It’s no secret that villains have all the fun. They get the best lines, wear the coolest outfits and are usually one step ahead of the hero. They also get to kidnap princesses, blow up planets and cackle maniacally while spinning in swivel chairs. By contrast, most heroes are bit... well, lame.
Unlike most video games, which are designed to allow gamers to get it right, Heavy Rain staunchly insists that there is no such thing: much like life, there are only the choices that we make and the consequences that arise from them.
It's the talk of consumer electronics and gaming. Depending on who you ask, 3D could change the way we watch TV and play computer games, but there's one thing it seems everyone is agreed on: who wants to wear those goofy glasses?
Infinity Ward finds itself without a proverbial head today after two senior executives were sacked late yesterday. With a new Call of Duty game on Activision's to-do calendar every year from here on out, what does this scandal mean for the series? What does it mean for you, the gamer?
Hostile, bullheaded, mercenary, uncreative, all words that spring to mind when considering Ubisoft and EA's new "always on" PC games policies for upcoming single-player games like Assassin's Creed 2, Silent Hunter 5, and Command & Conquer 4. In order to play any of the latter three, you must have an internet connection or the games won't load. Make that a continuous internet connection, meaning the internet (and presumably each game's respective authentication servers) must be accessible at all times, not just at launch. Unplug your Ethernet cable or disable your WLAN radio (or suffer through a server crash on EA or Ubisoft's part) and the games will simply cease to function.
Poor Namco Bandai. Not only are they releasing a fantasy-themed hack ‘n’ slash game at the same time as God of War III, but it also stars personality-vacuum Sam Worthington. We doubt Kratos is breaking much of a sweat over the impending showdown.
When fans take video games into their own hands, the results are often unpredictable. Artwork, music, and other types of tributes can range from the gut-wrenchingly awful to the eternally awesome, but only the best projects are worth waiting for. That's why fan-made video game remakes can be one of those things that's worth some patience.
You've heard of universal remotes, but what about universal game controllers? Universal remotes let you control different brands of consumer electronics, primarily television sets, using a single button-smothered controller. They've been around since the mid-1980s, a late reaction to the VCR invasion, with an eye toward the multi-rack-module "entertainment center" we take for granted today.
From arcade classics like Space Invaders to first-person shooters like Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, we take a look at nine of the greatest shooters available on the iPhone today.
Windows has always been the PC gamer's operating system of choice. As with its predecessor, Windows 7 builds on the franchise's gaming pedigree by bringing games and performance tools to the forefront. Behind the scenes, Windows 7's improved resource management delivers some performance enhancements in your favorite games. Here's how to get the best experience from the new OS.
Remember the phrase "interactive movie" tossed around in the 1990s?
Say what you want about Valentine's Day (or Singles' Awareness Day, if you prefer), we'll take any excuse we can get to celebrate video games and video game culture. Usually, that turns out to be a handful of fan-made video game Valentines cards or a recurring special event in a massively multiplayer online game -- but it seems to us that there's more going on than ever before this year for Valentine's Day 2010. Probably because it falls on a weekend.
Journalistic integrity is a funny old thing. On the one hand, we strive to produce articles with substance and integrity: our motto is to inform and enlighten, as well as entertain. But on the other hand, our readers like to look at hot babes dressed up in video game and manga outfits. Who are we to deny them, eh? If bringing joy to thousands of sweaty-palmed gamers is wrong, we don't want to be right. Walkleys be damned.
The girl gamer is a rare breed. Like a ninja or a flying unicorn, she remains perpetually shrouded in myth and/or shadow.
Got your hands on a copy of 2K's BioShock 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, or PC yesterday and already beat it? Want to know if you'll ever see a BioShock 3?
Does your laptop have switchable graphics? You know, both an integrated graphics chip that sips energy and gives you long battery life along with a discrete GPU (graphics processing unit) that offers better 3D graphics and video performance? Notebooks with switchable graphics have been shipping for years, but they haven't lived up to user expectations. Nvidia hopes to change that with their new Optimus technology.
In 2008, Square-Enix was creating Final Fantasy games. In 2009, they released Final Fantasy games. In 2010, they'll release more Final Fantasy games. Those three facts are the main reasons Square-Enix reported a 50-percent increase in revenue for the last nine months of 2009 over 2008, and why the company forecasts a successful first quarter for this year.
Over the past decade, The Sims experience has undergone a lot of changes, and not just in gameplay enhancements. From the way the series deals with death and sex to the way it handles Chinese culture.
In preparation for BioShock 2's release, we've rounded up the most important aspects, ideas, and faces behind Andrew Ryan's ruined utopia. The following primer is a short refresher for fans of the original, as well as a quick crash course for gamers who missed out on Jack Ryan's initial trip to Rapture.
Sometimes, we truly question our readers' ability to comprehend the English language. When we presented our 'most overrated games of 2009' feature last month, we explicitly stated that "none of these games are bad: they're just overhyped." …And yet, within minutes of hitting the blogosphere, our article was torn to shreds by irate gamers demanding our resignation for calling Uncharted 2 a bad game. Sigh.