Need For Speed: Shift (Xbox 360)
Developer: Slightly Mad Studios Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC What happens when the world realizes it doesn't need so much speed after all? Though not struggling as spectacularly as the American auto industry, the long-running Need for Speed series has steadily lost ground to competitors. Recent installments feel tired and passé, especially when played alongside more inspired games like Burnout Paradise. Aimless circling is a vital part of any racing simulator, but that shouldn’t apply to a game’s own past.... read more
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo DS)
Developer: AlphaDream Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Get further inside the Mushroom Kingdom than ever before At this point, new Mario games are excuses for Nintendo to poke mild fun at itself, in that secretly flattering way only unimpeachable powerhouses can pull off. The company’s 28-year-old mascot has hopped through every genre under the sun, including, in the Mario and Luigi series, action role-playing. The third entry, Bowser’s Inside Story, feels like a long-running sitcom, where every character entrance enjoys great fanfare, and all the gags wink knowingly at prior gags. Nintendo could coast on nostalgia alone, but to their... read more
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360)
Developers: Vicarious VisionsPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DSMarvel fanboys rejoice! From the time Spider-Man first appeared as a pixilated, web-slinging blob on the Atari 2600, it seems that Marvel Comics' spandex-clad pantheon of superheroes have been systematically pimped out to one video game developer after another, with the end result being a slew of depressingly bland adaptations. Fortunately, video game-loving Marvel fanboys have a new reason to celebrate thanks in part to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, a game bursting with enough heroes, villains and nods to obscure Marvel lore to send most comic book geeks into anaphylactic shock. That... read more
Shadow Complex (Xbox 360)
Developers: Chair Entertainment / Epic Games Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Mesmerizing side-scroller blends elements of Die Hard and Super Metroid When it was released in mid August, Shadow Complex became the fastest-selling downloadable title in the history of Xbox Live Arcade, moving roughly 200,000 units in the first week. The game is based on Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire and follows an all-too-familiar Hollywood action trope—a mild-mannered, John Cusack-ian everydude stumbles unwittingly across a terrorist plot and must avert a nuclear holocaust before 4pm, at which time he’s supposed to pick up his daughter from soccer practice... read more
The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360)
Developer: HarmonixPublisher: MTV Games, Electronic ArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiThis is one music game that passes the audition Given that pop music doesn’t work as well in music games as rock tunes, it’s understandable to think a Beatles version of Rock Band would be less challenging, and thus less fun, than, say, Guitar Hero: Metallica. But by not just mixing Rock Band with The Beatles 1, Harmonix has made a game that’s as engaging as the Mop Top’s best work. For starters, such early pop tunes as “Twist And Shout” now have two more vocal parts to play, with... read more
Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood (Xbox 360)
Developer: Techland Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC The wild west is coming to your living room As a videogame genre the Western has led to more dead ends than happy trails, with only a few entries ever really capturing the attentions of wannabe console cowboys. Enter Ubisoft’s Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, a game that offers up a bullet-riddled, next-gen setting replete with gun-toting desperados, high-noon showdowns and scantily clad showgirls. Set during the height of the Civil War, the game follows the exploits of the McCalls, a family of Confederate soldiers turned guns-for-hire in... read more
Prototype (Xbox 360)
Developer: Radical EntertainmentPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC Genetically alien spike appendages and the misanthropic antiheroes who use them for their only logical purposeIn the mind-numbingly passé world we inhabit, genetics companies spend all their time researching cures for Alzheimer’s and developing drought-resistant crops. One of these days they’ll take a cue from their far more interesting videogame counterparts—Prototype’s GENTEK, for instance—and finally get around to creating a human weapon capable of hurling taxis at passing assault helicopters, agilely sprinting up the sides of skyscrapers and morphing limbs instantly into any number of razor-sharp, certifiably lethal monstrosities.... read more
Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)
Developer: GRINPublishers: Equity Games, Evolved GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PCOf bad machines and even worse videogamesHow is it possible to make a game that offers players the tantalizing fantasy of a 100% traffic-free downtown Los Angeles and have the experience fall this miserably flat? Granted, it’s year 2013 and the apocalyptic war between sentient machines and a human resistance movement has demolished the City of Angels—cars, roads, signal lights, not to mention the poor human populace now glaringly absent.... read more
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS)
Publisher: Rockstar GamesDeveloper: Rockstar LeedsPlatform: Nintendo DSSeminal carjacking series makes its Nintendo DS debut You know how it goes: You’re out stealing cars and wantonly running down hapless pedestrians, and you think, “Man, this is fun! I should go home and play some Grand Theft Auto.” The devilishly addictive crime franchise has been wowing players with its sardonic humor, cartoonish violence, and huge environments for over a decade. Chinatown Wars is GTA’s debut on the Nintendo DS, and Rockstar Games has managed to stuff a fully-featured installment into the tiny hardware. The top-down view from the series’ early days replaces... read more
Bionic Commando (Xbox 360)
Developer: GRINPublisher: CapcomPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCARM-AGEDDONCan't remember the last time I've had this much fun with a severely flawed game According to Capcom’s newest installment in the Bionic Commando franchise, the apocalypse is worse than anyone feared. Case in point: the only soda machines in Ascension City to survive a catastrophic WMD blast all sport glowing Pepsi logos (and not even the slick, newly reimagined Pepsi logo, which you’d expect to find inhabiting the game’s supposedly futuristic setting). Unfortunately this innocuous bit of soft-drink product placement offers the perfect beverage metaphor for the Bionic Commando experience. It’ll quench your... read more
Lode Runner (Xbox 360)
Developers: Tozai Games, SouthEnd InteractivePublisher: Xbox LIVE ArcadePlatform: Xbox 360Frantic classic burrows under the skin by forcing players to solve puzzles on the run Lode Runner’s longevity owes more than a little to its greatest innovation. The fast-paced 1983 actioner (originally released on the Apple II) was one of the first to come with a level editor. Twenty-five years of crowd-sourced level design has helped polish Lode Runner’s on-the-run puzzling to a brilliant sheen. Here the classic chased-by enemies motif is complicated by the ability to dig tunnels that kick loose treasure, create traps that will snare pursuers or offer a... read more
Zen Bound (iPhone)
Developer: Secret ExitPublisher: ChillingoPlatforms: iPhone, iPod TouchThe iPhone finally has a game that perfectly capitalizes on its strengths as a gaming platformBear's Courage, Crocodile's Patience, Dog's Obedience; these are the virtues that Zen Bound ostensibly attempts to teach. To convey these lessons, the game tasks you with lassoing 51 wood-sculpted animals, a lofty goal both in its pursuit and execution. Mechanically, the player, using deft fingers on the touch screen, manipulates carved animal figurines in 3D space gradually binding them with a taut length of string that aligns to earth's pull courtesy of the iPhone's accelerometers. As string touches surface... read more
Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360)
Developers: Sonic TeamPublisher: SegaPlatforms: Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360Sonic franchise still running on fumes...mostlyThe sneaker-wearing, spiky-haired furball at the center of Sega’s marquee franchise has had a limp in his step the past few years. As the game’s developers left behind the series’ traditional platforming style of gameplay for 3D, the enthusiasm of Sonic’s most ardent fanboys has steadily eroded. Based on screenshots leaked during the early stage of Sonic Unleashed’s game’s development cycle, this new installment was going to be the comeback that would catapult Sonic back into a full sprint. There are moments of thrilling rightness,... read more
Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)
Developers: Treyarch, Certain AffinityPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360Can Activision follow up its award-winning Call of Duty 4 without flaming out?The latest entry into the Call of Duty franchise had a pretty auspicious slot to fill. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare pulled down multiple game of the year awards, and remains a challenger to Halo 3's supremacy on Xbox Live. Call of Duty: World at War feels, at best, like a sidestep to the previous installment.... read more
Lips (Xbox 360)
Developer: iNiSPublisher: MicrosoftPlatform: Xbox 360How well do you know the songs on your iPod?Lips, the new karaoke game from the makers of Elite Beat Agents, supplements its playlist with your personal mp3 collection. The game doesn't provide on-screen lyrics or pitch suggestions for the tunes you bring to the table. Still, the ability to “freestyle” songs from your private music stash is transformative, making complaints about the provided music (40 songs out of the box) being too mainstream or poppy completely moot. Don't like Lil Mama's “Lip Gloss” or “I'm Only Me When I'm With You” by Taylor Swift? Fine.... read more
Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360)
Developer: NeversoftPublisher: ActivisionPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii Helping kids appreciate music, one "Jessie's Girl" download at a timeThe Guitar Hero franchise has secured enormous bragging rights for its publisher Activision. The company announced in January of 2008 that Guitar Hero is the first franchise to crack $1 billion dollars in sales. Then it was just announced yesterday that Guitar Hero III is the first single game to break $1 billion in sales. That’s real money, like the kind you buy stuff with.... read more
Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360)
Developer: EA Digital Illusions (DICE)Publisher: Electronic ArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCKILL THE MESSENGERThings get dangerous when the government decides you just might be a terroristAt the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, designer Ken Levine stood in front of a packed convention hall and delivered a presentation on the art of storytelling in video games. He’d earned the right. His award-winning game Bioshock, released in 2007, delivered one of the most engrossing narratives in the history of interactive entertainment—the harrowing tale of an underwater city called Rapture, founded on utopian ideals, only to spiral into chaos as rampant genetic... read more
Tomb Raider Underworld (PC)
Developer: Crystal DynamicsPublisher: EidosPlatforms: Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PS3, PS2Welcome (back) to the jungleThe eighth game in the Tomb Raider series feels perhaps a bit too familiar. As usual, Lara Croft—whose boobs can’t possibly be real (on a number of different levels)—sets off on yet another globe-spanning adventure in search of yet another artifact. This time it’s Thor’s Hammer. Underworld gets off to a snappy start, with Croft, alone, exploring the Mediterranean depths, and eventually stumbling upon a huge octopus, which seems content to sit still and groan while Croft clambers about its lair, solving the puzzle that will eventually... read more
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Publisher: LucasArtsPlatforms: Xbox 360, Ps3, Ps2, Wii, DS, PSP, iPhoneEmbracing your Dork Side can be loads of funHardcore Star Wars fans are well aware of what happened during The Clone Wars and after the Emperor died. But in casting you as Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, who’s tasked with hunting missing Jedi, this third-person action-packed game is one of the few adventures set between the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Rebellion.... read more
Dead Space
Publisher: EA GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PCAverting disaster, once again, requires plenty of goreZombie-like aliens overtake an abandoned ship floating through space, and it’s your job—as the none-too-subtly-named Isaac Clarke—to traverse the corpse of the ship while running a series of mostly forgettable errands. That’s right: It’s Shinji Mikami’s Resident Evil 4 meets Ridley Scott’s Alien. Even the over-the-right-shoulder viewpoint is lifted straight from RE 4. And like Alien, the game’s most unnerving moments are found between encounters. Listening to the sound of something scuttling in the overhead ducts is far more goosebump-inducing than finally seeing whatever horror emerges.... read more
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