Candy crush candy crush candy crush

Releasing a high-fantasy game a scant couple of weeks after Skyrim (in Europe) may be as foolhardy as entrusting a hobbit to hurl an all-powerful ring into a volcano, but everyone likes an underdog. While I'd love to tell you that The Lord of the Rings: War in the North succeeds against the overwhelming odds of being a second-tier licensed game clashing against Bethesda's behemoth, the truth is that it's as gruelling as Frodo's journey, yet retains none of the satisfaction, wonder or excitement of its source material. Unwilling to step on any literary toes, War in the North follows the story of three unsung heroes whose journey runs parallel to the fellowship we've all come to know. While this provides an ample excuse to explore Middle Earth, one can't shake the feeling that the game takes place in alternate dimension full of less interesting personalities. You play as a trio - a human, an elf and a dwarf - but they lack the charisma of their counterparts Aragorn, Legolas, and … [Read more...] about The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Review

I've really set myself up for a fall this time. It's just not that I have to tell you how much the Baldur's Gate games meant, or still mean, to me. It's not just that I have to explain how they're tied to key events in my life, or that even now a single sound, quote or strain of music can still take me back. It's that I have to communicate my depth of feeling without making you think that I am a madman. A crackpot. A total nut. I bought the first Baldur's Gate on a whim. I was bored and sad and working the most god-awful accounting job that you could imagine, a job where our boss was one of those co-ordinated paperclip neat freaks that we now make office comedies about. Baldur's Gate came in a glossy box, spread across five CD-ROMs and accompanied by that most decadent of luxuries, a fold-out map. It was retail therapy. I didn't imagine it could live up to its hype. I'd long since lost interest in the PC's role-playing games, which had become either tedious dungeon crawls, … [Read more...] about Retrospective: Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2

If there's been a sillier silly-season date for major new releases than 18th November 2011, I can't recall it. But, suicidal congestion stupidity aside, it does offer a fascinating snapshot of Nintendo today. On 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land arrives, a flagship title the console is in dire need of, seven months into an unexpectedly sluggish debut year. Meanwhile, Wii receives updates to two of its most successful series: one, a towering 25-year veteran, the other a 20-million-selling mascot menagerie. The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword is seen as the final, definitive realisation of Nintendo's motion-controlled Wii dream, the irony being it's taken until the system is ready for the knacker's yard for faith in the MotionPlus add-on to be justified in a gamers' game. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, on the other hand, perfectly symbolises the type of gaming that has come to typify the Wii experience over the past five years: simple, accessible, family-oriented, … [Read more...] about Mario & Sonic at the London Olympic Games Review