'Silver Lining' is a new column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to pointing to the pieces that showed the most potential in recently released, bad games. Even in the mediocre, we can find a silver lining.


Games tend to take death rather lightly. Characters die constantly, extra lives are collected and wasted, and respawns are regularly infinite. NeverDead eschews it (almost) entirely, adding an interesting layer to core convention of death in games. As a whole, however, NeverDead is mostly a mess. Combat leans toward the tedious, and the dismemberment mechanic is poorly implemented and clunky. Even the story is paper-thin and mostly unfunny, in a genre not generally lauded for well-crafted narratives.

But it could have worked. The concept of playing as the... (Continue Reading...)

This Sunday, the 3DS launches in the US and, to celebrate the occasion, US-based megastore Walmart is offering quite the deal for anyone who lives in one of a dozen states. When purchasing the new handheld, consumers in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina will have the option of trading in their used DS for a $100 credit towards their 3DS purchase. If they've got two old DS systems laying around, both can be traded in for $200 towards a 3DS, but that's as high as Walmart's willing to go.

The trade-in program will start this Sunday with the 3DS launch and continue through April 30. This promotion is in-store only -- sorry, no online... (Continue Reading...)


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