Axel & Pixel: Simple or Too Simple?
Axel & Pixel has the right ingredients. It’s an indie game released on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace, a platform which helped Braid achieve commercial and critical success. Like the mind-bending Braid, it has an unusual take on a gaming staple, in its case the point-and-click genre. Like And Yet it Moves - another great indie game we’ve talked about - it features a quirky, endearing art style that draws you in immediately. So why hasn’t this unique, interesting downloadable title caught on with the masses?
Darkest of Days Review
Every now and then, a game will catch you so off guard that you won’t know what to make of it. To that effect, Darkest of Days is one of the most bewildering first-person shooter experiences that I’ve ever had. The plot setup is ace, with a soldier from Custer’s last stand being zapped into the future because he’s the only one that can stop a group of time-dicks from killing key historical figures. While the lack of Rufus is unsettling, the rampant paradoxes that I aimed to cause filled my mind with happy. All that I could think about was assaulting Civil War Confederates with rocket launcher-equipped dinosaurs and driving my flying supercar through the barracks of a Nazi training camp. Of course, Darkest of Days doesn’t let you do any of that, nor does it offer anything remotely entertaining, leaving you with game that packs the fervor and intensity normally reserved for a Sunday afternoon war reenactment.
Check out the audio review below, or hit the jump for the full text review.
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Episode 29: The Ballad of Grand Theft Auto
With the release of the latest GTA episode, Sinan & Joe have lassoed the Digital Cowboys, Alex Shaw and Tony Atkins, onto the show to discuss The Ballad of Gay Tony, the maturity of the Grand Theft Auto series, and how the media continues to point at Rockstar’s epic as the cause of all of humanity’s problems.
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Episode 28: A Real Horror Show
As Halloween approaches, there’s a real horror show of a Big Red Potion waiting for your listening enjoyment. Joe and Sinan welcome back regular podcast monster Eddie Inzauto, and Eddie’s brought along his GamerNode pal Jason Fanelli to talk horror games. Specifically, this week’s show takes a look at a quote from Joystiq’s Ludwig Kietzmann on the visceral appeal of survival horror games, which he argues makes them stand out from the crowd. Yes, Joe finally gets to talk some Silent Hill up and up, but look out for Animal Crossing making an appearance as well. No, really.
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Uncharted 2: Too Much Action?
Since I was unable to join Joe, Jeff and Xan on last week’s fine episode of Big Red Potion which was all about Uncharted 2, I thought I would share a few, can’t-sleep-and-it’s-now-early-morning-already thoughts. Hope you enjoy.
