Adventure/Explore

So, Journey. My review schedule was quite full when this much-anticipated project from thatgamecompany was released on PlayStation Network, and the other night was the first chance I had to get to it. I was a huge fan of Flow, I loved Flower, and I've been looking forward to Journey ever since I knew about it. While I was playing, several people asked what my opinion was, and I knew that there was absolutely no way I could even begin to address the topic over Twitter. Hence, this entry.

I was invited to a special Darksiders II hands-on press event hosted by THQ taking place in San Francisco. Being a huge fan of the first game, I was glad to accept and in the interest of full disclosure, it should be known that airfare and hotel were provided. The day started with a brief talk from one of the developers giving an overview of the sequel, and what to expect. The attendees were then allowed about two hours to play through a large chunk of the game's first area.

Last night on Twitter, I made a comment about shopping in the app store and apparently it wasn't nearly as clear as I thought it was. I had several replies chastising me afterwards, and I wanted to clarify what I meant to say. If you still want to chastise me after that then that's totally cool, but it seemed pretty obvious that I was not able to make my point in 140 characters.

To Retail and Beyond

HIGH Surfing the Sunken City in the fading afternoon-absolutely gorgeous.

LOW Can't we have more?

WTF Put on a scarf and fly!

Birth is Repetition

HIGH Nothing better than wearing your mother's clothes while fighting monsters with laser tears alongside your floating stillborn brother.

LOW Completely misjudging an enemy's projectile can really stick it to you.

WTF "Wow. Is that thing that's currently squirting blood at me what I think it is?"

Here's the wrap-up of our talk with Braid designer Jonathan Blow!

Inside, we discuss games publishing, the constant stream of "sword dude" games, and where gaming is going...

Welcome back again! Here's Part Four of our fantastic discussion with Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid.

In this piece, you'll hear more about Braid's shifting story, we discuss fulfilling our own artistic expectations, and we get into his new game, The Witness!

We are back, baby, with Part Three of our (now) five part interview with Jonathan Blow. In this episode, we get more into trickery in game design, what is "fun," and design by committee.

Zack Really is a Zero

HIGH Some of the quasi-3D graphical effects are interesting.

LOW Repeatedly plummeting to my death because the controls only work some of the time.

WTF The ending—the only way it could be worse is if the narrator said "it was all a dream..."

Going by the reception of Nintendo's 3D update of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there is much love for the Nintendo 64 classic even today. So it's not surprising that a group of very dedicated and talented fans got together to recreate that world in Minecraft.