The trenches of World War I are not a familiar battleground for any gamers, as most games tend to focus on the Second World War. However, that’s exactly where you’ll find yourself in The Wasted Land.  These trenches aren’t populated merely with Germans though, but also the horrors of the Cthulhu mythos. Your squad is the last hope for saving humanity.

The Wasted Land is based on the Call of Cthulhu short story by H. P. Lovecraft, and the story is fittingly horrific for the subject material. The Cult of the Awakened is trying to bring back Cthulhu and, through a series of missions, you are to prevent this from happening.

As a turn-based strategy game, The Wasted Land has pretty much all the basics you’d expect. Each unit has a set amount of action points per turn, which can be used to move around, shoot, heal, use magic or stab. You can use them however you want, but each action has a certain cost, and thus can only do so much each turn. Attacks also have a powered up version with makes them more accurate, but at a cost of using more action points. This is an important thing to remember, due to how inaccurate most attacks are at their basic level. In fact, even when an enemy is immediately in front of you, you’re just as likely to miss as hit them, without using the more powerful version.

There are many types of enemies you’ll face, from German soldiers to Cultists to Cthulhu monstrosities. Each time you attack or get attacked by a Cthulhu creature, you’ll lose a little bit of Sanity, a second meter aside from Health that measures your mental health. It’s important to keep track of your sanity because when you run out of it, one of two things will happen: either you will be paralyzed for a few turns or you will get ‘manic’ and gain a large amount of action points for a few turns before dying until the end of the mission. Timed well, this can be the difference between winning the mission or losing and having to try again.

As much as the gameplay and story are largely positive, the interface and control scheme do nothing but harm it. The interface is very counterintuitive, yet has very little to help you figure out what each button, abbreviation or unfamiliar word is. It took me five missions to even realize that two images in the attack menu were even buttons used to change which type of attack I was doing. When selecting categories to spend experience points on between missions, it’s even worse because there are over a dozen categories and no explanation of what each one does. I’m certain the handgun category relates to handguns in some way, but does it improve accuracy? Damage? Critical chance? Some combination thereof? I have no idea, and no way to find out. It’s worse for categories like ‘Cthulhu Mythology,’ which are so generic that it could mean almost anything.

Controlling your units is, for the most part, simple and easy, a relic of its previous incarnation as an iOS game. However, all unit commands rely on the same left mouse click. Want to look at an enemy’s stats? Click on him. Want to attack it? Click and hold on him. This works okay when your unit and the target are on the screen together, but for more distance attacks, it is maddeningly frustrating to get it to recognize what you want to do. A similar issue pops up for moving your units. You click your unit and then click on the map to see the action point cost of a move. It’s easy to accidentally move though, when you hold down the left click for both approving the move and for changing what part of the map you are looking at.

The graphics are pretty much unchanged from the iOS original and, while it purports to offer up to 1600×900 resolution, it never looks any higher than 800×600.

If you are looking for a strategy game and that’s it, there’s no reason at all to consider this. It’s not as deep, engaging, or pretty as almost any other strategy game of the past few years. However, it’s your only source for Lovecraftian themes in a strategy mold. And for a price of just $4.99, it’s worth it for those fans.

Pros: Lovecraftian story in a strategy shell, sanity meter is a neat addition, good price
Cons: interface is confusing, control scheme is unresponsive, graphics aren’t upscaled from iOS

Right before 3DO’s death, they had a few upcoming releases that showed promise. Back in 2003, the one that stood out to me was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an action game set right before the supposed end of the world. In it, you control the archangel Abaddon and team up with a group of three humans known as the “chosen,” to track down and kill the riders of the apocalypse in order to prevent, well… the apocalypse. It attempted to mix heavy action with some light exploration and horror elements to create a game that was not unique, but had some interesting potential.

At the time, this was going to be a big release for 3DO. Not only was it their first M-Rated game, it was also their first game in years that they wanted to give a huge marketing push. Some optimistic trailers and previews showed this as coming along nicely, despite some similarities to other popular games at the time. However, I would like to think of this game as an even darker Devil May Cry, from the setting to the gameplay despite the similarities.

As previously mentioned, the gameplay was a combination of an action game with some light exploration (in the same vein as DMC). The action focused on Abaddon’s ability to swap between melee attacks and gunplay on the fly, although the actual shooting mechanics seemed more developed than DMC’s, so there was more of a balance between the two. It was said that Abaddon would have other abilities that would work in tandem with his basic sword and gunplay, but not much was revealed beyond that.

The game would start with Abaddon’s search for the three humans that would help him defeat the four horsemen. Each of the three chosen would help out Abaddon in specific ways with their own unique abilities. For example, one of the three, Jesse, would be able to heal Abaddon whenever he called on her to aid him. Whether you could swap between them or select a specific chosen to help you before different missions was never specified, and a lot of those details never emerged. Although this is pure speculation, it would have been interesting to see how those abilities developed for each character. Perhaps they would have gained experience the more you used them, giving you a reason to swap between them more frequently? There was a lot of potential.

Despite showing the game off at preview events and letting a ton of buzz surround the project in early 2003, it wasn’t too long before the game was never seen again. 3DO struggled for several years, never able to publish any breakout hits, and in May 2003 they declared bankruptcy. Their many intellectual properties were sold off, including the rights to make a Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse game, but nothing ever came of that. With no developer looking to pick up where they left off, the project effectively scrapped. Although it would not have saved the company, if the game had been released, it might have been a big hit with the right marketing behind it.

Looking back on it now, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was far from original, but at the time, a lot of the story and concepts behind it were promising. There were still a lot of unknowns and it seemed to stem from a few other popular action games from the time, but I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the premise. Back then it showed promise and, with the right marketing push, might have been the perfect game for 3DO to go out on. And we’ve seen games with similar concepts, such as Darksiders, do well enough, so there is the potential for its eventual return.

Ronimo likes taking games that are typically 3D and squishing them into a 2D plane. It worked with Swords & Soldiers, the 2D cartoon RTS, and it works here with Awesomenauts, the 2D cartoon MOBA. Awesomenauts only has one game mode, but there are enough variables that you don’t need a ton of menu choices to ensure that each game played will feel different. Between multiple characters and myriad upgrade paths, you’ll have to cook up a new strategy each game if you want to win more than one match in a row.

The three character options are all built around different styles of play. Sheriff Lonestar is a good place to start: he’s got guns and dynamite to throw and plays the most like you’d expect a gun-toting sidescroller to play. Voltar is a cloaked brain in a jar who serves as a team healer, and Leon is for those of you who prefer to play a rogue since he can blend into the background and sneak behind enemy lines. Whoever you choose, your mission is the same: destroy the enemy drill.

Of course, this expands into a much larger set of goals like protect your stationary turrets, kill the enemy heroes and don’t die (because it gives the enemy money and your spawn timer goes up every time it happens). Awesomenauts, like other MOBAs, is all about attacking in moderation. It’s better to attack, get a few shots on a turret and retreat for health than it is to run in and whale on the turret until you’re dead. It’s not all about DPS here, and if you play it that way, odds are very good that your team is going to lose.

The cartoon aesthetic looks great, but it hides a deep tactical experience. The team that peppers away at the turret while using his creeper robots as a shield is going to do better than the team that specced for maximum damage and runs straight at the enemy. And the battles have to be decided by brainpower: there are no power weapons to hoard and symmetrical maps mean that there are no narrow passageways to funnel the opposing team through. If you want to win then you’re going to have to work together and come up with the winning strategy.

Awesomenauts does a lot right, and it’s a lot of fun. Every game has its warts though, and Awesomenauts is no different. High-tier skills are almost impossible to beginners to contend with and matchmaking doesn’t always seem to take player level into account. One of the late-game unlockable characters, a jet-pack wearing monkey called Yuri, can currently shoot at turrets and never take a shot himself due to the way turrets are programmed, and while the main draw of Awesomenauts is the tactics, some more variety would go a long way. When compared to other MOBAs, six heroes and three arenas is a fairly anemic offering.

For $10, it’s hard to let the short list of worries detract from an otherwise-wonderful game. If you’re going to bite, I’d do it soon though: it’s almost impossible to forecast which downloadable games will still have a player base in six months and which ones will be a ghost town.

Pros: great cartoon look, interesting characters and abilities, rewards tactical play
Cons: Yuri’s glitch can be game-breaking, learning curve can be steep

The Best to Own Forever series isn’t about what’s great right now. It’s about what will be great in 10 years, even though there will be better-looking games and later sequels, and what will keep you pulling that dusty old console out of the closet every once in a while. We start the series with the Wii.

The fact that we even got a sequel to the original Boom Blox is strange, considering how poorly the first game sold, but the sequel improves upon everything while maintaining what made the original so much fun in the first place. The addition of new multiplayer modes makes this the best Wii game to play with kids while still remaining as addictive as ever in during the single-player content. The simplistic motions play to the strengths of the Wii’s controls without ever running into any of the typical motion gaming problems you might be accustomed to. This is one of the few family-friendly Wii titles that belongs in every gaming library. - Andrew Passafiume

The things that have made Wii games successful in today’s game climate are exactly the things that will make them successful in ten years. At least in this context, the technical disadvantages the Wii has had give it an advantage. There’s nothing here with the system’s features that make it great, but that’s okay: the aesthetic is possibly the most fully-realized one in the history of games. Oh, and it’s really just so charming to play. It may look like a game for kids, and it is. But it’s also for everyone else. - Graham Russell

One of the worst crimes repeatedly committed by gamers is judging a game by its cover. Because of its discounted price point, cartoony box art (with cel-shaded graphics to match) and “mascot and sidekick: subtitle” title scheme, Capcom’s Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure was generally unfairly dismissed as being just another third-party platformer. In reality, Z&W is a brilliant point-and-click adventure-puzzler with tons of charm and just enough challenge to make things really fun, and I logged at least 30 hours on it before I’d solved all of the main puzzles. There are even additional challenges and discoveries to be found, including alternate solutions to some of the more complex puzzles. Z&W belongs in the same discussion as the great LucasArts PC adventure games of yesteryear, and it more than deserves a permanent place in your Wii library.  - Chris Ingersoll

The original Super Mario Galaxy was a great game, but there are certainly elements of it designed (at least in part) to show off the system’s features. With the second game, EAD Tokyo just had to focus on making the game great without demonstrating the system, and guess what? The result was phenomenal. It could’ve been like The Lost Levels, a straightforward sequel that no one is particularly bothered when it’s swept under the rug for the most part. Instead, with Yoshi, iterations on the first game’s puzzles and a stripped-down world that focuses on getting you to the good stuff, this one’s a keeper. - Graham Russell

The first LostWinds was a launch title for Nintendo’s WiiWare service and it did a nice job of demonstrating the potential of the service, but was a bit on the easy side. The sequel, Winter of the Melodias, brings a lot of innovative puzzles and some cool new mechanics to the table, adding a lot of extra depth that the original was missing. This game is short, but I found it has a lot of replay value and is the one WiiWare title that is worth revisiting countless times. You can download both this and the original on your iOS device, but I think the WiiWare version is the one to go with. - Andrew Passafiume

If/when we decide to cover the Best GameCube Games to Own Forever (ed.: soon), Metroid Prime could easily make the list. But if it doesn’t survive the cut, that’s because putting Metroid Prime Trilogy on this list was essentially a no-brainer. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption put the Wii’s control scheme to one of its best uses in the system’s lifetime, and the Trilogy collection applied that scheme (and some other upgrades, like widescreen support) to the two already-superior GameCube titles, and then crammed them all onto one (dual-layer) disc packaged in a neat metallic case for no extra cost. The only problem with Trilogy? The fact that it was a Collector’s Edition, and as such is now expensive to pick up new (current Amazon price: $170); even used editions will run at least $10 more than the $50 MSRP these days. If you already own it, hang on to it. If you don’t, we won’t fault you for opting to only pick up Corruption.  - Chris Ingersoll

Guys, we probably won’t get another Rhythm Heaven anytime soon. That’s sad to type, but the games haven’t seen much success in the U.S., so it’s time to accept our fate. It’s good, then, that we went out on top, as Rhythm Heaven Fever is better than the GBA original and certainly more solid than the DS installment. High-fiving monkeys! Racquets and planes! Seriously, go play this game and try not to have a big grin on your face. - Graham Russell

Not everyone will agree with this, but I think Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition is the best version of RE4 you can buy. Sure, it doesn’t have the sharper, HD look of the recent re-release, but it has an incredible and easy-to-use motion-control scheme that is perfect for this game. You can play with a regular controller if you prefer it, but the Wii controls are some of the best on the system and add a ton to an already fantastic game. That, plus all of the great additional content, equals an affordable way to be play one of the best action-horror games of the last decade. - Andrew Passafiume

Just like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption justified the Wii Remote’s pointer, Skyward Sword justified the MotionPlus technology that is now basically standard on all newly-purchased Remotes. We never really got the epic Star Wars lightsaber game that everyone immediately dreamed of when the Remote was first revealed, but Skyward Sword delivered on the sword-swinging promise in Nintendo’s own way. Being able to control your swings directly allowed for better combat and a new variety of puzzles that the Zelda series could never offer before, and the creators have pretty much gone on record as stating that future Zelda console releases will use motion-controlled swordplay as often as possible. Of course, the motion controls were used for more than just stabbing and slashing, making Skyward Sword one of the most unique Zelda experiences ever made.  - Chris Ingersoll

Despite being a five-year-old game by the time we saw it, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love impressed and charmed us enough to warrant Game of the Year consideration. It’s the only game in the series to get an English translation, and its standalone story makes that okay. Yeah, it’s a bit of a visual novel in between the cool mech strategy-RPG battles, but how’s that not better than grinding for XP? - Graham Russell

Some gameplay is just timeless. The utter simplicity of the Punch-Out!! series stands the test of time, while the great characters and puzzle-based boxing make each game in the franchise memorable. The Wii version even upped the ante by trading basic button presses for actual fist-swinging — although the optional Balance Board support for ducking and dodging was probably overdoing it a little. Still, it was great to see this nearly-forgotten franchise resurrected after taking two generations off, and it couldn’t have come back at a better time. Is this the best iteration of the franchise? That depends on who you ask, and possibly on which day. Does it matter? Not really… they’re all awesome in their own ways. And you can actually play all three on the same system thanks to the Virtual Console, so throwing this one out of the ring would just be wrong. – Chris Ingersoll

In the future, I think people will look back at Xenoblade Chronicles fondly and see it as the beacon of hope that inspired a new wave of great JRPGs. This is me being optimistic, but it’s hard not to be when this game has received such high praise from so many people, including those who are not big JRPG fans (or at least haven’t been for years). Xenoblade deserves all of that praise and then some. It adds a bunch of new improvements to a stagnant genre without ruining what made JRPGs great in the first place. - Andrew Passafiume

This week, BioShock Infinite moved to 2013, creating a hole in the fall schedule that other publishers are trying to fill. Above: Max Payne 3‘s releasing this week! Have a launch trailer.

TOP STORY: BioShock Infinite delayed

BioShock Infinite was expected to arrive in October this year, but this week, Take Two announced a delay until February 26, 2013. Specifics for the delay were not given, but Ken Levine, head of Irrational Games, said that it plans to use the time to make Infinite ”even more extraordinary” than it would have been. It will also be absent from upcoming game conventions, so that time can be spent on development rather than preparing for public displays.

Lego Lord of the Rings revealed

It had long been hoped that eventually the Lego series of games would touch on the Lord of the Rings series, and signs are pointing to that day finally arriving. A new series of actual Lego characters from the Lord of the Rings has hit stores, packed with inserts that advertise an upcoming Lego Lord of the Rings game that will arrive in October of this year.

Dishonored arriving in October

While Bioshock Infinite was delayed from its slot in October, Dishonored has taken its place. Bethesda’s steampunk action game is set to arrive on October 9 for the 360, PS3, and PC. It is being developed by Arkane Studios, the developers behind Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

Hitman returns in November, gets preorder minigame

Adding to the parade of games arriving this fall, Square Enix announced that Hitman: Absolution will hit stores November 20. Additionally, gamers who preorder a copy of Absolution will be given access to a stand-alone downloadable minigame, Hitman: Sniper Challenge. Console gamers will be able to download it next Tuesday, while PC gamers will have to wait until August 1. In Sniper Challenge, players will be tasked with assassinating a weapons company executive and his guardians.

The massively-multiplayer genre has always been polarizing among PC gamers. While some are staunch supporters of their chosen game, others can’t stand them at all, thinking them no more than a meaningless timesink.  And others love them not as a game, but as a social experience. Something of a social network built within a game, as opposed to a game like Farmville, built within a social network.

MMOs are incredibly derivative, typically built upon the previous games, with changes and additions. A completely original experience is generally rare, though often quite successful, especially when a game decides to tailor itself to a certain type of player.  Here’s a look at the history of the genre, and look at how it has evolved over time.

The genre really began with Multi User Dungeons (MUDs).  Text-driven, these games tried to take the descriptive gameplay of Dungeons and Dragons, and move it online, with varying degrees of success. In fact, some of them are still around today. There were a few attempts at graphical “RPG”-style games, however it wasn’t until Origin expanded its Ultima series onto the Internet with Ultima Online that they hit success. Ultima Online‘s release was, simply put, a disaster by today’s standards.  The game was horrendously laggy, filled with bugs and debuted featuring game mechanics that allowed for rampant griefing of other players.

As the first foray into the genre on a large scale, the game simply did not take into account the attitudes and behaviors of players online. The player-killing and griefing was not intended to be common; the intent was to allow players to role-play their chosen character with as much freedom as possible, much like the single-player games.   Eventually, when alternatives appeared on the market, the player-killing was shown to be bad for Origin’s bottom line when players began to decrease and stop playing as a result. The game was then changed to allow players to play free of danger in a separate “safe” copy of the world, and could venture into the open player-versus-player (PvP) area whenever they wished. Ultima Online is still in operation today,  managed by EA BioWare.

After Ultima, the 3D revolution overtook PC gaming, and we all had to make that switch to dedicated graphics hardware. Along with this came EverQuest.  EverQuest and its expansions took the MMO into the world of polygons, and gave us the perspective and interface we see in more modern games.  This was also the first MMO to really get a lot of attention, as the Internet was commonplace by this point.   The other thing this game brought? Expansions. Tons of them. And they were $30-40 each, releasing every six months or so at its peak.  The paid content/DLC controversy is by no means a new thing for the game industry.

After EverQuest, the game industry took note, seeing the MMO as a potential cash cow. With the potential for profit from game sales, expansion packs and the ever-lucrative monthly fee, it was clear that this was a pie everyone wanted a piece of. The industry went through a real slew of MMOs here, some successful, most not. The successful ones took an aspect of the genre and used it to set itself apart from the rest.  Dark Age of Camelot, for example, provided what is still regarded as one of the best large-scale PvP experiences with its Realm vs. Realm system, where the playerbase was split into three factions.

Of course, the ubiquitous Final Fantasy, after the massive success of Final Fantasy X, decided to enter into the online RPG arena too. Final Fantasy XI was unique as it was the first attempt at playing an online RPG with a console on the PlayStation 2. It was also the first Final Fantasy to be developed for PC at the same time as the console version.  Although it was a success, the high entry price for PS2 owners (they had to buy the hard drive with the game) and an unwieldy user interface designed for controller navigation meant that the game would generally only be embraced by fans of the Final Fantasy series, and the MMO audience already on PC would move on to other games. Its fanbase was very loyal, however, and the game is still running today. (Square Enix’s second Final Fantasy MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, has not fared as well, with Final Fantasy XIV‘s development team essentially changing soon after release. The game was free to play for almost a year, and a massive update and re-release of the game is due out at the end of 2012.)

Movies were not left out, as the long awaited Star Wars Galaxies appeared as EverQuest was fading. Plagued with bugs, this game defined how badly an MMO launch can go, but recovered and became fairly successful.  While known for being patched into ruin by its own development team, struggling to keep the game alive, its first years are still regarded fondly by former players. It closed its doors at the end of 2011, just days before another Star Wars MMO was to begin.

What followed these, of course, was World of Warcraft.

Look for part two of this feature next week.

Writer Mike Walbridge’s goal: play every Molyjam game and tell you about as many as he can. Want to know more? Click here.

246: Friends ’til the end: “You play as a small boy with a remote control helicoptor that is alive and your friend, then you discover a nuclear missle inside it”

The controls and movement abilities in this game need some tweaking, but the Game Over screen alone is a good reason to play this game. It’s also one of the most distinctive games. You have to delicately move a helicopter with a nuclear bomb in it? This is so dark and gritty, and you’d never see this one on Xbox Live. The challenge is frustrating, but at least there’s that screen.

243: Far From the Tree: “What if you could plant seeds that grow into cover systems?,” “What if a cover system had raw emotion? i.e having to use dead people that you loved as a means of cover?”

Somehow this game uses two tweets, with apples being the dead bodies used for cover. Some gritty potential here, as you have to die on purpose in select spots in order to progress.

242: Phone Frag!: “What if everyone in the world had an explosive telephone in their body? If you could find out their number you can detonate their phone?”

This reminds me of the challenging classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors. You have a dog, and you must go around the level looking for phone numbers. When you get them, you must dash to the phone booth and then type in the actual numbers for the guys to explode. Simple, fun. I like the frantic possibilities that having to type all the numbers requires. I wonder what the game would be like with varied enemies and obstacles.

235: You Are The Road: “Have you ever played a racing game and wanted to play as the road rather than the cars? I know I have…”

This is one of the better examples of having players compete on different levels.

227: In the dark, the blind can see: “A survival horror game where you have to sing lullabies to your 2 year old to stop them from screaming/crying and giving your position away”

Your home has been invaded, and you play as blind father trying to escape with his baby. But if the baby you are holding cries, it gets shot. Then you get shot. Every single time I die I cringe and feel highly uncomfortable. All of the simple effects are put to maximum use here.

226: Recidivism: “Imagine if when you kill someone their death animation loops and ‘burns’ into your screen so you have to watch it for the rest of the game?”

Someone actually dared to make a game based on this tweet. It starts off as a simple 8-bit platformer, but quickly turns to gory, dark, and horrid. There were so many bodies that I couldn’t even finish the game, as it slowed my computer down.

224: I, Crow-Bot™: “You are a scarecrow in a world with just 1 bird”
This is the first time I’ve seen a game I challenge the player to do something about a harmful animal while not harming the animal, which needs to be protected. Eat your heart out, PETA. Or don’t.

223: OCTOPI EVERYTHING: “Online sidescrolling co-op 8 player game where each person controls a leg of a octopus. Each leg can attach guns which the player can fire”
It really does have simple 8-player controls. I played this for only 10 seconds, but the capabilities here are tremendous! What if you had a spaceship, and each person had a different role, that was 8 players? Or a spaceship where you all had guns and you were in separate spots? Funnier is where the legs were located: 4, q, z, c, b, m, p, 8. Shaped like an octopus. The boldness in making an 8-player game is commendable.

222: Revenge Of The Road: ”Have you ever played a racing game and wanted to play as the road rather than the cars? I know I have…”

Sleek presentation, this is also a good representation of the road vs. car idea.

221: Six: “You know in cut scenes when it says ’3 months later…’? What if the game ACTUALLY locked your save file for 3 months?,” “What if games rewarded you for believing rather than winning?”

This game takes literally six days to get through. It is based on one of Grimm’s fairy tales, so there is no surprise here, but this game quietly reveals the potential games have to impress a story on us. If a game forcibly limited the player in accessing the story according to time intervals, making the player feel the passage of time, this would commit them literally in a way text or the scrolling images of cinema and TV cannot. This is something that could be used somewhere, somehow.

218: TETHER: “What if you lived in a world where all guns are required to be plugged into wall sockets?”

This is the best so far of the plug tweets and at least the third I’ve played. Great classic arcade action. Recommend playing and developing further.

217: The Shadowland Prophesy: ”We’ve had emotional game endings but have we ever had an emotional title screen?”

This is a hilarious game that I don’t want to spoil but it is a very eye-opening possibility to what you can do with title screens and option screens. Great potential for puzzle and minigame mechanics here. Brilliantly done, this game actually made me laugh, both out of humor and from the joy of being surprised at just what a game’s author is capable of.

211: NukaBaby: “Imagine carrying a radioactive baby in a pitch black environment, your baby would act as a torch. Rocking the baby intensifies the glow etc,” “A survival horror game where you have to sing lullabies to your 2 year old to stop them from screaming/cry”

Another differing conditions versus mode that I recommend you try. Fully functional—make sure you play with someone else!

Telltale Games has had a lot of success in the past creating memorable adventure games based on existing franchises. Its once-popular formula began to grow a bit stale, and when it attempted to mix things up with Jurassic Park: The Game,  it was met with very little fanfare. Now it’s back with The Walking Dead, a five-episode adventure series that attempts to try something a little different once again, while staying true to the company’s winning adventure game formula.

The story follows Lee Everett, who is being driven in a police car out of the city of Atlanta. It’s not long before he runs head-first into danger, when they crash into the woods and Lee is left to fend for himself in a terrifying, zombie-filled world. Lee’s back story is slowly explored throughout the first episode, including his crime, which is one of the best parts about this debut. The way the game slowly introduces the many characters and gives you a sense of their personality right away is well-executed, allowing you to slowly learn more about Lee and the other survivors. The writing in general is some of the best Telltale has done.

Right from the start, you are introduced to the game’s choice system. Throughout the first episode, you are presented with a series of dialogue options that shape how characters react to you and how Lee’s personality develops. It’s hard to say just how many of the basic choices will carry over or impact later episodes, but it seems they are off to a good start. I already noticed certain characters behaving differently around me based on my choices during certain scenes.

And then there are more specific choices that change the story in major ways, such as choosing between two different characters to save. These choices are time-based, forcing you to act fast, which add to the tense atmosphere. These choices allow the player to shape Lee’s character despite his predetermined back story, focusing more on the character dynamics and less on the zombies, which is what both the television series and comics do so well.

Don’t take that to mean there aren’t plenty of zombies though. They always seem to strike when you least expect it, setting up the idea that you and the other survivors are never truly safe and that anyone can die at any time. It creates a real tension that is missing from a lot of horror (or horror-themed) games these days. It’s not a particularly scary game, but it’s a tense one, absolutely drenched in an atmosphere that never fails to surprise.

Outside of the choice system, the game functions as a familiar adventure game. You almost always have control over an on-screen cursor that allows you to examine the environment around you, similar to a traditional adventure game, but you also have full control over the character, which allows you to wander around the different environments. During specific action sequences, you’ll find yourself needing to move both to perform specific actions. It’s not as fleshed-out as a real action game would be, but it does a good job of keeping you on your toes and making sure you feel in control during those key action sequences. Similar to a lot of the dialogue options and major choices, all of these action sequences are timed, making sure you are kept on your guard at all times.

Visually, The Walking Dead maintains a style very similar to the comics, and it works well. It’s not the best-looking game around, but it stays consistent and remains true to the source material. There are a lot of weird technical problems, including random texture pop-in and lip-syncing issues, as well as some buggy animations that really hold the game back. There were a couple of great scenes that were almost ruined due to characters talking without even moving their mouths. For a game as reliant as story and atmosphere, you can be taken out of those moments very easily.

The Walking Dead: Episode One is a very strong start to what could be Telltale’s best work yet. The writing is top-notch, the presentation is gorgeous despite the technical problems, and the game remains entertaining from start to finish. We just have to hope that this level of quality remains consistent for the rest of the episodes.

Pros: Fantastic writing, solid blend of new and old school adventure elements, great atmosphere throughout
Cons: Technical problems inhibit the tension and impact at times

If you’re actually nerdy enough to come to this website, and even then actually read this column, you probably saw The Avengers in theaters this weekend. Heck, everyone did. I certainly did. And not just that, but I went to the midnight premiere. At a theater an hour away. And I got there at 11 a.m. and subsequently sat through every one of the Marvel Studios films leading up to The Avengers. What does this have to do with video games? Almost nothing.

But I wish it did.

The Avengers are a perfect example of a well-rounded team that could take on any adversary or obstacle. After all the set up and build, crap goes buckwild for nearly the whole last third of the film. Confronted with an alien invasion thanks to the trickster god Loki, these six people must pool their talents and conquer evil. The members of the Avengers each have wildly-different levels of power, but their completely distinct skillsets make each one of them as indispensable as the last. Black Widow wouldn’t last two seconds in a fight with Thor, but he couldn’t do half of what she can. This is perfectly illustrated during the final battle of the film. (To avoid spoilers, skip the next paragraph.)

After a portal opens in the sky allowing the Chitauri to take the express route and rain terror down directly upon New York, Earth’s mightiest heroes have to fight off an entire army with only the team they’ve assembled. As the leader, Captain America quickly gives each member a duty. Being less powerful in terms of brute strength, he and Black Widow stay on the ground while Thor and Iron Man take to the skies to wipe out as many enemies as possible. Hawkeye gets a better vantage point and uses his archery skills to hold off some waves and be everyone’s eyes for what’s coming. And Hulk gets to smash.

This scene was so well-orchestrated and really showed why these wildly different characters can come together to form one cohesive unit and work 100% effectively. Why don’t we have things like this in video games?

There have been some great co-op games of course like the Halo series and the Ultimate Alliance games (which actually let you play as the Avengers), but they don’t have what I’m asking for. I’d like to see a co-op game where everyone plays a completely different character with a totally different skillset and playstyle. Generally in co-op campaigns, Players 1 and 2 control exactly the same and serve the same purpose. In online modes you may have different goals, but there’s the same issue. Like in Uncharted’s gold rush mode, one player must carry the gold idol across the map and deposit it into a chest while the others cover them. But you’re still all playing as Drake, or girl Drake or old Drake.

Other online games like World of Warcraft or DotA give each player different skills and attacks, but you’re still controlling the same way and have the exact same goal. Each teammate is completely interchangeable with another. Have there been any games where losing just one teammate can make or break a match? And I don’t mean just losing the guy with the biggest gun. I also am not looking for a game where the character classes are just separated by guys with guns and guys who are medics but also have guns. Team Fortress 2 is a good start, but what’s the next step? Trine is also a good example, but it’s also a bit limited. All three characters are unique, but still playing on the same screen for a relatively small goal compared to the destruction of mankind. The Avengers could have been that game.

What game do you think offers a unique co-op experience and makes every player feel useful in a way no other player can be? Or what game can I just pretend is about The Avengers? Let us know in the comments. Or just tell us about your favorite co-op games.

Like every good Nintendo fanboy, I awaited every bit of information about Nintendo’s next console like I’d just been tested after a week in Tijuana. Then one morning it was there: the reveal video for the Nintendo Wii. I loved the GameCube and couldn’t wait to see how Nintendo would fulfill all the promises made in that video. I’m still waiting.

When Nintendo first told us about the Wii, it had a lot of ideas about what to do with this revolutionary new technology. None of the things presented included crappy, cheap shovelware and worse versions of games from other consoles. Nintendo promised to revolutionize gaming through motion controls. We were going to have epic swordfights, really feel like we were holding a gun and traversing a warzone, and (most interesting to me) the remote would serve as a great learning tool. All I’ve learned from the Wii is there are a lot of people willing to pay money for absolute garbage, and that I suck at even fake bowling.

One of the edu-taining games scheduled for release on the Wii (and its handheld counterpart, the DS) was Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting. Little info was ever released about the title. We weren’t even sure if it was actually canceled by its developer AGFRAG Entertainment Group until it just never came out. But it’s a shame, because a Bob Ross video game is a great idea!

Just like the show, the object of the game would obviously be to learn how to paint but using the Wii’s remote or DS’s stylus to mimic an actual paintbrush. And also like the show, you’d be learning how to create generic crap that you could find in a mall, but it’s more about the man than the paintings. Bob Ross’s demeanor was the perfect antidote to the extreme ’90s. Every day, viewers would tune into his show to hear his soothing voice tell us about the happy little trees and mountains. After his death (shortly before this game’s announcement), an educational video game would be the perfect way to carry on his legacy.

There could even have been some kind of Pokemon Snap-esque promotion to let players print out their artwork for display. And the game would no doubt lead to many people taking the next step and buying real paint and canvasses. Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting getting canned is a severe missed opportunity for this last generation of games. But maybe with the Wii U’s new capabilities, we’ll see the project revived. But one would need to have the optimism and zen-like nature of Bob Ross himself to hope for that. Until then, Mario Paint and a SNES mouse will have to do.