Ok, this is one of those epic reviewing posts where I hit pretty much everything. I've actually got a few video games to review this week and also reviewed a couple of awesome tabletop games this week, so it should be a nice long post. Feel free to read more after the break.
Okay, I'm gonna start off with E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. It's a grim and gritty cyberpunk game which I haven't beaten yet, but I've put in an unholy amount of time across two different characters. The graphics are superb, and the gameplay's unrivaled in terms of a fast action shooter with deep mechanics. You can customize your kit in a variety of ways- carry a sword and a sniper, or a revolver and an assault cannon. Be a psychic or hack into foes and use them to do your bidding. Be invisible or impregnable (or both, but that's your choice). You can choose between three types of armor that affect your speed, noise, and ability to survive falls or damage. Upgrade cyberware to become a powerful assailant. I'm even glossing over a lot of it. It is cyberpunk squared. It's awesome. There are, admittedly, a fair number of glitches, but it's mostly stable on my rig and the only glitch I hit often is if two or more players in co-op talk to NPC's and mess up the dialog system, becoming eternally stuck, and that's solved by a little bit of discipline. The translation could use a little work, but at times even the errors add to the feel of a culture and society far divorced from ours. You can pick it up for about $20 on Steam, but it's on sale to celebrate its release (last I checked). I'm not sure how many players the co-op handles, but I've played with three guys without any hitches, and it runs on the Source engine, meaning it should work for a variety of systems. There's some issues with older 32 bit machines that can (usually) be solved by changing settings, though.
A.I.M. 2 is also a fun game. It's not quite as stellar, but it's still very good for its age. On sale for $10 at Gamer's Gate, if you haven't given it at least a glance you're missing out. Admittedly, A.I.M. is a quirky game- you take the role of an autonomous robot trying to take over the world and do something. There's some loss in the translation (what is it with that this week?), but it's still a good game, if a little bit older. I've heard you have to run it in compatibility modes (Win98) on modern systems, but I haven't had any problems since setting it to that. The graphics are outdated, but there's good gameplay.
World of Tanks is a "freemium" game that's got a lot of frenetic tank action. Sure it's not the quickest pace, but it feels a lot like the good bits of Men of War (in my opinion) moved into a third/first person shooter. I love it, the graphics are good, the gameplay's fun, though advancement slows quickly leading to repetitive grinding when trying to get to a new tank in a short time. The music is especially good, though not always the most immersive, and the community's decent, though I have run into people who go AFK for rounds if they don't like the loadout of certain teams, which is almost facilitated by the game letting players leave battles to go to another, even mid-round, so long as they have more tanks (you start with three pretty weak tanks and can buy nicer tanks as you progress).
Infantry is a totally free MMO action game. It's an old game hosted by Sony's MMO service, and it's way old. However, that shouldn't keep people from giving it a shot. Old-school graphics and fun infantry and vehicle action meet in a style not frequently explored by modern games. The gameplay's reminiscent of EV Nova meets Crimsonland. There's still a fair number of players, and with the proper dedication it's got a fairly rapid chain of advancement and a lot of fun stuff (it can be frustrating for newbies, though, since at least on some servers you run into a lot of cloaked guys with knives). That said, nothing's as satisfying as running around with a machine gun and being a major force on the battlefield.
Age of Shadows is a free tabletop game at DriveThruRPG. It's got a percentile system and a dark gritty low fantasy feel that is just spectacular, especially mentioning that it's free. I'd definitely give it a shot, and think about picking up the $3 campaign guide to further acquaint yourself with the setting (the free core rules give only a taste of the full setting).
Remnants is also a tabletop game, but it'll set you back about $10. It's worth it. Combine post-apocalyptic medieval through stone age hunter gatherers and feudal city states with giant robots. It sounds crazy, and it is. Crazy awesome, that is. The rules are exceptionally well written, and I'd recommend it for novices to tabletop gaming due to its simplicity, and veterans due to its exceptional quality. The art and typesetting are done in such a way that the read itself is engaging. The setting is exceptionally well written (and allows options for science-fiction or magic to power the titular Remnants, though it does feel exceptionally like a sci-fi setting to me) and has great analysis of post-apocalyptic cultural and ecological rebuilding.
A.I.M. 2 is also a fun game. It's not quite as stellar, but it's still very good for its age. On sale for $10 at Gamer's Gate, if you haven't given it at least a glance you're missing out. Admittedly, A.I.M. is a quirky game- you take the role of an autonomous robot trying to take over the world and do something. There's some loss in the translation (what is it with that this week?), but it's still a good game, if a little bit older. I've heard you have to run it in compatibility modes (Win98) on modern systems, but I haven't had any problems since setting it to that. The graphics are outdated, but there's good gameplay.
World of Tanks is a "freemium" game that's got a lot of frenetic tank action. Sure it's not the quickest pace, but it feels a lot like the good bits of Men of War (in my opinion) moved into a third/first person shooter. I love it, the graphics are good, the gameplay's fun, though advancement slows quickly leading to repetitive grinding when trying to get to a new tank in a short time. The music is especially good, though not always the most immersive, and the community's decent, though I have run into people who go AFK for rounds if they don't like the loadout of certain teams, which is almost facilitated by the game letting players leave battles to go to another, even mid-round, so long as they have more tanks (you start with three pretty weak tanks and can buy nicer tanks as you progress).
Infantry is a totally free MMO action game. It's an old game hosted by Sony's MMO service, and it's way old. However, that shouldn't keep people from giving it a shot. Old-school graphics and fun infantry and vehicle action meet in a style not frequently explored by modern games. The gameplay's reminiscent of EV Nova meets Crimsonland. There's still a fair number of players, and with the proper dedication it's got a fairly rapid chain of advancement and a lot of fun stuff (it can be frustrating for newbies, though, since at least on some servers you run into a lot of cloaked guys with knives). That said, nothing's as satisfying as running around with a machine gun and being a major force on the battlefield.
Age of Shadows is a free tabletop game at DriveThruRPG. It's got a percentile system and a dark gritty low fantasy feel that is just spectacular, especially mentioning that it's free. I'd definitely give it a shot, and think about picking up the $3 campaign guide to further acquaint yourself with the setting (the free core rules give only a taste of the full setting).
Remnants is also a tabletop game, but it'll set you back about $10. It's worth it. Combine post-apocalyptic medieval through stone age hunter gatherers and feudal city states with giant robots. It sounds crazy, and it is. Crazy awesome, that is. The rules are exceptionally well written, and I'd recommend it for novices to tabletop gaming due to its simplicity, and veterans due to its exceptional quality. The art and typesetting are done in such a way that the read itself is engaging. The setting is exceptionally well written (and allows options for science-fiction or magic to power the titular Remnants, though it does feel exceptionally like a sci-fi setting to me) and has great analysis of post-apocalyptic cultural and ecological rebuilding.