video games

Come On DJ, Spin That Wheel

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As a fan of music games, hip-hop music and DJ-ing, DJ Hero caught my eye the moment it was announced. At first, I had my reservations in regards to how it would control. Unlike my previous forays into video game musical instruments, I do have a bit of background in real DJ-ing, which skewed my perception of how it would work. While I am no DJ Shadow or DJ Q-Bert, I do have the ability to blend tracks on CD turntables and do some basic scratching. I was kind of bummed that the controller would only feature one turntable and I wasn’t so sure I was cool with having buttons on the turntable. It wasn’t until I got my hands on it a few weeks ago that I changed my stance.

Some New Mario Game

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As an adult, Mario games make me feel kind of weird. A game about a fat plumber and his brother romping around a magical world trying to save a princess from a giant turtle is not exactly adult fare. However, Mario games are also universally fun, regardless of age. In particular, I grew up in the early heyday of Super Mario 1, so 2D Mario games strike a very specific chord in my heart – sort of like how many adults still love watching Disney movies.

From Hero to Zero

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With the Perfect Dark remake hitting XBOX Live next week, now was kind of a weird time for me to pick up the 2005 prequel, Perfect Dark Zero. I loved the original Perfect Dark, but I’ve never played this one. At the time, reviews for this game were pretty good, but this game has been the butt-end of many jokes since. I finally decided to take the plunge when I saw a brand new copy at the store for the rock-bottom price of $3.

I (Don’t) Like To Move It

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Yesterday at the Game Developer Conference, Sony finally announced the name and some more details about their new motion controller. The controller (and sub-controller) are now known as the Playstation Move. I’m not going to go into details about how the thing works, or what games were just announced to support it, but I’ll be happy to direct you to places that have that type of information.

What I wanted to do is use this announcement as a jump-off point for my current perceptions of motion control. Back in 2006, I was all aboard the motion control train. With Nintendo – my favourite game company – backing this technology, there was nothing that could go wrong, right? Wrong.
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A Comfortable Sense of Deja Vu

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I’m officially 1/4 of the way through Dead Space, and there was something about the overall feel of the game that I thought was worth mentioning: the underlying sense of deja vu.
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I Caved

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Back when I first lost my job, I made a vow to myself that I would not buy any games until I got a job. I admit, I made this vow to myself in hopes that my drought would not last long, and that I could hold out with my current stash of games.

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The Grand Theft Auto IV Swan Song

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After playing The Lost and Damned, I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Ballad of Gay Tony. While the Lost and Damned did a lot of things to separate itself from the core Grand Theft Auto experience, I don’t think all of it was worth while. I really loved the characterization in The Lost and Damned, but there was a very distinct point where the focus gets taken away from the main conflict and when you finally come back to it, the conclusion doesn’t give you the payoff you were hoping for. All the while, I was struggling to get re-acquainted with the Grand Theft Auto controls.
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Dead Space: It’s Game Over, Man!

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Back in 2008, I was very intrigued by Dead Space. After E3, the buzz going around was that it was like the evolution of Resident Evil 4. Since that game is one of my all-time favourites, Dead Space was very much on my radar. The reviews came out great and it eventually went on to sell at least enough to warrant a greatest hits re-release.

Modern Warfare 2 Boot Camp

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Over these past few weeks of unemployment, the game that has monopolized my time is Modern Warfare 2. Having played multiplayer for just over 24 hours, a lot of that was “not fun”. I say that in the sense that for every time I killed someone, I died about 2.5 times. There were games where I would kill two people and die 20 times.

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Near-Perfect For It’s Time

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It was the year 2000. Clutching my pre-order receipt that I’ve been in possession of for over a year, I went down to the local video game store to pick up my copy of Perfect Dark. Its spiritual predecessor, Goldeneye, blew my mind with a great single player campaign and at the time, God-like multiplayer. I must have put in hundreds of hours into that game, easily. Everything from trying to unlock all of the cheats in single player to all-out assaults on my friends and loved ones in multiplayer. Looking back, Goldeneye is one of those games that defined that whole generation of gaming.

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