First impressions: 'Castlevania: Lords of Shadow'

This self-contained reboot of the Castlevania franchise on the current generation of hardware is a lush, gorgeous game. The voice-acting — Patrick Stewart is phenomenal as the narrator, naturally, and Robert Carlyle does a pretty decent job as Gabriel Belmont, the main character — is generally very good.

The gameplay and combat is solid and satisfying (though the occasional confusion arises from having too many buttons to remember to push in specific order). The story has enough meat to it that it’s kept me interested.

I’ll have more to come once I’ve finished the game.