Back to back, surrounded by fiends on every side – co-operative play is the only way to go down. Cue Butch and Sundance style sepia-toned freeze frame, for that added element of pathos. Yep, if you're gonna go, then it's best to go side by side with a fellow gamer. Let's face it, co-operative gaming is the future. Halo opened my eyes to the power of co-operative play and its ability to make levels endlessly replayable. Hours and hours are lost covering each other's backs and taking point whilst your partner takes out enemies strategically. Of course, you can opt … Continue reading Two Hearts, Beat As One→
It turns out my prediction of Ninja Gaiden was wrong. I do apologize to Tecmo, and in particular, to Tomonubo Itakagi for my comments a few weeks back. I only mentioned them because I have had to deal with countless delays on other products which turned out to be sub par. Not this time, because Ninja Gaiden was well worth the wait, but I would have granted them more time to fix the pain in the butt camera and to offer an easier difficulty mode. Otherwise, I am very pleased with the final product. In any event, I have meant … Continue reading Ninja Gaiden Slight, Righted→
It's the case of the gamer who wasn't there, or who was there too much. The other day a friend emailed me a link to a spot of online gaming Korean style. This pal of mine is big on his MMORPG's so I thought I'd give it a go. Nothing like swinging a sword or casting a spell in the general direction of a gang of goblins, I thought to myself. Half an hour of downloading later, I started filling in the registration form and then alarm bells started ringing. I was halfway through the form before I began to … Continue reading Protect Yourself Online→
Already we are two months into the New Year, and for me it has been painfully slow. With almost no titles coming out I ended up going back to playing old games such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. It has been painfully slow for me. This week, however, I did get some relief, in the form of 007: Everything or Nothing. While I'm still waiting for the true second coming of Goldeneye (which EA is rumored to be working on), the latest Bond title actually diverts from first person shooting to a third-person Dead to Rights style game. However … Continue reading The Slow Months→
This week one of our astute Australian readers contacted us at GiN world headquarters and told us of an interesting event occurring in that country. It seems the offices of one of the companies we track on the GiNDex was being raided. We confirmed a few facts and had the story about the Brilliant Digital Entertainment on the Web about 30 minutes before CNN. It turns out now that the raid had little to do with the game industry, though the implications of the raid might. It turns out this raid was part of the music industry's continued push to … Continue reading It’s A RAID!→
A black screen and one white line – gaming doesn't get much simpler than that. Minimalist and surreal by design, vib-ribbon is a masterpiece of simplicity. Here is a game that takes the best elements of gaming and distils them to make Essence of Gaming. No, not a new fragrance by Chanel, but an embodiment of everything that's good about games. If you didn't think gaming could be more pared down than Rez, think again. Vib-ribbon is one of those games I always fancied, but never got round to buying. Of course by the time I did get round to … Continue reading Simple Pleasures→
With Super Bowl XXXVIII coming this weekend, the New England Patriots are favored by seven points to win. I myself predicted that they would go to the big game, especially considering my opinion of the Indianapolis Colts, namely their quarterback Peyton Manning. That I will get to in a bit. On the other hand, I never thought that the Carolina Panthers would make it this far. Considering this is a team that was 1-15 a few years ago, and just 7-9 last year, to see them beat the hated St. Louis Rams by way of a Steve Smith touchdown, and … Continue reading Hargosh Bowl→
The build-up to Christmas was a bittersweet pill, dear play chums. The final episode of the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer played on terrestrial TV. All of a sudden, a lifetime of Thursday evenings stretched before me, with nothing to fill them. To ease the loss of one of pop culture's finest; I have started collecting the DVD box sets. Although it is a welcome distraction, I know there are only so many episodes I've missed and once I've watched all the commentaries"I'll be sans Buffy again. Fortunately, I have a burgeoning stack of games to take my … Continue reading Christmas Buildup→
Usually the holiday season is a downer for me. Unlike most people, I don't truly celebrate Christmas. No, I don't celebrate it for religious reasons (I am a reformed Roman Catholic turned Baptist after all), or anything else of that matter. Since I left home to live on my own, the holidays just don't mean much to me anymore. I don't even put up a tree in my apartment. To me the holiday season is nothing more than a two or three week vacation. On a positive note, however, Christmas Eve does have its high point: it is the anniversary … Continue reading Happy Holidays to YOU→
