I’ve come to believe strongly in a particular rule taught to me by wiser gamers. The rule states that “if a game wants to entice me, to keep me playing, then it cannot assume I have nothing better to do than to play video games.” It’s hard phrase to describe exactly what the …
Author Archive
Review – Second Sight
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 by christianReview – Sonic and the Secret Rings
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 by christianHere is perhaps my most controversial review ever. Not because of what I have to say about Sonic and the Secret Rings, but because of the context in which I say it. I was unable to finish Sonic, not because of time constraints (it was a rental), but because I gave up on …
Sexism is sexy: Women leads in video games
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 by christianThe debate about female leads in gaming is fascinating because it rarely makes sense. There’s a lot of talk about who the best and worst women in gaming are, what can be done in the future, and of course, plenty of discussion over who is the sexiest. The main thing we have to …
News I Care About: Beta
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 by christianDon’t worry folks, this is not a replacement of the actual VL weekly news. Its just a blog entry with a clever twist. There have been a few stories I’ve been meaning to discuss, without actually discussing them. So why not just lump them together into one MEGATON (copyright IGN) batch?…
Review – Sam & Max Episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die
Monday, February 26th, 2007 by christianSomething tells me I will be in the minority with this one, but Sam and Max Episode 4 is perhaps the weakest entry yet (or close behind the first one). This seems odd at first, because this time Telltale worked on many of the issues that fans (and reviewers like myself) brought up with …
The current state of fighting games
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 by christianAt the time of this writing, Dead or Alive and Virtua Fighter have released new entries on next generation consoles. Tekken 6 was just announced, and I’m sure it is only a matter of time before we hear something about Soul Calibur 4. It seems that fighting games are doing A-okay on the …
Virtual Console Grumblings
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 by christianNot too long ago, news broke that Nintendo was offering an updated version of the VC title Military Madness, free for download to those who had purchased it. The new version fixed some horrible emulation problems, and all was good. Though in fact it really wasn’t – while people were glad to see …
Review – God Hand
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 by christianWhen Clover Studio was ultimately closed by Capcom, they left us with two games; Okami and God Hand. The former gained quite a bit of attention, at least from the gamer press and enthusiasts, and it is not hard to see why. The game sported lush, unique visuals, safe Zelda style gameplay, and …
Review – Final Fantasy X
Thursday, February 15th, 2007 by christianIt’s not some startling revelation to say that jRPGs are a hotly debated topic among many gamers, as they struggle to figure out the present and future of the genre. I have absolutely no clue what the developers behind FFX were trying to do, but I know the result of their work is a …
A manifesto on Manifesto Games with a review of The Shivah for added value
Thursday, February 1st, 2007 by christianGreg Costikyan’s name comes up a lot when it comes to indie game development. Apparently, the man has worked on a few games and written some fiction in his life, and somehow he has become a major voice on independent games. He seems to believe that indie games can and will crush largescale …
