Complete Poker Software Listings
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Xbox 360 Reviews
Lego Rock Band
The Lego Star Wars games were kind of a revelation to me. Before I played one I was under the impression that a game based on Lego pieces would be silly and not worthwhile. Once I started playing, though, and got the chance to build Lego structures using the Force and breaking Lego Jar Jar into a bunch of pieces with a Lego lightsaber, I was sold. Add to that the gameplay element of Lego ...
Guitar Hero 5
I've been a little disappointed with the Guitar Hero series since GH2. Difficulty, added nonsense, and a perceived sense of its own importance combined to make the games less fun. So when Guitar Hero 5 showed up, I wasn't expecting much. I’m happy to report that Guitar Hero 5 is a step up. While there is still room for improvement, they’ve done some nice things with this installment.
The change you’ll notice first is when the demo ...
Spongebob’s Truth or Square (Game)
Spongebob Squarepants has become something of a pop culture phenomenon, and as a result a marketing cash cow. Nickelodeon and THQ have been pumping out games based on the television series and characters for a while now, and the market might be reaching a saturation point. The latest game, Songebob’s Truth or Square, takes its inspiration from the latest television special. Both involve memories, both involve the Krusty Krab’s EleventySeventh birthday, but that’s where the ...
Mini Ninjas
Mini Ninja’s should be on the Christmas purchase list for the parent of every sub-teen gamer out there. Every year around the holidays we see a plethora of “kids” games. These are barely games, and their development process seems to center on shoe horning a licensed product into a game that was aborted halfway through development and dropping into stores during the holiday rush. Ill-informed parents and grandparents, who mean well, get games for their ...
Brütal Legend
I have two ways to start out the review for Brütal Legend, and both wind up setting a similar tone. One begins “we have so few rock stars within the videogame industry,” meaning that the number of name recognized developers are so few in proportion to how many are actually working and deserve to be famous for their work. Tim Shafer is such a figure, being the sort of David Byrne of the videogame world, ...
Wet
How many of you remember drive in theaters? How many of you actually WENT to drive in theaters? Yeah, that’s what I thought. The guys at developer Artificial Mind & Movement obviously remember this bygone era and have created a game that pays homage to the type of second string movies that flourished as the second feature of a budget double bill at the rural drive in – Wet.
As an action game, many people will ...
Darkest Of Days
There is a great idea in Darkest of Days, so it is very disappointing that the final execution of the game falls very short of its potential. Allow me to illustrate. Very early in the game, such as less than 2 minutes into things, the player is surrounded by chaos during the battle of Little Big Horn. Bodies are everywhere, both of horses and men. The sound is all over the place with soldiers, hooves, ...
Need for Speed: Shift
Racing games come in a number of flavors, from arcade style kart racers (Mario Kart) to the speedy combat and destruction (Burnout) to futuristic style of vehicles (Wipeout) to simulations (Gran Turismo). These are just a few of the styles, so when a new racing game comes along, attention should be paid as to what kind of racing game it is, because the various sub-genres are very different and appeal to a different kind of ...
The Beatles: Rock Band
Music games are only as good as the music they include – I think we can agree on that, right? A game might hit all the right notes with exciting gameplay, mind-blowing visuals, and superb multiplayer options, but if the music in the game ranges from Tiny Tim to Devastatin’ Dave to Barry Manilow, well… no one’s going to want to play that game very long. It stands to reason, then, that getting the greatest ...
UFC Undisputed 2009
UFC is far more popular in the US than boxing at this point, but its pixilated versions haven't enjoyed the same triumph. I am more than sure that a lion's share of UFC's regular PPV audiences has already picked this title up. However, like any licensed title, does the game live as it's own entity?
The short answer is yes. I am not a huge sports gamer, but this game actually manages to keep my interest. ...
Velvet Assassin
I'm all for sneaking around in the shadows, coming up against an unsuspecting enemy and jumping them from behind, taking them out permanently then dragging their lifeless body into the shadows before getting caught. Well, virtually anyway. In videogames this is an accepted activity, but in the real world I simply couldn't get away with it. Nor should I. So I turn to Violette Summer, a British agent behind enemy lines during World War II, ...
Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock
There are really only two considerations a person must make before deciding whether or not to purchase this collection:
1) Do I like all of the songs included?
2) Do I not have an Internet connection for my Xbox 360?
Honestly, it's difficult to understand the purpose of the track packs -the AC/DC Track Pack aside, the compilations feature songs that are available as downloadable content. It's a rare person that will like every single song in the ...
The Chronicles of Riddick: The Assault on Dark Athena
The Chronicles of Riddick: The Escape From Butcher Bay was one of the biggest surprises of the last generation of game consoles. While even games based on good movies tend to be terrible more often than not, here was a game set to release alongside a terrible film (The Chronicles of Riddick) that turned out to be better than the film - a lot better. In fact, it turned out to be one of the ...
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Years ago, the glory that was Guitar Hero graced the PS2, and the audiences found that it was good. Lo, it spawned many children. There was Guitar Hero II, which greatly improved some gameplay mechanics and was the first with downloadable songs (albeit very few). We then saw the cash grab that was GH: 80s, followed by the Great Rift of Rock. Since then, Activision has been at the reins on the Guitar Hero side, ...
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Back in 1994, two videogames were released that featured two celebrities doing things in the game that weren’t related to what they were famous for. Michael Jordan starred in Chaos in the Windy City, a platformer that was at least slightly related to basketball – different basketball powerups helped MJ in his quest. Shaq Fu, though, featured Shaquille O’Neal in a fighting game, no basketballs to be found. Neither critics nor players had much good ...
X-Blades
What if you took the blatant Sexploitation and two handed gunplay of the Tomb Raider series, and mixed in the button mashing hack and slash of the God of War ilk that have been popular? Well wait no longer X-Blades can show you what an entirely derivative product looks like, and when it's done on a shoestring budget it isn't pretty. X-Blades looks like some PS2 bargain bin title, or like it could be crowding ...Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad
I don't think there's anyone at D3 Publisher and Developer Tamsoft who would deny that Onechanbara is a game designed purely for the lowest common denominator. Previously best known for Earth Defense Force 2017, a game that was both stupid awesome and awesomely stupid, Tamsoft and D3 have once again presented us with a product that is shamelessly pandering with an absolutely ridiculous premise that manages to be entertaining in spite of itself.
The game's story ...
Rock Revolution
Certain phrases in The Beatles song "Revolution" kept coming to mind while I played Rock Revolution, and it wasn't because the game included the song. Phrases like "count me out" and "you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow" kept playing over and over in my head, seeping out of my unconscious as a response to what I was playing. It wasn't so much that the game was horrible, just that the game just wasn't ...
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
There was a time when the next installment of the Star Ocean series would have been a no-brainer for release on the PS3. After all, Sony published the second Star Ocean title, SO: Second Story, the first in the series to even appear in the US, and Sony platforms have been host to every title in the series, be it on PSone (Star Ocean: Second Story), PS2 (Star Ocean: Til the End of Time) or ...
Lord of the Rings Conquest (360)
Labeling a game as an RPG and actually producing a good, solid, playable and enjoyable RPG experience are two entirely different things, as EA Games keeps proving whenever if releases a new title based on the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings Conquest promises gamers they'll be able to fight in and relive every major battle from the movie and more; that's all well and good if the battles are, you know, actually ...
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
It shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who knows me, but I am not exactly keen on sports games. Prior iterations of the Pro Evolution Soccer series have been spared my usual wrath, especially the portable version that stripped down the controls. When I popped the shiny new 360 version of PES into my system, I was ready for something to happen.
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I can't really explain it, I have an affinity ...
Afro Samurai
Americans' obsession with anime has entered some strange hybrids into the genre. From the homage of Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill, Teen Titans and the Transformers reboot both exhibit equal parts anime and Saturday morning cartoons, and then there is Afro Samurai. What can really be said about the combination of Hip-Hop, Samuel L Jackson, and the bloody swordplay of anime? If you haven't gotten a look at the excellent series, go put them in ...
Tomb Raider: Underworld
When last we saw her, Lara Croft was looking for her mother. Though she had thought her mother dead, new evidence suggested that perhaps her mother was still alive, possibly in an otherworldly place. Tomb Raider Underworld picks up where Tomb Raider Legend left off, and Lara is hot on the trail of some answers. This time her adventure starts in the Mediterranean Sea, but pretty soon she’s off to Thailand, Mexico, and even the ...
Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant
There is a question on my mind, that may be a tad bit over-reaching by nature, but Crash: Mind Over Mutant is such a shining example of a horrible trend that I cannot avoid asking it. When a game is relatively decent, but when a technical problem leaves an entire game mode nearly unplayable: does this damn the entire game outright? I am tempted to say yes, but a combination of nostalgia for the one ...The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Purveyors of family-friendly entertainment eternally struggle to provide something that captivates the adults towed along by their children. Making something palatable to a mature audience is a significant challenge when the primary focus is broader. Disney films often succeed in this, peppering cutesy animated tales with mature quips and suggestive situations. A quick glance at the original VHS box art for The Little Mermaid is all the proof you need.
Video games like The ...
