Evan Lahti
When they're not being bet on for money or helping cowboys gun down bandits, horses are the angelic, trusty companions of rural-raised girls. Yes, there's certainly a market for this type of thing on the Wii, where kid-friendly controls are a sure fit for a tween-targeted title. Read More.
The Mayan civilization's accomplishments are many: developing the calendar, advancing mathematics and astronomy, creating elaborate art and written language, and inspiring one of the better kid's game shows of our generation, Legends of the Hidden Temple. But for all their inventive, Mesoamerican dealings, makin' Tetris ain't an achievement they can claim. Read More.
Video games have looked to film for source material for some time, but every once in awhile, a developer will release a title that blends interactivity with cinematic presentation in a way that redefines a genre. Been there, done that for BioWare. 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic bonded lightsabers with an innovative dialogue-tree system, granting the player a timeless space-based choose-your-own-adventure. Read More.
If there was ever a publisher that got more mileage out of a single genre, historical era or setting, it's Koei. The Japanese company nestled itself a nice little niche through the PS2's popularity, pumping out dozens of action and strategy titles set in the feudal Far East. Read More.
I really wanted Spider-Man: Friend or Foe to be about online social networking. Such a missed opportunity! Instead of average action-platforming, we could've had MySpace meets Marvel. Think about it. Friend requests for boss fights -- do you approve Venom, or alienate the alien by denying his virtual friendship? Read More.
Chow Yun Fat knows a thing or two about puttin' holes in bad guys. But Midway? Not impressed, apparently. More than 50 action films across a 33-year career seems like a decent enough resume for the Hong Kong actor -- Midway could've just plopped Chow into the game, given him some gangsters to gun down, and called it a day. Read More.
Forgive me, MotoGP opponents. After scouring the track for chain-whips, baseball bats, and crowbars, I got frustrated. I got impatient. Even if the way you ragdolled against the pavement was pretty cool, I didn't mean to rear-end your ride at 180 mph, really. My last bike-based game was Road Rash! Read More.
Especially on consoles, real-time strategy titles tend to be hit or miss. As the genre has matured on the PC platform, it's snowballed up a wealth of features that have hardened into conventions: squadding units together, juggling resources, setting waypoints, and so on. Read More.
Ideally, we'd be glad NASCAR's getting to the next-gen party late. Why? The second-favorite sport of the United States making its Xbox 360 debut nearly two years after the system's launch means EA had that much more time to build up a stock car racer stocky with features, right? Read More.
