Grand Theft Auto III changed everything. The GTA series is one of the most popular in the history of video games, but it was Grand Theft Auto III that really made the largest impact. Being able to go anywhere and do anything you wanted was, at the time, something we just never thought could happen. Today, a sandbox game is nothing special; we see it in a lot of games today, with implementations ranging from great to pointless. What is it about these games that are so attractive to gamers? READ MORE
July 2011
When playing Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, we were reminded of a joke by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:
“They should have a glow-in-the-dark version of Easy Cheese. It’s not like the product has any integrity to begin with. If you buy a room-temperature cheese that you squeeze out of a can, you probably won’t get mad because it glows in the dark too.”
If you buy an Earth Defense Force game, you probably won’t get mad because all the enemies are giant insects too. You won’t get mad that some ground enemies look exactly like spiders (which aren’t insects), you won’t get mad that flying enemies don’t always look like insects at all, and you won’t get mad that, despite the city being totally deserted, you occasionally see a big pack of scared, running civilians in the middle of a mission. READ MORE
Normally I like to finish a game before I write about it. Not obliterate it to 100% completion or anything, but I at least like to get through the story. Sometimes a game comes along that almost seems to not want me to finish it. Sometimes the difficulty will spike dramatically out of nowhere and require hours of grinding or the sandbox world will open up with no indication of where to go next. I just don’t have time for that. Then there’s a game like Boktai: the Sun is in Your Hand that has a very distinct method of slowing its story to a crawl. READ MORE
DualPenSports has the distinction of being the first minigame compilation on the 3DS. It also has the distinction of being the first game to use two styli at the same time. Unfortunately, the very fact that it requires two styli to play renders it uncomfortable, unwieldy and un-fun. READ MORE
Sometimes these PopCap-y games get a little old. They’re either too easy or they’re simply another form of Tetris Zen, putting blocks here, switching jewels or shapes there, removing a stick or inserting a ball. Occasionally there are, ahem, gems in titles like Plants vs. Zombies or Puzzle Quest in which you are making some sort of progress, there is a definite end goal in sight and you will feel like you will have successfully consumed a game. It was a great ride and now is an appropriate time to stop, a lesson Runespell: Overture has taken to heart. READ MORE
