System Protocol One is a tower defense game with old-school style vector polygon graphics and a catchy techno soundtrack. Its unique plot is computer related, and everything in the game is in terms of computers. You are a security administrator charged with protecting his company’s system against viruses, which are the enemies that come across. By using cache (resources), you create a number of anti-virus programs (which are the towers you’ll build) to stop them. Just like any good tower defense game, you’ll have a variety of towers to use with a variety of different abilities. The game is quite challenging, and the tutorial is quite lengthy, which may intimidate players. However, the game is easy to pick up and play, and players who have a passing knowledge of Tower Defense games will have no problem playing this. Mastering it however, that’s a whole different story. It’s available for $10 on Steam, and of course they’ll have specials on it frequently.

GOW II started and ended on a pretty intense note, so naturally, stakes were high for the follow-up, which would be Kratos’s PS3 debut. When we last left Kratos, he was leading the titans in a war against the gods of Olympus, who had betrayed him in the title. As you can imagine, things get crazy from the get-go, and players will be on the edge of their seats to see how the saga ends. The gameplay doesn’t depart much from the previous titles, and that’s a good thing. You even get to keep the relics you found in GOW II: The Wings of Icarus and Apollo’s Fleece. Don’t you hate it when you play a sequel starring the previous game’s protagonist and you lose all the cool stuff they had without explanation? You’ll also gain a host of new weapons, each with a magical power attached to it. Series staples such as quick time events, orb upgrading, and even the sex minigames return. God Of War III once again cements Kratos’s status as one of gaming’s biggest action heroes.

Yes, I know I’m asking for heat by covering what is perhaps the least loved Final Fantasy title since 7. However, despite it’s linearity, the game’s story is every bit as epic as the previous entries in the series. Final Fantasy XIII takes place within a place known as Coccon, a sky city which floats above a larger world known as pulse. The mysterious gods who keep Cocoon afloat have the ability to mark various humans, making them into thier servants. These servants, called L’Cie are given a task to complete. If they do, they turn into crystals. If they don’t, they become mindless monsters. A cruel government purges citizens who are suspected to be L’Cie, supposedly sending them to the Pulse. In actuality, they are being killed off in mass exterminations. The main character in this story is a woman named Lightning, whose sister was one of the L’Cie. In true Final Fantasy fashion, you run into other people, each with their own stories and complex relationships.
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First starting life as a iphone/android game, Dungeon Defenders has since graduated to an PC/Xbox Live/PSN best seller. This hybrid of action RPG and tower defense has since become a hit with over 600,000 players worldwide. As one of 4 characters, your mission is to defend your crystals against hordes of oncoming invaders, either by your skills or your selection of defenses. Each character class has their own upgradable skills, and unique defenses. Several other classes have been added via downloadable content. The game is even more fun when you join up with other players via co-op. Weather you’re a casual gamer, a fan of tower defense titles, or a fan or RPGs looking for the next big smash, check this out.

Indie games usually come in two varieties: games that introduce an awesome new concept (Flow, Frozen Synapse, Amnesia: The Dark Decent), and games that remain fun while refusing to reinvent the wheel (Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Issac, Everyday Shooter). Demolition Inc falls into the latter category. You play as an alien demolition worker out to destroy Earth’s cities to make the world into a recreation center. You’ll use zany weapons such as oil clouds, wheel glue, and even exploding cows to cause mass destruction and chaos. The game’s physics engine has buildings tumbling down realistically, making things satisfying and allowing you to set up chain explosions. The game’s major weakness is it’s lack of levels. A sandbox mode helps extend the game’s life somewhat, but what this game really could use is a map creator for custom levels. However, the game is cheap, so you can pick it up off Steam. It may be light on plot, but the humor makes up for it.

So I’m gonna catch some serious heat for featuring a game which ‘hardcore gamers’ weren’t quite fond of, however, the important thing is that I enjoyed it, and if you give it a chance, you’ll enjoy it too. Dragon Age II is the successor the BioWare’s Dragon Age, a game that was a return to form to Bioware’s early fantasy epics such as Balder’s Gate. Dragon Age II takes the series in a slightly different direction from its precdecessor, and while it moves the saga along in unexpected ways, it turned off many of the series’ more hardcore fans.
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Go figure – the first $20GOTW of the New Year (even if I am a bit late) just so happens to be the first 3DS game (that’s not available as a download), and it’s the first Nintendo 3DS launch title that’s not a port or remake, and is actually worth buying, and it’s the first Ghost Recon on a portable system (rather than cell phone platforms such as NGage). Without further ado, lets get into it.
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Before Dragon Age, before Elder Scrolls, before Final Fantasy, before Zelda even, Dungeons and Dragons laid out the blueprint for fantasy RPG action. Everything from customizable characters, complex moral alignments, to skill development came from the pen and paper classic. Naturally, there have been many computer adaptations of the popular series, from Cloudy Moutain back on the Intellivision to Capcom’s arcade beat-em-ups. Neverwinter Nights 2, developed by Bioware and Obsidian, is one of the better games in the franchise, thanks to its length, depth, and user content generation tools.

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