American Exceptionalism, religious dogma, bigotry, parallel universes, iconoclasm, fate, life, death, gigantic Steampunk bird-men…As the credits rolled on Irrational Games’ much belated, much more anticipated Bioshock Infinite, my head was spinning.  The game’s package isn’t slapped with a big, solid M just because the stylized people depicted within often meet gruesome, sky-hooking deaths.  It’s because that’s what Infinite is: mature.  Through and through. 

You’ve likely heard this old diddy, and are likely to have your ears assaulted by the same mantra in years to come, but video games have come a long way.  To put a finer point on it, storytelling in games have come a long way.  Years from now, when pricey college courses banking on the culture that’s sprung up around this booming medium reflect on the metamorphosis of its storytelling from crudely simple to deeply sophisticated, they’ll reference Bioshock Infinite as an example of the ladder.  Hell, it’ll get its own chapter.

“New ideas and some slight refining tweaks skirt around Epic’s established formula, but People Can Fly’s unwillingness to stray off the beaten path, paired with a relatively inconsequential story, ensures Judgment is the weakest entry in the series to date.  Ah, don’t make that face.  ‘The Bad One’ was bound to happen sometime.”

So something rather intriguing happened this week.  It would appear this new fangled “next-gen” officially kicked off.  Well, unless you count the Wii U next-gen, which you’re completely allowed to (inversely, I get to call you wrong).  That’s right, Sony finally ripped off the wraps on the PlayStation 4.  Fast, socially integrated, the ability to stream games, two separate cup-holders — Sony’s future proofing their brand and the attempt is, surprisingly, not a laughable disaster.

You can find my initial reaction to the hardware’s specs hereabouts, but we’re dialing back the technophilia today and also focusing on something more important than even a brand new, highfalutin’, Facebookin’ console: the games.

Hit the jump to check out what’s in store for gamers next generation; a generation right around the corner.  Oh, and welcome back to the Roundup.

On paper Aliens: Colonial Marines sounded absolutely ace.  A direct continuation to one of the most influential and timeless science fiction films of the last fifty years signed off as official canon by 20th Century Fox, developed by Gearbox Software, one of the most renown and rejoiced gaming studios of this generation.

Colonial Marines should have been great.  Living and breathing Jimmy Cameron’s universe, a perspective on the future that countless, countless games, novels, and films still unabashedly rip off to this very day, should have made for an engrossing interactive experience that its imitators could hardly match because, instead of playing loose homage to the 1986 film, Colonial Marines had free reign to tap from the source.

I’ve been a huge fan of this franchise since early childhood; my immediate, almost unconscious response to “What’s your favorite movie?” is always “Aliens” without hesitation, and I’ve been excited about this game for a very long time.  By the time this review posts, you’re likely to already have heard the sordid truth.  It hurts me to say that Aliens: Colonial Marines doesn’t just miss the mark, it makes a vapor cloud the size of Nebraska fifteen miles away from it.

When Ninja Theory, a British development house renown for its unique sense of style, was first tasked by Capcom to reboot and rejuvenate Devil May Cry, it was “The Father of Mega Man” himself, Keiji Inafune, who posed the question that would ultimately shape DmC into the game it is today.  What would Dante and his universe look like if imagined as a contemporary film?

The grand result of this thought experiment permeates throughout every inch of DmC with obsessive flair.  From the imaginative art design that morphs the world into the twisted, decrepit otherworld mockery of our reality to the clever, full momentum narrative that barely allows its viewers a breath, Ninja Theory has taken complete ownership of Devil May Cry, offering up an entirely new, almost unrecognizable take on gaming’s beloved devil hunter.

And it’s fucking incredible.

1/12/13
Welcome back to the Roundup, where we take a look back at the week in gaming, reflect on the gaming happenings, and balance our finances in order to put gaming above all else, minimizing insignificant expenses like food and rent (let the landlord keep banging at the door — it’s not like he has a key or whatever).

This week in games, cyberpunk became cool again, Pokemon invaded a new dimension on its quest to conquer ours, the Kinect became even more gimmicky, and Massachusetts declares war on our virtual wars.  All this and half past an inch more after the jump.

Rumor — the invisible force said to actually power the internet — has it that this console generation is coming to a close.  If this truly is the last year of this triumphant generation, a generation that began as any other (with pretty graphics and prettier promises) but evolved into a full blown fusion of home media and dedicated gaming, then it’s all the more important to reflect on the virtual adventures 2012 gave us.

We laughed, we cried, we cried even harder trying to slog through Halo 4 on Legendary…2012 was the culmination of six years of advancement, where devs’ were past their growing pains fumbling with new technology and knew how to fully utilize the tools at their disposal.   2012 was a year in which we reaped the benefits tenfold through the sheer amount of excellent games rapid-fired onto store shelves (or, more realistically, Steam shelves.  Yeah.  Steam shelves).