Reviews & Articles

With the 2K Sports release Major League Baseball 2K10, producer Ben Bishop and gameplay designers Jonathan Rivera and Sean Bailey were eager to sit down and discuss the details of the game. They had more than just the excitement of a game release to discuss; they had an urge to set the record straight. After all, MLB 2K9 has become something of a critical disaster for the team. With their latest installment in the MLB series, they went back to the fundamental design elements that made other 2K games a success. Their promise: MLB 2K10 not only exceeds expectations but also completely knocks expectations out of the ballpark.

The Omega Stone — along with its predecessor The Riddle of the Sphinx — is well-known adventure game that I never had a chance to play when it was released in 2003. Timely as ever, only a mere 7 years after The Omega Stone was released, I decided to play it. I just couldn’t help but wonder what an old adventure game would have in store and how it held up over time.

You have to admit, Lara Croft has done a lot for videogames. There’s a reason she is viewed as the female version of Indiana Jones. The first three games she was in delivered high adventure with some gun combat. They were fun to play, as you never truly knew what was coming next. Well, what if you combined some of Indy’s adventuring spirit, Lara’s gun skills and a razor sharp wit? You would end up with Nathan Drake, the star of a game I’ve probably had too much fun playing: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

I was asked to review a laptop cooler. I responded in the affirmative, wondering what there was to review. A laptop cooler is a laptop cooler, but I do have a hot-running Toshiba that’s a productivity workhorse — though I don’t use it for gaming. Sometimes, on cold winter nights, I would watch a movie in bed and have it warm up the bed nicely. So I had a suitable test subject.

Enter Pandora: a seemingly endless desert full of dangerous wild animals, men who are in search of treasure, and other men who look like they’re straight out of the Mad Max movies and are out to kill for the fortunes they seek. That’s why people come to Pandora: to find treasure. As I played Borderlands for the Xbox 360, I felt the sense of a California gold rush — except on another planet and in the future. And with lots of guns.

Audition Online is an online dance game that’s all about music, fashion and dance. Dancing is a social activity, and what better game to take online than a dance game? Transplanting the mechanics of Dance Dance Revolution to a keyboard and providing a social network to support the gameplay is what Audition Online is about, and the 300 million users worldwide that it boasts prove the success of the game.

Tower defense games are unique in the strategy genre. This is twofold. First, all you have to do is “plant” a few towers and watch the sparks fly. Second, the games requires some excellent strategy — mostly in the form of micromanagement. Either you have to improve your towers or send your hero to slow things down enough for the turrets to destroy the opposition. Suffice to say, depending on the game, things can get difficult very quickly. But let me introduce you to one of the most accessible tower defense games: Lock’s Quest for the DS.

I’ve lived in rural areas for more than half my life. When I first started using the Internet, dial-up was the only thing available, so that worked. Now, about 10 years later, there are glorious high-speed Internet capabilities. Sadly, I’m again living in the boonies, and the main thing available is dial-up. Luckily, there’s another option: Novatel Wireless MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot.

Pinball ... one of the earliest frontiers of electronic gaming. As such, game manufacturers realized a hook was needed to keep people interested and, more importantly, to keep them placing their hard-earned cash into the machines. Simply put, it needed to be fun. This is still true today. But we can’t forget that everyone has his or her own definition of “fun.” Pinball is something almost everyone agrees is fun. And ZEN Pinball from PlayStation Network is no exception.

Alexander the Great and I have many things in common. We have nine letters in our first names, we like world travel and we have a weird desire to conquer stuff. As for the latter, I play videogames. When For the Glory: A Europe Universalis Game gave me the opportunity to play out my Alexander-inspired fantasies and conquer the world from the comfort of my PC, I was more than thrilled. All those years of studying politics seemed to finally be worth the tuition money.

When I heard that Square-Enix was teaming up with Disney to create a videogame, I was curious what Square-Enix talent could produce when set free on the beloved Disney universe. I never played the first Kingdom Hearts, so I didn’t know what to expect when I borrowed the game’s sequel from a buddy. I am also a purist: When I try a game for the first time, I don’t read any reviews or the manual, except for the basic controls page. Nor do I allow anyone to tell me anything about it until after I’ve played.

There comes a time when a game will come out as the complete package — a well-rounded game that has all the right elements, including an engaging story, fun gameplay, memorable music, interesting characters and timelessness. Chrono Trigger is one of those games.

King’s Bounty has been a fixture for a long time in the computer gaming world. Unfortunately, I’ve never played any of the series. I don’t know why I’ve never shelled out greenbacks for what is considered a very popular title. But I’ve jumped right in to see what the hoopla was all about. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised at what I had missed all these years.

It is difficult to see the future, but it is not impossible to spot upcoming trends in toys. Three experts in the field sat down with moderator and author of “Out of the Toybox,” Richard Gottlieb, at the 2010 Engage Expo in New York to answer questions about the future of toys and the “transmedia” trend of merging physical toys or objects with online, video and robotic capabilities.

For those who enjoy playing role-playing games, Dragon Age: Origins is the game for you. Dragon Age: Origins is packed with a massive amount of gameplay. You will spend many hours playing this game. I will confess that I am only 20 hours into the game and have yet to touch all the adventures that await me, but I have put a decent dent in it and enough to share a little.

Although I have not been fortunate enough to play the first game, Mass Effect 2 surely did not disappoint the hype. The story is set in the year 2183. During a routine patrol, my ship, the Normandy, comes under attack. The crew and I are forced to evacuate; only, I don’t make it. I am hit by flying debris while trying to save a crew member and am propelled into space, floating aimlessly until death.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is yet another Super Mario game, but this time, there is a twist, and it does not disappoint. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is — yes, you guessed it — Super Mario on the Wii! Let me start by saying this is a really beautiful game. Everything you remember from the Mario franchise is back and revamped and looks pretty awesome for a Wii title. The classic side-scroller action is back with this one, ladies and gentlemen. It resurfaces all your old memories of stomping mushrooms and spitting fire, but now you can do so with your Wii.

Expanding the world from the first Guild Wars game, Guild Wars: Factions adds new classes, new skills and new ways to play the game, as well as beginning an entirely new storyline. Following the example of the original, once the game is purchased, there are no additional fees to play online, and although there are always “cool” things to purchase in the NCSoft store, they don’t affect gameplay. Also, there is a connection between Factions and the other Guild Wars campaigns, so cross-campaign play is possible if you own other campaigns.

What does Valhalla mean to you? Does it bring forth old Nordic legends? Fallen warriors going to a paradise of battles (if such a thing could exist)? Valkyries fighting a never-ending battle? Valhalla often summons thoughts of a never-ending battle. So what image would a videogame create? There have been various answers to this in a variety of forms without even referencing anything Nordic. But perhaps one of the closer answers is Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance for the PSP.

Underneath the amazing atmosphere, beautifully detailed graphics, immersive sounds and enveloping storyline, BioShock is a game about choices: the choices made by the characters in the creation and downfall of Rapture; the choices presented to the player that pull at your heartstrings and moral compass; and the choices of weapons and plasmids. How each of these choices affects the player and the world around him is one of BioShock’s greatest assets.

In a modern world of endless online possibilities, it was only a matter of time before virtual worlds like Second Life spawned multiple generations of alteregos. Usually geared toward adults, sites like Second Life generally host some content not suitable for children. However, the 2010 Toy Fair uncovered a few kid-friendly networks with a range of parental control options and a wide variety of educational games and environments.

There is something inherently special to me about the role-playing game genre. RPGs tend to connect with me on a deeper level than any other genre. I think the ability to choose your path and direct actions that help shape the world are what vibes with me. On the downside, I think I have a hard time giving a bad review to any game that provides that experience. My dilemma is Risen, a game that has as many good points as bad. But which points are the most important to you?

Seven years ago, one month after its July release, I received a copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for my birthday. The copy was for the Xbox, which I didn’t own. Lucky for me, a friend of mine allowed me to borrow his prized Xbox for a few weeks so I could play through this amazing storyline from “a galaxy far, far away.”

Winner of E3 2007, according to Gametrailers.com, and Best of E3, according to Ign.com, Eternal Sonata is a game like no other. Eternal Sonata is place of fantasy, a place to learn to let live in a world of hypocrisy and ignorance, and a place of tyranny.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a huge success. It had a great story and was different than other first-person shooter games on the market. It was also different than all the other Call of Duty games, as it was the first removed from the World War II setting. Infinity Ward continues to prove it knows what it’s doing with the sequel to Modern Warfare: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.