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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.

While the time-honored tradition of plunking down the change in the once-thriving arcade scene has almost all but vanished (a moment of silence for the fallen), certain traditions carry on. Dance Dance Revolution provided what I might point to as the last stand of the arcade elite against their increasingly more powerful console brethren. It is the game that has endured in popularity well beyond the house that helped build it. Migration continues to occur as Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 on the Xbox 360 tries to expand and secure the already well-established brand on the console scene, but how many times can a game make a misstep before it develops two left feet?

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."

There's something about a pure historical game. Kengo: Legend of the Nine follows nine samurai from historical times — none of the magic or anything else that other games have — and you get to control them in battles against small hordes of enemies.

Developed by Slitherine and published by CDV Entertainment USA, The History Channel: Great Battles of Rome is a real-time tactical simulation that lets you take command of Roman legions and experience the history of the Roman Empire from its earliest days when it was ruled by Etruscan kings, to the last days of a dying empire. From the very start, Great Battles of Rome pulls you into the story of the emerging republic as you throw off the yoke of the king and established Rome as its own city-state. But times are not easy for your people as Rome is still weak and beset by enemies on all sides. You must recruit troops and lead them into battle to secure Rome's future and seal its fate.

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.

According to myth, Pandora was given a jar (or box if you will) that contained all of the evils of the world - including hope - by Zeus and told never to open it. But, she was also give the "gift" of curiosity, and so ultimately did. She unleashed upon the world all that was contained inside but not before closing it, sealing in hope. The "evils" were represented as guile, envy, vanity and the like. But, what if they were actually the creatures of old? When Pandora shut her box, could she have saved mankind from being overrun by the mythical animals that once inhabited the world?

At the age of 19, Violet Bushell - the child of French and English parents - married 31-old Etienne Szabo after a whirlwind 42 day romance. Shortly after, he is posted to the North African front and she hears nothing of him for a year. While home on leave for 7 days, they conceive a child - Tania - but Etienne dies never knowing his daughter. Violet, already involved in the war effort and perhaps in response to the death of her husband, joins the FANY Agents and becomes one of the most famous French and English resistance fighter of World War II. Velvet Assassin is a dedication to her memory.

When I was a youngun', dungeons were scary places beneath castles where mean people took nice people to torture them on machines with names like "the rack". Once I reached the ripe old age of 6 (years, not months), the boy next door started playing AD&D and needed me - his lackey - to sketch out dungeons on graph paper for him. They became windy twisty places of right angles where treasure was kept and monsters lurked around corners. That is unless I erased a corner or two. But they definitely had treasure.

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 last time I played or viewed Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures for any length of time was last summer. This isn't to say I haven't seen it at all since then, just not in depth. There was a press event in early December I was unable to attend; I was feeling unwell and missed my appointment at CES. If you have read my earlier previews, you may know that I was lukewarm about the game - it is very ambitious and I did not feel it could deliver what it promised by launch. Since that time, launch has been moved back twice; this is a good thing. And, I can say with all honesty I am glad I did not see the December or January showings; to have seen incremental changes in the game would have diminished the impact of the changes I viewed at GDC. Though no MMOG is ever finished, this game has come a long way since last July and I am much more confident that it will ship in a playable - and enjoyable - state.

Imagine the year is 2012. The Hierarchy, a warring alien race, begins to kill all the inhabitants of Earth and strip the planet of its resources. Playing as the humans, you'll fight the good fight until you are forced to retreat due to vastly technologically superior invaders.

I have a friend in Great Britain that I play games with rather often. Whether it be the latest on the PC, through Xbox Live or some silly flash game we always start by arguing over what we will play in chat. About once a week I hear, "I want to play something with stats or skills and loot. It needs to have loot. And quests. Quests are good, too." Silly Brit can't just say, "Let's play an RPG." The thing is, I know what he means. There is something appealing about hacking your way through a mess of monsters while getting the "next big thing" for your character. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is SO going to satisfy this urge.

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?

Call of Juarez is a violent action game seemingly inspired by a hodgepodge of Old West-themed movies. Being a fan of said movies, I looked forward to getting my hands on the Xbox 360 version of the game (it made its debut on the PC a few years ago) and trying my hand at some old-fashioned, rootin'-tootin' shootin'.

Ah, time. Who hasn't at some point wished they could have a little more control over it? The ability to slow it down, or stop it altogether, or even go back in time and correct a mistake we've made. Who hasn't wanted that ability at least once in life? And of course if you add the ability to manipulate time to an arsenal of awe-inspiring weaponry, well, then you'd pretty much be unstoppable. Welcome to Timeshift.

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.

The first thing I noticed when looking at CSI: Hard Evidence at the game store was the M 17+ rating on the box. The game is based on "CSI in Las Vegas," which is one of the few shows I really love to watch, so I decided to take a chance and pick it up, even if it meant that my play time would be limited to when my daughter is safely asleep. Boy, am I glad I went ahead and got this.

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.