The original Ninja Gaiden for the NES was the second console game I ever played. A friend of mine had it and a few times a week I’d go over to his house and we’d play all night, trading the controller back and forth as our hands got tired. We were deliriously happy if we [...]

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I’ve been a big fan of racing games for a long time. I spent many happy hours in high school running my friends into the supernaturally solid shrubs and lampposts featured in Top Gear. Indeed it was the arcade version of Race Drivin’ that taught me how to use a manual transmission, and I’ve preferred [...]

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You know that stuck-up prick who thinks that your enjoyment of the Need For Speed series makes you an uncultured asshole? The one who tries to convince you that you should play Gran Turismo, even though you don’t consider Gran Turismo a game because in your definition of game the word “fun” appears somewhere?
I’m that [...]

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I just celebrated my one year anniversary of quitting World of Warcraft by starting Age of Conan. This may not be a bad move if it were a mediocre game like Tablua Rasa, or a passing fancy like Lord of the Rings Online, but Age of Conan is none of these things. AoC is a [...]

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Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest franchises in gaming today. The original GTA created a new genre of game almost single-handedly, and in so doing established itself as both a powerful force in gaming and a lightning rod for controversy. People like to point at GTA as representing the most antisocial aspects of [...]

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Most game reviews involve a fairly lengthy process of playing the game enough to develop a very complete picture of all its strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, professional game reviewers are frequently compelled to spend a lot of time playing games they don’t really like just so that they can write a review of [...]

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Persona 3 is part RPG, part high school and dating sim. I haven’t played the previous incarnations (of the popular Shin Megami Tensei series), so I’ve been thrown into the anime-infused game both feet first. There are some things about the game that are a little annoying, and there’s a lot of free play that [...]

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Dark Sector was originally announced nearly four years ago, and the visuals and combat mechanics it showed off back then really had people excited. If Digital Extremes had managed to get their game out in 2006, it would have been one of the best games released that year. Sadly, the two year delay means that [...]

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Okami remains one of the most beautiful gaming experiences I’ve ever had. When I originally played this on the PS2, I wrote a gushing review. I never finished the game due to outside distractions and the promise of a Wii version. Since the game is built on brushwork, it seems like a natural fit, and [...]

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Keeping a series going is always a tricky balancing act between stasis and change. Keep things too much the same, and your audience is likely to get bored and look for something else to do. Innovate too much, and you risk alienating your audience by ruining what made the original popular in the first place. [...]

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