Sanctum 2 Hands-On Preview (@IGN)

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Nathan Meunier

“It’s great to see Coffee Stain Studios is taking a much-needed baseball bat to the ol’ bees nest for Sanctum 2, the upcoming sequel to its cool first-person shooter/tower defense hybrid, upping the danger and the action in the process. For instance, unlike their more docile brethren from the original game, Sanctum 2’s swarms of alien bug creatures want to gnaw your face off and curb stomp you into nothingness. They don’t mind taking a quick detour for a little human snack as they malevolently march towards your power core.”

Check out the full preview here at IGN.

The WarZ: Murder of the Fittest preview (@IGN)

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“In The War Z’s alternate version of history, Colorado is a cold, lonely place where the dead rise from their graves and seek out the last remnants of survivors to snack on. The droves of zombies congregating in the towns and cities nestled in this bucolic patch of countryside are deadly indeed in large numbers, but they’re not what concerns me the most. It’s those that are still breathing you really have watch out for.”

Check out my full hands-on preview here at IGN.

Strike Suit Zero Hands-On (@IGN)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“Rocketing through the stars in a hi-tech spacecraft is almost always 400 percent more awesome when you can transform mid-flight into a giant ass-kicking robot and unleash hell on the nearest swarm of enemy starfighters. Strike Suit Zero expertly channels the spirit of Robotech and its fellow mecha-minded ilk to make you feel like one bad mofo at moments, but I like the way it makes you work for it first.”

Check out the full preview here over at IGN.

Ravaged Hands-On Preview (@GameSpy)

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“As the newest kid on the crowded post-apocalyptic gaming block, Ravaged has a lot to prove if it wants to stand out among the heavily entrenched first-person shooters (Borderlands, Fallout, Rage, etc.) out there that cater to players’ Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome fetishes. Indie studio 2 Dawn Games’ strategy for its online multiplayer-only FPS debut is to open up the throttle with massive, vehicle-centric battles that unfold across sprawling wasteland locales. My time in the beta delivered many “Eff Yeah!” moments, but piling up a crew of 32 teammates into a deadly motorcade of gyro-copters, machinegun-mounted dune buggies, and ATVs, then crashing en-masse into an enemy base with guns blazing put a whole new spin on post-apocalyptic killing sprees.”

Check out the full preview here at GameSpy.

Starbound Preview (@GameSpy)

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“Finn “Tiy” Brice is eager to point out his next big project, Starbound, is not a sequel to the million-selling indie hit Terraria — a game for which he crafted the Super Nintendo-style pixel art. That likely won’t stop players from drawing some obvious comparisons between the two, but as the head of new collaborative studio Chucklefish Games, Brice is pushing upwards and onwards to take his new sci-fi-tinged 2D sandbox RPG in a very different direction. ”

Check out the full preview here at GameSpy.

Hands-On With Faster Than Light (FTL) @GameSpy

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“The darkest reaches of deep space are colder and more merciless than any dungeon, and in Faster Than Light (FTL) — a rare sci-fi roguelike set in a star-filled realm of intergalactic turmoil instead of a dank subterranean dungeon — death awaits anyone foolhardy enough to rocket into the void. With a well-armed fleet of rebel star cruisers always nipping at my heels, playing FTL feels a lot like walking the plank. I’m doomed no matter how I look at it. But fighting to stave off the inevitable destruction of my ship and crew as we make a mad dash through the cosmos gets my blood pumping every time.”

Check out the full preview here at GameSpy.

Hands-On Indie Preview: Toren

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“It’s rare when a game’s sheer beauty and elegance has the power to hook me from the very moment I start playing. Toren’s story-driven puzzle adventure follows the tale of a young girl trapped inside a crumbled tower guarded by the doom-inducing gaze of a horrific monster who watches from afar. But it’s far more than that. Every facet of her meticulous ascent through the ominous spire — from her initially playful outlook to the way time rapidly ages her as she climbs higher — has a poetic grace to it that simply captivates. The early stretch of this indie held me transfixed to my PC screen, yet one niggling question remained: Can immaculate style and storytelling keep bare-bones gameplay afloat? ”

Check out the full preview here at GameSpy.

Legend of Grimrock Hands-On Preview

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Nathan Meunier

“Drawing a wealth of knowledge from the good book of 1980s-era dungeon crawling 101, the folks over at Almost Human, Ltd. know their chops when it comes to exploring dank corridors, sticking it to drippy-mawed beasts, and scavenging for scraps of gear needed to survive. The indie studio’s upcoming Legend of Grimrock is absolutely awash in old-school nostalgia, channeling the spirit that made classics like Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master so hard to step away from as a kid. But pushing deep into the monster-filled innards of the game’s ominous subterranean realm during my hands-on time revealed much more to this dungeon crawler RPG than mere retro charm.”

Check out the full article here at GameSpy. Dig this? Why not follow @nmeunier on Twitter.

Karate Chop Missiles In Cobalt (Preview)

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Nathan Meunier

“When it comes to sweet questions like “why dodge an incoming missile if you can punch it back at the metal jerk that fired it at you in the first place,” Cobalt has all the right answers. As the first third-party indie project published by Minecraft creators Mojang, this little battle-intensive platform shooter, with its wide-eyed and heavily-armed robots, is disarmingly cute for the brutal, cutthroat combat contained within.”

Check out the full preview here at IGN.

Preview: Voxatron Will Assimilate You

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Nathan Meunier

“Part of what makes creating your own virtual world so much fun is having the freedom to run around and blow the crap out of it when you’re done. To that end, Voxatron strikes a nice balance between building and destroying. This upcoming voxel-centric adventure shooter from indie studio Lexaloffle blends top-down run-and-gun action with platform puzzle exploration. It’s Robotron 2020 meets Legend of Zelda – only you can reduce the landscape and its unfriendly denizens to piles of blocky rubble. That’s not even the coolest part: Almost everything I encountered during my time noodling around in the alpha build’s adventure mode was created using the powerful built-in level editor.”