Adventure, written by Warren Robinett and released by Atari in 1980, is a fantasy adventure game for the Atari 2600. Using basic graphics, the game allows a player to navigate a series of castles and mazes to recover keys, collect treasures, and slay dragons. The game plays a pivotal role in Ready Player One, not so much because … Read more
I have found my all-time favorite portable gaming device: the Nintendo 3DS XL. It’s a larger, more refined version of their 3DS and led to a renaissance of mobile gaming for me. I’ve been mobile Nintendo gamer for a long time, starting with the original Game Boy in 1989 (which, unlike most gamers, was my … Read more
Starbase Orion is a turned-based galactic exploration, colonization, and conquest game inspired the classic Masters of Orion series. It’s available for iPhone and iPad, though the developer hopes to expand it to Andorid, Mac, and Windows as well.
When it comes to pinball, there are two tables that I love. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Indiana Jones. I easily spent hundreds of dollars in quarters on those two games in college, and they’re the two games I’d most like to own.
Fantasy Flight Games made its name creating huge, sprawling board games with hundreds of fiddly-bits and robust game mechanics that take hours to play. Fans who buy Arkham Horror or Mansions of Madness know they’re getting their money’s worth … and that there’s no way the game will fit in their pockets. With the Elder Sign: Omens app for iPhone ($3.99), Android ($3.99) and iPad ($6.99), they’ve taken a different approach: create a lightweight, fast-playing game that’s as atmospheric as its predecessors but can be played anywhere.
Before aliens, power levels over 9000, and “Z”, there was simply Dragon Ball. It was a simple tale about a naive boy who leaves his simple life for one of adventure. Luckily, someone at Game Republic recognised this when they created the Dragon Ball Origins games. Journey to the West (Note: Some may consider the … Read more
Red Wasp Designs’ The Wasted Land takes Call of Cthulhu to the iPad and iPhone, transforming RPG horror into a turn-based squad game that seeks to prevent a German mythos cult from unleashing an army of undead during World War I. The game unfolds in the No Man’s Land between the Allied and German fronts … Read more
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is an action-adventure game set in a new fantasy setting. Typical of the genre, you’ll also solve various types of puzzles as you explore and defeat enemies. Released about a month before Christmas, this game was quickly lost in the plethora of new games at that time. I never let … Read more
Mass Effect 2 is Bioware’s follow-up to their awesome-but-flawed space opera role-playing game. The sequel is a beautifully crafted game that knows exactly what scifi notes to hit to get player’s blood pumping and keep them engaged, even as the main story is less than stellar.
The game – and that I almost wrote “movie” tells you a lot about it – picks up where its predecessor left off. Exactly where that is depends on the choices you made in the previous game. My main character was woman named Xandra Shepherd, a tough-as-nails, victory-at-any-cost commander who hated the anti-human Citadel Council, the ruling body of much of the galaxy. When their base of operations – a massive alien construct known as the Citadel – was attacked by life-destroying entities known as Reavers, Xandra didn’t lift a finger to save the Council. She did, however, defeat the Reaver incursion. As a result, my game began with a new human council in charge of the Citadel … and the galaxy in denial about the threat of the Reavers.
Dark Void is a videogame with a great deal of promise. When I first heard this game described, I couldn’t have been more excited.
A pulp adventure set in the Bermuda Triangle with alien technology, Tesla inventions, and jet packs! An Indiana Jones-like hero fighting the good fight against Battlestar Galactica-style foes out to conquer the world! Wow, that’s right up my alley.
Or so I thought.