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Have you ever had one of those days? You know, where you’re being transported to death row for your various crimes as a mercenary. There you are, resigned to your fate when suddenly the heavily medicated psychopath chained next to you tells you to get down. An explosion tears open the back of the van and tosses it on its side. As you stumble out into the glaring sun, you find yourself in the middle of a firefight. Your only option is to follow this psychopath in his escape. And it just gets worse from there.

The kitchen work surface is dripping with slime, the lights are going crazy, there's screaming coming from down the hallway and your landlady dropped another of her passive-aggressive little rent demands through the letterbox this morning.

Who ya gonna call?

I have to preface this preview with the following caveat: I don't find the "Gangsta" culture appealing in any way. This is not to say that I don't and haven't enjoyed Rap music since its inception, but just as I like Star Trek I cannot be called a Trekkie. You may want to consider this when you read my preview of 50 Cent's latest title, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.

I've never been one for real-time strategy games on a console — I'm far too wedded to my keyboard and mouse. I'm sure that my occasional flirts with RTS demos and rentals on my 360 have been looked upon with disapproval by my faithful PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse, but the marriage has never been threatened in the least. Then Sierra took me into a little curtained-off cubicle in a hotel in San Francisco and let me play a little World in Conflict: Soviet Assault...

Conspiracy is the story of how Bourne became the man with no memory, why he snapped. Though we get to play some of the more iconic scenes from The Bourne Identity (including the Mini Cooper car chase through Paris) it is the flashbacks that tell the story of the man that comes to be. Deadly force is what this man was trained to use on any target any time. The Instinct exists - he simply knows what is destructible or explosive; the skills are intact - he can switch sides to aim more accurately, he uses his environment to solve problems; but the compunction to avoid deadly force has not appeared. It is what happens in the 48 hours prior to waking up near death in the ocean - why does he never have the right support? Or the correct intel? Where is the necessary extraction? These are the questions and answers that bring Jason Bourne to the point we know him in the film trilogy today.

Having lived in the Southwest my entire life, Las Vegas has simply always been. I don't remember the first time I visited. I do remember when the Excalibur was built - it was then the FAR south end of the Strip (now it is the middle). I remember playing quarter arcade machines and refilling my cup from my father's - he was playing quarter slots. But my memory of this repeats so often I could have been 8, 13 or 15. Like Los Angeles, Las Vegas is never what people imagine it to be - much to their delight and disappointment. This is Vegas allows you the chance to build the Vegas of your dreams (well, assuming you're a guy - I'd build a pretty raunchy Vegas, too but it wouldn't look quite like this.)

Sometimes it startles me how long ago I decided to give up a large portion of pop culture - most everything to do with television and a goodly portion of music. 10 years. There were 3 years where I went without it at all. This would be the period when Afro Samurai first ran on SpikeTV. While it certainly won't convince me to reverse my decision to forgo most of today's entertainment choices, it gives me hope that there are still glimmers of talent and originality left on television.

Due in the fall from a wholly-US based BandaiNamco development house, the console title of the same name looks to fill in the blanks of the story from the first season while keeping the same "carved from style" look and feel of the series. If what we were shown at Gamer Day last week is any indication of what is to come, Afro Samurai will be one of those rare licensed titles that not only lives up to the original source material, but becomes a necessary part of the lore.

I'm a big fan of action movies. Give me lots of gunfire, some explosions and long, nonstop action sequences, and I'm going to like the movie.

Army of Two is the videogame equivalent of the action movies I like so much. It's one of the few games I've played where it made me think "oh, they made this game just for me."

DiRT is an off-road simulation driving game. It's easy to use and offers a good challenge to those already familiar with driving games as well as to the new player. The options it offers give the player the ability to set difficulty for each and every race they drive — thus, no more annoying restarts halfway through the game when it suddenly becomes too difficult.

Only recently have I acquired the ability to play a first person shooter with any skill. Before last year, my experiences consist of the first 1-3 levels of many titles, a lot of dying, and should I dare multi-player - many, many respawns. Having just gotten my Xbox 360 back from RRoD repair, I was giddy to receive darkSector. The wicked-cool glaive for a weapon had nothing to do with my enthusiasm. No, not one bit.

First person shooters have been stuck in a rut since... well, Wolfenstein 3D?. Could have been earlier but that's the first time I remember my body being represented by a gun. Someday, first person will represent two hands, elbows, breasts for those of us who have them, the tips of noses...not just a gun barrel. (No... not an issue with me at all!) That's just the back left wheel of this wagon stuck in a rut; the left right wheel has been stuck in the "spawn, wait 15-seconds and respawn" rut since time immemorial, too. I could mention the "capture the flag, no wait! Go back band re-capture the flag" rut, too but I don't want to flog this horse to death. Timegate is perfectly willing to do it for me. Or rather, they're willing to beat some life into it.

There is something ultimately satisfying about a run'n'gun game. I say this as someone who is anti-gun, a mother of two and can't hit the broadside of a barn with baseball bat from 6 inches away. In the end, just mowing down a bunch of cartoon enemies is great therapy when what I really want to do is kick the cat. I'm sure the cat appreciates it.

Nearly a year ago, a good friend of mine, David Bowman of Certain Affinity, asked if I'd like to visit the office to see what they were working on. Sure! I couldn't report any of it but this was about seeing the creative efforts of a friend, not work. It hadn't yet been released that the company was doing the 360 port of Valve/Turtle Rock's Left for Dead - Zombies are always cool - but I didn't feel compelled to run out and report about it. Zombies, biogenics...*shrug*. Next Bowman pulled out some hexagonal pieces of paper from a box of markers - oh yeah, game design, I remember this! He talked about sitting in a corner play testing, yadda yadda yadda - then he put a controller in my hand.

I was a mall rat when 1942 hit the arcade scene back in 1984, which is to say when I wasn't busy annoying other mall rats, I was in the arcade. I have fond memories of the game, not because it was my favorite - though as I look back now, I did have quite a bit of fun - but because it was one of the few games I was actually any good at. There was also something infinitely cool about the big boss plane flying up underneath you before you took it out - that thing was so out of proportion!

Something is amiss in the animal kingdom. It appears the King of the Jungle was caught, not-so-red-handed dining on vegetarian cuisine! His subjects have lost faith in his maned magnificence and deposed him from the throne. Yet, someone (or something) must rule in his stead. After years of predatory rule, the entire animal kingdom, from the deepest sea to the loftiest perches is running to take his place. Choose your candidate, pick your platform, and decide the fate of wild in Hail to the Chimp.

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, where you're being transported to death row for your various crimes as a mercenary. There you are, resigned to your fate when suddenly the heavily medicated psychopath chained next to you tells you to get down. An explosion tears open the back of the van and tosses it on its side. As you stumble out into the glaring sun, you find yourself in the middle of a firefight. Your only option is to follow this psychopath in his escape. And it just gets worse from there?

What a frustrating game.

Like many of the action/FPS reviews I do, both my brother and I spent time playing this game. He actually put in more time than me, as he's more willing to deal with incredibly frustrating aspects of games like this that I would just say "You know what? No." to when I play them.

The release of Orange Box, which is a collection of Half-Life 2 and its add-ons would seem not to be a big deal. The game has been out for a long time, earned lots of awards and has all kinds of mods online. Why would anyone buy this collection when they could just hunt down this fairly "old" game? After all, there are all kinds of new games out that are by far more uber in looks and oomph right?

Burnout's blistering next-gen debut has seen the series famed for intense crashes, eye-tearing speed and spectacular stunts roar onto the PS3 and Xbox 360 with a change of direction: Rather than individual circuits, the tarmac-burning action now takes place in a constant city - Paradise City, to be precise - packed with other drivers, both law-abiding and less considerate, who are willing to take you on.

By now it should be no surprise that for every major motion picture, an accompanying video game also must be available. I always try to approach these games with an open mind, but I have been less than impressed with a majority of these types of games. The Golden Compass, published by Sega, would fall into that category.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is a continuation from an earlier game, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, developed by Sierra. It has our hero, a lovable purple dragon voiced by Elijah Wood (that hobbit guy) and his trusty sidekick Sparx, voiced by Billy West (Futurama). Spyro gets to go and do battle with various minions of the dark master. Over the course of 19 levels, Spyro will have to solve puzzles, find objectives, survive and do the usual run of things associated with an adventure/role-playing game.

Hewn from the trials and tribulations of a difficult birth and a painfully long gestation, what was previously known as vapourware has become a legendary multiplayer game in Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress Classic, its popular padrй, was released in 1999 as a free mod for Half-Life. TF2 won plenty of awards at E3 for a blend of barrier-breaking technological advances in texture and animation and a gritty representation of real war and tactics.

There has been, you could say, quite a change.

"This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction."

It's not often I sit down to play a game that completely burns new neural pathways into my brain before I grasp the mechanics ... but that's exactly what I went through when I began playing Portal, Valve's truly amazing first-person puzzle game. Sure, every science fiction fan has toyed with the idea of being able to create a gateway that bends or tunnels through space. We've all thought, "Man, that would be so COOL!" Finally, thanks to the people at Valve, we get a glimpse of what that kind of power is like.

There's something incredibly rhythmic about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I don't know whether it's in the flowing movement gained from perfect motion capture, the stunning graphics as you saunter through a tropical jungle you can almost reach out and touch, or the tangible air of film-quality professionalism that's thunders through the heart of Naughty Dog's creation like the layers of time unravelling in a slab of rock. Uncharted ushered in the PlayStation 3's first holiday season, and a new year for the console. It's stunning.

It's no secret that the PS3 is still trying to garner positive press and is yet reaching for a wider audience. The library continues to race to catch up and provide the level of variety the consumer has become accustomed to with previous PlayStation systems making any quality titles a more than welcome edition. Everyday Shooter is both a quality title and gaming gem, and is exactly the kind of experience needed to represent the PlayStation brand.

I was quite impressed with the previous incarnation of Need for Speed, so a new version for my new PlayStation 3 was something I was attracted to. Alas, it's a game with a sting in its tail. EA has taken a complete u-turn with this game, and gone are the storyline and street racing and in is organized track racing.

Gone are the days of entering an SOE Press Event and hearing the clang of sword on shield or casting of a mighty spell of stable high-fantasy games. The previous year has added the sound of Zat fire as cards are neutralized in Stargate Online TGC; catchy dance tunes as characters outwit the Rob Goblin in Free Realms; the raucous laughter of the developers for Pirates of the Burning Sea as they read parrot jokes on launch day — What do you call a parrot that has no wings and no legs, swimming in the ocean? Bob. And the forever hypnotic sound of Hal Milton as he describes — at breakneck speed (like an endearing monkey on crack-laced caffeine) — what the life of a secret agent will be in The Agency.

This is, in fact, the sequel to the series of rally games that sported Colin McRae's name. DiRT is even more poignant, because around the time of its release, Colin was killed in a tragic helicopter crash that also took the life of his son. The advertisements for the game on TV sported a dedication to the man.

Fans of bare-knuckle brawling and hip-hop and rap music will be psyched to pick up EA games' third installment of Def Jam Icon. However, as I'm not much of a fan, I wasn't all that psyched when it arrived.

I mean, I was shooting bad guys. I like shooting bad guys. I wasn't even using a game pad with which to shoot them. I was holding the state-of-the-art (albeit orange-colored) Guncon 3, an arcade-style double-grip pistol-looking thing that I just pointed at the screen and blasted away with. But I discovered that the Guncon was part of what was getting in the way of my enjoyment of the game.