Games: By Rating

The third game in the Fallout series eschews much of its RPGness and concentrates on combat instead. I always liked the... more

Although it’s a massive 30-40 hour game, New Vegas is really just an stand-alone expansion pack to the wonderful Fallout 3. If... more

All these Ubisoft open-world games (Assassins Creed, Watch Dogs, etc.) follow the same basic formula. Main story which you can take your... more

When I heard that this game featured Michael Biehn as the main voice actor I was intrigued. When I saw... more

Ever since my brother was suckered into buying a 3D0 console system, I have heard good things about the... more

This has been my least favorite of the Telltale Choose Your Own Adventure style adventures. I think my main problem with... more

Gemini Rue is another enjoyable point-and-click adventure from Wadjet Eye that has a sci-fi noir theme. Having gotten used to... more

Giana Sisters is a reworking of an old Commodore 64 game that itself was a note-for-note ripoff of Super Mario Bros. This... more

Coming off of FarCry 3, I really wasn’t sure I wanted to commit myself to another massive open-world game, but San... more

GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS was my first Grand Theft Auto game and it remains one of the best games on... more

This is what the kids call a metroidvania-style platformer (what a horrible term). You run around around a large,... more

Part two is more of the same from this Mexican brawling platformer. You explore the world and as you... more

This game goes out of its way to let you know that it’s about mental illness; and that they... more

Hexen was another mid-nineties FPS that, I swear, I played the demo of several times but never played the full... more

Hob is from the same studio that created Torchlight and much of the same beautiful artistic style is on display here. This... more

Hotline Miami is an ultraviolent, fast-paced arcade-style game that owes a lot to Smash T.V. and Berzerk. Although it uses both analog sticks,... more

The Icewind Dale series is built on the same game system as the Baldur’s Gate games. Unlike Baldur’s Gate these games are focused more on... more

Technically this is just an expansion pack for Ion Fury, but this is a full-game’s worth on content. The... more

Onward on my journey through the King’s Quest saga I go. Part III was the first in the series to really... more

This game has been lying dormant in a plastic bin in my basement for more than a decade. Back... more

This was a cartoony and fun side-scrolling platformer with nice2.5-D graphics. A bit easy and lacking the exploration and... more

Pushing balls around has never been more fun! I have really enjoyed the last few Tomb Raider games like Tomb Raider:... more

This is the sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Like its predecessor, this is an isometric puzzle... more

Legend of Grimrock brings the real-time dungeon crawl formula of Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder to the modern age. Perhaps the best... more

Life is Strange uses the same branching story game play as Telltale’s games. The twist here is that your character... more

Mass Effect had a really interesting storyline and I was pretty excited to delve further into the universe of Shepard... more

Mass Effect 3 is the satisfying conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy (ME1 & ME2). The Reapers have finally come to reap and it’s... more

Also billed as Metroid 4, this is the follow-up to the much lauded SNES Metroid entry. I don’t think... more

Lately I have become obsessed with bullet-hell shmups like this. I’d see these images of these impossible patterns of... more

Nox Archaist (no relation to Nox) has come up several times before on this site as it was a... more

Okami follows much the same formula of a typical Zelda game. You proceed through the game by defeating the boss at the... more

Old Ironsides (Optimum Resource, Inc., 1982) is a two-player game for the Apple II that simulates Nineteenth Century naval combat.... more

Outlast is one of the most nerve-racking games I have played. The game delights in distracting your attention then blasting... more

It’s been quite some time since I’ve played through a game on the Wii. Pandora’s Tower is certainly one of the... more

This is essentially the same game as Doom 3 except with the lights turned on and fewer monster closets. What both... more

Decades ago I played through Quake II and I remember being quite impressed with the opening cinematic. Starship Troopers... more

I bought Radiant Historia based on its reputation as one of, if not THE best RPG on the Nintendo DS. Well, it’s... more

We are already two generations beyond the Wii and I am still getting caught up on all the games... more

Resident Evil 7 is a stark departure from the most recent games in the series where the emphasis has... more

Part two of the Tomb Raider reboot doesn’t offer anything really new in terms of game play but that’s okay. The... more

Rise of the Triad is a first-generation FPS that technologically sits somewhere between Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom. In fact,... more

Although I haven’t written about them here, I have played through much of the first series of Bit.Trip games on the... more

Saints Row IV is an obvious rip-off of Grand Theft Auto all the way down from the open-world mechanics to the gangster... more

Season two is more of the same point-and-click adventuring that was done so well in Season one. The puzzles are... more

The third in the reboot series which is more or less the same as its predecessors. Excellent graphics, the... more

Shadow Warrior 2 is a fast and wild shooter that continues in much the same vein as the first reboot... more

Skald was one of handful of Kickstarter projects that I have backed. It is a throwback tribute to 80s... more

It’s been quite some time since I tackled a Sierra 3-D adventure game (See my reviews of Kings’s Quest I, II & III and Leisure Suit... more

Well, it took me about half a decade, but I finally finished Super Mario Galaxy 2. I really liked the... more

Sword & Sworcery is a bit more art than video game. In fact, the game itself is more of a... more

I’ve been playing a lot of adventure games these days. In Syberia you play Kate Walker, a lawyer working for a... more

Syberia II picks up right where the first game left off with you racing by train into northern Russia in... more

Wadjet has produced another solid point and click adventure game that makes up for its somewhat lackluster predecessor, A Golden... more

This and the previous Blackwell Unbound apparently were intended to be a single game with flashbacks and intertwined plot lines. Many of the... more

The first four Blackwell games went on sale on Steam this week for around 50¢ each. These games have... more

This sequel to the classic Apple ][ adventure game Transylvania has you returning to the same locations as the first game... more

I forgot how much I like these Choose Your Own Adventure style Telltale Games. It didn’t help that the... more

Well, this is a Zelda game. The formula has remained unchanged ever since The Ocarina of Time. The princess has... more

It took me nearly half a decade to finish this one. Not that it’s terribly difficult, I just put... more

I’m surprised that I enjoyed this kid-friendly platformer as much as I did. It leans in heavy into its... more

Fresh off of completing Broken Sword, I decided to continue my point-and-click adventure gaming with The Longest Journey. Like Nico from Broken... more

Having finished the wonderful Blackwell series, I wanted to try some of Wadjet Eye’s other offerings. The Shivah was the company’s first foray into commercial... more

This three episode tangent does not appear to be connected with the other Walking Dead games. Maybe some of the characters... more

A Borderlands 2 stand alone expansion that is more of the same from this franchise. In this one, you... more

I could have sworn I had played this game before, but I wasn’t completely sure. I get this one... more

Transylvania is a hybrid text/graphical adventure originally for the Apple ][. This was a big hit back in the day... more

Considered by many to be the best games of the Ultima series, Ultima 7 is one of the most... more

Martian Dreams is built on the same game engine as Ultima VI. Much like that game, it is much less of... more

At this point I think we can all basically agree that every game that Wadjet Eye releases is going... more

It’s about time that I got back into this excellent series. I had forgotten how stressful these games were.... more

The Wasteland 2 sequel sorta came out of nowhere for me. The previous game was one of the first... more

I have just been plowing through the sequels of nineties FPS’s lately. This time it was back to Castle... more

Zeno Clash brings brawling and melee combat to the FPS genre and makes it work. Whenever a game has attempted... more

A Story About My Uncle is a game based entirely around a single game mechanic, a grappling beam. Players shoot... more

With this game I have finally played all the key 90s RPG classics. I attempted to play a few... more

I have had this game sitting on my video game to-do list for a long, long time. This is... more

Billed as a first person shooter RPG, Borderlands focuses on collecting loot over story. There a lot of superficial similarity with... more

I picked up this 3DS JRPG because of one novel feature: the ability to turn off random encounters. For... more

Broken Sword is a point and click adventure game from the ninties. You will spend most of the game playing... more

This game is a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the main characters and it has some genuinely... more

For some time now I have been interested in playing various SHMUPs in MAME. Some of the best looking... more

This is the first Castlevania sequel I have ever completed. I’ve played the first five minutes of Symphony of... more

In Control you are in control of Jesse. She’s been plunked down into a giant, oppressively designed government building... more

Every couple of years I get back into emulation, mostly as a reaction against some massive open-world game I... more

The fake red Boba Fett is at it again in this sequel to Crusader: No Remorse and he just... more

This “limited edition” version was one of the first games I bought for the Wii. It’s been sitting on my stack of... more

Darksiders is a game that is utterly derivative of Zelda. You are tasked with exploring various “castles,” each of which gives... more

I liked the original Dead Space well enough. The sequel is just more of the same endless dark hallways, jump scares,... more

This one was a freebie from GOG.com of which I knew nothing about before playing it. Turns out, it is a... more

The Defense Grid sequel seems more like an expansion than a new game. There are new powers and customizations, but core... more

This is a sequel I have been meaning to play through for a few years now. The original Deus Ex was... more

It took about twenty years, but I finally beat Dragon’s Lair. That’s twenty years of dying for no reason, guessing... more

Eye of the Beholder is a real-time RPG dungeon crawl that borrows heavily from the mechanics of Dungeon Master. It’s a... more

So, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working my way through F.E.A.R. and its two expansion packs: Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. I... more

I must have attempted to play this game about a dozen times. I would download it from some abandonware... more

GNOG is a cute little puzzle game in which you are left to click and poke around without any instructions... more

My overview of the video game classics continues with the LucasArts adventure game, Grim Fandango. In many ways Grim Fandango can be... more

Opposing Force is a welcome improvement over Blue Shift. First off, it’s feels like a full game rather than just a... more

It’s been quite a while since I have been able to make myself play another BioWare Game. I really... more

Kathy Rain is a point and click adventure which uses the same AGS engine that all the games from Wadjet Eye games use.... more