April 2008 Archives

Platform: DS
Reviewed on DS

Our planet, our sparkling blue orb, is being overrun by floating alien brains with a penchant for the melodramatic. These brain... thingys... have nearly taken over the planet, killing civilians and taking mental control over armed men who can further the brains' nefarious desires.

Unfortunately for the invaders, they disturbed a cemetery, startling into unlife three teenagers buried there. Now, these teenage zombies, immune to mind control and with a ravenous hunger for brains, are humanity's only hope. And a brain thingy nightmare.

Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC

Windows System Requirements: Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9 compatible video card, 1.5 GB HD space, DVD-ROM, Windows 2000 or more recent operating system

Govern a Roman province in this city-building simulation that has players constructing and defending Roman settlements. The game builds on its predecessor, Glory of the Roman Empire.

This gaming oriented keypad includes the functionality of the carefully sculpted Warrior gamepad alongside a compact version of a complete keyboard.

Platform: Xbox 360
Reviewed on Xbox 360

The characters of the classic 1960's cartoon Rocky and Bullwinkle emerge on the Xbox 360 in this downloadable collection of microgames featuring Rocky, Bullwinkle, Nell, Dudley Do-Right, Boris and Natasha.

Platform: PlayStation 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

I'll admit it. I got tickets to Poison's recent tour. Brett Michaels still has great hair. So when I saw that SingStar '90s, the newest chapter in the karaoke-like game line, features Poison's classic "Unskinny Bop" (No, I don't know what could make a bop unskinny – it isn't supposed to make any sense), I had to suppress a little internal yippee.

Platform: PlayStation 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

The most mischievous young robots in the galaxy have been shipped off to the Robot Boot camp where they participate in competitive mini-games to learn to be better robot citizens and strive to land at the head of the robot class.

Platform: PlayStation 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

Buzz, the terrifying trivia tyrant himself, returns to host Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz, a quiz show with participants ranging from cheerleaders and Elvis impersonators to extras who look like they just walked off the set (and took their costumes with them. Unlike in Buzz!: The Mega Quiz, in Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz it's all about the moving pictures. There's no science, history or geography here – instead, you'll find a quiz show where Leonardo DiCaprio and Walter Matthau merit categories of their own.

Total immersion is the Holy Grail of gaming. The ability to simulate a fully interactive and engaging environment would be the ultimate form of entertainment, and has served as the fodder for many television shows, films, novels and even games, ranging from Star Trek's holodeck to Arnold Schwarzenegger's adventures in Total Recall to Red Dwarf's "Better Than Life" game. It's even a common theme for dystopian futures in which humanity has become disconnected from reality (The Matrix, among many others). Unfortunately, total immersion requires far better technology than we have at present.

Emotiv Systems hopes to change that. Emotiv's Epoc Neuroheadset isn't going to make full immersion possible, but it should go a long way toward turning thoughts into reality. The company's tag line is, "It's the thought that counts." It looks like Emotiv will turn that phrase into something more than just an apology.

Platforms: Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP and PC
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

The students at Fallcreek University have a problem. A problem that goes well beyond the promiscuous sex and rampant recreational drug use that permeates the dorms. Undergraduate life has recently been swept away by a new drug of choice – the pollen of a mysterious black flower.

On the same night as the frat party of the year, that addiction turns out to be more sinister than a buzz and a wicked hangover. The campus is suddenly overrun by nightmarish monsters... monsters that appear to be transformed undergrads.

When gamers think about open-ended games these days, the Grand Theft Auto series is often the first sandbox-style series that comes to mind. But my fondest memories of exploring a seemingly-endless world come from piles of floppy disks, back when the Electronic Arts logo was an inexplicable amalgam of cube, sphere and pyramid. In 1986, not long after my chance to search the new world for the Seven Cities of Gold, Binary Systems helped me crew my ship to save Arth (no... not Earth, Arth).

Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC

Windows System Requirements: 800 MHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB video card, Windows XP or more recent operating system

In their usual, excessively violent and often bumbling fashion, the Freelance Police (namely, the well-armed canid named Max and lagomorphic sociopath Max) managed to condemn the soul of Bosco (a conspiracy nut and shopkeeper) to the eternal flames of Hell, where the coffee is cold and the corporate maneuverings never end. To undo the damage they have wrought, Sam & Max will have to venture into the corporate wasteland of Hell itself. Using their not inconsiderable influence in the part of the afterlife that lies on the wrong side of the tracks, Sam & Max will have to bargain for the soul of their friend Bosco, among others... if they can get past Hell's receptionist.

Platforms: Xbox 360, GameCube and Dreamcast
Reviewed on Xbox 360

Tenro Horai is conquering all the nations on the globe, one by one, steamrolling over them using the Power of the Gods that he unearthed. Some freedom-loving folks still resist his onslaught as members of a freedom federation called Tenkaku. The population of a remote village called Ikaruga has built a fighter that, in the right hands, may be able to stop Tenro Horai.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC
Reviewed on Xbox 360

In the summer of 2012, a young man named Desmond Miles is abducted by a pharmaceutical corporation that has developed technology to unlock ancestral memories from RNA. Following a secret agenda, scientists force Desmond into a machine known as the Animus, trying to reconstruct secrets dating back to the Third Crusade.

Using the Animus, Desmond finds himself in the cowled robe of his ancestor Altair Ibn La-Ahad, reliving events from the summer of 1191. What Abstergo Industries hopes to learn by recreating a series of Twelfth Century assassinations remains to be seen, but that information will guide Desmond Miles into a conflict that has spanned millennia.

Platforms: Xbox 360 and PC
Reviewed on Xbox 360

The village of TiQal is threatened with imminent destruction, and it is up to you to make an epic journey through the jungles of Mesoamerica to plead with the gods for their aid and protection. How better to seek the help of the gods than by arranging colored blocks in a two-dimensional field.

Platform: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Reviewed on PlayStation 3

Join the Alliance of Free Planets in a battle to free the Solar System from The Axis of Evil (including the Legion of Terra and the Martians) in this action game by shooting as many minions of Lord Invictus as you can!