Feature review: Heavy Rain

I remember when the PS3 had just been launched, and the Xbox 360 had been around for about a year — back when the term “next gen” was still being used frequently. A worryingly large contingent of gamers kept on whining about how “next gen” games were nothing more than [...]

Five efficient dev habits

Anyone who has ever tried to make a game (or write a book / draw a comic series / insert long-term creative project here) is probably aware of just how gosh-darn difficult it is to keep going at it. Sure, that initial burst of creativity can fuel a working spree of a few hours, days, [...]

Super retro roundup: The X-COM series

In 1999, mankind faces an unprecedented threat of an extraterrestrial nature: violent human abduction by UFOs and hideous experimentation are increasing rapidly, creating mass hysteria amongst the world’s populace. All attempts by individual countries to resist the aliens have failed dismally [...]

Review: Dante’s Inferno

When it comes to console action games, three big titles basically ruled the roost: Devil May Cry, God of War and Ninja Gaiden. Recently, they’ve been challenged by the might of this young upstart called Bayonetta, which is a fantastic action game on every level, and not too long ago we had Batman: Arkham Asylum, [...]

Retro Review: Realms of Arkania 3: Shadow Over Riva

Before the turn of the millennium, the PC was really the only way to go for in-depth role playing games. Sure, console gamers at the time had a lot Japanese-style, linear, hand-holding RPGs to play, but what few western-style, free-form RPGs were available on consoles weren’t all that comprehensive, to be honest.

Realms of Arkania 3: [...]

Feature review: Aliens versus Predator

After nearly a decade of waiting, fans of the Aliens versus Predator games were beginning to wonder if they’d ever get another acid-spraying, head-biting, marine-disemboweling fright fest. Sure, we’ve had the movies to turn to in the meantime, but let’s face it, those atrocities were more like a kick in the pants than a decent [...]

The lite design doc

People tend to roll their eyes at the idea of making design documents for small-scale game projects. Fair enough: screwing around for a few hours to make a generic platformer doesn’t require the care, precision and co-ordination of, say, an Army of Two co-op snipe — it tends to be a more casual exercise with [...]

NAG March 2010 issue

2010 is officially in full swing, but that’s not enough to stop us from giving you a massive feature filled to the brim with awesome things that you need to be excited for. We get behind the scenes and hands-on with the Command and Conquer 4 multiplayer beta and Heavy Rain. Our reviews section is [...]

Gimmick or no gimmick?

I have to admit, a lot of new tech that I read or hear about, or see, is enough to get me pretty excited. My internal hype engine is tuned only to technology and games these days — the newest Lamborghini only gets a yawn from me; it’s far too much like the Batmobile. But [...]

Feature review: Bioshock 2

I often wonder what it must be like to work for a games studio, creating the sequel to a game that was highly acclaimed and won its fair share of Game of the Year Awards. Sure, you might surprise gamers and reviewers the first time round, but next time everyone will be watching closely. Well, [...]

Casual ain’t crap

Over the years, I’ve often expressed my deep and profound respect for the casual gaming industry: a branch of game development that is so often vilified because it supposedly appeals to stupid and unappreciative gamers. Aside from numerous write-ups in places like Dev.Mag, I also tend to explain my stance when chatting to friends and [...]

Super double retro review: Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus

Welcome to Oddworld, home of the Magog Cartel’s premiere consumer industrial facilities, and SoulStorm Brew™. When RuptureFarms 1029 carelessly exhausts the local population of Meeches, grinding its production of the immensely popular novelty meat snack Meech Munchies™ to an abrupt and potentially commercially devastating halt, CEO Molluck the Glukkon turns a prospective eye to the [...]

Troubleshooting 101: Less expensive lessons to learn

I work at Ibayi PC, one of the busiest IT solutions companies in Port Elizabeth. I’ve worked here long enough to start seeing patterns in the problems customers have, and with my previous personal experience fixing friends’ computers, I though I’d share a bit of my troubleshooting knowledge with you, in the hope that this [...]

Retro review: Constructor

Constructor is a DOS-based, tongue-in-cheek management sim that places you in control of a construction company trying to do what construction companies do best. This means, of course, that you’ll spend most of your time building cheap houses, pacifying annoyed tenants, making deals with the mob and completely screwing over any and all rivals.
Before actually [...]