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In 6 1/2 Minutes, We’ll Show You Lego Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Small Twists And Amazing Cut-Scenes
Less than two months after the last Lego video game, we’ve got a new one. March’s Lego Star Wars III was a big surprise, an epic evolution of the series, offering grander spectacle and new types of levels. This week’s new Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is a more conservative effort. Nevertheless, it does the…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 11, 2011 -
Played It, Beat It, Still Don’t Know How Good Brink Is
I knew I was going to have a hard time deciding whether Brink was any good. I still can’t say it is. I can’t say it’s bad yet, either. I’ve played Brink for several days. It’s a hard game for me to judge. Others have judged it, of course. It’s been given wildly divergent review…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 10, 2011 -
This is Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow as a LEGO Pirate
Johnny Depp does a great job playing an off-kilter buccaneer in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but can a pile of LEGO bricks—a pile of virtual ones, no less—nail the performance in a new video game? I checked the brand new LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean video game and, well, they nailed it. We’ll…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 10, 2011 -
SpyParty Beta Starting Soon, Here’s How to Sign Up
I’ve been impressed with SpyParty since the day I first played it, but soon you’ll no longer have to take my word for it. The game’s creator, Chris Hecker, is about to pull a Minecraft and launch a $15 beta. You’ll be able to join by signing up at an official web page (this one).…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 10, 2011 -
In 10 Minutes, We’ll Show You How Weird and Excellent Brink Is
Brink is a strange game. Is it the next must-play shooter? Is it a forgettable Team Fortress knock-off? Or is it something else? Is it really a decent single-player game? Actually, how does its multiplayer even work? The best way to explain this odd game to you is to show it to you. I played…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 10, 2011 -
Valve’s Secret to Making Better Video Games
Congratulations, good people of Valve Software. You make terrific video games. Tell us how it’s done! “I’m stammering because I’ve tried to explain to my wife how it works, and I haven’t been able to,” Erik Wolpaw, co-writer of Valve’s Portal 2 said last week, answering a question from a moderator about Valve’s game-making process.…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 9, 2011 -
This Guy Wants to Write a Minecraft Novel
Kyle Lambert knows how ridiculous it sounds when he says he wants to write a Minecraft novel. He knows it seems odd. He knows that people will wonder how such a novel could be about anything other than lots of block-stacking and digging. But he wants to write one. At first, he’d imagined something sort…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 9, 2011 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
Like most Final Fantasy games, Talk Amongst Yourselves is turn-based. Like most FFs, TAY is full of lots of text dialogue. Dare I say this, but like most Final Fantasy games, Talk Amongst Yourselves seldom has an awesome plot. So cast Blizzaga and comment here about video games. Thanks to reader Goldfuzzy for today’s image.…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 9, 2011 -
Be Kind To Children and Buy Them the Correct Thor Video Game
There is a Thor movie out. We hear it’s okay, at best. Oh, maybe better than okay? There are also Thor video games out, and, they’re from Sega, the people who brought you bad Iron Man games. Have they done it again? We got the Xbox 360, Wii and DS Thor games, played through the…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 6, 2011 -
Why Chell Doesn’t Speak
The lead character of the Portal series is silent. For two games, Chell hasn’t spoken, and one of the pesky robots that chatters away at her in Aperture Science even suggests there might be something wrong with her. Erik Wolpaw, one of Portal’s writers, does like that joke. “For all you know, Chell might actually…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 6, 2011 -
Abbottabad Gamer Likens Bin Laden Raid to Call of Duty, Town to Smallville
Last Sunday didn’t seem like a special day to Azim Durrani. The 20-year-old university student woke up late. He helped out with chores in the house, met up with a friend for coffee and went home to play some Bulletstorm and some Unreal Tournament. He had some homework to do that day, but he was…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 6, 2011 -
The Preposterous Plan to Destroy Our Planet with a Superman Video Game
[Warning! I’m about to spoil a Jimmy Olsen comic.] Some villains try to destroy the Earth with giant lasers; others prefer anti-matter. Not Sebastien Mallory. He’s going to use a Superman video game. And here’s the most unbelievable part of the plot revealed near the end of late March’s Jimmy Olsen one-shot from DC Comics:…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2011 -
World of Warcraft Fans Raise $800,000 For Charity
The purchase of hordes of Moonkin Hatchling pets by players in World of Warcraft has resulted in a donation of $800,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Blizzard, the company behind the game, gave half of the money it made from the sale to the charity and granted the wishes of two of their fans by giving…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2011 -
Rockstar Made L.A. Noire So Big, They Could Barely Fit It On One Disc (or Three)
You can’t judge a video game by the number of discs it ships on—not unless you’re prepared to declare the four-disc Lost Odyssey as the best Xbox 360 game of all time. You can, however, judge the intent of the developer to give you a whole lot for your dollar. The folks at Rockstar, never…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2011 -
A New, Five-Minute Look at Id’s Baby
They made Doom. They made Quake. And next from the makers of mono-syllabic first-person shooters that always, at least, look great, is Rage. We’ve got a new trailer for the game today, a full five-minutes of gameplay, most of which occurs in the territory of The Shrouded, one of the game’s main enemy factions. Do…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2011 -
Sonic‘s Comic Keeps Going, The Doom Patrol‘s Ends And Other Wednesday Comics Items
Wednesday is new comics day in North America. This is a good thing. This Wednesday is not chock-full of cool comics. That’s bad. Nevertheless, I have some reading recommendations, as well as a run-down of all of the video-game-related comics out this week. Plus, iPhone/iPad users, as always, there are also some new comics recommendations…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 4, 2011 -
Play Lacrosse, Dig Deep, Or Defend A Swamp For $5 Or Less On The Xbox 360
Every couple of weeks, we recommend some of the best games on the Xbox Live Indie channel. These are the games on the fringe of the Xbox 360 platform, made by regular folks and indie dreamers. They’re peer-reviewed, not Microsoft-approved and thankfully they’re not all about talking to pretty girls or posing your Xbox Avatar.…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 3, 2011 -
Did They Improve The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time‘s Graphics Enough For You?
Here’s a new trailer for the June-scheduled 3DS re-make of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The graphics have been improved, though my memory already made them look as good as they appear in this new trailer. Thanks to fans like YouTube user DarkShadowRage2, however, we can do more comparing of the 2011…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 3, 2011 -
EA Buys Makers Of Flight Control, Real Racing
Video game giant EA, makers of Madden, Need For Speed and Battlefield (among many others) is snatching up Australia-based Firemint, creators of some of the most popular games on the iPad and iPhone, according to EA. The publisher gets the studio and the rights to its hit games, including Flight Control and Real Racing. The…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 3, 2011 -
Nintendo’s Next Console Will Enter the HD Era, but Not the Hard Drive Era
The successor to the Wii will not include a traditional hard-drive but will bear some of the traits of competing high-definition game consoles, according to sources familiar with Nintendo’s planned 2012 gaming machine. The console, codenamed Project Café, will include 8 gigabytes of on-board flash-based memory, presumably for game storage. That quantity, while nearly 16…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 3, 2011
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