Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light | Review

Rounding out the 5-week Summer of Arcade is Eidos and Crystal Dynamics attempt at re-inventing Lara Croft; this time by shifting the perspective, dramatically changing the control scheme and placing a little less focus on exploration and more on combat. But this time, you're not alone...

Click past the break for our full review

First trailer of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an adventure

Lara Croft is back, in an adventure you actually may want to play.  Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a download-only title (available this summer on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam) that's different than any other Tomb Raider you've ever seen.

Presented in an isometric view (think Diablo, or most recently Torchlight), and you have an idea of the style here that Eidos  and Crystal Dynamics are going for.  Little is known of the game so far, except this time Lara will not be alone, and there's some co-op flavor built in here. Eidos has just released the first official trailer; and we've embedded it below.

Check it out, and let us know what you think.  This seems like a title I could get behind.

Battlestations: Pacific | Mashbutton Review

Synopsis: Battlestations: Pacific is a new World War II strategy game from Eidos Interactive and is the sequel to Battlestations: Midway. The new game is based on the Pacific War, with two separate single player campaigns, where you get to choose whether you want to fight for the US or Japan. Along with being a real time strategy game, flight and naval warfare are thrown into the mix. Adding to the original Battlestations release, Pacific provides 28 missions, 100 units with 21 of them being new entries, 5 multiplayer modes, and a skirmish mode.



Praise: With all of the World War II first person shooters and action games, Battlestations: Pacific is a very welcome entry. The graphics, and fast paced dog fights alone have you clenching the remote trying not to crash or get shot out of the sky. Not only do you take to the skies, but you man and command the seas by ship and submarine, while also using strategy to command your fleet to victory. Once the battle commences there is white knuckle action, while still having the player focus on their next move. As stated before, the graphics are good, and load times aren’t too long compared to other games out. A new feature to the World War II games is that while playing on the Japan campaign, you are able to see a different outcome to what history has shown us.



Gripes: The voice acting is the first thing that stood out to me while playing, as going into missions you are briefed by either American or Japanese commanding officer, depending on the side you choose, whose voice is so dull you quickly forget what you are being briefed on. The multiplayer is also subpar to the single player missions in the game, being that the multiplayer lacks options when setting up a match that are normally found in the more solid multiplayer matches. There is a longer learning curve to getting familiar with ship and submarine controls than found in other action and simulation titles.



Overall: Battlestations: Pacific also provides many hours of gameplay leaving no buyer’s remorse for simulator or strategy fans alike. It is as much a simulator as it is a strategy game, so it does take patience, but if you are patient with learning what it has to offer, there will be a lot of payoff. Completing secondary and hidden side missions along with receiving medals result in unlockable vehicles to use used throughout the game as well.

Mashbuttons.com gives Battlestations: Pacific 8 out of 10

Battlestations: Pacific is available now on the PC and Xbox 360.