SoulCalibur 4 marks the current generation debut of Namco’s Hack ‘n’ Slash fighting game series. While the game has been enhanced in some areas (notably graphics and online play), the game tends to be somewhat lacking in others (story and single player content). Even so, fans of SoulCalibur will once again have a chance to enjoy another installment of the fun and fast paced action that the series in known for, and there are even a few surprises included as well.
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Rise of Legends is a sequel/spinoff of Big Huge Game’s Rise of Nations, which is one of my favorite PC RTS games. While it doesn’t stray too far from Rise of Nation’s formula, there are a few key differences in both the presentation and the gameplay. First of all, instead of a historical setting, ROL takes place on a fantasy world and tells a tale of 3 warring races: The Vinci are a steampunk style human civilization with mechanical units inspired by Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci. The Alin are an Arabian-knights style group of creatures, magicians, and sorcerers. The Cuotl are a Meso-American inspired race of mythical creatures with advanced technology. You step in the role of an inventor out to avenge his brother’s death and finds something bigger going on, and the quest takes you through all three factions. The game’s factions include several hero units, and the 3D graphics give the game more impressive visuals.

Other than that, the gameplay will feel right at home for veterans of RON. The campaign makes use of a map similar the RON’s conquer the world campaign, and you’ll spend lots of time in battle researching and upgrading your tech tree. While Rise of Legends doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it is still an excellent RTS game, and it does a good job of following up Rise of Nations, even if its scope is scaled down in comparison.

You might see this game in a Best Buy or Gamestop and you may be tempted to pick it up, wondering why I haven’t already featured it as a $20 GOTW. Before you do, you should know that there is a much better version of this game available on PC for the same price. It has better level design, a better save system, more responsive play control, a level editor, and an online community with custom content and high score lists. It’s called Crayon Physics Deluxe.
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Warning: If you’re one of those people who believe pro wrestling is real, or you’re confused about weather or not it isn’t, then you’ll want to skip past this review.

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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Duke Nukem. Halo. Call Of Duty. Resistance. Killzone. Goldeneye. Bioshock. Deus Ex. Quake. Timesplitters.

The list of great first person shooters goes on and on, and each game has left its own unique stamp on the genre, weather it’s the RPG-like stat progression of Bioshock and Deus Ex, the cinematic realism of Modern Warfare and Rainbow Six Vegas, the zaniness of Timesplitters and Duke Nukem, or the multiplayer action of Halo and Goldeneye. However, all of these games owe their existence and popularity to one name: Doom. While ID Software’s classic didn’t create the FPS genre (that honor many would say belongs to ID’s previous effort Wolfenstein 3D), it helped shape the face of the genre for years to come. This article will take a look at the classic and its impact on gaming.
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Back when Midway was a part of the Nintendo 64 Dream Team, they promised an exclusive Nintendo 64 version of Doom that would take advantage of the console’s capabilities. In 1997 they delivered Doom 64, a continuation of the franchise (yes, even after Final Doom) that gave the game a brand new look while retaining the shoot-em-up action the franchise was known for.
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I’m one of the many who believe that video games not only can be a form of art, they can also be a literary medium. Want proof? Look no further than Silent Hill 2’s gripping narrative and try to tell me that that’s not on par with a Steven King or Clive Barker. Check out Ico’s emotionally moving story. Even Bungie’s Halo and Bioware’s Mass Effect have introduced players to science fiction universes on scale with a Star Wars or Battlestar Galatica. However, if gaming is to progress as an entertainment medium, it’s not enough to present an quirky art style or a deep plot. Gaming has to be able to explore taboo and even controversial subjects just like books, movies, and television shows do, even if they may get somewhat offensive or politically incorrect (which is why I was disappointed when 6 Days in Fallujah ended up being indefinitely postponed, but that’s another story). Of course I’m not saying that a developer should go out and create ‘KKK Lynchin’ Heroes’, but if and when done correctly, video games can provide a light with which to look at social issues that continue to affect us today. Beyond Good and Evil could be considered a commentary on the role of the press and the distribution of information during times when civil freedoms are being challenged, and Metal Gear Solid 4’s storyline about private military corporations can be considered a look at military policy, particularly in the wake of the Blackwater scandal. However, few issues have been more hotly debated than that of violence in our schools, and no one moment in our history better exemplifies the issue than the Columbine Massacre.

For those of you who don’t know the story, on April 20th of 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two troubled teens who had apparently been bullied during their years in high school went on a violent shooting spree, killing over a dozen students and teachers. The media, parents/teacher groups, clergymen, and opportunistic politicians, unable to fathom that two white boys from a wealthy suburban community bought about something that apparently is only supposed to happen in the ghetto or a backwoods rural area (and with rumors of a so-called ‘trenchcoat mafia’ shut down), immediately set about finding things to blame the tragedy on. “It was because of easy access to guns!” “It was because gun control laws are too strict!” “It was Marylin Manson!” “It was violent video games!” “It was Doom!” “It was because of the evil liberals taking prayer out of schools!” “Where were the parents at?” “Why didn’t anyone see the warning signs?” With all the fuss in a search for a scapegoat, few even considered to take a look at the events in their lives that might have led up to the shooting. Enter independent developer Danny Ledonne. Using the program RPG Maker 2000, he created a game which places characters in the role of the shooters. By researching thousands of pages of news articles about the massacre, home videos the two killers made, and video news reports, Ledonne’s product gives an insight and paints a picture suggesting why such a tragedy occurred.

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Goldeneye changed the direction of console first person shooter games. While there had been good console FPS games in the past, Goldeneye established a foundation of fun multiplayer and an intuitive control scheme. Who didn’t enjoy spending weekends huddled around their TV with 3 of their friends shooting each other up? When several of the original developers broke off to form their own company, Free Radical, and began work on a PS2 FPS game, many believed that good things would happen. They were right. The company’s first entry, Timesplitters was one of the best launch-window PS2 games, and its multiplayer managed to surpass Goldeneye in terms of sheer variety and fun.
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