Replay Value

The game pictured above is Switchball , a puzzle game from Sierra now available on Xbox Live Arcade and PC. I downloaded it a few weeks ago and it's been my go-to for a quick gaming fix ever since. It's a deceptively simple puzzle game that's along the lines of Marble Madness or Monkey Ball , but with a clever twist. You're trying to get a simple marble past widely varied puzzles, but can change the ball into other states when the puzzle requires. There's a heavy metal ball for pushing heavy objects or getting past fans, or an air ball that can be inflated to float past spikes and other obstacles, and a sort of super ball that can be charged to jump, dash, or be magnetic. The puzzles start out simple, but get pretty complicated pretty quick. There's also a multiplayer race mode, but that's not my cup of tea. What's so amazing about this game is how clever the puzzles are. They're so good in spots that you just have to smile when you solve them. I&

So I finally picked up Mass Effect yesterday and popped it in. First impressions are pretty good. Like the look a lot, and LOVE the music. The much publicized conversation system isn't revolutionary, but it's fluid and seamless. Some people think there's too much dialog, but I feel like there's always a quick way out if you are so inclined. However skipping most of the dialog will make you miss how realized this world is. There's so much backstory it's nuts. How about the combat? Haven't seen to much yet but it's pretty solid. Could've used a little better cover system, but I'll excuse it for now. We'll see if it becomes an issue. I think I'll be taking the side of letting my team do whatever the hell they want for the time being. Seems to work alright. I do agree though that the whole item organization system sucks balls. You pickup TONS of crap during misisons, and it's not organized at all in your menus. I think I'll get over

I can barely deal with all the games which are about to come out in the next few weeks and months. Well there is little chance I could ever be truly without something fun and exciting to play from the past that somehow escaped my notice or financial reach at launch, the future always holds some highly anticipated treasures. While there are far too many games to list here that I would love to try, I will quickly speak about the 3 games I am most certainly going to buy before the year is out. Bioshock I list this first for two reasons: 1.It comes out the soonest (August 21st) and 2.It has me the most excited. How could you not love a spiritual successor to some of the best games ever (System Shock 1 + 2) which takes place in a crumbling and failed underwater utopia inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand? Still not convinced? Well then how about the fact that this beautiful Shooter/adventure/rpg hybrid mixes traditional shooting with crazy superhuman abilities called plasmids that allow yo

The world needs more driving games where you spend as much time off the ground as you do in Stuntman. The driving genre has been getting pretty creative as of late, with a large handful of games looking to break the mold of Gran Turismo style attempts at pure simulation or the endless line of boring street racing games centered around gaudy chavved out cars. The most visible carrier of this torch of change is Burnout, a series of games centered around extreme speed and the art of the crash. Any game with mode that rewards the total monetary destruction of an acident is alright in my book. However I still think there's another level of innovation just waiting around the corner. It was hinted at by a good-but-too-damn-hard for PS2 a few years ago called Stuntman . The basic idea is almost equally puzzle and driving. You were tasked with performing stunt driving scenes in a series of fictional action films which took place in fairly traditional settings(among others an Indiana Jo

That's right, Bullshit with a capital B. It's no news that Sony has been taking some serious shit these days. In fact their insane claims and statements are coming with such regularity it's quite astonishing. The backlash from the gaming community has been pretty substantial, but Sony seemed to be content to continually just brush those haters off as it were. Well they finally got angry. You can get more details at Kotaku, but the long and short of it is that Sony didn't like a (widely confirmed at Kotaku by very reliable sources inside the gaming industry) rumor that Kotaku wanted to publish. Well even after some nice asking from Sony, they published the rumor anyway . Instead of the "we do not comment on rumors or speculation," company line that Microsoft regularly dishes out, Sony sent a bitchy note to Kotaku saying that they were shutting down all relations with the site including interviews at future trade shows and the a request for the return of th