Reviews & Articles

Is it possible to get cute-poisoning? I'm feeling a little faint. It could be abundance of happy, awesome, adorable-ness-itude-ism of this game I'm playing, or maybe it's just the fact that I've been sitting in one position in front of my computer all through the night. Hmm.

Here's the thing: I have had Peggle on two of my mobile phones, my computer and now it is on my Xbox 360. I love it, but it is no ordinary kind of love. It is a time-suck kind of love. I sit down to play and then find myself half-comatose several hours later with atrophied muscles and five o'clock shadow. Okay, maybe not the beard stubble, unless the game causes hormonal imbalances I am not aware of yet, but my time rapidly disappears while I play the game. It won't let me go! I can hear it whispering ...

Zombies have long been the go-to enemy in videogames. A seemingly endless number of games feature zombies in a multitude of scenarios getting shot, blown up, sliced, eviscerated and any other number of gruesome punishments you could think of. Plants vs Zombies, however, bucks the trend by arming you with several different types of plants and charging you with defending your homestead against the advancing horde. It’s a pretty simple premise, but Plants vs Zombies executes it masterfully with addictive and challenging gameplay, a sense of humor and enough extras to keep you hooked for a long, long time.

I have a vested interest in children's MMOGs. Sitting next to me on this couch as I write these words are two boys, ages 10 and 12, who look suspiciously like me. This is not to say they don't and haven't played all manner of MMO – I often tell the story of the elder receiving his first Boy Scout belt loops for playing chess in Asheron's Call - but through years of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates!, months of ToonTown, weeks of Guild Wars... nothing just fit. The previous six months have been glorious! So many games to choose from and not least among them, Cartoon Network's FusionFall.

Europa Universalis Rome is an empire builder set in the time of ancient Rome. Despite my love for all things Rome and empire or city builders, I found the game to be tedious, boring and frustrating.

I was going to say that I generally avoid puzzle/adventure games, but I guess that’s not entirely accurate. I think I just had that dismal failure with Zork so many years ago (puzzle-solving/adventure text game, you youngsters — no graphics at all) and have kept my distance since then. Don’t get me wrong; I like puzzles. But I’m a little nervous about the type that has you wandering around, collecting objects you’ll need somewhere else, putting it all together and managing to not get lost.

A Vampyre Story borrows its name from The Vampyre, a tale of vampiric love by John Polidori. A Vampyre Story extends and twists that romantic genre by introducing Mona De Lafitte, an up-and-coming French opera singer with undead denial issues, and her quarrels with Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer, the presiding lord of Castle Warg. Shrowdy is Mona's captor, who stole Mona away several nights past and made her the vampire she is today. Through wit and will, it is at your pleasure to guide Mona away from the lands of Draxsylvania...

Ever play a game that made you think about death in its very real corporeal sense? The Graveyard is simple and quick to play, but the simplicity of it gives you the opportunity to “fill in the gaps.” The Graveyard is a game that’s less about gameplay and more about expression and exploration of mood.

U.B. Funkeys is a collectible toy online game made by Mattel and Arkadium. Unlike some games that require regular log-ins and creature maintenance or items that gave you limited access time, U.B. Funkey allows you to access an online world and minigames with each collectible toy.

Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City holds many mysteries. The first mystery is why they never thought to include an “Oops” button. Third in a series of popular casual games, Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City almost made me cry. I lost two tribes to starvation when I forgot to pause the game overnight. Not a good start.

Did you ever see National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase? The Griswold family goes through a number of hilarious misadventures driving from Chicago to "Wally World." Well, The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures will remind you of that movie as the Tuttle family makes its cross-country drive to the Alamo in this animated, comic-book style graphic vacation.

I've seen a lot of reviews of this game which basically say "If you like Penny Arcade, you'll like this game." I'm going to disagree with that statement. If you like Penny Arcade, and you like certain aspects of Japanese-style role-playing games, you'll like this game.

Ever been away from the internet for several days or even weeks? I hate it. I feel out of touch. There's so much stuff that I keep up with on a daily basis. The one good thing about ending such an extended stint "on the wagon" is when I go to catch up on one of my favorite online comics, Penny Arcade, and find that there are several strips on which I can gorge myself all at once. That is what playing On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness feels like to me.

Editor's note: one of the characters mentioned in this game review is named using strong language, reproduced verbatim.

Many of the defining moments of World War II in the Pacific arena were decided by fleet battles. These weren't conducted with battleships, but with carrier fleets. Control of the air was handed to these noble ships against a fanatical enemy determined to win at any cost. Battles were hard-fought campaigns by brave naval personnel and the pilots who manned the fighters and bombers and who gave their lives in defense to win territory and regain control of the islands of the Pacific, with the ultimate goal of the Japanese surrender and ending the war.

If you or your child loves zoo animals, and especially have aspirations to being a zoo vet, you have come to the right place. In Zoo Vet 2: Endangered Animals, you are a new vet at the zoo. You will diagnose and treat a variety of animals with a number of different aliments, as well as feed and maintain the animals that aren't in critical condition.

Despite the name, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I loaded up Penguins Arena: Sedna's World. Allow me to set the stage ...

Global warming is melting the ice. Garbage and pollution are everywhere. The penguins' habitat is shrinking and there isn't enough food to go around. I know, I know - it sounds kind of like the plot from Happy Feet, but here is where we digress. Sedna, the Goddess of the penguins, informs them that only enough resources to support one penguin tribe remain. The penguins must fight each other in arenas across the shrinking ice until only one tribe remains.

Welcome to weird. I can't say I have ever played a game quite like Samorost 2 before — both in form and style. Unique games are something I love to play, no matter the genre. I just love to observe and explore creativity; Samorost is nowhere close to generic.

When I read that Peggle was listed as one of the top five most addictive games, I had to check it out. Afterall, I play Bejeweled and I've broken a million points. How difficult or addictive could this be? In one word. Very. It's challenging. More challenging than you'd think; and more skill than luck is involved.

Travelogue 360 Paris is one of those titles that is really rather difficult to review. It's not really a game in the traditional sense, but it has gameplay elements. It's basically a seek and find adventure on a very basic level.

This is the third major outing for the venerable Command and Conquer series. One of the major real-time strategy series in existence; this version does not necessarily do anything radical but rather adds to a strong legacy. Like the other two RTS classic series, there is a sense of nostalgia and knowing when one plays these games.

The idea of the game is to help a group of people who move to a new island as they develop into a viable little village. You help them by giving them hints god-game style - you pick them up and move them around the map and plopping them on things they might find useful. If you are lucky they won't wander off oblivious to their plight. As the village progresses, you can invest "tech" points in various fields of endeavor like science, medicine and even mating.

I have to admit to looking forward to this title; having been tempted often to buy one of the next gen consoles merely to play driving games. During two of my stints in the studio in my band, we "wound down" with plenty of beer and a few hours of various driving games on the Xbox. Need for Speed coming to the Mac was rather cool, and it was probably the most interesting of the first raft of EA releases for Intel Macs.

Weewar is a game that bored office workers have been waiting for. Strategy on a minute scale in the style of Advance Wars. The good news is that there is no client. Weewar is a game played in your browser. It's also turn-based, so you can actually get work done between the 30 seconds you spend on your turn, and to top it all off ... it's in beta and FREE TO PLAY!

“Phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space.” Every time I load up Black and White on my mac I think of this line from Aladdin. Wielding the awesome powers of a god even in a computer game isn't easy, but man it is a ton of fun!! So when Black and White Platinum Pack became available for the Mac operating system, I knew that I just had to have it. What was even better is that the Platinum Pack includes the Black and White: Creature Isle. I'd gotten hooked on the PC version of the game when it first came out, and now I could share it with my son. Though he's only 10 and the game is rated “T”, the comic mischief and violence that caused it to be given this rating are really nothing when I consider that most games he likes have much worse. And I was right when I thought that he would love this game. So much that he's just got to take a moment to tell you about it.

For a guy with no arms and no legs, and hair that can turn into a helicopter as needed, Rayman is an adorable little guy. Somehow our family missed earlier installments of the Rayman series of games, but when we installed Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc on our Mac Mini, we quickly caught on to what the rage was all about. As a note that this game is one of four that comes in the Family Fun Pack 2 from Feral Interactive. Other games in the pack include Worms 3D and Ghost Master.

When I first heard the title Ghost Master, images of the Ghostbusters movie popped into my head. Seeing the cover art on the disc only reinforced these images. So I was a little surprised, but not at all disappointed, to discover that rather than busting the ghosts, in Ghost Master you are encouraging the ghosts to haunt. Rearranging my thinking a bit, I realized what an awesome concept this game has for kids (and adults for that matter) who enjoy a bit of perverse humor every now and then. Admit it, there’s a little boy in you that still thinks it is cool to make a girly-girl go screaming away from spiders (whatever your actual gender is). This game gives you the opportunity to do just that without it having to be your younger sister that you sent screaming.

There is just something about Worms tossing around holy hand grenades and mad cows that just would make any game a hit. So from the moment I installed and set up Worms 3D, a part of the Family Fun Pack 2 from Feral Interactive, I knew that we’d found a game that both my son and I would love. (And just as a note, this pack of games also comes with Rayman 3 and Ghost Master. So when you get three great titles like that, you don’t really even need anything more. But the set of discs also comes with the Children’s Encyclopedia Britannica 2004 Edition. Lest you be concerned that the encyclopedia is two years out of date, let me assure you that for the level where most kids will be using it, this CD truly is a bonus. My kids have had fun just learning about animals, countries and other things that are, in general, so slow to change that a two-year old encyclopedia is just fine.

Sim Theme Park is yet another game that has been so smoothly interfaced to the Mac setting that I wouldn't know from playing it if the game was developed for a Mac or PC. It's one that my kids (ages 10 and 7) have enjoyed playing, and easy to learn. While I didn't find it challenging enough to hold my interest for long, it is fun playing around with the variety of things you can do in the game, and something my kids very much enjoy.

This collection features two games from the popular Commandos Real Time Strategy Series. I am not sure why Feral decided to include only parts 2 and 3 of the series in this set as the omission of the first game does rather limit the attractiveness of this package. On paper, this collection looked to be good value and quite a good way to maximize your gameplay dollars. In truth, there are lots of elements that just let the game down on so many levels. This situation is a bit of a shame, but rather common in these slapped together sets of games.

Zoo Tycoon with the Marine Mania expansion has got to be one of the most addicting and fun single player games I’ve ever become hooked on. When I found out that this game was available for the Mac, my family cheered and so did I. Why, you may ask. Simple … that meant I would be able to share the fun with them.