Looking for a good game for yourself or someone else this holiday season? We’ve got you covered. Here are this year’s releases that have our stamp of approval on the Xbox 360.
November 2012
Regardless of your opinion about Hideo Kojima’s stories you can’t argue that the man doesn’t create memorable characters and unique gameplay systems. Zone of the Enders is no different. Leo Stenbeck, Jehuty and BAHRAM are just as memorable and well-developed now as they were when the ZoE games were released on the PlayStation 2. READ MORE
Taking inspiration from other games is nothing new, especially in a strategy game. A Game of Dwarves borrows heavily from Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper, while adding its own layer of tweaks to the formula. READ MORE
Tower defense can be a difficult genre in which to innovate. If you take away either the towers or the creeps then you’re not really playing tower defense, and if you add other things to the formula then you begin to make a different type of game with tower defense elements. The folks behind Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten have managed it, though, by marrying an RPG to the tower defense formula. Your party makes up your towers, and there’s an interesting story to uncover along the way. READ MORE
Have you played any of the previous four Professor Layton games? Yes? Then you know exactly what to expect here. Thanks for reading!
If you haven’t played any of them yet, think of them as a collection of puzzles (135 in the main narrative, optional downloadable unlocks, a few mini-games and, if you’re good enough at the latter, 15 incredibly difficult bonus puzzles) hidden amongst the scenery and population of a whimsical adventure starring the London gentleman and archaeology professor Hershel Layton, his young apprentice Luke Triton and, returning from Last Specter, research assistant Emmy Altavia. The details of each narrative differ from title to title, but they all involve a bunch of mysteries (many apparently supernatural in nature) that the Professor and company will have to work out as they progress. Along the way, they will encounter a variety of bizarre characters, almost all of whom will eventually force them to solve some sort of puzzle for whatever random reason. READ MORE
