Borrowing heavily from Frankenstein (not to mention Resident Evil and BioShock), Rise of Nightmares revolves around a crazy scientist (aren’t they all) who has a knack for creating mechanised zombies. As you attempt to rescue your wife from his clutches, you discover that he has no qualms about experimenting on and torturing people for his own sick purposes, one such purpose being his own amusement. As you progress, the storyline moves beyond cheap scare tactics, to become genuinely creepy. The bleak, uncompromising visual presentation keeps you in a disconcerted frame of mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Set in the year 2027, Deus Ex: Human Revolution places you in the augmented shoes of Adam Jensen. You’re charged with following up a break-in at your workplace which resulted not only in the death of your co-workers, but in injuries severe enough to require cybernetic enhancements just to save your life. Thanks to the surgery, you have a bunch of varied and useful upgrades, but only a few are turned on when you start. As you progress, you accumulate experience points, which can be converted into Praxis points, which can then be used to unlock and upgrade your enhancements. Read the rest of this entry »

The Driver franchise was dying. The original was a great 70s style car chase game on the PSone that quickly garnered a cult following among auto heads everywhere. Driver 2, while okay, never earned the love of the first game. The less said about the abysmal Driver 3 the better and 2006’s Driver: Parallel Lines did little to restore the franchise’s ailing reputation. So it is with some surprise that Ubisoft are trotting out another entry in the series. What is even more surprising is that Driver: SF is not only great but possibly one of the most original and entertaining arcade racers in recent memory. Read the rest of this entry »

Previously on The Black Panel (no I am not trying out for a guest spot on the podcast) I managed to rustle together my thoughts regarding the beta version of Age of Empires Online. I had a pretty good time with it and felt that if the team could tighten a few areas, such as quest variety and the time it took to progress through the “Ages”, then Microsoft could be onto a winner. Well it seems that not only did developers Gas Powered Games and Robot Entertainment not fix these problems but they added more to the pile. Read the rest of this entry »