Author: Christopher Bowen
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Demo Impressions: NHL ’11
Chris Bowen, our resident hockey expert, has had some time to play around with the NHL ’11 demo in anticipation of the Sept. 7th release. What did he think of it?
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Diehard GameFAN Hall of Fame Nomination: Disgaea
Our debut column for the Diehard GameFAN Hall of Fame is for the SRPG classic Disgaea. It’s a great game, but is it good enough to be granted immortality?
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Hands-On Preview: nail’d
Back in May, Aileen wrote a preview on a very early build of nail’d which was being touted as a very fast, arcade-y racing game that took all pretences to realism and threw them into the wastebin. It was intended at the time as being the antidote for more realistic games like Gran Turismo and…
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Review: Madden NFL ’11 (Microsoft Xbox 360)
Madden NFL ’11 Developer: EA Tiburon Publisher: EA Sports Genre: Realistic Sports Release Date: 8/10/2010 Back in 2008, I resented Madden ’09. I resented that it wasn’t much of an improvement over years upon years of development, consistently making the same mistakes. I resented that they still hadn’t learned how to address running the ball,…
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Preview: Madden ’11
At a recent event out in NYC, I was able to try out, among other games, a nearly complete copy of Madden ’11. Since that time, the demo has been released to the public, which I’ve also gotten some time with. With the game’s release a week away, I do have to say that where…
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Review: Dragon Quest IX (Nintendo DS)
Dragon Quest IX Developer: Level-5 Publisher: Square Enix Genre: Turn Based RPG Release Date: 7/11/2010 “There’s a new Dragon Quest coming out, it’s going to be for the DS, and Level-5 is developing it.” There’s not much I like hearing more than the fact that there’s either a new Dragon Quest coming out, or that…
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Review: Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Microsoft Xbox 360)
Hydro Thunder Hurricane Developer: Vector Unit Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Genre: Arcade Racing Release Date: 7/28/2010 For those of you kids out there that think “arcade” is a genre, back in the old days, there were buildings that either had nothing but arcade cabinets – just like the one in our logo above! – or…
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Blogging on the ‘Bus: Why We Stopped the Weekly Wrap-Ups
For awhile now, we’ve been doing weekly wrap-ups of some sort. When we first started them, they were the Virtual Console Wrap-Up; we would talk about whatever was coming out for the VC that week based on past experience. When Nintendo started adding WiiWare and eventually DSiWare downloads to the equation, we would incorporate them…
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Review: Limbo (Microsoft Xbox 360)
Limbo Developer: PlayDead Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Genre: Platform/Puzzle Release Date: 7/21/2010 Since Braid, people who like “indie” games, or more specifically, games made by smaller developers have been looking for the “next” Braid. It’s like the search for the next Michael Jordan, or the next Wayne Gretzky in a lot of ways, most especially…
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Playstation Network Wrap-Up (Quick Wrap) for July 13th, 2010
Due to me covering an event being run by Electronic Arts in NYC tomorrow afternoon, I don’t have the time to do a complete wrap-up for the PSN this week. The full update is below the cut. Please note, before spending any money, that Alex Lucard will be reviewing DeathSpank, and that this week’s Playstation…
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Playstation Network Wrap-Up for July 6th, 2010
Late, late, LATE update this week, but that’s what happens when you referee roller hockey in 100F heat. Oh well, to quote Carlin, let’s do a fucking show, huh? There are two downloadable releases for the PS3, and neither one is a big deal. The biggest name is Family Feud. This is like any other…
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Playstation Network/Firmware Update Wrap-Up for June 29th, 2010
Last week seems like it was so long ago. Way back then, I was simultaneously bitching and praising the fact that the PSN update for that week sucked. There was just nothing of note at all, to the point where I actually broke out The Brave Little Toaster to express how bad it sucked. I…
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Xbox LIVE Wrap-Up for June 24th, 2010
As I mentioned in this week’s Playstation wrap-up, I took last week off for E3. Apparently, Sony was exhausted, and decided to take this week off. Microsoft, for all of the inherent problems Xbox LIVE has as a service – the most of which is that I have to pay $50/yr to be able to…
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Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’11 (Sony Playstation 3)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’11 Developer: Tiburon Publisher: EA Sports Genre: Realistic Sports Simulation Release Date: 6/19/2010 I’ve been pretty critical of the Tiger Woods series of games in the past. This wasn’t always the case; it was actually one of my favourite games on the PS2, with ’06 being a personal favourite that I…
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Playstation Network Wrap-Up for June 22nd, 2010
I decided to take last week off, partly because of E3, and partly because of burnout. I have to admit, these things are a bitch to do, especially the Microsoft piece because they all have demos to play. It usually takes most of my evenings, and I just needed a break. Thankfully, Grace Chen, who…
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Review: Soldner X-2: Final Prototype (Sony Playstation 3)
Soldner X-2: Final Prototype Developer: SideQuest Studios Publisher: EastAsiaSoft Genre: Side Scrolling Shooter Release Date: 5/25/2010 Back on May 25th, I did the PSN wrap-up, and let loose what could best be termed as a volley of hate. It was a crappy update, and I let it be known my displeasure, but the first thing…
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Xbox LIVE Wrap-Up for June 9th, 2010
It’s 1AM on Thursday morning. Let’s get this shit on the road. Corrections Before I begin with this week’s material, I have to issue a correction in regards to last week’s piece. I said when I profiled Snoopy Flying Ace that the demo was pretty weak, only showing one tutorial stage, and that I wouldn’t…
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Playstation Network Wrap-Up for June 8
I like easy weeks. Most weeks, I have a lot to talk about, good or bad. This is one of those weeks where I can’t really get too excited about anything, despite the fact we have a very big-name PSP release. Niiiiiiiice and easy… which I like, considering I started this last night, came back…
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Review: Raystorm HD (Microsoft Xbox 360)
Raystorm HD Developer: Taito Publisher: Taito Genre: Vertical Shoot ’em Up Release Date: 5/5/2010 Anyone who’s paid attention to anything I’ve written in the past couple years knows that I have a hard-on for anything that bears the Working Designs logo. Even bad games such as Silhouette Mirage sit on our collective game stand simply…
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Xbox LIVE Wrap-Up for June 3rd, 2010
As I mentioned in yesterday’s PSN piece, this week is a massive time crunch for me due to reasons outside of videogames. Of course, three games to review and bunches of other demos to play aren’t helping either, but needless to say, this is going to be a quick-and-dirty Xbox LIVE wrap-up. Xbox LIVE Arcade…