Saturday, December 10, 2011
Slowly but surely, iOS and Android devices are seeing full-length, well-received titles hit the platform that have more in common with established consoles than what we think of as "phone gaming."
We all know the feeling: You're at work and you take a bathroom break, but you always take your phone with you. Why? So you can pass the time with a quick game of Angry Birds, that's why! Come on, now - no one really expects you to take a bio break bored anymore. For years now, iOS devices like the iPhone and the iPad along with a myriad of Android-based phones and tablets have successfully marketed themselves to the mindset of small-serving, "minute" gaming. It fit the medium perfectly with the hardware limitations of early devices in particular. Mobile platforms - especially smartphones - have always been well-suited to a game that was quick to launch, quick to satisfy, quick to quit, and finally, quick to resume. Idle time has never …
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The Spike Video Game Awards are - unfortunately - the closest thing the gaming industry has to the Oscars. Here's a look at who's up for trophies this year.
Video games are fast becoming the most profitable form of entertainment in the world, much closer to catching the film industry than one might suspect. The blinding speed in which gaming has progressed from 2-color, one-button gameplay to 2010's Red Dead Redemption has actually managed to outrun the public's ability to absorb its maturation. But as uneducated ignorance dwindles giving way to true appreciation, demand for a legitimate, be-all-end-all annual awards ceremony has grown. Spike TV decided to shoulder this responsibility with the VGAs, starting in 2003. Unfortunately, the awards show has hardly lived up to its billing. Peppered with appearances by celebrities that gamers don't care about - and who, in turn, don't care about …
Saturday, October 22, 2011
There are a lot of big releases left before the year's end, but a few games have already come out this Fall that you should be playing right now. On the other hand, there are a few games that we'd expected to be great but didn't quite hit the mark.
The months of September through December are difficult ones for active gamers. After being spread out in reasonable fashion over the majority of the year, tons of highly anticipated titled are packed into these final months. We're now over a month and a half into the end-of-year rush, and while there are still several huge titles waiting to be released, here are three games that are already on store shelves that you should be playing right now: Gears of War 3 [X360] - Released September 20th Arguably the biggest Xbox 360-exclusive release of the year, Gears of War 3 is the conclusion of the famed trilogy of games that has provided the archetype for the 3rd-person shooter genre. And the critics agree: It's the best of the bunch. Currently…
Saturday, October 15, 2011
When one of the most influential visionaries in PC gaming is declaring the platform to be playing second fiddle, we have no choice but to listen.
The notion that PC gaming is dead has been kicked around for over a decade. Pundits have declared it repeatedly only to have games like Half-Life and Deus Ex re-introduce it as the evolutionary heart of the industry. When it once again began to lose traction, the Steam distribution platform made it easier than ever to find and purchase games for the PC without the hassle of manually patching them. By now, it should be obvious that PC gaming will never be completely dead. There will always be a place for it. Consoles are unlikely to ever have the level of flexibility to allow for the creation of mods or user-created content using anything other than game-provided tools (which aren't very common and often underpowered). Additionally, the …
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Bundles of DRM-free games at whatever price you choose - no catch - and all the money goes where YOU say it goes.
Independent game development has produced some real gems over the years. Regardless of what is typically a very limited budget when compared to the big-money companies in the industry, indie developers tend to be innovators, relying on original mechanics and pure gameplay to provide a memorable experience. After all, you can't hide behind flashy presentation when you can't afford it to begin with. But that same budget limit often means that these gems might stay buried if not for word of mouth. Downloadable console services like Xbox Live Indie Games and the PlayStation Network have provided unusually visible platforms for these titles, but for the games that are lucky enough to be featured, much of the money made through these services …
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The season of blockbusters has officially arrived
Fall is here, and it brings with it the beginning of a steady stream of sure top-sellers in the video game industry. October hosts the release of id Software’s first entirely in-house title since 2004, a sequel to one of the most wonderfully sadistic games of the last decade, the Xbox 360 and PS3’s taste of a previously Wii-only dance title, the triumphant return of the dark knight, and DICE’s true sequel to their genre-defining FPS from 2005. It’s been a long time since id Software has developed a game entirely in-house. 2004’s Doom 3 was the last time that such a title was released. And with the developer’s track record of games that includes the aforementioned Doom franchise as well as several Quake iterations, a lot of gamers are …
Saturday, August 6, 2011
One more month of summer left. Take a moment to kick your feet up with one of these new titles before vacation season is over.
After a slow July in game releases, August marks the beginning of the rush of potential blockbusters for the latter half of 2011. Included in this month's releases are an HD remake of an underappreciated Wii game, the newest iteration of a certain annual sports franchise, and a long-awaited prequel to one of the greatest games of all time. To kick off this month's list, we revisit one of the best Wii games that no one played. The original No More Heroes came out for the Nintendo Wii in the US in January of 2008. No one heard it drop, but the majority of those who played it felt that they had enjoyed one of the best titles of the year. It was up for a number of awards across several publications by the end of 2008 citing its excellent story…
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Nintendo issues an $80 price cut to their newest portable platform.
The Nintendo 3DS was a veritable hit at E3 2010. Industry previews were glowing. It looked poised to be a must-have unit as soon as it was available. Noticing the buzz, Nintendo got pretty lofty, deciding to price the unit at $249.99 when it was released this past March. The company also went ahead and forecasted profits of $1.4 billion this fiscal year. A decent number of people jumped in right from the start, coughing up the money to get the latest in gadgetry, trusting in Nintendo's track record for delivering on the gameplay front. Unfortunately, those players are still waiting. The Nintendo 3DS has been on the market for four months now. Want to know what the highest-selling game is? Nintendogs + Cats. The second-highest? The Legend …
Saturday, July 23, 2011
No matter how hard you try to force it, they don't mix.
It really seems like it should work, doesn't it? You'd think that movies like Harry Potter and Iron Man should make great games, right? There's plenty of room for action, creative game mechanics, even RPG elements... It's almost like the idea is gift wrapped for the developer. Regardless, time and time again, taking a movie and making it into a video game instead becomes an exercise in futility. Take Harry Potter, for instance. A quick look at Metacritic tells most of the story. The movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has received an aggregate score of 87, an impressive showing. The game of the same name? 47. That's not even in the ballpark. Iron Man was also recognized as a decent movie by most standards. But the video game…
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Sucker Punch Productions plunges out a solid sequel. Infamous 2 introduces new locales, characters, and mechanics without forgetting what made the first game a hit.
A great title comes around every so often. A great franchise? That’s a bit harder to come by. Developers that happen upon a new hit IP occasionally have a hard time keeping themselves grounded, attempting to launch the series into areas it was never meant to be. It’s not often that you get a sequel that introduces new locales, characters, and gameplay mechanics while still managing to hold on to what made the original title a good one. Sucker Punch Productions did exactly this with Infamous 2. In an effort to minimize spoilers from the first game, we’ll just say that the original Infamous left Cole MacGrath in Empire City anticipating the impending arrival of The Beast, an entity that was to be somewhat of a doom-bringer.Infamous 2 wastes …
David Powell
2:22 pm on Saturday, December 10, 2011
I enjoy "Tank Hero" on my Android tablet. "Space Physics" is also cool. I think it would be tough to play and enjoy something like a FPS on my tablet or phone, but I'd be willing to give one a try if there were a free trial version. more ›