Now that's what I'm talking about

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 Jones clone, a James Bondish spy thriller, and my personal favorite the Dukes of Hazzard knock-off). The puzzle element was in the fact that all these scenes had to be performed with exacting percision, or you'd have to start again. Let's just say that while I enjoyed this game quite a bit, I probably yelled at it more than any other game in recent memory(except that fuckhead Astro Boy).

Well according to 1UP, there is a sequel in the works, pictured above. Titled Stuntman: Ignition, it's a next-gen update to Stuntman that looks to be taking the concept to the extreme. I find myself positively giddy at the prospect of playing this title. The difficulty level has supposedly been made much more reasonable(although hopefully not too much), and the graphical upgrade is amazing. If you need more proof of this games Hotness, head over to Gamevideos.com and check out the trailer.

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Mass Effect: First Impressions

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

How to relax, just a little

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&

Chuck Klosterman ignites a shitstorm

Before I say anything about the story he wrote, and it's snowball effect on the video game world, I will simply say that I believe Chuck Klosterman is a genius. His books and articles are insightful, hilarious, intelligent, and thought provoking, often all at the same time. He's a senior editor at Spin Magazine, a columnist for Esquire and ESPN the Magazine, and has written for countless other publications. You would do yourself good to go read some of his work, or all of it for that matter. Now that I'm done kissing his ass, I'll tell you the real story. Last month Klosterman wrote an article for Esquire titled The Lester Bangs of Video Games . The intent of the article was to discuss why there isn't a truly transcendent video game critic writing about video games for the masses, or any real writing in that direction. It's a fascinating read even for non-video gamers. To say that the reaction was mixed would be irresponsible, it was a torrent of applause

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