After a brief (ahem – 12 month) hiatus I returned to, and completed, Braid.

It’s criminal that I was away from Braid’s hauntingly atmospheric world for so long, but it seems the break was exactly what I needed in order to tackle one of the game’s later, more devious puzzles. [...]

Despite my chequered past regarding Japanese Role Playing Games, Final Fantasy XIII‘s recent price drop (and a rush of blood to the head) made it an irresistible impulse buy.

Though widely received as a vast and enjoyable game, Square Enix’s latest instalment in its blockbuster series received some criticism upon release. While some reviewers lauded its new features and dismissal of JRPG norms, others lambasted the developer’s disregard for its loyal fan-base, citing its linear level design and character progression. [...]

Plenty of games are amusing. Not many games are laugh out loud funny. Very rarely will a game go beyond a smirk or giggle and inspire a full on rip-roaring belly-jiggling snort like Grand Theft Auto IV has on many occasions. Within five minutes of ripping the cellophane off of my copy, it had me in stitches.

After a drunken night out with Nico’s cousin Roman, they stumble out of a club. The screen swims, and your previously solid control of Nico becomes a wrestling match with the analogue stick just to get him to stand up straight. Baulking at the thought of walking all the way back to Roman’s apartment (read save point) in this manner, Nico jumps into his cousin’s taxi. Unsurprisingly, controlling a car while under the influence is no easier than walking, and it’s not long before the local law enforcement take an interest. [...]

I picked up a second hand copy of Mirror’s Edge for just a fiver about a month ago. Boy, am I glad I didn’t pay full price for this. I came very close to doing just that after playing the downloadable demo on XBox Live back in 2008.

Mirror’s Edge should be brilliant. A game that enables us pie-eating chuggers to experience the exquisite freedom enjoyed by the perpetrators of parkour should be an absolute revelation. So where did Mirror’s Edge go wrong? [...]

NBA 2K10 is a mess. An ugly, glitch-ridden, buggy mess. I played it almost solidly for a month. Why? Find out after the jump.

When it was released it was dogged by a staccato frame rate, glitchy and unreliable on-line matches, and some truly bizarre game breaking bugs. For example, during one game the cheerleaders forgot to leave the court at the end of their dazzling routine, and continued to dance while the game continued around them. Other times referees have point-blank refused to give me the ball so I can shoot a free-throw, or the producer has forgotten to switch cameras and I’ve been forced to watch the action from row Z. [...]

Only when my boy is in bed, and my wife is not clogging up the telly with Eastenders or Come Dine With Me do I get time to play games. This is the time I should be spending playing something interesting in order to write about it here. Unfortunately, I have hit a bit of a snag: I am utterly addicted to Modern Warfare 2‘s multi-player mode. I spend hours doing the same things, shooting the same three Spetsnaz, over and over again, and I fear it will not make for an interesting article.

MW2 has its claws in me deep. I keep promising myself that I will give up when I hit level 70, that there is no way in hell I will prestige (a device by which, it seems, Infinity Ward keep you playing in an infinite loop; resetting you to the lowest level and starting the drip-feed of unlockables all over again. And again). It’s hard enough trying to bring a single session to an end, let alone leave the game alone for long enough to do an alternative game justice. Occasionally, after a particularly bad performance I might quit and delve a little deeper into Rapture, but only if I’m getting a serious kicking (and then only for half an hour at most). [...]

Typically out of touch (or should that be fashionably late?), when the world is obsessing over its sequel, I turn my attention to Bioshock. I’m desperate to finish it before stumbling upon a spoiler, which, thanks to the amount of Bioshock 2 content on the internet right now, is as easy as negotiating my way through a minefield on a pogo stick.

Bioshock‘s opening five minutes amount to some of the finest and well crafted in video game history. Travelling in an aeroplane somewhere over the 1960′s mid-Atlantic, my avatar, Jack, glances down at his personal effects as the lights dim, and the engines begin to labour. [...]