Lego City: Undercover
Developer: Traveller Tales
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Sandbox
Release Date: 03/18/2013

I know, right? This is a bit late. Lego City: Undercover came out in mid-march, right when my pet started having some severe medical issues and so I wasn’t able to touch it until now. I asked other Diehard GameFAN staffers if they wanted to review it instead of me and no one bit, which surprised me as the Lego games tend to be pretty popular. Better late than never though, right?
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Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
Developer: Access Games
Publisher: Rising Star Games
Genre: Survival Horror/Third Person Action
Release Date: 04/30/2013

Diane, I’m sitting here in front of my computer trying to think of the best way to do an intro for my Deadly Premonition review. Sure I could start with the usual comparisons to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, which is not only accurate but awesome because other than the fanmade 2600 Black Lodge game, this is as close as we will ever get to seeing one made. I guess I could also mention other similar games that involve a quirky protagonist investigating strange happenings and serial killers. Still Life is a great example. My beloved Mizzurna Falls, made by the original Fire Pro Wrestling and Clock Tower team is another, and it is so similar to Deadly Premonition (even though it if fifteen years old) that it’s scary. I suppose I could also admit that I’m a fan of SWERY65 aka 末弘秀孝 aka Suehiro Hidetaka and his previous games. Pretty much everyone on staff here at DHGF loves The Last Blade 1 & 2 and I felt the stories behind Extermination and Spy Fiction were incredible and it was a shame they were trapped behind the sub-par engines that came with them. Perhaps though Diane, the best thing to do is simply talk about a game I’ve known since I imported Red Seeds Profile for my PS3 all those years ago and why it’s become one of my favorite games of this console generation. So I’ve brought my laptop to where North Bend meets Snoqualmie Falls, ordered some pie at Twedes’ Café and have settled in for a long commentary on a game that may be extremely polarizing, but is definitely something every gamer of all ilks should experience.

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Black Rock Shooter: The Game
Developer: Imageepoch
Publisher: Nippon Ichi
Genre: Action RPG
Release Date: 04/23/2013

I have to admit, I’ve always been somewhat taken with Black Rock Shooter since I first saw a documentary on it on NHK (Japanese equivalent of CNN). I was fascinated with how one piece of artwork by Ryohei “Huke” Fuke could become such a massive phenomenon over in Japan, especially when it was originally created as an afterthought. It’s spawned music, an OVA, an anime series, multiple video games and a manga –all of which have completely different stories from each other, including different personalities for the main character, casts and time periods! Black Rock Shooter: The Game was originally released in Japan back in 2011 and even though I had enjoyed the anime and OVA, I held off on importing the game – mainly because it was done by Imageepoch, who has mainly made some incredibly big stinkers, chief of which were games like Sands of Destruction. I think the kindest anyone on staff has ever been to an Imageepoch release was Aileen with her review of Arc Rise Fantasia, which she referred to as a “decent game.” So with this in mind, I think it’s obvious why I held off. Still, Nippon Ichi decided to localize and release the game stateside (but not the anime, which is odd as they publish both), so when we were offered a review copy, I happily snapped it up. The good news is that Black Rock Shooter is by far the best game Imageepoch has ever put out. The bad news is that, while fun, it’s still flawed in many ways. Let’s take a look at it.
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