Jak & Daxter join the rising number of games from yesteryear that have received HD upgrades. The original Playstation 2 trilogy has been remastered for the PS3 with 720P graphics. Although the last game in the trilogy, Jak 3, was released in 2004, several spinoff titles kept the franchise alive well into the current generation of gaming. I still remember enjoying hours of gameplay with the Daxter spinoff when I first got my Playstation Portable. The trilogy still maintains its fun, whimsical story. Aside from the visuals, nothing much has changed about the game, including the horizontal camera controls, which are flipped by default. For a modest price of $39.99, this three game collection is a bargain for gamers (especially kids) who have yet to experience the joy (and humor) of Daxter.

Jak & Daxter is a true trilogy in every sense of the word. In the initial game, ...

These days, you can’t skip a release week without another shooter game entering the market. If it’s not a shooter title, it’s a sequel or a licensed property. Before long, you can’t help but feel like you’re playing several versions of the same game – just with better or worse graphics and the possibility of a different type of Deathmatch. The Darkness II just happens to be all three of these: a first-person shooter, licensed property and a sequel. However, The Darkness II finds a way to shine a light through the litany of repeat games with a creative story, superb voice acting and frenetic gameplay that always keeps the adrenaline pumping. There are moments when the combat can get too chaotic and cause a migraine or two, especially when you’re trying to eat a heart instead of pick up a weapon. But the smart story will compel you to ...

The story in Shank 2 may be as paper thin as The Expendables, but there’s still a lot of brawling mayhem to be found in the Shank sequel from Klei Entertainment.

There is something very familiar about Shank 2 and it’s not just the fact that this game is a sequel. The 2D side-scrolling game from Klei Entertainment is a friendly reminder that the days of linear brawlers are far from over. If you give a game a little style, some cartoony blood and upgrade the controls, you can still delight even the most seasoned gamer. Shank 2 doesn’t seek to reinvent the work of the original title; rather, it is an upgraded game with more fluid controls and a cooperative survival mode. Waves of villains, sometimes scantily clad, and endless power-ups await you in this new game. Just don’t expect a very thought provoking story.

Shank 2 feels like ...

With The Dark Knight Rises coming to theaters and gamers still high off of Batman: Arkham City, it’s the perfect time to introduce something new to the Batman franchise. Warner Bros Interactive decided to capitalize off of everyone’s love for the world’s greatest detective (outside of Sherlock Holmes) and online shooters like Modern Warfare 3. Gotham City Impostors is a first-person shooter game that really has nothing to do with Batman at all. This game is all about poking fun at the Dark Knight and his rival the Joker, while giving you yet another shooter to play online. So if for some odd reason you find yourself lacking another FPS, then you can hop right into Gotham City, slap on a pair of tights and battle it out in a game of fake Jokers versus overweight Batmen for a steep $15. In truth, there is a lot of addictive, fun ...

Despite the presence of Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed and a tried-and-true battle system, Soulcalibur V doesn’t try to break any molds with the franchise.

Every fighting game franchise has its own unique style that separates it from the group. Street Fighter made ki-based, energy attacks – like the Hadouken – popular. Mortal Kombat took that and added in gory fatalities. Tekken decided that raw hand-to-hand combat was order of the day, while Dead or Alive went for attractive female character designs and multiple settings within a single board. Soulcalibur was the game that took the raw fighting style of Tekken and supplanted ki-based attacked with weapons. If you owned a Sega Dreamcast, Soulcalibur was one of the top games to own for the defunct, but always loved, console. Soulcalibur V comes home three years after the last. Following up a year filled with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 ...

Final Fantasy XIII-2 corrects the major flaws of its predecessor and will restore your faith in the Final Fantasy franchise.

Final Fantasy is one of the most recognized RPG franchises in gaming history. It solidified its position with Final Fantasy VII, one of the Playstation’s defining titles. Gorgeous summoning spells, an amazing battle system with limit breaks and a captivating plot with memorable characters made it a legendary title. Games VIII and IX on Playstation were good, but not as groundbreaking as VII. Then came Final Fantasy X on the PS2. Once again, Squaresoft (prior to the merger of Square with the Enix Corporation) showed the gaming community just how great its RPGs were. The company decided that the game was so good; it would be spun off into a X-2. Unfortunately, the spinoff paled in comparison to the original. Three games later, Square-Enix has made a similar ...

Ever since I first played Solitaire in Windows 3.1, I’ve been addicted to digital Solitaire. It’s a single-player game and I don’t have to waste time shuffling the cards since the computer handles it. Also, I don’t have to worry about the computer “cheating” since it’s just me against the deck. It was also the game that got me through several engineering recitation classes in the computer lab. I have another guilty pleasure. It’s called Bejeweled Blitz. While I love my first-person shooter games and 80-hour RPGs, thinking about the time investment is sometimes daunting. Blitz gave me a 60-second rush of match-3 gem gameplay. Although the game was only 60 seconds, the pleasure of playing made you want to do it again and again (hmmm… there’s a sexual pun in there somewhere). I can hardly remember a time, when I only played one 60-second game and not ten in ...

The Resident Evil franchise holds a special place in the hearts of the gaming community. For many gamers, the original 1996 Resident Evil on the Playstation was the first game to produce a genuine horror shock. Dogs jumping through windows, limited ammo, great use of shadows and sound design worked cohesively to make one of the best games of the era. When Resident Evil is done right, it’s awesome. However, after seven Res titles, horror and shock started to get a little mundane, especially when zombies are the order of the day for developers looking to make a quick hack and slash game (not to mention fanboy love of The Walking Dead). So, it comes as a delightful to surprise that Resident Evil Revelations manages to offer a fresh gaming experience (glasses free) on the 3DS. Revelations may not be revolutionary, but the joy of playing the game comes from ...

Since the days of Scrabble, and much before that, people have loved the subtle thrill of word-game competition. In Scrabble, gamers get a handful of random tiles and must come up with a word on the spot. Common vowels are valued at one point, while less used consonants – such as X and Z – have higher point values. Thanks to the iPhone, and subsequently social games on Facebook, word games have been flipped the world to offer gamers nuance to a tried and true game. Quarrel, first developed for iOS, combines Scrabble with Risk (the latter would be one of my favorite games to play if time were infinite). In Quarrel, players fight for territory using words. Cute animations keep the game lively, while nine levels of difficulty and online multiplayer ensure fresh challenges. At 400 points on XBLA, this game is a total bargain.

In Quarrel, gamers have ...

You like killing zombies, right? Blowing a zombie’s dead brains out makes you feel like Shane (Jon Bernthal), Daryl (Norman Reedus) or Rick (Andrew Lincoln) in The Walking Dead. However, after you’ve laid waste to the umpteenth zombie, things can start to get a little old. After all, they’re not that smart. The only thing these undead creatures have going for them is the uncanny ability to always attack in waves. All Zombies Must Die! from Doublesix whittles down zombie mayhem to its innate experience. Waves of zombies attack – you fight back and destroy. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Knowing this, Doublesix tacked on a whimsical self-referencing story. It doesn’t make backtracking through a few different neighborhoods any less monotonous, but it does offer a slight change from other zombie adventures.

AZMD is a topdown, arena shooter that keeps the action simple. Waves of zombies ...