Catherine has been a surprise since it was first announced. I was impressed first to find out that it was coming stateside, but also with the relatively high profile marketing and buzz of curiosity it got. With its M rating and suggestively disrobing anime chicks with come-hither eyes on its posters and cover art, it's the sort of title that usually gets relegated to Japan. There, in Catherine's native land, sexual repression collides with WTF fetish hard enough for there to be a whole market for weird games about sex. Here in the U.S., on the other hand, it represents something different, new, and ballsy: a simple action-puzzle game dropped into the context of a very adult, very Japanese, creepy, sexy thriller story.

This game is not for anyone who quickly grows impatient with non-interactive dialogue and slow-moving plot, or easily gives up when stuck on a time-sensitive puzzle that might require many attempts to complete.  Hell, I'm actually not really sure it's for me. But that's the weird thing about Catherine. Like the titular character, it's a new and refreshing seductress that keeps you coming back, if only for what a unique experience it is.

Storyline seemed like it was approximately half of the game. If that makes your eyes glaze over in indifference, I don't think you'll enjoy Catherine's avalanche of cutscenes - both hand-drawn and CGIed - and dialogues. I'm usually all for a hefty dose of story, but even I roll my eyes when there's a load screen, followed by a cutscene, followed by another load screen, followed by another cutscene. I haven't had this sense of "get on with it!" since the Metal Gear Solid games. These complaints aren't to say the storyline is bad. I was sucked into protagonist Vincent's life and problems, and he's both flawed and likable enough that I always wanted to see what happened next for him. It's a videogame equivalent of a page-turner, if you will. But if you're the type who prefers to skip all the talking, you'll want to skip this one.

A strong story is critical to this game, not only because its unique thematic material would fall flat without one, but also because there's just not all that much to the action-puzzle content. It plays like a weird cousin of Q*bert and Lode Runner, you must control Vincent to quickly push and pull arrangements of cubes to form shelves, stairs, and climbable ledges to escape falling into the abyss and survive his nightmares. You are joined in your climb by fellow terrified climbers who get in your way, and there are occasionally curve ball blocks in the form of ice, bombs, springboards, and the like. But for the most part, the game is just forming vertical pathways before time runs out.

Unless you're some kind of Rubik's Cube genius, you're going to fail. A lot. Like puzzle games from Professor Layton to Portal, Catherine is at its most satisfying when you just seem to click everything into place to advance through a tough spot. It's at its most frustrating when you accidentally zig when you should have zagged and die, bringing you back to a checkpoint way down the mountain, only to discover you're now stuck on a section you must have just completed just 30 seconds ago and you can't remember how you did it. During higher levels, the game would be unforgivingly unplayable if it weren't for an "undo" button that lets you take back the last block movement you made if you get stuck. This feature gives you a bit of leeway to think things through, but I ended up abusing the hell out of it. I also had occasional problems with how the controls would relate to the camera angle and Vincent's relative position, and sometimes I felt it was too easy to get stuck hanging off the far side of a block edge that I couldn't see. Then I'd accidentally release onto what I thought was a block below but instead plummet to my death.

If taken by itself, the block-climbing would have been a strong downloadable arcade game, but it's the context that makes Catherine what it is. The surreality of stress-induced nightmares are a perfect backdrop for a game about endless, rushed puzzling. The game absolutely nails that tone, from hazy, jumbled scenery to a soundtrack that goes between skincrawling and pulse-pounding. Who hasn't had bad dreams about getting chased by something awful through a giant maze, or been on a dreaded deadline to finish some seemingly possible but ultimately endless task? The oddball, spooky nonsense haunting Vincent isn't just random, it's laden with metaphor about his personal demons, and anxieties from his waking life take monstrous, deadly form in his nightmares. If marriage, having kids, and a hyper-controlling significant other are what you fear, then don't touch Catherine right before bed unless you like being very creeped out.

Aside from the climbing, there are some interactive elements to dialogues, and your reactions to other characters shape some elements of the plot. The most engaged players get with dialogues comes through an entertaining and interesting take on text messaging, highlighting that technology's capability to allow multitasked and evasive conversations. The game integrates it well enough that anyone who has been stuck trying to present two different stories to two different parties via extended text conversations might find it unsettlingly familiar. But, again, they are ultimately pretty thin in terms of real gameplay.

Despite gameplay being a bit lightweight, I have to give Catherine props for creativity. In an era of play-it-safe concept design, Catherine is a breath of fresh weirdness to a stagnant field of major console games. It's a game for which premise and themes matter, only instead of space wars, fantasy wars, modern wars, World Wars, archeology wars, dystopian wars, sports wars, and Super Mario, Catherine chose to work with sex, dreams, and anxiety in an offbeat and mature style.  If there were already a lot of games that did this sort of thing, maybe I wouldn't have thought so much of Catherine. But since its quirky take on the dangerous psychology of sex and relationships is so new and strange in the videogame industry right now, Catherine gets an bump to must-play status.

The good news: Valve has announced via press release and subsequent clarification to Shacknews the updated release date for Portal 2, which is April 20th in North America and Australia, and April 22nd in Europe. The bad news: Portal 2 was originally scheduled to hit before the end of 2010, and then delayed until February 2011.

At least the folks at Valve attempt to acknowledge gamers' frustration over delays with a little self-deprecating humor in the press release, pointing out that the original Portal "won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date" and that this delay "not only marks the shortest delay in Valve's proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time." I, for one, am appreciative of the human touch a few jokes can put on a situation like this one, and it makes me far more likely to forgive and forget than a cold, corporate-speak announcement and apology for "any inconvenience." Besides, as I've said before, delays are better than bugs. I'm looking at you, Fable 3. And you, New Vegas.

Portal packed a boatload of charm and character into a minimalist presentation (was the companion cube a character?), and it's good to see Portal 2 following suit. With only the ubiquitous voice of antagonist puppet-master GLaDOS providing explanation, we learn that she's back to her old rat-in-a-maze routine with two new protagonists who this time are slightly more...expendable.

It's wonderful that Valve seems committed to the subtle details that made the first Portal so awesome. The two heroes demonstrate body language to distinguishes their personalities. GLaDOS would sound even more machine-like if she spoke in a true monotone, but there's just enough hint of inflection to her voice to make the final line of the trailer sound chilling.

While the first Portal was masterful at taking a pretty basic mechanic and coming up with endless permutations of it, the sheer breadth of possibilities that come to mind with two portal guns in the field is staggering. I always had a blast making infinite loops that had nothing to do with solving the puzzles, but here it's used as a mechanic to build falling momentum and then release it with specific timing. Portal 2 is expected to hit in February 2011, so it might be worth putting aside some cash for post-holiday gaming.

Cheap Thrills is a column by Chris Gampat reviewing affordable (under $20) or free games for the recession.

If you like solving puzzles, killing shadowy people, and physics, then Ricochet Kills 2 may be just the game for you. With loads of different combinations for murdering the men in suits and with different objects to aid or work against you, the game is highly addicting with a simple gameplay mechanic that will leave your brain confused with how to accomplish your goals.

If you're bored with nothing to do during a lunch break or really want to try a new game to get away from all the FPS's out there, give this simple flash game a try. If you're an Android user, let us know how it works on your phone.

Story

If you're looking for a game with a really great story and plot twists that don't make you yawn like you're in a Shyamalan movie, this isn't the game. In fact, the point of the game is to simply kill all the guys standing still. You don't know if you're the hero, villain or Hunter S Thompson—all you know is that you need to kill those guys in suits. To do this, you use your special gun that fires bullets that ricochet off the edges of the map. Think of it as ping pong, but more lethal and where the programmers get so bored where they decided that they will be malicious and just mess with you. All of this takes place in seemingly the same location with modifications to the areas.

Gameplay

The gameplay can be described as simple, addicting, brainteasing, and fun! Using your mouse, players aim the arm of the chosen assassin. Said assassin needs to eliminate all his targets with only a certain amount of shots, which is displayed down below. When he runs out of shots, he loses the game.

The bullets bounce of areas of the map, pass through victims and keep bouncing around until they just stop/disappear. When they run into certain objects they also disappear.

These objects include dark gray boxes, light gray boxes, red barrels, etc. Each objects has a different effect. Since I never finished the game, I can't even list all the possible objects that there could be.

No matter how hard one tries, they will never be able to figure out the physics pattern of the bullets in this game. It's really hard and very unpredictable. More often than not, it is a game of chance.

Graphics

The graphics are nothing exceptional. They're very plain and very flat. The most significant feature about the graphics perhaps is color, as the colors give you visual clues to accomplishing your goals. For example, blow this up = red barrel.

Sound

The sound is nothing special either. In fact, the game can be played on mute with no problem. There is some weird annoying music in the background along with the gun shots, explosions and other sounds that indicate to you that a man in a suit is dead.