Eric Albuen

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Whenever an HD remaster is announced, certain things flow through your head. Will it play exactly as you remember it? Does the story live up to today’s standards? Has the way the developer looked at a game changed over time? Considering the state of affairs with the Resident Evil series, you find yourself asking these questions way too often. Cameras that (kind of) work? Action over tension? Co-op? Gratuitous amounts of ammo and inventory space? Back in 1996, these were probably the furthest things from any Resident Evil fan’s mind, but for better or worse, the series has survived six main numbered games and a number of spin-offs.

With Resident Evil HD Remaster serving as an upgrade to the 2002 remake, was it worth revisiting this entry for a third time? READ MORE

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Guilty Gear has been one of the premier franchises for developer Arc System Works. Past entries have delivered on being incredibly flashy, having top-notch sprite work and providing players with an awesome heavy metal soundtrack to keep in theme with the setting they deliver. However, it’s been some time since the main one-on-one fighter series has received any sort of proper entry (Accent Core Plus, released in 2012, was the fifth update of 2002’s Guilty Gear X2). While the updates have held us over for sometime, Guilty Gear Xrd –Sign– finally an appearance on consoles, serving as the first huge overhaul the series has seen and introducing the Unreal Engine to its gameplay. Were the overhauled mechanics worth the wait? READ MORE

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Honorable mention: Tomodachi Life

This game definitely tapped into the child within me that liked taking care of Tamagotchi. Being able to see what kind of crazy antics Miis get into when you decide to put them all in a room together was interesting. This was a game I was able to play alongside other games without much interruption, something I can’t really say about many other games on this list. It was definitely a nice change of pace to play something not incredibly serious alongside something I wanted to dedicate a lot of time into. I just wish I had more than two married couples… I have no idea how my friends managed to have over ten. READ MORE

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The release of X & Y was, in many ways, one of the best things to happen to the Pokémon series. The entries finally moved into a polygonal world, and streamlined many of the processes that were considered to be tedious in previous games. It’s been roughly ten years since Ruby & Sapphire released, making them (until now) the oldest generation without an updated edition. Like HeartGold & SoulSilver before them, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire update the mechanics while preserving the original’s world and quirks, and these latest releases serve as a reminder of exactly how much X & Y changed the game. READ MORE

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After the spin-off Resident Evil Revelations franchise made its debut on 3DS, it was ported to home consoles, and with its upcoming sequel, Capcom is tailoring the game specifically for the big-screen experience. Considering the 3DS version used the touch screen to its advantage for several of the original game’s puzzles, what changes this time now that the focus has changed?

What is it?: Capcom’s second entry in the Revelations series takes place between Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. The game stars Claire Redfield, heroine of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica, and Moira Burton, daughter of the first Resident Evil’s Barry Burton. The portion we played starts off with both Claire and Moira waking up and finding themselves in a run-down jail. Following a fairly linear path, you try to make your way out of the jail by figuring out some simple puzzles and defeating a taste of the game’s new enemies.  READ MORE