Shooting

Guns, Flashlights and Groundhog Day

HIGH The time-loop premise and Twilight Zone voiceovers.

LOW A hard-locked 360 and stuttering framerates in the second cycle.

WTF Collecting manuscript pages again?

The only interesting thing about NeverDead is that it's not actually as bad as it seems after you've beaten it. I don't mean that NeverDead is secretly a good game. It truly stinks, mostly for boring reasons—awkward and mushy controls, inconsistent mechanics, stock characters, vapid story. However, NeverDead leaves an even worse impression than it deserves to, because its concluding bosses exhibit excruciatingly stupid design.

Greetings all. We're trying out a bit of an experiment here, and no, it isn't "how many times can I fit the word 'game' into the headline?" It's the first ever GameCritics game night, which will hopefully give our wonderful community the chance to play, interact, and mercilessly embarrass each other all in the name of good-natured fun.

The first game that we're going to try is Team Fortress 2, for which we've set up our own server (details below). If you haven't played before/aren't experienced, don't worry! This is going to be about having fun above all else, and all skill levels are welcome.

The first date we're shooting for will be Thursday Feb. 23rd, at 7pm CST/8pm EST. I will also post an announcement in the Steam group around that time. Also, we'd like to know what games you would like to see for possible future game nights-post your suggestions in the comments.

Hope to see you there!

TF2 server address (add to favorites in the game): 8.6.75.26:27015

Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gamecritics

So, the Mass Effect 3 demo. I hesitate to bring it up, but I can't let it pass without making at least a few brief comments. First off, I really hope that the game addresses Ashley's radical make over... if the game hadn't told me that's who it was, I never would have recognized her, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Ok, so it doesn't actually work—it only lights up—and it will be expensive even at the expected $120 price point. But, we all know that something like will only improve a bedroom or gameroom full of helmets from Halo 3 Legendary Edition and night-vision goggles from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition.

NeverPlay

HIGH The few scattered moments when the basic mechanics show their promise.

LOW The final two bosses are simply insulting.

WTF Why sell out your unique premise less than 10 minutes into the game?

Call of Duty has arguably been the biggest and most successful IP that this console generation has seen. Yearly releases have set sales records and the first-person shooter genre reached heights never before seen. Activision has had a great run, and the publisher has become dependent on the success of Call of Duty to carry it to success.

Putting the "Modern" in Warfare?

HIGH Kamikaze jet kills versus infantry never get old.

LOW Someone stole a nuclear device! Again!

WTF Where is everybody?

On the strength of Matt Kaplan's review, I decided to grab Resistance 3. Kaplan didn't steer me wrong. Alongside solid gameplay, Resistance 3 delivers a compelling story about a man's journey through an interesting post-apocalyptic landscape. Like many other recent games, however, Resistance 3 flubs the ending, betraying its own tightly-crafted atmosphere.

The Moose Meat Mystery & Magic Husky Revue

HIGH Stuffing a woman inside a moose to save her life, tauntaun style.

LOW Seeing some pickups on a cliff and having no clue how to reach them.

WTF Alaska's crows and bats are ridiculously aggressive.