Roger Ebert has famously said that video games may have the potential to be beautiful, well crafted, and technically competent … but they are not art. In a later column, he asked what video game made to date could possibly stand up against the greatest movies ever made? Admittedly, I find his premise faulty; I … Read more
Halo saved the Xbox. Prior to its arrival, the gaming console was an also-ran; afterwards it was the definitive reason to buy Microsoft’s PlayStation competitor. Gears of War may be the Xbox 360’s Halo. Like Halo, Gears of War features humanity fighting a desperate, last-ditch war against alien destroyers. As the game opens, the far-off … Read more
Halo 2 is the best online multiplayer game I have ever played. The game levels are beautiful, the matches are easy to join, friends are simple to find, and the cacophony of voices screaming during combat is unparalleled, Oh, and the single-player campaign isn’t bad either. Return to the Extraordinary As in the original Halo, … Read more
My friends and I have a problem. We’re scattered geographically and temporally, with jobs, families and commitments that keep us from gaming as much as we’d like. We’ve tried online gaming via Windows but have been disappointed every time. Poor net connections, aging hardware, and incongruent patches foiled us time and again. But the Xbox … Read more
A few months ago I reviewed Futurama: The Game, and I was disappointed. Where Futrama the series was funny and entertaining, the game was repetitive, frustrating and boring, with none of the wit that made Futurama so damn good. It had the look, but it just didn’t have the feel. Now I’ve got The Simpsons: … Read more
Warcraft III is a real-time strategy game in which players take on the role of one of four factions in a bid to save — or damn — reality from a demonic invasion. The game’s divided into three modes: story (single player), customized game (single player) and multi-player. In story mode there are four thematically-linked … Read more
Enter the Matrix, the video game which shares plot points with the new Matrix Reloaded movie, cost $30 million to make, includes an hour of new film footage, and–like its cinematic counterpart, has been getting mixed reviews from geeks. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d like the game all that much even before I … Read more
I wanted Master of Orion 3 to be the greatest turn-based strategy game of all time. I wanted it to be a worthy heir to its predecessors. I wanted to spend endless hours lost in its strategic depths, gladly loosing a few hours of sleep to secure victory over a strategic star system. I wanted … Read more
Civilization III sucks. There … I’ve said it. It took me months, but I finally said it. I feel much better now. I’m a big fan of the Civilization series, starting with the original computer game back in college (around about 1993). Its sequel, Civilization II. represents a pinnacle in empire-building games, in which players … Read more
How good is Gran Turismo 3? Well, consider this: I don’t like racing games – they’ve always seemed repetitive and boring. I don’t drool of cars, and aside from my Jeep Wrangler, I’ve never had much interest in them. I’m your typical geek, more interested in computers and RPGs than horsepower and RPMs. And I … Read more