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Reviews
PS3, X360, PC- Game of Thrones
- Review
- There is probably a great role-playing game to be made out of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but Game of Thrones isn't it.
MAC, PC- Diablo III
- Review
- The first Diablo game in over a decade is also one of the most insidiously satisfying loot treadmills in almost as long.
PS3N, PS3, X360, PC- Prototype 2
- Review
- Prototype 2 gives you some interesting abilities that can be fun to use, but it doesn't give you enough good opportunities to cut loose with all that power.
PS3, X360, PC- Max Payne 3
- Review
- Rockstar Games modernizes and makes Max Payne its own, creating something grittier and more grounded in reality, if not quite as singular.
An on-rails game behaves much like a train: while sometimes the player can choose which path he goes down, he cannot deviate from it. Sometimes on-rails games even go so far as to decide when the player moves.
Overview
A feature of video games in which the manner that the player travels is pre-determined on a line, as if on rails. Many arcade shooters have this feature.The original idea behind this concept is that it allowed a game to feature imagery beyond the technical limitations of the time by using high production value video as a background, combined with limited interactions via traditional graphics for the actual gameplay. A targeting reticle is usually the only thing you control in these games.
Later on, games continued to use this concept, even when technical limitations were no longer a deciding factor. This was due to the designers wanting a specific experience for the player to engage in, although it would also be used to make the game easier to develop, since taking freedom of movement away makes the game far less complex and cheaper to produce.
Comeback
Dead Space Extraction is a "Guided Experience"
"Guided Experiences"
The latest trend in marketing On-Rails Shooters is to refer to them as being a "guided experience." While recent On-Rails Shooters are decidedly less simplistic and more immersive than their forefathers, they still have roughly the same style of gameplay. Recent "Guided Experiences" include Dead Space Extraction and House of the Dead: OVERKILL.
On-Rails games
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