Welcome to the reintegration of an arguably ancient SG feature, Review of the Reviews. In this feature, we essentially take on Metacritic at their own game, but rather than summarizing every review into a score, we use words. Words are better, right? Better than numbers? I mean, what was the last binary play you went to see versus the last literary one?

Words > Numbers. Come, read some words with me.

(more…)

As I said on our first podcast of the weekend, Dragon Age was one of my more anticipated titles to see and get hands-on with. Well I did get hands-on with it, briefly, for as long as I could stand to keep my eyes on that screen.

You know that feeling you get when you look at a really ugly person? Like, really ugly? So ugly that you don’t even feel guilty for thinking the person is unattractive? And no matter how much the view offends your eyes, you just can’t look away?

(more…)

Ubisoft were pulling out all the stops at this year’s Eurogamer Expo: along with the astonishing 3D version of Avatar, we were treated to a sizeable chunk of Assassin’s Creed II.

As if that weren’t enough, they even roped in one last minute surprise: Sam Fisher.

(more…)

Well, the Uncharted 2/Brutal Legend Duelist League week had an unprecedented number of fatalities at the hands of  newcomer Stoned Sheep.  Not only did he beat all challengers at mutliplayer (including yours truly), but he then went on to take humiliating still screenshots of him kicking the hell out of each and every opponent.  Usually, this involved him holding onto a grenade launcher and his opponent being blown into small pieces.   It was not pretty.

A few caveats: I started a match with Astro Nit.  I beat him on the practice, then he won the first of three matches, and then he had to leave, so I gave him five points for coming out and mixing it up.  Also, Eao and Stoned Sheep’s match apparently didn’t happen because of connectivity issues (Eao’s from Cairo? Wowza!).

So, Mr. Stoned Sheep rockets his way to the top of the leaderboard while everyone else if left to lick their wounds.  Let’s take a look at what the new leaderboard looks like!

(more…)

Well, look at you. Getting drawn in to reading an article based on the surprisingly absurd title…

I bet you won’t click the jump. You haven’t got the stones. You can’t HANDLE THE JUMP!

(more…)

Hybrid. When I think of the word hybrid as describing a video game, my inner “Crap Alarm” goes off. When I’m told that a game is a “something” with certain “something” aspects, I run the other way. Why, because that usually means that a game will try to do a couple of things, but end up doing none of them well.

That said, I received a review copy of Borderlands from 2K Games last week and after spending a good 25 hours with the game, I think I’m ready to give it a review.

Let’s talk about hybrids, MMO’s and Call of Duty 4, after the jump!

(more…)

Well, I wasn’t going to write on any of these topics, but seeing as times are tough and we’ve got a very large demographic of people who haven’t had their first part time job yet, free and cheap is more good-er.

So here’s a trio of deals too good to pass up on!

(more…)

I want to peel my face off with a lemon zester.  NBA 2K10’s RIDICULOUS bugs have made me THAT mad.  In my honest opinion, there is no way that 2K thought this game was finished when they released it.  The enormous number of bugs (I have a ton of video evidence coming up below) that sit up and bite you in the face on virtually EVERY play-through of the game suggest…nay proves… That 2K cared more about hitting a release date than maintaining the normally astronomical standards that their sports games are known for.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit to you that 2K Sports did knowingly and willfully release a broken basketball game to its fiercely loyal NBA2K fanbase.  My evidence, after the jump. (more…)

I love good news stories, where the quirky-yet-loveable underdog overcomes adversity and wins the day.  I also like free things.  So that’s why when forum member Big But 5 mentioned in the forums that Steam was having a free play weekend for Killing Floor, I immediately jumped on Steam to set it to download before I took off for work.  YAY!  Shiny, new game waiting for me when I get home, and it’s free to play for the entire weekend!

For those of you who might have missed it, Killing Floor is a mod of Unreal Tournament 2004 which involves 6 player co-op zombie killing….wait, did I say “zombie”?  I meant, “military experiments gone wrong”.  Bottom line, the mod team who created the game in 2005 (before Left 4 Dead, mind you!) brought it to Tripwire Interactive in 2008 to see about getting it put on Steam.  Tripwire enjoyed the experience so much, they offered to make it a full, stand-alone game, which came out this May.  See, that’s some good news: plucky upstart mod team tinkers around with the Unreal engine, and after years of work on their labor of love, it gets it’s own retail release.

Hey, it’s Extra Life make up weekend, and six player co-op on PC sounds like a pretty damn good idea to me, especially because it’s only a free download away from everyone’s computer this weekend!

I hope Australians enjoy a zombie apocalypse sans “decapitation,” “dismemberment” and “wound detail,” because that’s exactly what they are going to get with Left 4 Dead 2. According to a GamePolitics report, Electronic Arts has lost its appeal to the Office of Film and Literature Classification, meaning that Valve’s backup plan – a heavily sanitized resubmission – will be the only option for gamers Down Under. Barring any nefarious actions of course.

(more…)

I started swearing out loud when I read this announcement this morning.  Sid Meier plans on tapping into 300 million free accounts by giving them all a taste of what real games are made of.  None of that Farmtown or Mafia Wars nonsense: let’s see how Harriet the Housewife does against raising an empire against Genghis Khan or Napoleon.

(more…)

(more…)

BioWare: “Hello, would you like to play a game we’ve made?”

Krelith: *DROPS PHONE AND RUNS TO NEAREST PC*

That’s the way that conversation would go if it ever happened in real life. Which it hasn’t… YET. Still, there be some news on the ol’ BioWare/Dragon Age front. AND IT INVOLVES A GAME.

(more…)