Arcade

Frosty

HIGH Cleaning out a hallway, unscathed, with grenades and pulse rifle.

LOW The pathetically weak Flamer should be a sub-weapon.

WTF Only missing two Marines? Where were they??

The Dust Settles

HIGH Flying through platforms without stopping and getting every dust piece.

LOW No online play?

WTF Why are level endpoints so inconspicuous?

The PlayStation Vita is officially upon us, and I've only one major complaint about it so far: I ain't got one. Luckily, I was made doubly fortunate last week by Toronto's own DrinkBox Studios, who not only managed to stave off my hunger for said portable console by putting one in my hands for an extended period, but also showed me their fine new platformer, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!

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...

As someone who grew up loving the Choose Your Own Adventure paperbacks, finding titles to play on my PSP that were essentially the same thing blew my mind—rather than turning the concepts into a clunky platformer or simplistic action game, the good people at Laughing Jackal translated the books themselves into text-based adventures with short minigames replacing the dice-rolling and combat that real-life readers would have performed.

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!

What if the Prince of Persia left an 8-Bit Iran and landed in present day Israel? Could he cope in this new land? As you might expect, things didn't go so well.

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.

Nostalgia's Running Thin

HIGH Lifting off just as zombies swarm in from all sides.

LOW Yet another incredibly cheap jet attack death.

WTF There are zombies chewing on you! Why are you shooting at me?

Surely we can't find anything negative to say about Rayman Origins, right? Errrrr.... Plus the truly uncanny X-Men Destiny (why hast though forsaken me, Denis Dyack?) and our take on whether games journalists should ever write for free. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim "Quack" Spaeth.

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