Last year’s Harmonix-developed Rock Band stole the spotlight from Guitar Hero (though not in terms of sales) as the unofficial sequel to the GH series. With drums, a mic, and pretty awesome team play—as long as your apartment floor plan accommodated an arsenal of plastic instruments in the middle of your living room—what wasn’t to like? Read the rest of this entry »
Star Wars video games have always seemed a little too geeky for my taste—and I’m a Star Wars fan. I’ve watched all six movies more times than I can count. I defend The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones for no good reason. But I’m strictly a fan of the canon. The spin-off cartoons and books remind me too much of what I never liked about Star Trek and its endless storylines. The Force Unleashed is really, in a way, Episode III 1/2. Or, it’s the video game version of a movie that was never made. Read the rest of this entry »
The last time I got to go this deep into something so unbearably cute, it was 1989 and she had frosted bangs. From the start, I couldn’t help but become endeared by MLB Power Pros 2008 as it pops the ubiquitous Wii / Mii heads onto your favorite players and throws you into a series of modes with endlessly customizable player stats. Read the rest of this entry »
After four hours of drool-inducing play of Sid Meier’s Civilization: Revolution, on the bus back to NYC, even the 5000-year-old mummy sitting next to me was interested in what was happening on the two little screens under my thumbs. “Does it really take over five years for your soldiers to just cross two squares of desert land?” she asked. “Yes,” I told her, “I chose George W. Bush as my leader.” She frowned at me then turned away and continued to rot in her fifteen dollar seat.
Ok, so I was just playing with her. You cannot choose Dubya as your fearless dictator, and unlike American voters he can’t be forced on you either by way of hanging chads and the good people of Florida. But you can choose from such luminaries as Ghengis Khan, Alexander The Great, Mao and more, to lead you to victory in Firaxis and 2K’s successful strategic gem. Read the rest of this entry »
There was a point during the era of the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and the original Xbox that it seemed like fighting games had become archaic relics of the past. But thanks to integrated online, which makes it easier than ever to find a fight even when no one’s around, button brawlers are making a comeback in a big way. Though if this new Soulcalibur is any indication, they’re going to have to bring their “A” game if they want to stand out. Read the rest of this entry »
Siren: Blood Curse, the PS3’s exclusive downloadable rural Japanese freakout, arrives already carved to bits, twelve pieces to be exact. In this case we’re talking about episodic content (between Siren and Dexter, is this the new shotgun?). Siren feels like a totally new style of game experience, more like a horror TV series and you’ll have to pay for the experience. A four-episode pack goes for nearly fifteen bucks a pop or forty bucks for the whole thing. The pricing definitely has a twinge of an adversarial feel. Sony can get into your wallet for an extra $25 bones if you go the a la carte route. When you’re toying with making the purchase keep in mind this is a sequential episodic storyline, not twelve separate games. Read the rest of this entry »
After working out the launch kinks, Apple fans can now gorge themselves on the iPhone App Store and its buffet of software: some free, some cheap , and all of it a mystery. Among the 500 downloads you can make on your iPhone (be it 3G or plain ol’ last year’s goods) are a monstrous number of launch games such as Super Monkey Ball. As a portable game device, the iPhone could be the best thing to happen since the original Game Boy. Let’s see if any of these Day One games make the DS and PSP sweat their pants just yet. Read the rest of this entry »
Make no mistake about it: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is basically the same game as last year’s Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock. Using the controller you got with that game, or the Aerosmith-themed Gibson you can get in a bundle, you still play along with the colored notes, still eventually get into a showdown with a rock god (this time’s being Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, naturally), and you still can’t play on Expert to save your life. Read the rest of this entry »
