Video Games
Review: Mad Catz Wireless Fender Precision Replica Bass (360)
I’ve always had an affinity for the musical arts. I picked up violin in the fourth grade after spending Kindergarten through third grade becoming a guitar virtuoso. To be fair, the guitar was made of plastic and had little buttons along the fret that played totally radical riffs, but I was a bloody rock god and I don’t care what anyone else says about it. Back then, in the late 80s and...[Read More]
Review: Zuma’s Revenge (XBLA)
PopCap has a natural knack for developing games that make me lose track of time. Take this review, for example. I gave myself an hour to write the review for Zuma’s Revenge before recording a late night podcast, and decided to take a few minutes to capture some gameplay. Before I knew it, those few minutes had turned into over half an hour. Luckily our podcast started late. This is the stren...[Read More]
Review: Wreckateer (XBLA)
To be honest, I was less than enthused about Wreckateer in the lead-up to this year’s XBLA Summer of Arcade promotion. I hadn’t had the opportunity to play it hands-on anywhere, and it sounded like a rehash of Angry Birds with castles and goblins instead of birds and pigs. I hate Angry Birds. I seriously saw Angry Birds branded Cheese Nips at the grocery store last night, and they were...[Read More]
Review: Spec Ops: The Line (360/PS3)
Aside from the week I spent without power due to the storm that hit the east coast recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Spec Ops: The Line. Developed by Yager and published by 2K Games, Spec Ops: The Line is a third-person shooter that brings a new story to the Spec Ops games. After playing the demo, I wasn’t sure if this would be one of the top games of its genre. I felt like I was pl...[Read More]
Review: Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad (XBLA)
I’ve been getting more and more into the racing genre lately, because it offers a fun way of spending time playing with friends. Hey, there’s nothing quite like being a douche and crashing into your friend just to throw him off of a perfect lap, right? Yes, I do play a bit dirty when it comes to racing, but in the end it’s all about the fun that you and your friends are having. R...[Read More]
Review: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Arctic Strike Map Pack
It’s here! Finally, it’s here! Today, the Arctic Strike Map Pack for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was released for PS3 and 360 and after playing it for most of the day I can say that it is good. Before I dive into what I like about the DLC pack, let’s get rid of the boring details. The pack brings a higher level cap, 3 new multiplayer maps, 1 new multiplayer gametype, 1 new Guerri...[Read More]
Review: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD (XBLA)
Music is a very strong memory anchor. To this day, over a decade later, any time I hear Lagwagon’s “May 16th,” or Millencolin’s “No Cigar,” or Goldfinger’s “Superman,” I suddenly find myself grinding the helicopter blades in Hangar, or taking that first rolling ramp down into the Warehouse, or pulling off my first 900, or any of the various oth...[Read More]
Review: Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (XBLA)
I used to be a big Magic: The Gathering player. I started in 1994 with a group of friends, and stayed with it until the summer of 1997, when I moved from Oklahoma City to California. After spending three years playing with the same group, it just didn’t feel the same trying to play against anyone else, so I retired my deck and moved on. Fifteen years later (by Odin’s beard, that’...[Read More]
Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (360/PS3)
Activision and Beenox have had an interesting time with Marvel’s most popular hero. Shattered Dimensions was an awesome love letter to the fans, and Edge of Time managed to have a great story (despite a lot of people disliking it). With the history of Spider-Man titles being what it is, does The Amazing Spider-Man manage to soar, or does it plummet? This time, Beenox has done the movie tie-i...[Read More]
Review: Max Payne 3 (360)
There are so many third person shooters on the market. Some are good, while others make me wonder what the developers and publishers were thinking when they decided to create such awful games. Adding to the already large list of third person shooters is Rockstar Games’ latest entry in the Max Payne saga, Max Payne 3. Max is back for a grand adventure, and quite a lot has happened since the l...[Read More]
Review: Pinball FX 2: Marvel Pinball – Avengers Chronicles (XBLA)
I’ve mentioned this before, but the main bulk of my digital pinball resume consists of Space Cadet 3D Pinball on Windows 95 and Sonic Spinball on the SEGA Genesis. I dabbled recently in a PS Vita pinball title, and appreciated its efforts to recreate classic physical pinball tables, but haven’t spent much time with it lately because it couldn’t hook my attention in the long term....[Read More]
Review: Babel Rising (XBLA)
The first detonation of a nuclear device was made possible by Robert Oppenheimer’s work. In later interviews, he recalled the test explosion, and the thought that had come to his mind at that moment: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” from the Bhagavad Gita. I believe that, like Oppenheimer, we all have a little bit of the destroyer within us to varying degrees, w...[Read More]