How does one review a game that is obviously flawed to the point of cracking, yet shows signs of brilliance comparable to some of our best games?  I’m going to try, and in that effort I’m honestly going to attempt to convince an audience to play Alpha Protocol.  Despite its near overwhelming amount of flaws, I love what this game attempts to, and does, accomplish.  Its storytelling and dialogue are top-notch, and though it was delayed a few times, it’s obvious that an extraordinary amount of care was poured into certain aspects of the game that carry it beyond the mediocre and into the must-play category.

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History will probably call Nier a flawed action role-playing game.  It involves swinging around a sword and leveling up, so this description isn’t entirely wrong.  It’s not a complete description, but not wrong.  What history will forget is that Nier is more than an action-rpg.  It’s a dual-stick shooter.  It’s a top-down adventure game.  It’s even a text adventure at times.  Somehow, it manages to incorporate elements of almost every genre in gaming in one way or another.  Regrettably, history might write off Nier as something simple or flawed or not living up to its potential.  And as it has been with so many other things throughout mankind’s existence, history will be wrong.

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There was a time when top down isometric action games were all the rage. Diablo, Baldur’s Gate, and their multiple clones ruled the PC world with their easy to play methods and sweet loot drops. And since Diablo III won’t see the light of day until 2010 at the earliest, I am going to let you in on the biggest secret in gaming. Well, besides the release date for Diablo III.

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While the DS is host to a long list of RPGs, most of these are fairly traditional, with most taking a retro SNES style or a more modern, third-person, 3D view.  However, Big Blue Bubble is bringing  first-person action RPG to Nintendo’s handheld.  For those of you who’ve always dreamed of having an Oblivion-esque experience on the go, your prayers may have been answered in the soon-to-be released Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, based on the choose-your-own adventure novel of the same title.

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What you would normally expect to only grace your PCs with a gentle keyboard stroke wielding you nothing short of a massive fireball, has now washed up ashore to our home consoles with Sacred 2’s recent release on both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. It is rather infrequent that a developer dares to strip this style game from it’s PC roots and set foot on a console, though Ascaron Entertainment took on that challenge. I was nothing less than pleased to have a go at Sacred 2. Those who will never own a “super computer” to really get to enjoy these types of games, this is your time to shine. A solid, well-put together experience has been constructed just for that type of gamer for a change.

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