Easily the most anticipated release this year, Portal 2 follows publisher Valve’s physics-puzzler Portal, the 2007 game that instantly leapt onto Game of the Year lists and into the Best Games Ever pantheon. You played as Chell, a hapless human female made to test a teleportation gun in the Aperture Science research facility, hounded by …
Reviews
‘Crysis 2’ Review: You’ll Take Manhattan
Crysis 2
Publisher: EA
Developer: Crytek
Systems it’s available on: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
ESRB rating: Mature
System reviewed on: Xbox 360
The original Crysis set an altogether new level of expectation as to how detailed and graphically impressive a video game could look like. “Can it play Crysis?” became shorthand for how robust a …
‘Dragon Age 2’ Review: Heavyweight Champion
Dragon Age 2
Publisher: EA
Developer: BioWare
Systems it’s available on: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
ESRB rating: Mature
System reviewed on: Xbox 360
It’s time to reveal one of the failings of my geek CV: Fantasy leaves me cold, at least the sort of high fantasy descended from Tolkien. Maybe it was the high school English teacher who …
Shiny but Unspectacular: “Killzone 3” Review
Killzone 3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerilla Games
Systems it’s available on: PS3
ESRB rating: Mature
System reviewed on: PS3
Pity poor Killzone. The FPS franchise that’s lived on two iterations of Sony’s PlayStation game machines always gets compared to other exemplary franchises. The first Killzone was …
Airlocks and Body Parts: “Dead Space 2” Review
Dead Space 2
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Visceral Games
Systems it’s available on: PS3/Xbox 360
ESRB rating: Mature
System reviewed on: Xbox 360
In the year 2511 on one of Saturn’s moons, a man with serious girlfriend issues dismembers a race of alien monsters called Necromorphs. Dead Space 2–already positioned to …
Make It Your Own: LittleBigPlanet 2 Review
LittleBigPlanet 2
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Systems it’s available on: PS3
ESRB rating: E
System reviewed on: PS3
It was hard not to like the first LittleBigPlanet game when it came out in 2008. Media Molecule’s award-winning effort charmed you with its loopy meta-premise, …
“World of Goo” Review: Sticky Fingers
World of Goo
Publisher: 2D Boy
Developer: 2D Boy
Systems it’s available on: iPad
ESRB rating: N/A
System reviewed on: iPad
Chances are, you’ve played World of Goo already. Since its initial 2008 release, it’s become one of indie gaming’s biggest success stories: two former EA employees build it themselves and put it out for PCs …
Caanoo Emulator Review: Great Hardware, So-So Software
The GP2X Caanoo MAME/Console Emulator (rolls right off the tongue, no?) is available for $150 at ThinkGeek. I happen to think that portable emulators make excellent gifts for society’s geekiest video game enthusiasts, so if you’re shopping for someone who’s got it all, a portable emulator may very well fit the bill.
For the …
“Super Mario All-Stars” 25th Anniversary Edition: For Completists Only
There’s a problem when you’re a company like Nintendo, which leans very heavily on its franchise characters year in, year out and constantly goes to its back catalogue. Eventually, you start to hit the bottom of the well and wind up re-packaging stuff that’s already been re-packaged.
Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition …
Review: New “Tron” Video Game Looks as Cool as the Movie
Tron: Evolution
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Propaganda Games
Systems it’s available on: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
ESRB rating: T for Teen
System reviewed on: Xbox 360
If any video game tethered to a feature film faces immense pressure to be a worthwhile experience on it’s own, it’s Tron: Evolution. Not only …
Verizon 4G: Fast But Expensive
Verizon’s new 4G service is live and it’s fast. I’ve been testing out one of the two devices that’ll be available this Sunday, the $99 LG VL600 USB modem, and I can honestly say that it blurs the line between lower-tier home broadband plans from the likes of Comcast and Time Warner.
Now keep in mind that nobody’s really on Verizon’s 4G …
Two Minute Video: Samsung Netbook Tops 10-inchers
Buying a netbook is a tricky proposition. By nature, netbooks are fraught with tradeoffs and shortcomings in order to offset low price points and portability. Samsung’s 10-inch NF310 netbook gets a whole lot right without suffering from too many drawbacks.
While most 10-inch netbooks sport cramped 1024×600 resolution screens, the …