• impressions

    You’re in the Movies – Wanna Go to Ninja School?

    This is the last game you’d ever want to play while you’re sick – lot’s of running, arm-waving, and opportunities for cheek-burning humiliation.

    You’re in the Movies uses the Xbox Live camera to capture all of what you do and splice it with pre-rendered videos in its extensive library of genre-based clips to create your very own, very wacky, home movie. At the more “hardcore” level, the game works like video editing software, letting you record music and dub tracks and edit together clips to create incredibly long – and incredibly wacky – movies of you running, arm-waving and generally embarrassing yourself in the name of fun. More »

    1:00 PM on Mon Dec 1 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    5,251 views, 35 comments

  • iphone games

    Free Risk Invades iPhone

    OK, so it's been out for awhile, but I recently stumbled across Lux Touch for the iPhone and have quickly become addicted. The free Risk knock-off for the iPhone and iTouch has you playing as the blue army in a bid to conquer the world.

    The four other players are all computer controller, but do a fairly good job of keeping things interesting. To play you just tap on countries to move your armies about or invade other bordering countries.

    The game is fairly simple, so simple that over time it can get a bit repetitive, but it's free. Also, according to developer Sillysoft Games, there appears to be a paid version, Lux Touch Dlx, in the works. Let's just hope it offers up online play, pass-the-device play and some amped up graphics.

    Oh, for the love of god, include a save feature next time around. If my bid to conquer the planet is defeated by a PR call one more time I'm going to kill someone.

    2:00 PM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    3,054 views, 27 comments

    Most discussed Squamden: The phone's battery would probably die before you could finish one game more »

  • impressions

    What Halo Wars Means to Ensemble

    Lead Designer Graeme Devine told us games journalists that we needed to know three things about Halo Wars before we got to playing: the game was about 1) fast, visceral combat, 2) an epic storyline and 3) multiplayer. Unfortunately, because we’re still in the beta phase of the builds, we only got to experience the first element, taste the second, and receive tantalizing hints about the third.

    The fast, visceral combat is definitely there – but at the expense of some of the more “hardcore” elements of real time strategy games. For example, instead of being able to stay in a zoomed-out view where tiny minions explode quietly as you pump more out of your base, Halo Wars keeps the camera focused pretty far in on the battlefield so the action is in your face. There’s a level of detail to people, aliens and vehicles that makes explosions more vivid; and because your units level up to gain new abilities (instead of, say, unlocking new types of units), you become more attached to them instead of coldly sending units off to die like meat shields.

    Hit the jump for more. More »

    2:00 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    9,823 views, 54 comments

    Most discussed Kenny: Still pretty pissed off there's not going to be a PC version. I really hope it fails miserably, maybe that more »

  • iphone gaming

    Adventure, Yes Adventure, Comes to iPhone

    It was bound to happen.

    Last night, while researching my iPhone gaming gift guide story, I stumbled across an iPhone adaptation of Atari classic Adventure, aka Keep that F-ing Duck Away From Me!

    The game is a faithful copy of the original Atari 2600 title, complete with no music, annoying mazes and duck-faced dragons. It even has those surprise sound effects when the duck, I mean dragon, surprises you.

    Instead of relying on tapping or tracing to play the game, you use the iPhone's tilt controls, which works surprisingly well. In fact, I've been enjoying this version of Adventure almost as much as I enjoyed the original back when I was nine. Though that might say more about me than the game.

    Did I mention it's free? Yeah, if you have an iPhone or Touch you need to go get this, stat!

    8:00 AM on Mon Nov 17 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    2,858 views, 37 comments

  • impressions

    The Chase is on for February

    For whatever reason, I wasn’t allowed to talk about this game for months. I was almost scared they’d scrapped it for some bizarre legal reason (since The Chase is the name of several different movies). But luckily it looks like The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity is back on track for a 2009 release.

    The game is a DS action platformer about a guy and girl trying to make it across town for their very first date. Each level is a part of the city that either Felix or Felicity has to navigate by dodging roving businessmen and speeding cars, or outrunning a freak rainstorm that sweeps through the city after you. The point of the game is to collect as many hearts, coins, and flowers as you can find throughout the level so you can wow your date at the end of the game with a pile of ice cream equal in quantity to the number of coins you’ve collected.

    The style of The Chase is bright and cute — it kind of reminds me of 16-bit sprites and the arcade glory days of Nintendo. There’s also a stylus-drawing gameplay mechanic kind of like Kirby: Canvas Curse; you can draw a line with the stylus that creates a platform (or slide) for Felicity or Felix to slide along. This tool helps you bridge gaps, reach high places, or escape a downpour from the rainstorm. More »

    6:20 PM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    1,144 views, 9 comments

    Most discussed Jeff Paine: Felicity looks like a whore. They need to cute her up some more to fit the rest of the game. more »

  • impressions

    My Horse and Me: Riding For Gold Could Drive Me to Violence

    Maybe I was overreacting, but I asked the Atari reps to take my pen away from me while I previewed My Horse and Me: Riding for Gold. I had a serious concern about stabbing myself in the leg after even five minutes in the presence of this game.

    It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared – there were no cutesy horses with big sparkly eyes and not too, too much overt sexism in the minute details of the game (the girl character even had realistically-sized hips). But think about it: this game is made only for girls. That in and of itself is sexist – is Atari saying boys can’t ride horses? But on top of that, the game doesn’t look that great – so maybe they’re saying that girls can have their own games, but they have to be lame?

    I’ll climb down from the soapbox now. My Horse and Me: Riding for Gold is an equestrian sim for the Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PC. I got to try out the Wii version where my character was a top-heavy teenager with bad taste in fashion. I found out that it was actually the PR rep’s bad taste in fashion as the clothes in the game are customizable (most of the good stuff you unlock by winning competitions). You have your primary riding outfit, your casual riding outfit and special outfits for jumping, dressage or cross-country racing. More »

    5:40 PM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    2,295 views, 31 comments

    Most discussed CyberSkull: My grammar has never been the greatest, but shouldn't the title of the game be My Horse and I? more »

  • impressions

    Prince of Persia Preview Soiree – Jade Raymond Conquers Dance Floor

    Man, Ubisoft knows how to party. For their Prince of Persia preview event, they booked the Ana Mandara lounge at Ghiradelli Square, hired an acrobat troupe and henna tattoo artists, and crammed half a dozen hookah pipes onto the balcony section. There was also an open bar, a spread of Middle Eastern-themed food, and a monster sound system. (Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond led the charge onto the dance floor).

    In the face of all this glamor and poshness, the game itself almost got upstaged. Only about five stations were set up for demoing the latest build of Prince of Persia – and some of them were even using the old E3 demo build. Luckily, it was easy to get my hands on the game during the acrobat show, when everyone was watching the spectacle instead of waiting in line. More »

    4:00 PM on Fri Nov 14 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    17,343 views, 100 comments

    Most discussed collusioned: Jade Raymond. more »

  • impressions

    Pit Crew Panic – Girls in Miniskirts Fixing Giant Toilets


    Pit Crew Panic is one of those games that makes me question the wisdom of the Wii being marketed to casual audiences. On the one hand, we get quality mini game compilations and fantastic motion controlled-adventures. And on the other – we get girls in miniskirts fixing giant toilets.

    The “point” of this game is to have your team of pit crew girls fix up anything and everything that rolls into their station as fast as they can. You accomplish this by clicking on one of your beskirted girls and dragging the Wii Remote icon over the item to be fixed. The Wiimote will rumble when you’ve come upon a part that needs cleaning or repairing. Holding down B sends your girl over to that part and activates the motion-controlled part of the equation where you’ve got to perform some random gesture with the Wiimote so the girl will do her job faster.

    These motions don’t sync up with any you’d make in real life to fix a potted plant – more often than not, it devolves into a waggle fest that could potentially injure any of your friends sitting next to you. More »

    1:40 PM on Tue Nov 11 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    5,099 views, 48 comments

    Most discussed theboyfrombrasil: THIS IS THE STUPIDEST THING IVE EVER SEEN. Im just selling my wii, Im getting way too frustrated with the lack more »

  • impressions

    Persona 4 Makes It Personal

    I’m pretty sure the Persona series wasn’t the first JPRG to pair off dungeon crawling with high school – but whoever first had that idea deserves a freaking medal. High school is all about routines and drudgery; why shouldn’t your RPG experience match that in length, anxiety, and tedium?

    Persona 4 perfects the high school dungeon crawling formula, spacing dungeons out with story-driven themes and adding more plot points and suspense to angst over. Also, now you can go fishing, which is exactly like fishing in most other RPGs that make you fish - except for your have to button mash quite a bit more. Essentially, Persona 4 is Persona 3: it looks the same, plays the same, and most of the enemies and Personae are exactly the same. And it's on PS2, which is kind of lame, because the PS3 has been out for a while now and sooner or later Atlus will have to catch up (and not with another Operation Darkness, please.) More »

    6:00 PM on Mon Nov 10 2008
    By AJ Glasser
    8,598 views, 94 comments

    Most discussed relic1980: True, the PS3 has been out for awhile now, but if you were Atlus's accountants, would you be thinking of more »

  • hands-on

    Guitar Rock Tour Blows the iPhone Away

    I spent a chunk of the weekend picking through the 1,500 plus iPhone games out currently, as I started pulling together a gift guide for the iPhone. As you can imagine it's quite a challenge to try and find a handful of gems among all of those games. Sure a bunch are shovelware, but there are also quite a few excellent titles.

    Take for instance Gameloft's Guitar Rock Tour. The GameLoft-developed title leans heavily on the Guitar Hero franchise for its gameplay mechanics and aesthetic, but it manages to do enough different to make it work on the iPhone that I found it to be quite a bit of fun to play.

    The game comes with two instruments to choose from and 17 songs, all of which I suspect are covers. To play through a game using the guitar you just tap your way through the notes on the four-fret guitar as they fall toward you down the neck of the virtual instrument. The songs drop sustained notes and lines of notes at you as well as a number of double notes. If you come across a line of notes you can slide your finger across them as they scroll down. Once you build up enough rock power you can activate the familiar power-up by sliding your finger up the gauge to go into a power-up mode that doubles your points. More »

    9:00 AM on Mon Nov 10 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    9,920 views, 55 comments

    Most discussed Nudgenudge: In less than 10 days, Gameloft is sued by Actiblizz to the depths of hell. You saw it here first. more »