I was playing the demo of Just Cause 2 (JC2) and was pondering, “what is the selling point of this game?” Honestly, I can’t really figure out what separates JC2 from everything else. Is it the sandbox type gameplay? Maybe it’s the ability to destroy environmental set pieces and cause havoc or what the game [...]
What it means to be human… A serial killer is loose on a frightened city. Young boys are being kidnapped and drowned in rain water. An orchid and an origami figure accompanies the corpse days after the kidnapping. Like a scene out of CSI, Heavy Rain (HR) establishes itself as a thriller drama. I get [...]
This is the final part of my Farmville experiment. Also check out part 1 and part 2. I went into this experiment hoping to get a feel for what social networking games are and what potential they have to affect traditional video games, for good or ill. While an experimental group of one cannot and [...]
This week, we discuss Heavy Rain in full detail. MAJOR SPOILERS! BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Army of Two: Day 40, Resident 5 DLC, Heavy Rain [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
This is the second part of my Farmville experiment. You can read part 1 here. Day 1: Epic (Fail) Tutorial Starting up Farmville for the first time reminds me of the tutorial for Windows 98. There are six square plots of land on which you can sow seeds and harvest crops and the game holds [...]
Resident Evil 1 was a stand alone title in many ways. Every title after the first were more action oriented than adventure. I love the first one, because of the emphasis on atmosphere and exploration. There was a creepy mansion with many nooks and crannies teeming with unknown dangers. Exploring the mansion was exciting and [...]
It is my belief that God of War has not evolved since the first one. The formula has always been the same. Start in a war torn city. Fight your way through waves of enemies. Get to a huge boss that you have encounter along the level. Every GOW game is like this. No seriously. [...]
[Audio clip: view full post to listen] This week, we discuss the impact of Heavy Rain, new games being spoiled early, more DLC talk, guilty pleasures, in-browser gaming, Bioshock 2 multiplayer, dying of Japanese gaming. Dante’s Inferno, Heavy Rain, Burnout Paradise, Farmville, Bioshock 2, Final Fantasy 13
I’ll admit it, I’m a prejudiced gamer. While there are some genres I like and others I don’t, generally I can adopt a “to each his own” attitude about games. Similarly, I try hard to avoid the hardcore gamer geek stereotype of questioning others’ commitment to or involvement in gaming based on what they’re playing. [...]
Déjà “Mue” Yakuza 3 reminds of another particular game released by Sega back in the late 90’s called Shenmue. Shenmue was a game ahead of its time with too much riding on its shoulder. The premise was to deliver a true RPG in which you literally play the role of a character by doing even [...]
