Mega Man 10 Review (PS3)
Developer: Inti Creates Publisher: Capcom Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii Sometimes an angry robot baseball isn't enough Capcom asked the team at Inti Creates, "If you could put all your best Mega Man ideas into a new game, what would you make?" The result was Mega Man 9. Then Capcom asked, "What else ya got?" And so we have Mega Man 10, an unpolished sequel that shows signs of developer fatigue. MM10 is not a disaster—there's a wacky, fun cast of bosses, like Strike Man (a huge cybernetic baseball) and Sheep Man (just what it sounds like). Dozens... read more
Start Press: The Daily Grind
During my childhood gaming years, I spent an inordinate amount of time marching my poor avatar in circles. He’s just lucky he wasn’t self-aware, that stocky knight draped in plate armor, walking the same tedious circuit for hours beneath the heat of a sun that no one had programmed to set.... read more
Sims Creator Brings Interactive Element to Science Channel
What with our culture's seemingly insatiable interest in immersive media lately... read more
California Company Creates Games Players Control with Their Minds
The future is now! If iPhones, magical check-reading ATMs and cars that parallel park themselves weren’t enough to get you thinking about stocking up on ammo for the inevitable war against the robots, recent developments from NeuroSky Brain-Computer Interface Technologies might. The California company has developed a product called MindSet and has begun selling it to toy makers such as Mattel and Uncle Milton.... read more
Cave Story Review (Wii)
Developer: Studio Pixel Publisher: Nicalis Platform: WiiWare A challenging platformer that takes you back to the good old days Before it became WiiWare, Cave Story was just freeware. Single-handedly developed over half a decade by game designer Daisuke Amaya and unleashed onto the Internet in 2004, the game drew loads of buzz and evolved into a genuine cult hit over the years, spawning tribute sites and fan translations. So porting it over to the Wii seemed like the natural step, and it’s the natural system for a game like Cave Story.... read more
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Review (Wii)
Developer: M2 Publisher: Konami Platform: WiiWare Wait, Castlevania needs to be reborn? Unlike Gradius and Contra, the first two Konami franchises to get the ReBirth treatment, the Castlevania series has never gone away. It hasn’t even changed that much over the years. Konami’s kept that whip a-crackin’ on the DS with a steady flow of traditional two-dimensional Castlevania side-scrollers. They’re as much of a handheld staple as those animal touching games kids get when their parents are too cheap or lazy to take them to a real zoo.... read more
Final Fantasy XIII Review (Xbox 360)
Developer/Publisher: Square Enix Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Breathtaking presentation undone by restrictive design There is perhaps no lineage in gaming more storied than that of the Final Fantasy series. Since its 1990 debut on the NES, North America has seen the release of nearly 50 titles in the franchise, from story-driven sagas and real-time strategy games to cart racers and minigame collections.... read more
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Review (Wii)
Developer: Climax Group Publisher: Konami Platform: Nintendo Wii It’s never a good sign when something has to tell you how scary it’s supposed to be Call it the Count Floyd rule. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories isn’t as desperate as SCTV’s horror movie host, but it’s less frightening than funny. It touts its psychological profiling of the player, but does it as hamfistedly as possible. You’ll take the occasional grade-school psychology exam, administered by a therapist who looks and talks like a soap-opera villain. This melodramatic emphasis on the dark and mysterious dominates the writing and voice acting, spoiling what could... read more
Demon's Souls Review (PS3)
Developer: From Software Publisher: Atlus Platform: PlayStation 3 If at first you don’t survive… Outside of a Jack London story or a trip across a tightwire between skyscrapers, you will never feel so acutely aware of your survival as in Demon’s Souls. It’s an action role-playing-game, in the same genus as say, Fable II, but by modern standards it’s punishing and austere. Swing at the wrong time and your enemy will catch you off-balance; overlook the wonkish stats and upgrades and you’ll never stand a chance in the first place. In return for all this work, the game will never... read more
God of War III Review (PS3)
Developer: SCEA Santa Monica Studios Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 A god-killing romp of Nietzschean proportions Some would argue that we flock to videogames for the buzz of a good power trip (consider the laughably absurd dimensions of Marcus Fenix’s musculature in the Gears of War saga). However, flipping this convention on its head, Sony’s ultra-violent riff on Greek mythology, God of War III, goes out of its way to make you feel like a mosquito perched atop a dinosaur’s mountainous shoulder.... read more
PlayStation Announces Details of Move Motion Controller System
Sony recently announced that its latest bit of PlayStation 3 gadgetry, the Move motion controller, will be available this fall. The Move controller, along with the subcontroller and Eye camera, will allow users to navigate games as if they were actually a part of the action—similar to the style of the Nintendo Wii. Sony promises that the PlayStation Move system “will deliver an innovative and highly immersive experience.”... read more
Aliens Vs. Predator Review (Xbox 360)
Developer: RebellionPublisher: Sega Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC New versus, same as the first Long before it was a pair of uninspired films that all but ignored everything that was cool about their individual movies, Aliens Vs. Predator was a series of comics and computer games that often lived up to their geek-bliss potential. But while this latest entry—which was made by the same people as the great 1999 game of the same name, and the terrible 2007 movie-related Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem—is better than any of the recent games or films, it's not exactly a return to this... read more
Start Press: Project Natal Better Get Ready To Rumble
As I press the electric razor to my face, it vibrates in my hand, emitting that familiar shrill hum. I finish mowing the overnight stubble from my chin and shut off the razor. For a second afterward, my hand courses with a dull ghost vibration. As I turn the key in the ignition of my old beater ride, I feel the engine buck and settle into a low idle before I shift into gear. In a confrontation with a knife-wielding assailant, I feel the thud of his rushing body as it collides with mine. Quantic Dream’s new interactive thriller Heavy... read more
March 2010 Crossword Puzzle: Taking Directions (Answer Key)
From our 50 Best Living Directors issue. Print the puzzle.... read more
March 2010 Crossword Puzzle: Taking Directions (Hint)
From our 50 Best Living Directors issue. Check your answers.... read more
March 2010 Crossword Puzzle: Taking Directions
From our 50 Best Living Directors issue. Check your answers. Get a hint.... read more
BioShock 2 Review (Xbox 360)
Developers: 2K Marin, Digital Extremes Publisher: 2K GamesPlatforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC Welcome to the second coming of Rapture The star of 2007’s BioShock was not the faceless protagonist whose genuine identity was one of the game’s great revelations. Neither was it the power-mad Objectivist icon Andrew Ryan. It was Rapture, the failed utopia beneath the sea, as haunting as it was dreamlike. And it’s to Rapture that BioShock 2 returns, with its rotting architecture, its leaking machinery and its grand, gorgeous chaos.... read more
Heavy Rain Review (PS3)
Developer: Quantic Dream Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 3 Interactive thriller is remarkably brave, but only periodically thrilling The videogame industry has been outgrossing Hollywood by a “Gerry Brookhymer who?” kind of margin for years now, but game developers can’t stop using motion pictures as the benchmark for their own visual-presentation and storytelling endeavors. To the point that, in game marketing, the word “cinematic”—though qualitatively neutral—is now assumed to be interchangeable with modifiers like “mind-blowing” or “amazing.” I don’t get the sense that many gamers have bothered to question this logic. It’s true that both games and movies are... read more
Start Press: Oh Brothers!
My nephews are videogame enthusiasts. After firing up New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they slip into their respective signature playing postures. Isaac (nine years old) stands stiffly upright and alert in front of the TV, like an English Pointer signaling the death of yet another Koopa Troopa. Seán (seven) sprawls across a nearby armchair, with his nunchuck arm lolling over the side. He looks like a boy sultan in a floral-print gaming throne. They laugh. They scream when somebody inadvertently—ok, vertently—steals their power-up. My brother Trey goads Isaac with a chuckling, “hey, you snooze you lose,” after forcing him off... read more
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Review (Nintendo DS)
Developer: Capybara Games Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: Nintendo DS Match-three gets grisly Capybara's take on Might & Magic feels quickly but deftly executed: an early study from a master of match-three. Like the studio's Critter Crunch, Clash of Heroes twists the simple mechanic into surprising new forms. You role-play five children whose lives have been upturned by a demon incursion. Each commands a different army—elf, human, undead, demon and wizard—whose distinct strengths and personalities unfold as you align units of like color. Rows of three form protective walls; columns of three make attack formations. What feels casual and compulsive in Bejeweled... read more
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