play them. Full story

Emergency Pre-Holiday Message Concerning Dragon Age: Origins

Let's start at the beginning. Two days after preordering the PC version of Dragon Age on Steam, I got a package in the mail from BioWare, wrapped in brown paper and sealed with red wax. It contained an Xbox 360 copy of the game in question and a vial of red energy drink labelled Full story

The King of Fighters XII

My problem with The King of Fighters XII is I can't think of a reason to play it. Full story

Final Fantasy III

Third-party support like this is why Nintendo's winning the console wars. Sega may have violence, but the big N has class. Full story

Dawn of Discovery

Most people are familiar with SimCity, and anyone who's been playing PC games for a few years is bound to have heard of Sid Meyer's Civilization. Dawn of Discovery is a cross between those two games. Full story

Infamous Vs. Prototype

Infamous and Prototype are an interesting pair. Released near-simultaneously, both are sandbox games set in wrecked cities (like Spider-Man: Web of Shadows before them) with superpowered protagonists who fight mutants and monsters. Full story

BattleForge

This game leaves me suspicious. Full story

Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade is a third-person adventure brawler game thing where you play as Ken Ogawa, a member of an elite government-sponsored ninja special ops team, dispatched to Tokyo to root out an infestation of "Alpha Worms." Full story

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

About every hour, Star Ocean: The Last Hope shows me one of two things: either a) something really cool, that impresses me and leads me to decide it's a good game and I really like it, or b) something incredibly stupid, that depresses and angers me. Full story

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Vs. Killzone 2

Both F.E.A.R. 2 and Killzone 2 are the newest of first-person shooters. Graphics-wise, both are very good-looking, using head bob, motion blur, limited anti-aliasing, and a variety of graphic filters to supplement the normal array of detailed models, textures, et al. Full story

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 may be the last important PlayStation 2 release in the United States. It might not. I would have said the same thing about its immediate predecessor, Persona 3 FES, and that was out half a year earlier. Full story

Halo Wars

The plot of Halo Wars centers around the UNSC colony ship Spirit of Fire, during the opening days of the human/Covenant war, back when there was more than one surviving SPARTAN II and humanity thought they could win through conventional military action. Full story

Mirror’s Edge

Mirror's Edge is an innovative but controversial title that heavily divides players. I liked it, but it's not for everyone. Full story

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

The Force Unleashed is the latest Star Wars game by LucasArts, in which you play (mostly) Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller, during the period between the new movies and original trilogy. Full story

Dead Space

Dead Space is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter set on the planet-cracking mining starship Ishimura, full of monsters made from the fused and repurposed dead flesh of its former crew. You play Isaac Clark, an engineer on the ship sent to investigate why contact was lost. Full story

Dead Space Back Story

Dead Space is finally upon us. You'll be able to see Vice's review in the November issue (quick summary: the game excels) but in the meantime there's this website, No Known Survivors, which presents an alternate reality browser game exploring the back story of the doomed ship. Full story

Interview with Will Wright

Not only is Will Wright one of the most prominent game designers out there, but he's also been prominent for a length of time seldom found in the game industry. His latest game, Spore, allows players to explore life--like, ALL of life. Full story

Metal Gear Solid 4

This is an occasionally impressive and often ridiculous 12-hour movie with some often satisfying and occasionally clumsy gameplay thrown in. Full story

Ninja Gaiden II

I have concerns about Ninja Gaiden II, but my overall impression is positive. The concerns stem from comparing it to its predecessor. Ninja Gaiden was one of the best games of that console generation--I would call it a triumph of design. Full story

Ikaruga

The most legendary of shmup games amongst people who don't self-identify as shmup fans, Ikaruga is now on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 after seeing release on the GameCube in 2003, the Dreamcast in 2002, and Japanese arcades in 2001. Full story

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Wow. Rockstar finally created a game I enjoy. Full story

Lost Odyssey

Goddamnit, when I first started playing Lost Odyssey I was all fired up to write a review about how Hironobu Sakaguchi has lost his touch, but then, before the first disc ended, the game completely turned around and now I love it. Full story

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the original NiGHTS Into Dreams on the Saturn until I played this, which is saying something because I thought I remembered enjoying the original a lot, but it turns out I enjoyed it even more than that. Full story

An Interview with Stephen Lea Sheppard

We Gauge Stephen's Gaming Cred

This month we did a little mini-interview with Stephen about his gaming credentials, just so you know what kind of professional you’re dealing with. Full story

Manhunt 2

How long does it usually take for someone to put up a rudimentary walkthrough of a video game at GameFAQs? Three hours after the game is released? Four? Full story

NBA2K8

Whether as a function of human nature or a product of being raised in a capitalist society, people like to own the newest, biggest, shiniest things. Full story

Medal of Honor: Vanguard

I understand the desire to evoke historical accuracy. Provide a good World War II FPS and I am confident I could find reasons not to bash it. I am even assured such games exist, and in quantity! Medal of Honor: Vanguard isn’t one of them. Full story

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition

This is our new video-game reviews column written by Stephen Lea Sheppard, the actor behind two of our favorite characters of all time. Full story

Brütal Legend

Eddy Riggs, voiced by Jack Black, is a roadie who loves heavy metal and hates his life because it’s not the 70s anymore so he can only find work with shitty bands who play for tween audiences. Full story