A while back when I featured Silent Hill 4 in this column, I expressed my desire to see an actual FPS Silent Hill game. The fear factor, the atmosphere, and the fact that anything you run into can kill you would make it a unique experience more than any other survival horror or FPS game. Sega’s Condemned, one of the first games announced for the Xbox 360 and one of the system’s best launch titles, is a great example of what such a game would look like. Not only that, it’s a fine game on its own merits as well.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Before Bungie jumped through Halos with Microsoft, they ran the Marathon on Macintosh. Even before creating the instant Xbox seller, Bungie was innovating the first person shooter. Released in 1994, the first installment of the series introduced complex storytelling. Later installments would involve time travel, alternate universes, and Artificial Intelligences going insane. With Halo 3 hitting stores next month, now is a good of a time as any to take a look at Bungie’s other FPS series.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

This game is the sequel to 2002’s Freedom Force, which is one of the best games inspired by comic books without actually being based on one. The game featured a wide array of characters, RTS-style controls, and a look right out of a 1960s Jack Kirby comic. You fought against an assortment of weird communism-worshiping villains inspired by the Silver Age of comics. The game was also modable, allowing players to add in new characters, missions, and campaigns to the experience. In 2005, Irrational Games released a sequel containing even more comic goodness, and this time, it took gamers to the golden age of comics, and Freedom Force fought against the evil of the Nazis.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

In 2004, there were 3 big first person shooter games; Doom 3, Halo 2, and Valve’s Half Life 2. Of the three, many gamers consider this to be the best, and for good reason. The game is second to few in terms of graphical quality, story telling, gameplay, and capability for modding. Built on a modified version of the Havok physics system, a large part of the game’s appeal is simply picking up objects laying on the ground and throwing them at people. A weapon known as the gravity gun allows players to use the physics system to make anything into a weapon. Players take control of series protagonist Gordon Freeman, as he is awoken from stasis nearly two decades after the end of the original Half Life. He emerges into a world overrun by the combine. Joining up with a resistance group, Freeman has to fight back against all odds, battling head crabs, police officers, and alien creatures with a large variety of weapons.

As mentioned before, another part of this game’s popularity has to do with the modding community. There are several mods ranging from new deathmatch maps to full game conversions. One of the more popular mods, “Gary’s Mod” allows players to simply spawn objects in a sandbox environment just to play around with the physics system. Another mod is an attempt at recreating the popular N64 game GoldenEye. Of course when you’re through with the main game, there is plenty of more material coming to keep fans occupied. Episode 1 was released this year, continuing Gordon Freeman’s quest. This fall will see the release of Episode 2, along with the source engine based Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can grab a special “orange box” containing the main game, as well as all the extras mentioned above. Whichever way you decide to get it, don’t miss out on the chance to play one of the best FPS games ever.

System Requirements
Processor: 1.2 GHZ or better
OS: Windows 98 and higher (including Vista)
Internal Memory: 256 MB RAM
Storage: 4.5 GB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or greater
Internet connection required for verification
DVD-ROM drive (unless obtained from Steam)

Hey, wasn’t this series supposed to end with the third installment? I guess Capcom either forgot, or wasn’t done milking it yet. Either way, I’m not complaining. This is one of the greatest franchises of last generation, and it’s always great to see another installment of Capcom’s demon-killing samurai saga rather than another Street Fighter 2 remake. It also takes the formula and makes some nice changes to it, while still keeping what makes the series so enjoyable to begin with.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

With Nintendo’s Wii and DS, the features that make them standout (the stylus and motion sensing control) also turn out to be their biggest liabilities. Developers often feel obligated to make use of them regardless of how well it can be implemented. As a result, we end up with games with mediocre playability due to the fact that the developers shoehorned Wiimote/stylus functionality into what would have worked just as fine (if not better) without it. This is why we should be thankful for games such as Mega Man DX, as it proves that DS and Wii games don’t necessarily have to make extensive use of fancy new features to be good.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

Yes, I did a review for this game several months back, but it’s such a solid title that it’s worth looking at again. Sierra’s alternate look at a world where Tony Montana escaped the big shoot out at the movie’s end makes for a compelling set up. Not only that, it’s one of the few good games to make use of Grand Theft Auto’s style of open-world gameplay. It does a good job of putting you in the shoes of Tony Montana, excessive cursing, extravagant spending, and all. You have to make your way back to the top by making drug deals and waging war upon your rivals. You’ll visit all the familiar locations in the movie such as the Babylon Club, Freedom Town, and the Sun Ray Motel. Some repetition sets in with the drug deals, but the sheer fun of cursing out people and going into a blind rage make up for it. So for a $20 spot*, you can get what is a faithful tribute to one of the greatest movies of all time.

*Or you can spend a $50 spot and get the Wii version with new motion control actions.

Because of the holiday, and the fact that the one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time has returned to theaters, we’re gonna dedicate this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW to the Bruce Willis masterpiece. So read on after the jump to read all about the official series of video games based on a series of the finest examples of cinematic art ever created.
[Read the rest of this entry…]