Diehard GameFAN

Author: Tom Pandich

  • Interview: DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road (PS3, 360, PC)

    I recently had a chance to speak with Codemasters about their upcomming off-road racing game, DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road. Expect to see DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 in the second quarter of 2007. Inside Pulse: First off, what’s new in Dirt? Codemasters: As the name suggests DIRT: Colin McRae…

  • Preview: Lunar Knights (DS)

    There are some games that just never catch on in the United States. It may be that they are never released here and only have a small import market such as Sakura Taisen or that the game just never got much more then a cult following Mother/Earthbound. These games often show some companies trepidation on…

  • Interview: Shinji Yamazaki (President of Nihon Falcom)

    Go and read A.J.’s “Gurumin: A Monsterous Adventure” preview. It’s no secret here at Inside Pulse that we’re huge Nihon Falcom fans. Besides maybe Shining Force and the SMT games, there is no series we swear by more then Y’s. It was my pleasure to interview Nihon Falcom’s President, Shinji Yamazaki, about the soon to…

  • Preview: Stranglehold (PS3, 360, PC)

    John Woo. John Woo. John Woo. I hate John Woo. Heâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s a terrible director who has no sense of storytelling. Iâ┚¬â”žÂ¢ve hated John Woo for years as he seems to be only concerned about visceral thrills and gun fights then telling a story. Itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s almost all action with him. He never gives time for the…

  • Review: Wii Sports (Nintendo Wii)

    Wii Sports Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Release Date: 11/19/06 System: Wii Letâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s face it. Itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s sort of silly to review Wii Sports. If you buy a Nintendo Wii, youâ┚¬â”žÂ¢ve got a copy of Wii Sports. Maybe this will be useful for someone who is considering buying a Wii, but itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s kind of silly really. Wii…

  • Review: Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Nintendo Wii)

    Trauma Center: Second Opinion Developer: Atlus Publisher: Atlus Release Date: 11/19/06 System: Wii Trauma Center: Under the Knife was one of the best games of 2005. Without question, Trauma Center was a hallmark of the Nintendo DS. Itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s easily one of the strongest reasons to own a DS. Color me surprised when Atlus announced that…

  • Review: Elite Beat Agents (DS)

    Elite Beat Agents Developer: iNiS Publisher: Nintendo Release Date: 11/7/06 System: Nintendo DS Elite Beat Agents is neither Elite or filled with Beats. Ok, thatâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s a total lie. I just really wanted to use that line if Elite Beat Agents ended up sucking. In fact, Elite Beat Agents is an excellent game that lives up…

  • Review: Clubhouse Games (DS)

    Clubhouse Games Developer: Agenda Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Parlor Games Release Date: 10/9/06 Few things in this world are as enjoyable as sitting around shooting some pool with buddies or playing a game of chess on a rainy day. Nintendo took the whole idea of parlor games and such to a new level with Clubhouse Games.…

  • Review: Evidence: The Last Ritual (PC)

    Evidence: The Last Ritual Developer: Lexis Numerique Publisher: The Adventure Company Genre: Adventure Release Date: 10/17/06 Letâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s get one thing straight people before we start this review. Adventure games that are meant to be played with a straight face really arenâ┚¬â”žÂ¢t my cup of tea. The Monkey Island games, Sam and Max, and more recently…

  • Review: Contact (Nintendo DS)

    Contact DS Developer: Grasshoper Manufacture Publisher: Atlus Genre: Action RPG Release Date: 10/19/2006 Every so often a somewhat original game realizes its originality and ends up playing off of that to be even more original then it originally was. Contact might end up being the most original RPG of all time in not just its…

  • Gaming Zen 10-2-06

    Hello folks. Man, I am tired today. Itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s been a long week, and Iâ┚¬â”žÂ¢m entering into the most dreaded time of the year, fall midterms. Iâ┚¬â”žÂ¢ve got a metric ton of writing to do so weâ┚¬â”žÂ¢ll keep this short. Gaming Zenâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s X06 Wrap Up Take everything negative I wrote about Sony last week. Got it?…

  • Retrograding Roundtable Final Fantasy VII

    There are few games that are as polarizing as Squaresoftâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s Final Fantasy VII. The majority opinion is that this is a game that is a wonderful piece of storytelling, the Citizen Kane of video games, so to speak. Recently though, several other members of the gaming press has said that Final Fantasy VII is one…

  • Gaming Zen 9-25-06

    Morning my chip chips. Iâ┚¬â”žÂ¢m Tom Pandich and this is the Gaming Zen. Wondering where I was last week after I made such a bold promise of never missing until the end of the year? Well go over to Retrograding and read my new column, â┚¬Å”Blowing in Cartridgesâ┚¬Â. Itâ┚¬â”žÂ¢s a non-fiction account of how gaming…

  • Inside Pulse Review: Dracula Unleashed

    Dracula Unleashed Developer: Viacom New Media Publisher: Infinite Ventures Genre: Adventure Compatible with all DVD players There are a lot of things Mr. Alex Lucard and I agree on. We both think that the industry is in a sad state lacking in originality, we both enjoy a good dance game every once in a while,…

  • Blowing in the Cartridge 1

    “Every kid has a fort…” Every kid has a fort when theyâ┚¬â”žÂ¢re growing up. Whether it be made out of pillows and couch cushions for wood and nails in a tree, we all have forts at one point or another. My fort came when the neighbors at the back of our house cut down a…

  • Kliq Off: The Wii Launch

    Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the first Kliq Off. The Kliq Off will be a roundtable like discussion of the news and big events in the video game world. For our first topic, we decided to tackle the Nintendo Wii which was just recently announced that it will be releasing on November 19th at a…

  • Gaming Zen: The Return

    Hmm….*cough*…um….yeahIknowIsuckthatthisisthefirstgamingzeninnearlyayearbutI’vebeenbusysoforgetaboutit. For long time readers of IP Games, you may remember I used to write a Monday column called Gaming Zen which featured a look at the past week’s news, a top ten of something, mini-previews, and general asshattery. My column was meant as a way to try and spin bad news good and good…

  • Gaming Zen 4-3-06

    Hm, happy post Wrestlemania all. As a cheap bastard with no friends, I haven’t seen the show. Boo hoo. Gaming Zen is weird today. Why is that? Well rather then writing anything substantial, I’m going to just copy and paste posts from GameFAQs about IGN giving Kingdom Hearts a 7.5. What do you expect? I’m…

  • Gaming Zen 3-27-06

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s Kingdom Hearts week where Kingdom Hearts II comes out for your PS2 and every website in the world runs some sort of Kingdom Hearts feature. Without further adieu, here’s our Kingdom Hearts II feature. Kingdom Hearts II: Buy this game or we’ll club a seal! Thank goodness for that. Well I’m pooped. Oh,…

  • Gaming Zen 3-22-06

    Hi, I’m Tom Pandich and I hate my Internet. It’s been going down for the past three days or so whenever the sun is out. Someone from Bright House is apparently coming to fix it today though so huzzah for that. Not to mention I’ve been mad constipated recently. So much so that I gave…