It may have been months since The Elder Scrolls V hit store shelves to the glee of adventure fans everywhere, but what’s so impressive is how the title continues to hold strong beyond the holiday period and well into the New Year. For a game lacking any sort of online component (a sticking point for many these days), this feat is nothing short of staggering. After a slew of Game of the Year awards from various sites and publications, it’s clear that Skyrim deserves every bit of attention it receives, especially as gamers continue with the now-maligned ‘arrow to the knee’ meme. There are some, however, feeling as cold as the frozen tundra over the experience. Read the full story »

Ever since it was first released, the PlayStation 3 has faced criticism for the inconsistency with which players use voice-comms when playing online. The console has never come with an in-box mic, and although it supports all manner of bluetooth devices, you can never be sure of how much chat you will be faced with from game to game, session to session. Though the launch of the PlayStation Wireless Stereo Headset alone is unlikely to buck this trend, if you’re looking for a nicely packaged headphone and microphone combination, this may well be the product for you. Read the full story »

After a successful run on the Playstation Network, the audacious daredevil Joe Danger at last gets his time to shine on Xbox Live Arcade. The game had undeniable charm and a healthy dose of polish when it first tricked its way to consoles, earning a fanbase eager to declare it one of the finest offerings to date via download. Joe Danger: Special Edition brings a few new bells and whistles to the table, but is it second time lucky for Joe or is his comeback tour set to crash and burn? Read the full story »

The Professor Layton series has become one of the most successful franchises to emerge from the Nintendo DS. Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call (renamed from the Last Spectre in the US for reasons unfathomable) is the fourth entry in the series and the first to delve into its own past, presenting itself as a prequel to the first game, detailing how the Professor and Luke met and joined forces. It says a lot about the attention to story in these games that such a hook is actually a draw for this game; one of the master-strokes of the whole Layton series has been the marrying of traditional puzzle elements with strong narrative and characters, giving players more reason to keep playing than a simple desire to prove their mental acuity. Read the full story »

With 2012 looming large, it’s time to take a look back at the last twelve months and identify the games that really stood out. This is always a difficult job, but the task facing us in 2011 was particularly daunting – nearly every genre, every platform and every preference has been extremely well serviced, with store shelves and download clients straining under the weight of quality releases. It has also been a year in which swathes of developers consolidated all their current-gen experience to create some of the deepest and most visually stunning games ever seen. Read the full story »