Reviews & Articles

The demo released for Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, and my first thought was that I needed to go and download it for my Xbox 360 and see if it lives up to my standards of Need for Speed.

If you have been a gamer since the mid ’90s, you know who and what Rayman is all about. However, Rayman has been on a bit of a sabbatical of late. We have seen somewhat recent titles such as Rayman Raving Rabbids, but the game is as far from being a Rayman game as it possibly can be. Rayman Raving Rabbids is a good game in its own right, but this isn’t what I intend to review. For now at least.

Every other year is special time for Call of Duty fans as the giant known as Infinity Ward struts its proverbial stuff. Activision/Infinity Ward’s latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise is proof that they are not losing their firm grasp on the game’s success.

I will be upfront with you; I have never really been a fan of any Spider-Man game. When I think of comics, it is not Spider-Man I think of. The only reason I reviewed this game was for my 4-year-old son, who absolutely loves Spider-Man. However, I will say I was actually quite impressed by Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

I had the privilege of getting an invitation to the Dead Space 2 multiplayer beta in October (it has taken me this long to put it into words), and I was excited. I was excited for EA and for Visceral Games, because this is a great attribute to an already fantastic franchise. I am going to make an insanely bold (yet true) claim and say the Dead Space franchise is scary as hell.

Developer Naughty Dog helped create the Crash Bandicoot series and the hit Jak and Daxter series. It seems that Naughty Dog would never be able to get out from the “cartoony kiddy platformer” developing, as it was a niche they had created for themselves. If you played Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, then you know how wrong this thought is, and this statement shines through even more with the second installment in the Uncharted series: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

What can I add to the discussion about Dragon Age II that hasn’t been said before? Over this past year, it has been one of the most publicized games of this year. And of course, it should be: Bioware is the mastermind behind the game and have earned a reputation for being masters of narrative. However, great narrative does not make a game great. It is one of those pieces of the proverbial gaming puzzle that tends to make a “great game” even cooler. So as much as this game is worth it for the narrative alone, does it succeed on all the other important levels as well?

I’m a big fan of survival horror. I like testing my survival instincts against all sorts of hideous enemies. It can, however, get fairly repetitive as a genre. Zombies are always the No. 1 enemy, and everybody knows that against zombies, headshots are the best way to go. It’s exciting, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve done it plenty of times before. Dead Space manages to give me all the horror I can handle in a brand new way.

Silent Hill ... the mere mention of the forbidden hamlet is enough to send shivers down most horror gamers’ spines. The creepily thick fog, the empty yet rundown streets and the well-done music create an atmosphere thick enough to get lost in. Over the years, the horrific hamlet has had two different sides: a place that calls out for people to purge their souls and a town that is perverted by its inhabitants vile violations. One of the more recent additions to the series is Silent Hill: Homecoming.

If you have played videogames within the past 10 years, chances are you have at least heard about the Resident Evil series. This is the series that essentially put survival horror games on the map. Although not the originator of the genre, it certainly perfected it. The Resident Evil series made you afraid to see what was on the other side of doors or what was lurking just beyond a hallway. Original Resident Evil zombies were similar to those in George Romero zombie movies; they were slow and just lumber place to place. A couple years ago, Capcom decided to change its long-loved series; no longer did you have slow-moving zombies, but smart intelligent enemies. Resident Evil 5 continues that new trend in the series, but does it still hold the same freshness Resident Evil 4 once held?

I feel like reviewing L.A. Noire is going to be hard, because there is so much I want to say about it, and by now, I think it is very clear that this game will become one of those timeless titles that define where gaming technology is headed. I will try to keep this fairly short and still tell you as much as I can, but just know there is hardly anything negative I have to say about this game.

Back in my senior year of high school, I was obsessed with a few games. Two of the big ones were Diablo II and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The former I loved for its loot and heroic plot; the latter I loved for its open world. Almost every single place is open to you from the get-go. Both games allowed for highly customizable characters, though Morrowind takes the cake on that topic. So let’s fast-forward several years later and take a look at Morrowind’s successor: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition.

The Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, and a myriad of other names call forth images of Batman, a pop-culture icon that’s existed since May 1939, and his battle against crime, corruption and evil is well-showcased in the game Batman: Arkham Asylum. With the current release date of the fall set for the sequel Batman: Arkham City, I felt it worth looking into Arkham City’s predecessor to see how it measured up. I have to say that Batman: Arkham Asylum floored me. It’s a fantastic game; there’s a lot to it that’s enjoyable, fun and just great.

As the weather starts to turn cooler as we approach autumn, many athletically inclined people start thinking of sports played in ice and snow instead of sports played in the water or grass. It can also be said the season for winter sports videogames is coming up, too. Enter Winter Stars. Developed by 49Games and to be released by publisher Deep Silver, Winter Stars is a motion-controlled game for the Xbox 360 Kinect, PlayStation Move and Wii and the Balance Board. In other words, couch cushion-gamers need not apply!

Ever wonder what it would have been like to grow up in the 1940s and ’50s? Ever thought you would have made a great addition to large Italian family making offers people can’t refuse, or wondered what it would be like to live the life of a true Original Gangster? 2K Czech has tried to answer these questions with the release of its latest development efforts.

New York legalizing gay marriage troubles many people because it challenges what it means for people to be “a couple.” This was something Atlus was smart enough to use in its “Are you committed” trailer months ago for its provocatively styled game Catherine. So is the game “fluff” waiting to rot out your eyes, or is it an intelligent commentary on relationships?

BioShock 2 has a lot to live up to, and understandably so. BioShock, originally released in 2007, was widely hailed as the best game of the year, if not the decade. So crafting any kind of follow-up was probably doomed to feel like diminishing returns. Nevertheless, BioShock 2 has a lot to offer, even if a lot of it feels like familiar territory.

This was my father to me, a boy of 6, watching the original Indiana Jones on the big screen. Our hero, Indy, was making his way slowly through a black temple in a dark jungle, only to find a shaft of light, strangely penetrating in this mysterious place. Indy reaches his whip forward grimly and releases the trap harmlessly as spikes carrying a corpse thrust forward to my eager and horrified eyes.

As a unique game overlooked from a poor release date, Nier is an interesting twist on how videogames can be presented to the player. Nier opens to a distressed father direly concerned about his daughter and her potentially fatal sickness known as the Dark Scrawl. After a brief tutorial, the player takes control of the father named Nier and is able to explore an expansive action adventure world. You begin in this world by collecting money through quests in order to support his daughter, Yonah, and strive to cure her sickness.

This year was another great showing of TERA ...

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimis the fifth installment of the very popular RPG series ...

Top Gun: Hard Lock will take place 25 years after the movie ...

The Backbreaker Football series found a huge success with a mode called “Tackle Alley” in its iPhone game ...

Finally, a beat-matching game that is bold enough to use a full, real guitar as their controller. Ubisoft’s San Francisco-based development studio has created a cross-platform videogame that can potentially teach someone to learn to play the guitar from scratch ...

Harvest Moon is a long-standing franchise with many beloved fans. This title is its offering on the Nintendo 3DS. The game is primarily a farming simulator with a bevy of RPG elements ...

In the second installment of The Darkness, Jackie fights a whole new enemy called the Brotherhood. Jackie is our lead protagonist and has the ability to manifest the power of the Darkness ...

I’ve dreamt that one day I would pick up a title that would leave me in a dither, and Electronic Art’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 did just that. From the stunning realism in the graphics to the lifelike sound effects, I was left in awe time and time again while playing this title. It seems to me that videogames have taken that next big leap that gamers have been waiting for.

I get the feeling I’m the only gamer who has played a decent Batman game before Arkham Asylum — that being Batman: The Movie on the C64. Lego Batman probably doesn’t count. OK, it was a long time ago, but it proves that they weren’t all bad. Batman: Arkham Asylum isn’t just decent; it’s near perfect, and with Batman Animated series co-creator Paul Dini writing the script, you know the story’s going to be good.

I have to say that after the previous installments, the Madden franchise is back on track. I have every single (yes EVERY) Madden game to date, dating all the way back to the Apple II series — I have a nostalgia problem!

There is a great deal to say about DICE/EAs’ stellar performance in Battlefield: Bad Company 2; however, let me lay down some facts about my relationship with this franchise.