I'm just going to lay this out there right now. You may think you're a hardcore gamer, but unless you've successfully completed a Contra title on a difficulty level higher than easy, you're just not. While the Contra series began as hardcore masterpiece 20 years ago, it veered wildly into craptacular territory during the PlayStation days (Blue and Red 3D glasses? Read More.
Her Interactive manages to keep themselves busy by churning out two adventure games a year. The surprising thing is that their recent Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull is a noticeable improvement over the last game, Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek. Read More.
Crysis is something else: stunning graphics, an underused setting, an epic story, and an enjoyable multiplayer game to boot. People playing this will likely recall a game from many years back called FarCry, with good reason. Crysis is the evolution of that title, using a new engine, but keeping the general feel of a 'hell in paradise. Read More.
The original Virtua Fighter was released by Sega in 1993, and is the forerunner for polygon based fighting games. From its meager arcade eight character beginnings, and its 100 poly count original characters, Virtua Fighter 5 now boasts seventeen playable characters, gorgeous scenery and online play. Read More.
At first, the forefront of Fantasy Wars will seem familiar; Humans, Orcs and Elves are all pretty ticked off at each other and are at war. While this has been done before, developers 1C and Ino-Co, and publisher Atari, do well to include a lot of background story that distinguishes the plot from any other. Read More.
To those not up to date on their anime, you may think that think Bleach is a chlorine solution used to whiten fabrics? While you may not be completely wrong, Bleach is also the newest hit anime to storm North American television, manga, and other forms of entertainment. Read More.
When you think about cowboys, perhaps pirates aren't the first thing that spring to your mind. After playing some Swashbucklers, your opinion just might change. The game offers a unique setting and styled graphics, but the rest of it seems to be as misplaced as tumbleweed on a tropical island. Read More.
Reading up on Swashbucklers Blue vs. Grey prior to it's release got me shivering my timbers on the poop deck in anticipation. The concept of an action RPG pirate game set in the United States during the Civil War era sounded intriguing. Alas, just like a Christmas with presents of socks and underwear, this budget title disappoints. Read More.
I love adventure movies, especially the Indiana Jones series. It's all about the thrilling chases, precarious situations, exotic locales, and wisecracking hero with a wit as quick as his fists. Unfortunately, for all of the great stories and experiences in gaming, I've never experienced the same whimsy and wonder of those Indiana Jones movies, even within the Indiana Jones games; until now. Read More.
When Company of Heroes was first released by Relic, it was praised by critics and fans alike, and was generally thought to be the best real-time strategy game ever created. Despite being set during World War II, a period that, in videogames, has been done ad nauseam, the game created a unique experience that combined deep strategy, unit management, and, most importantly, fun. Read More.
It seems these days there's no end to the number of games that try to integrate repetitive hack and slashing, but still making it fun. This is no easy feat to pull off because it's, well, repetitive. Still, there are things that make these kinds of games fun to play, like the enjoyment of making your character stronger, giving him or her more and more gear, or facing bigger and tougher foes (with the ability to defeat them, of course). Read More.
When a game like Kane & Lynch: Dead Men spins in my computer, expecting a review, I run into something of a conundrum. The problem here is that what the game does right, it does very well. High production values and cinematic presentation is obvious to anyone who plays the game, but while the game excels in some areas, it falters heavily in others. Read More.
Eidos' Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is one of few much discussed action titles to hit the PS3 for the holiday season. Its high production values and cinematic presentation is obvious to anyone who plays the game, but while the game excels in some areas, it falters heavily in others. Read More.
What do you get when you take the characters from an ongoing television show and previous game title of the same name, and throw them into a melting pot roiling with hackneyed ingredients? Well, a lot of answers may apply here, but Krome Studios' Viva Pinata: Party Animals for the Xbox 360 definitely fits the bill. Read More.
During World War II, SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency of Soviet Russia, and with a name that translates to "Death to Spies," who's going to argue with that? In the likely-titled PC release, you take control of a counter-intelligence agent as he infiltrates enemy territory, roots out traitors, and protects Mother Russia from the Nazi threat. Read More.
