Back in 2009, after Metal Gear Solid 4 marked the end of Solid Snake’s saga, it was revealed that the next game in the series would instead follow the footsteps of Raiden, telling the story of his earlier days as a cyborg before the events of Metal Gear Solid 4. Metal Gear Solid: Rising would introduce a new type of gameplay to the series, utilising Raiden’s high-frequency blade to create a more action based title with the ability to cut [...]
Preparing for the Bikini Summer The key topic of conversation in the office this week has been fitness. I don’t know whether it’s the puzzling tendency for otherwise non-religious girls to give up chocolate for lent, or the recent spell of hot weather reminding us of the imminent approach of beach season but becoming tanned, buff and bikini ready is now officially the order of the day. There is no denying that I am unashamedly impressionable and I have never [...]
It’s been a little while since the excellent Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released, and there have been words of DLC floating around for a little while, with no real solid information. Well that’s all now changed – as we can proudly announce some real info on what players should expect.
The epic clash between the Belmont Clan and Dracula is amongst my favourite plotlines in gaming. It’s not complicated, it doesn’t pretend to be more than it is – at its very core, Castlevania is about the struggle between light and dark, good and evil, with plenty of monsters to slay along the way. Given that the name ‘Castlevania’ itself refers to Dracula’s castle, Lords of Shadow isn’t really about the castle at all. Being a reboot for the series, you can probably [...]
It is very simple to compare a game like Nintey Nine Nights to the Dynasty Warriors games both the games have the same sort of game play and mission based system. The idea behind these games is to take down armies of soldiers and complete objectives to win a war against your foes. So as you can imagine with these type of games you get a stupid amount of soldiers coming towards you and you have to fight them all [...]
When the news came to my ears that a brand new 2D Castlevania for an actual home console was on the way, my heart leapt – aside from a couple of ports and remakes of classic titles it’s been two years since the somewhat disappointing Order of Ecclesia on the DS, and a whopping thirteen years since the last release of a non-remake 2D ‘vania on a home console – Symphony of the Night. While the GBA and DS titles [...]
When you think of gaming action heroes, who comes into your mind? Sam Fisher? Dante? Nathan “Nate” Drake? Kratos? For me, there’s only one hero who sums up an all American bad-ass action hero: Snake. Love him or hate him, Snake is a well established and respected figure in gaming, despite the twisting, turning, near incomprehensible storyline around him. But seeing as the next big game in the series is set around the character of Raiden, a guy I could [...]
I’ve been a fan of Castlevania since I first played Symphony of the Night on the PS1 – since then I’ve been a collector of Castlevania games and amassed a collection of more than ten ‘vania titles. Therefore, when I saw a copy of Castlevania: Judgment on the Wii, I couldn’t resist. Not unlike Final Fantasy: Dissidia which I have been playing recently, Castlevania: Judgment plucks various characters from the Castlevania series and pits them against each other for a [...]
Although I do play a wide range of games and try to keep an open minded view towards new concepts and titles, there will always be some games that have a special place in my heart – one of them being Castlevania. The straightforward tale of the epic struggle between the Belmont clan and the infamous Lord Dracula, that is so simple yet so spellbindingly fantastic. A tale that spans hundreds of years, Dracula always finds a way to return [...]
The first of a selection of older titles I will be covering is Konami’s Zone of the Enders 2. From the mind of the man who created Metal Gear Solid comes a fast-paced mech action title. You may or may not recognise the name – it seems to be very much a cult title, although it does have a fairly large fanbase. The first game was released in 2001, before the release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of the [...]
