Eric Van Allen
![No Wang home: Shadow Warrior 2 review](/content/images/size/w150/2025/02/lead-png-1.webp)
![Coup de grace: Hitman: The Complete First Season review](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/lead-12.jpg)
Hitman is all about the process. It’s a defined line from point A to B: receive target, kill target. Through many years and iterations, Agent 47 acts as proxy for the player, an alien invader in an ecosystem. Your job is to execute, and do so with as little
by Eric Van Allen![No Wang home: Shadow Warrior 2 review](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/lead-png-1.webp)
Shadow Warrior 2 is stuck between two points in time. In one, it’s the early days of Duke Nukem and Serious Sam, where rockets blew chunks of pixelated gore across the screen while beefy commandos delivered raunchy one-liners. In the other, it has to cope with the modern day,
by Eric Van Allen![Built to last — HyperX Cloud Revolver review](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/LEADIN.jpg)
My old headset has been sitting on the shelf for months. It’s not that the Cloud Revolver, HyperX’s new PC headset, is significantly greater in any manner; I imagine that I’ll eventually switch the two back, if not just for variety’s sake. But comparing the two,
by Eric Van Allen![Impersonating an officer: This Is The Police review](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/leadin-png-1.webp)
Two cops have died at the scene. That’s all I get: a notification that the officers I dispatched not only failed to stop the hostage crisis, but were killed in action by a hail of bullets. There’s little pomp or circumstance, just a notification. I sigh, neither the
by Eric Van Allen![Don’t read more: Inside review](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/leadin-5.jpg)
Silence is one of the most effective tools in a composer’s arsenal. It’s contrasting, empty, vacuumous — in the right hands, silence sings as loud as a full horns section. Inside follows in the footsteps of Limbo, as two great games that utilize “silence,” punctuating loud moments with slower,
by Eric Van Allen![Once more, for the Emperor: Impressions of Dawn of War 3’s take on Warhammer 40k](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/leadin-4.jpg)
It’s been twelve years since the first Dawn of War rampaged onto PC, bringing the Warhammer 40k tabletop fantasy game to life in brutal fashion. I was a fan of both the original and the sequel, albeit for different reasons. They were two takes on the 40k universe, one
by Eric Van Allen![Monster among men: A preview of the chilling Vampyr](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/leadin-3.jpg)
You need to feed. That’s how the demo of Vampyr started, in our time at E3. Then again, that might be a misnomer. Playing as Jonathan, a doctor lost amidst the backdrop of a falling 20th-century London, you always need to feed. That is your infliction, as a man
by Eric Van Allen![Desert sport odyssey: Hands-on with Supergiant Games’ Pyre](/content/images/size/w600/2025/02/leadin-2.jpg)
The last thing I would have expected from Supergiant Games was an action-sports game. Makers of Bastion and Transistor, their new title is something that seems strange for a team so well-versed in atmosphere and storytelling. But their games have never really fit a mold with each other in that
by Eric Van Allen