The original Torchlight was a shining beacon in a sea of samey dungeon crawlers for those looking for a suitable Diablo replacement. It provided an alternative to the deeper, darker recesses of Blizzard's triumphant cult classic while still serving up the same addictive looting and monster-crushing goodness we quickly became used to with the various dungeons and catacombs of yesteryear.

Skyrim is a sprawling quest for anyone to undertake, packing a potential few hundreds of hours of gameplay to exhaust -- and that's not counting its previous DLC expansion, excellent as it was. It's a behemoth of a game that you approach when you've got the time and availability, because once you commit, you're in it for the long haul.

Having grown up with a fantastic generation of PlayStation's Japanese RPGs, it's sometimes hard to relate to some of this generation's biggest releases -- where are the tropes and colorful sprites we're used to, left over from an age long past?

LittleBigPlanet has warmed hearts and frustrated platformer fans ever since the inception of Sackboy, and the franchise's latest jaunt to the Vita handheld proves to be no different. The Vita adaptation for the popular side-scrolling bundle of joy is now available in the format of a beta up for ravenous LBP fans like us to examine and report our findings. It's probably fairly obvious by now that there's excellent, slick, and gorgeous levels as well as the tools creative types crave to build their own courses, but we gave the beta a spin to confirm what we had already suspected: we're going to want the full game in-hand come September 25th.

COLOGNE, Germany -- The Witcher 2, distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, was the most awarded game during the European Games Awards ceremony at Gamescom 2012. CD Projekt RED, developers of The Witcher 2, started off this year’s Gamescom with a bang, dominating the European Games Awards and then following up with a well-received presentation of the REDkit, the mod engine for their award-winning RPG.

Insomniac Games and EA have joined forces to bring us a Facebook free-to-play game, Outernauts. Social games have not the habit of being revolutionary or thrilling, but given the rich console development experience of the two names behind this one, there might just be something special in there for us.

Welcome back to your favorite Steam Summer Sale updates and recommendations. In personal news, I just got an email from my aunt saying she sent me a Gamestop gift certificate for my birthday, which is on Monday. I mean literally, she couldn’t have picked a worse time, right as the Steam Summer Sale has gotten started. Oh well, maybe I’ll get a bit of cash to help out the cause. Anyway, today is Saturday, so let’s look at some of today’s deals and bundles that you should take advantage of…

Video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America will be releasing a limited-run Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Wizard’s Edition alongside the standard version of the game on January 22, 2013 in North America exclusively for PlayStation 3.  Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, an epic tale of a boy name Oliver travelling between two worlds on a quest to save his mother, is developed by the critically acclaimed Japanese development studio, LEVEL-5. The game features animations and cut-scenes produced and supervised by the legendary Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli, and features music scored by the world-renowned composer Joe Hisaishi. 

Tonight, Nintendo aired its latest Nintendo Direct Internet special, one that’s coming just two weeks after its E3 showcase, where it displayed the Wii U in action, along with various 3DS titles.  Now, the bad news is tonight’s presentation didn’t feature any new information about the new Wii U.  However, we did learn about a new model for the Nintendo 3DS, as well as when it launches.  There’s some other news as well – including who’s working on the new Super Smash Bros. game.

The idea behind E3 was to showcase the latest and brightest games of 2012, but there are always a few games that disappoint us. Some games on our list made serious changes to their formula, and not for the better. Other games took center stage at E3 when they shouldn’t have. There were many games at E3, but here is our top five list of disappointments.

Ahhh, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.  Every year, game companies show off their best wares at the event.  Some are clearly anticipated from previous announcements, while others are huge surprises that come out of left field.  Konami is no exception to this rule, as they’ve dominated E3 in the past with announcements such as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.  But even we’re left to wonder just what the company will announce at this year’s expo, as they’re planning a huge announcement.  That won’t stop us from guessing, though…

Recently, I was lucky to partake in the very first Guild Wars 2 beta and what a thrill it was. I haven’t played the franchise before, but all I have heard were great things and it’s one of the most risking IP’s on the market. Unlike most MMO’s, Guild Wars isn’t a subscription service and depends solely on in game player purchase. Besides the subscription model, the development team at NCSOFT is making a number of key changes to the MMO format that makes it immediately intriguing.