When Nintendo’s Pokémon
Platinum was released in Japan several months ago under the (roughly
translated) name “Pocket Monsters Platinum”, the game sold an impressive 1
million copies in only two days. Even
more impressive, legendary Japanese game review magazine Famitsu, gave the game an almost unprecedented perfect score. Now,
gamers here in North America can finally get their hands on the latest addition
to the now iconic Pokémon series.
Platinum however, is
not an entirely new addition to the series and is in fact, actually an enhanced
port of the two previous Pokémon games: Diamond
and Pearl. In terms of the story, the game once again takes place in the
“Sinnoh Region”, an area teeming with over 493 different species of Pokémon. Players
take control of a young Pokémon trainer who must travel across the Sinnoh
region catching, training and battling with a...
Gamers Block Says It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, MadWorld…
Over the past few years the Wii has earned a Disneyseque reputation as a wholesome purveyor of casual and kid-friendly tiles. Sure there’s been the occasional blood-soaked shooter, but for the most part the console has happily welcomed children, housewives and even the elderly into its loving next-gen embrace. Enter MadWorld, an exclusive Wii title that doesn’t so much shake off the console’s sugary sweet reputation, as it does hogtie it, shove a gasoline-soaked rag into his mouth and beat it into submission with a baseball bat.
Developed by Japanese studio Platinum Games, MadWorld puts players in control of Jack; a sociopathic anti-hero armed with nothing more than a pissed-off attitude and a chainsaw for a hand. Jack, however, soon finds himself waist-deep in blood n’ guts after terrorists transform the sprawling Varrigan City into a televised game show, with inhabitants slaughtering each other for both survival and a $100 million dollar prize. The plot the...
Gamers Block Gets a Little Sand Down its Crack With 50 Cent's Latest Hip Hop Shoot em' Up...
For a game whose chief protagonist is known for his ability to chug Cristal, spew forth expletive-filled rap lyrics and bust caps into the proverbial asses of enemy terrorists, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is pretty shallow as far as concepts go. Yet scratch below the shameless hip hop marketing and gangsta posturing, and Blood on the Sand also offers a surprisingly enjoyable – if not particularly deep – gameplay experience.
The paint-by-numbers plot finds Fiddy performing a sold out concert in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country, with the show’s promoter paying him with a diamond-crusted skull in lieu of cash (apparently the nearest ATM was out of service). Of course, the skull gets swiped by a local warlord and it’s up to Fiddy and his gun-totting G-Unit homies to get their bling back. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch they ain’t however, and before long Fiddy and company have pretty much laid waste to the entire country. Despite its war-torn Middle Eastern loca...
When Grand Theft Auto IV first exploded onto the scene last year it marked the first next-gen entry in Rockstar’s legendary series of hookers, hand grenades and vehicular homicide. One of the most talked about features however, was the tantalizingly vague promise of future downloadable content, with Microsoft even dropping a cool $50 million to secure exclusive rights for the Xbox 360. Now, low and behold Rockstar has upheld its part of the bargain in the form of GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, a downloadable expansion that offers a gripping storyline and intriguing new characters, rather than refining GTA IV’s effective – if not somewhat tired – gameplay elements.
...
Getting old is a bitch. One day you're living large basking in the glory of youth, the next you're sucking your dinner through a straw and griping about your enlarged prostate. Gaming too has begun to feel its age in a medium which is now rapidly approaching the 40 year old mark - and while older consoles like the NES have become the crotchety out-of-touch grandfathers of the industry, slick current-gen consoles have earned their place as the younger, hipper upstarts when it comes to button mashing entertainment.
Which is why in some respects Capcom's latest title Mega Man 9 (available now as a downloadable title on the Wii Shop Channel, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade) may stir up a small bit of controversy between those of us old enough to remember the heyday of late 80s and early 90s NES titles and the legions of younger gamers who grew up weaned on the PS2 and Xbox and won't play anything that...
When it comes to modern warfare, it seems like mercenaries have become the heavy weapon-totting rock stars of the battlefield - loud, destructive, well paid and capable of putting on one hell of a pyrotechnics show. Enter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, a game which puts players in control of their very own rabid dog of war and unleashes them into a world of guns, cash and things that go boom.
Most gamers are probably familiar with Pandemic's first foray into the world of guns for hire when the aptly named Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction came out for the Xbox and PS2 back in 2005. With its high-caliber blend of GTA style sandbox gameplay and explosive third-person run and gun mechanics, the game was a heat seeking hit when it first launched. Mercs 2 picks up more or less where the previous game left off, with players once again able choose from the thr...
