Review – Beat Hazard (PC)

Review – Beat Hazard (PC)

Somewhere along the way, the “Sh’Mup" or “Shoot Em Up” genre evolved and became the “Bullet Hell” Genre.  Play styles and enemy patterns from games like R-Type, or Gradius remail but there is a lot more going on in the playing field than older systems could handle.  Hell there’s probably more going on in a single screen of a modern Shoot Em up game than happened in an entire round of Gradius.  Since the screen is covered in action and well, bullets, the term Bullet Hell is used. If you want to go way back, Asteroid is essentially the grand…
Review – Gish (PC)

Review – Gish (PC)

Chronic Logic | Released: 05.04.2004 | Rated: Teen The Short: An ambitious and interesting 2D Platform title that is hindered by it’s clumsy, gimmicky control scheme. The Long: The phrase “Physics based” is a popular one these days with Indie developers it seems.  It’s essentially a buzz term to define a game in which objects are “realistically affected by gravity”.   It’s also the entire focus of the character Gish and his gimmick. Gish is a gelatinous ball of oil, or goo, or… something….  He’ll have to do the best he can to manipulate his structure as he travels across the…
Review – Portal 2 (PC)

Review – Portal 2 (PC)

Probably one of the most anticipated games released this year, it was proceeded by a gimmicky and ultimately disappointing Augmented Reality Gaming blitz, loads of hype, actual television commercials, and generally, a large bit to live up to.  People love Portal 1, and they should, it’s an amazing game that did a lot to make us rethink what an FPS game was supposed to be.  Specifically the idea that you must run around shooting and killing things.  It also gave us the amazing Portal Gun.  i remember first hearing about Portal many years ago in a magazine and an explanation…
Review – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS)

Review – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS)

Oh Pokémon, how conflicted you make us. On one hand, you’re a lot of fun. Your simple system of battling animals is easy to pick up somewhat difficult to master. On the other hand, you’re such a huge blatant marketing whore that we can’t help but hate you for it. Pokémon is a franchise designed to sell… stuff. Lots of properties do this but only someone like say, Disney does it bigger than Pokémon. Ironically, both Disney and Pokémon use a mouse as their mascot, coincidence? Probably. Anyway, Pokémon sells too. Kids eat up all of the toys, the card…
Review – Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

Review – Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

So who hasn’t played Grand Theft Auto III?  Ok, probably a lot of people.  It was a game that really redefined the idea of what a game could be back when it was first released ten years ago in 2001.  I like to brag that I came up with the idea first personally, though it’s probably a real stretch.  A bit of some history. I played quite a bit of the first Grand Theft Auto with it’s more open ended top down game play.  The older games were less story driven than the later 3D titles, you generally just had…