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U.S. Army Trains with “SimCity Bagdad”
Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago. UrbanSim is the name of the training program, profiled in an item in the current issue of The…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Sherlock Holmes Tracks Jack The Ripper To U.S. Xbox 360
JoWooD Entertainment and Dreamcatcher pit the greatest fictional detective of all time against one of the most notorious real-life serial killers in Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, coming in March to the North American Xbox 360. Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper is the fifth in a series of Holmes adventure titles developed by…
By Mike Fahey - Uncategorized
Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing
Game-blame news from Romania: a 15-year-old boy said to be “dependent” on video games stabbed to death his adoptive mother, after she refused to pay the Internet bill in hopes the disconnection would put an end to his Counter-Strike addiction. In the narrative of the attack the boy, Ionut Savin (pictured), stabbed his mother (on…
By Owen Good -
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The Long Hello: Games ‘Arrive’ as a Threat to Network TV
Anyone old enough to remember RF switchers knows that video games and network television have long competed for the same eyeballs on the same TV set. Only recently does it feel like games are getting credit – or blame, rather – for contributing to the decline of prime time programming. This discussion has reconstituted itself…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Rest In Peace, Taco Bell Guy
After countless marathon gaming sessions interrupted only by alternating runs to “the border” for cheap Mexican food and the bathroom, I can’t let the passing of Taco Bell founder Glen W. Bell Jr. go unnoticed by our readers. Many gamers, myself included, consider tacos to be the ultimate food. Indeed, if it weren’t for the…
By Mike Fahey - Reviews
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Micro-Review: Something M2 Whipped Up
Konami goes back to Castlevania’s roots with Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, as the series joins Gradius and Contra to get the Konami ReBirth treatment. Once again, developer M2 takes a long, hard look at a classic Konami franchise and produces a retro-styled rehash. This time around the game is Castlevania: The Adventure, the 1989 Game…
By Mike Fahey -
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Heavy Rain’s ESRB Rating Spoils Everything
The ESRB has given Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain an M for Mature rating, explaining the game’s drug use, violence, horror, and sexual situations in ridiculous detail. Needless to say, spoilers ahead. Here’s the obligatory paragraph I put in between the lead and the actual rating listing, in order to make sure no one accidentally reads…
By Mike Fahey -
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Aliens VS. Predator Kill Moves Are A Tad Bit Graphic
Actually they aren’t too bad, provided you turn the sound down a little and keep your hand away from the pause button. Pause is not your friend here. It’s hard to tell who at developer Rebellion is having more fun making this game – the animation guys, figuring out creative new ways to mangle 3D…
By Mike Fahey -
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DeathSmiles Smiles On North America
The top-selling shoot-em up of this console generation is coming to North America, as Aksys Games announces a U.S. release for Cave’s brilliant Xbox 360 gothic lolita shooter, DeathSmiles. DeathSmiles is a scrolling shooter, but instead of piloting spaceships through unknown galaxies, you fly young angels and their demonic familiars through the gothic world of…
By Mike Fahey -
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This Week In XBLA: Death By Cube And Vandal Hearts
Square Enix‘s blood-filled box shooter Death by Cube is joined by the prequel to Konami’s 1996 tactical role-playing game Vandal Hearts to form this week’s new additions to the Xbox Live Arcade. Robots shooting cubes filled with blood – this is the perfect way to describe Square Enix’s new twin-stick shooter, Death by Cube, which…
By Mike Fahey -
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Here’s What You Get For Preordering Skate 3
EA’s Skate 3 might not come with a high tech plastic skateboard controller like its chief “competition,” but putting money down on the sequel does earn you this nifty exclusive skate park. Now that I think about it, “Doesn’t come with a high tech plastic skateboard controller” could actually be a selling point. Easily as…
By Mike Fahey -