We Fell In And Out Of Love With Niko
I'd never played a Grand Theft Auto before. I mean, I understood the draw, but ever since I'd played Mafia, I felt no…
Ride to Hell is a Bad Game, but I Still Bought It for a Good Reason
Last year saw the glimmer of a movement to get a video game based on Sons of Anarchy, FX's biker gang series and a…
A Glimpse of E3 With Their Own Eyes, Far From the Lights of L.A.
In line for Nintendo's booth, Terence Polk checked his smartphone and chitchatted about what he'd come to review. "Super…
With Video Game Writing, the Devil Lives in the Details
In DmC, the new reboot of Capcom's Devil May Cry series, hero character Dante is the offspring of an angel mother and…
The Video Games That Showed Up When I Least Expected Them
A controller gets put down. A disc gets shelved next to dozens of others just like it. But, sometimes, the game…
Yes, BioShock Infinite's Cover is Terrible, and Yes, That Actually Matters
2K Games revealed the box art for BioShock Infinite this morning and the verdict on it was swift and disapproving.
The Games for All of Us
With respect and admiration for, if not apologies to, the late Ernie Harwell, here's something adapted from his famous I…
Hurricane Sandy's Effects on the Gaming Scene: From Blacked-out Developers to a Guy Who Walked 3 Hours To Line-Wait for Wii U
Hurricane Sandy didn't have an effect on the video game scene the way it would have if it had hit in a city like…
The Game May Be The Same, But Here's Why the Controls Change
Editor's Note: In my sports column Sunday, I noted a rather significant change to the control system in NBA 2K13 and…
Should We Know Our Own Strength—Or Any Rating—In Video Games?
On Friday, Madden NFL 13 revealed the ratings for every quarterback in the league, inviting the usual pointless…
There's Nothing to Steal: Why Everyone Hates the Free-to-Play Switch
I'm not proud of it, of course, but I've profiled others according to skin color. You see, glowing, primary color skin…
Load "Great Memories",8,1
The Commodore 64 turns 30 today. Reams of copy have been written in tribute to this machine. It wasn't the first…
No Game Save for My Backup
Three days home, sick, with the complete understanding and sympathy of my employer. Fully conscious and ambulatory,…
A Rite of Passage in The Legend of Zelda, Now Shared by Father and Son
A great dad makes sure his son is better than he was. If you measure fatherhood by the accomplishments of offspring,…
Coloring Outside the Lines of Sports Video Games' Pretty Picture
Brent Nielsen has a corner office catching 270 degrees of Florida sunshine, and his face lights up whenever you tell…
Video Games' Strangest Disappointment: When the Ref Doesn't Screw You
This Saturday was about as throwing-things livid I've been over a sports contest in a decade. The last time I was this…
An Old Xbox Reveals the Secret Lives of a Good Friend
All my friend wanted was a simple, get-rid-of-it-on-Craigslist estimate for an original Xbox, two controllers, and…
The Games for All of Us
With respect and admiration for, if not apologies to, the late Ernie Harwell, here's something adapted from his famous I…
A Brutal Initiation to PvP — But One I Chose
I was adjusting my costume atop a skyscraper in Gotham City when a tour bus soared up into view and hovered there.…
Hey Ebert, Play This Game
Roger Ebert did a brave thing today, a terrible thing today: He admitted that he was wrong and said he has no plans on…