Kengo: Legend of the 9
July 27, 2007
Some may remember that after the commercial failure of ambitious titles like Psychonauts and Advent Rising, the folks at Majesco were in a great deal of financial trouble, at which point they decided to stay well away from risky, expensive projects. This business strategy would seem to suggest that the company would most likely resort to publishing primarily handheld titles and perhaps some Wii software, and indeed, most of their E3 lineup this year was headed to one of Nintendo’s game systems. Read more
Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
July 27, 2007
With impressive new titles like Crysis and Mercenaries 2 being shown off in EA’s booth at E3, one might suspect that something like Half-Life 2 would seem like old news. However, while the core of Valve’s re-release of the game, simply titled The Orange Box, may be a game that’s now a few years old, they’re packing so much content into The Orange Box, including new stuff, that it’s renewed interest in the old game. Read more
Kane & Lynch
July 26, 2007
After seeing the game a few months ago, I was interested in seeing how the game has progressed while at this year’s E3. I have to say I was disappointed. Certainly the game looks decent and the gameplay is well on the way to emulating the Hitman franchise with a co-op style, but the little to no improvement that I saw doesn’t fill me with hope. Read more
Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy
July 26, 2007
PC gamers who browse through online offerings of free games for download on the internet are by now very familiar with the game Tumiki Fighters. If you haven’t played it yet, I’d highly recommend you try it, as it’s a fun space shooting game with a great original premise that doesn’t require a super-powerful machine to run. Or, you could just wait until it hits the Wii, in the form of the newly-redubbed Blast Works. Read more
Puzzle De Harvest Moon
July 25, 2007
Few game series are as niche as Harvest Moon. As a game series comprised of what can best be described as “farming RPGs”, the target audience for these games is already narrowed down to “players looking for a slow-paced but unique and somewhat Japanesey game”. Add to that the fact that the series has been around for some time now, and the target audience narrows considerably, thanks to the additional descriptor, “not drained of all interest in the series by the numerous previous titles”. I doubt there are still very many out there waiting in high anticipation for the next big Harvest Moon game, and with Puzzle De Harvest Moon doing something completely new and different for the series, one could argue that they’re narrowing the target audience even more. Read more
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party
July 25, 2007
The Dance Dance Revolution series has just about seen it all by this point. Amongst zillions of installments in arcades and on multiple game platforms, we’ve seen DDR games where people sing, where people do arm motions in front of a camera… we’ve seen DDR games with Disney and Mario themes, we’ve seen DDR games spread to health clubs, gyms and even some schools. We’ve seen DDR on unlikely platforms like the PC and Game Boy Advance. Now, DDR is coming to Nintendo’s motion-sensing Wii, just in time to coincide with Nintendo’s appeal to the health-conscious crowd with their Wii Fit game. Read more
Mass Effect
July 25, 2007
Another look at Mass Effect brings more revelations. In case you haven’t been paying attention, each of the cutscenes in the game are rendered not only in the game’s engine, but also happening “real time” as well. The allows the player to interrupt a conversation to cut it short and move on with the story, or perhaps even influence things a certain way. This branching story path is what we were shown. Read more
The Simpsons Game
July 24, 2007
Hi! I’m Troy McClure! You may remember me from such videogame preview articles as “Felix Wright: Tax Attorney” and “President Evil (red, white and blue versions)”. I know that many of you reading this feel that today’s videogame industry seems flooded with licensed games. Well, here’s another one! Allow me to introduce: The Simpsons Game! Read more
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
July 23, 2007
While a lot of the early Wii games people were looking forward to ultimately turned out to be a bust (yes, UbiSoft, I’m talking about Red Steel here), one of the big surprises early on turned out to be a game that few took very seriously – Rayman Raving Rabbids. Brushed off for being a collection of minigames on a system receiving hordes of minigame collections, many Wii owners quickly discovered that the title was loads of fun, and had a hilarious attitude that really made it a blast to play, especially when you had company over. Oh, sure, you’d pique a friend’s interest with Wii Sports, but Rayman Raving Rabbids was the game you’d use to sell them on the console. Read more
de Blob
July 23, 2007
While most of the games we looked at this E3 had been previously announced, De Blob was one title in the minority that seemingly came out of nowhere. Not only is it an original IP designed from the ground-up specifically for the Wii (with another version bound for the DS later on) by developer Blue Tongue, but it’s actually a surprisingly inventive and original concept Read more