PixlBit

All this game is missing is an inspirational speech by Bill Pullman.

If you read my review for Avernum, you know that I missed out on most of the major PC hits of the 90s. So it should go without saying that I did not partake in the white-hot popularity of the XCOM series. I was one of those people who thought the upcoming first person take on the franchise looked pretty good, and I avoided all of the rage surrounding the departure of the game from its strategy roots. Taking that into consideration, I find myself extremely intrigued by the game that Firaxis is working on—XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

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Who knew scan lines were the secret sauce for playing classic games?

Brawlers. Beat-‘em-ups. Side-scrolling action games. Double Dragon clones. Growing up with video games in the ‘80s meant that genres weren’t all that well defined as we raced to try and contextualize this new and exciting hobby. Whatever label you choose to give Golden Axe, it can’t be denied that it was one of the progenitors of the genre that would go on to spawn the likes of Final Fight and Streets of Rage. Sega has trotted their fantasy beat-‘em-up (my personal favorite label) many times over the years, but with Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe the company has put together what is supposed to be the definitive collection of the series. While it falls just short of that, this is the best way to experience Golden Axe 1-3. Unless you can travel back in time, but if you could do that I would hope you have a bigger plan than playing a classic Sega arcade game.

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His head went back and to the left. Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left.

The hype train for Hitman: Absolution has officially left the station, and to get fans amped up for the return of Agent 47 IO Interactive and Square Enix have put together a rather unique pre-order bonus for the game in Hitman: Sniper Challenge. It’s an interesting bit of fun to tide players over with until the release of the full game, but I can’t help wishing that this was a more robust offering. Given a few tweaks, this could be one of the most addicting games on XBLA and PSN.

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Such an amazing gaming package that gamers will need a cigarette after experiencing it.

Imagine if you will, that video games never went into the third dimension. Instead of the polygon arms race that began in 1995, game artists and designers simply continued to hone the craft of 2D, hand-drawn sprites. What would the video games industry look like today? With that picture in your head, imagine that character-action games like Devil May Cry and God of War still existed, but were known for their gorgeous animation and parallax scrolling as much for their over-the-top combo systems and precise control schemes. Enter Dust: An Elysian Tale, a game that seems to come from this amazing alternate gaming reality.

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The show is over and so the PixlBit staff discusses the games that gave them the most thrills this year.

This year was a bit thinner than what we were expecting, especially with Nintendo supposedly pulling back the curtain on the Wii U.  But while we were left a bit underwhelmed and with more questions than answers there were still plenty of games on display to get us excited for something.

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