The standard review approach for Killzone 2, Guerilla Games’ showcase PS3-exclusive first-person shooter, focused on judging its merits in comparison to landmark Xbox 360 shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. The latter comparison was especially enticing—clash of the console-exclusive titans! Take that approach to its logical conclusion and you end up with the majority opinion about the game: graphically impressive and plenty of fun, but occasionally marred by poor design decisions…

When we looked at a couple of SteelSeries’ gaming peripherals last year, the Xai mouse and 6GV2 keyboard, we were very impressed by both their quality and the technology inside. We were also impressed by the fact that, compared to most ‘gaming’ gadgets, their design was understated — even elegant. Very Apple-like, you could say.
Now SteelSeries has decided to broaden their audio options to ”meet Apple Performance Standards for Music, Mobile, and Gaming”. Updated versions of the 7H and Siberia v2 headsets, already available for PC gamers, are coming that …

Bulletstorm is a breath of fresh air for FPS games. The Duty Calls parody ad, complete with in-game cries of “boring” was a statement on the state of modern shooters, as if each were as serious a look at war as Platoon, Band of Brothers or Generation Kill. Of course, this Tom Clancyesque style of fiction has as much in common with reality as Plan B’s magical super subs, but that’s another story. Eschewing the gritty ‘realism’ of modern shooters for over the top science fiction is …

Spoiler warning:This post reveals substantial portions of the plot, including the ending.
In the wake of nearly every popular cultural phenomenon arrives a flood of imitators. Their reasons for existing aren’t always obvious, however; some imitators are obvious cash-ins, yes, and others are little more than tributes to the original. But some retreads have higher aspirations—inspired by, but not direct copies of. Maybe it’s an attempt to tell the same basic story in a different way, or tweak parts of the formula to make it more appealing to a certain audience. …

Recently Zipper Interactive invited me, as a fan of their SOCOM franchise, down to their studio in Redmond, Washington to check out the upcoming SOCOM 4 – releasing on PS3 April 19th. After having a few days to digest the entire event and what I had played I have come away with a very positive outlook on how this game will turn out. I’m in the unique situation of being one of those people who have sunk over a thousand hours into the SOCOM franchise since the original released in …

Well, here I am, finally writing the review of LittleBigPlanet 2. And the delay in my writing is actually attributed to having so much fun in playing the game, that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. ANYWAY, I have to admit that I wasn’t as jazzed about what I saw at the media launch party on the tester screens. I played a top-down view rodent racing derby type level and then got physically stuck before passing the controller to someone else.
Oh … but then to have the game …

I was really late to the game when Batman: Arkham Asylum came out in 2009.  Even though it was a commercial and critical success, with most saying it was the best Batman game of all time, it struck me as faint praise, given what had come before.  Last fall, I finally got around to picking it up, and I loved everything about it.  The game captured the spirit of Batman better than anything outside the comics.  Even if it were stripped of the Dark Knight’s trappings, the gameplay was fluid, …

Maybe it’s my lack of enthusiasm for the Call Of Duty franchise, or ‘real world’ first person shooters in general, but the above parody hit the nail on the head. On a related matter, if you haven’t yet tried the demo for Bulletstom, I can’t recommend it highly enough. The general mayhem in the demo suggests that unless Duke Nukem can bring his A game in the humour department, over the top FPS fun may have a new king.

The original Dead Space made a bit of a splash when it first launched: a science fiction horror survival game that provided a unique environment, lots of scares, and a solid story. The universe that the creators crafted was well fleshed out and expanded upon with an animated film, comic books more. While none of ancillary media was required to enjoy the game, it was clear from the start that EA and Visceral Games wanted to build this into a long lasting franchise.
Enter Dead Space 2, which continues the story …

On Monday Sony held a launch party for the highly anticipated Little Big Planet 2, which continues the adventures of Sackboy and friends. With me tied up with clients and a major network rewiring at the studio, Deb had a chance to attend her first video game media launch party and this is what she had to say about it:

Spoiler warning: Minor scenario/level spoilers for Mirror’s Edge. Very little in the way of story spoilers, partially because there’s very little in the way of story.
Three days or two years: depending on how you look at it, that’s how long it took me to finish Mirror’s Edge. Though I’d managed to play up to Chapter 7 on the PS3, I didn’t really feel qualified to say whether the game had fulfilled its vision or not; some would argue that I’m still not qualified, given that I haven’t even tried any …

Spoiler warning: Campaign spoilers for Medal of Honor, including end-game material. You’ve been warned.
What a difference a year makes, you might think. Ever since Konami unceremoniously dumped Six Days in Fallujah, a shooter set in a very real, war-torn Iraq, gaming writers and pundits have raised the question of whether video games will ever be ready to tackle difficult subjects, even when those subjects seem to fit neatly into standard gaming contexts, like the chronicle of a military conflict. Of course, a lot of …