Saurus

When it comes to the tower defenses the choice of picking a game is big, whether on PC, console or handheld devices. But what if we add a FPS expirience to an already good tower defense ... we get Sanctum. Sanctum is perhaps one of the few indie tower defense games that are actually able to deliver to you a thrill and not only make you use your brain to think of how to set your turrets which varies from standard gatling guns through mortars to anti-air, laser and lightning towers, but also gives you the chance to get down and personal with the monsters trying to move through your maze to the core which you must protect. How can one get down and personal ? Simple really - you get access to weapons from a standard AR with a grenade launcher mounted, a freeze gun which slows or freezes temporary the monsters you shoot the gun at (obviously) and many more weapons. The game features nice soundtracks fit to the maps and the art and physics of the animations are pretty well made. And if we take into account the 4 player co-op and several levels of difficulty - Sanctum is definetly a game worth buying and playing. If there is something this game lacks it's perhaps playerbase since not many people have interest in that genre and know about the game, and the other thing is the lack of tools to create our own maps which we could share with the community. Make no mistake though, despite those cons Sanctum will offer you a challenge which you won't forget ... until we all get our hands on Sanctum 2, of course :)

It's a shame when people have only AAA games in their mind and ignore hidden gems such as Frozen Synapse. The game is not for anyone - that can be said about any game out there. But in this case what I mean is that unlike other games where you just rush and kill everything in sight, in Frozen Synapse you must take a slower and more tactical approach. You are in command of a squad of soldiers, each equipped with different weapons, from shotguns through sniper rifles all the way to rocket launchers. The game has a good tutorial which can make a person understand the basic and more advanced tactics - from the standard take cover tactics to the more advanced search and destroy where each member of the squad covers the blind spot of the other and thus advance in their search for the enemies. Afterwards people can chose whether they want to advance to the campaign, practice against the computer in skirmish matches or go online against other people around the world. This is a game which would be more suited to the gamers which favor brains and strategy over the standard gamers which know only how to react and rely on reflexes while gaming ... If you are of the first type - I recommend buying this, if you are from the latter one - prove us wrong, joins us and show us ! :)

There aren't that many indie games that could go head-to-head with AAA products. Bastion is an exception however. As soon as you pick it up it **** you in and simply do not realize yourself that what you thought to be 15-20 minutes were actually an hour and a half ... if not more. The game has a unique drawn art in it's own league and when we add a great narration with a deep voice, corresponding to the atmosphere, born from the events in the game and on top of that a serious pack of soundtracks, Bastion turns from a standard indie game into a lovely gem. The combat system grabs you from start and as the game carries on you unlock more and more games which can be customized in buildings such as the armory and arsenal where you can choose which weapons and one special skill and being given the chance to spend crystals which you collect along the way to upgrade them however you see fit. Beating the game gives you the chance to start a New Game+ which takes your weapons and skills, aquiered in the first playthrough, giving you the chance to finish their upgrades if you haven't yet. An interesting mechanics also featured in the game are spirit drinks which act as passive skills which you can choose and equip and also idols of certain deities which when enabled makes the game harder for you and of course - more rewarding as well. Despite the lack of MP Bastion offers leaderboards with which you can compete with friends and the whole world even - if you think you are good enough ... If you wish to prove that you stand above others than pick this game up and have fun while proving yourself !

Have you ever imagined playing a game in which you are afraid to check what is beyond the next corner, behind the next door ? I have, and boy was I with mixed feelings while playing this game. Amnesia: The dark descent is a game in which you do not have your guns with which you can shoot monsters between the eyes, nor blades with which to cut them to shreds for trying to kill you ... nope. The dark atmosphere, blood spills from paintings, screams that you hear in the begining of the game that echo in your mind until you finally lose the courage to continue on and just Save+Quit is what you will expirience in this game. Darkness is all around, making you lose your sanity and the only thing that could probably help you out is a little candle or a oil lamp - that is what keeps you from losing your mind in the game - light ! I will not spoil the story and start telling what you will see and thus spoiling all the "fun" you will expirience. The only thing I can tell you is this - must buy for all horror fans ! And even if you ARE an extreme horror fan - do NOT get overconfident - this game will crush you if you take it lightly ... think I am joking ? Play it at night on a widescreen monitor with all the lights turned off, doors tightly shut, headphones strapped tightly to your ears and dare finish the game in one go ... I dare you ! The story and game is said to be 4-5 hours ... well it took me 5 times starting the game with 2 hours of game time ... I couldn't afford any more of it, else you can't sleep at all ! For those that are "graphics obsessed" I can say that the game may not be in CryEngine 2, but the atmosphere from the sounds and everything else will make you stop paying attention to how pretty that rocking chair in the room is and make you ask yourself non-stop "Oh my God, what is that behind the corner ?!?!?!?!?!"

First off some rant and rage: I honestly wasn't expecting much when I installed the game. At first I got familiar with the errors for full servers and when I managed to get into the game I was fighting with the power called "server lag". In single player you face not only Diablo and his minions, but also Blizzard and it's stubbornness. Due to the constant internet connection requiered to play the game both in SP and MP ( the DRM in other words) Diablo 3 really made an impact on the gaming community and fans ... a bad one, unfortunately. Random people from random games getting dropped out of the games which they play with friends over in MP, people getting thrown back in the main menu because of connection lost thus making SP hard to even progress in story, since you were forced to re-fight the whole zone to get to where you were before. But enough about connection issues. As for game performance, details and etc. : When it comes to polished games Blizzard knows how to deliver - close to 0 bugs in about 10 hours of gameplay (enough to finish off normal difficulty). Graphics wise the game is not really a gem for the eyes to gaze upon. As every other Blizzard game even an old PC would be able to run it smoothly and because of that even on MAX details and etc. the game is just about average compared to most modern day made games. The art is somewhat different from what I expected but that's just my opinion. In terms of audio and sound Blizzard has made some decent soundtracks for the different environments and cutscenes which is always a plus if you want to get the player in a certain mood or help him understand the depth of the atmosphere around him. The game as overall runs smooth and with no random drops in frames per second or any kind of audio bugs and etc. Gameplay: Now this is where I am going on a rampage to criticize the game ... First off - game was made by some of the devs behind the making of World of Warcraft and thus the game is just made plain simple ... When leveling up you don't get stat points, nor skill points to customize your build of your character, the only thing that makes you more different from any other person out there are the stats of your gear. It's strange how when you see the "LEVEL XX" above your character you start thinking "oh boy, how should I distribute my points" and then you remember - "oh ye, I can't do anything". Stats are automatically leveled up and spells get unlocked so you can't really do anything at all. You could perhaps differ from other people by customizing your spells with spell glyphs but then again - everyone will obviously select the ones who are best in slot. So far everything is World of Warcraft similar, isn't it ? Moving on - crafting. At first I was really hyped behind all this crafting of gems and items, but after I got familiar by spending gold to level those professions I once again got this though in my head "isn't this the same thing as the crafting in WoW?" ... and it really is. Auction house was added which the Diablo games never really needed. After I got through normal I decided to check the AH and what did I see ... hundreds of useless items flooding it making it a bit irritating. What else am I missing ... the interface is somewhat what was to be expected modern version of the D2 interface with a little touch of WoW again with those quest tracking and etc. And before I conclude with the review here is what is the most annoying in the game - the limit of players in one MP game is 4, that's right - 4 ! Those that have more than 3 friends with which they want to play together - sorry, you won't be able ... get over it. Final words to sum everything up: For 60 bucks you get a strictly controlled through DRM game which will requier you to play online your dose of single player action and if you're headed to MP be warned, you can only play with up to 3 of your friends in one game ... that is, of course, if you are ABLE TO CONNECT to the servers. D3 will offer you mediocore graphics and art plus audio and sounds at a decent level which you can run easily even on an older computer. For those such as myself who have tagged along from D1 through D2 in the new D3 you will not see anything "new". Blizzard took 4 years of time to develop a game which is more like Diablo 2 but with modern graphics, audio and interface and added to it useless features such as crafting of items and gear and above all an AH flooded much like World of Warcraft's one - lots of things, most of which not worth even the time to stop and look at them. As I said in the start - I didn't expect much ... and didn't receive much in the end ... as expected of Blizzard's MMORPG devs - they don't know how to deliver to the hack and slash fans of the Diablo franchise ...