Wolfenstein: A Retrospective Back in the 80s, a computer-game author named Silas Warner made what could be considered the world’s first stealth-action game: Castle Wolfenstein. Taking place at the height of World War II deep in Nazi Germany, the game doesn’t give you much of a backstory or even a name. Since the graphics don’t...
Category: <span>Arts and Entertainment</span>
The King’s Speech
The King’s Speech Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush Genre: Drama/biopic Rating: R for some language. Here’s an excellent picture that delivers to us a dramatized look into the accession to the British throne of Albert Frederick Arthur George, or simply Bertie (Firth), Duke of York, who would become King George VI, shortly before the outbreak...
A look back: Retro and Retraux
(pronounced the same, actually) I’ve played quite a few retro titles in my time, and for good reason: Retro, as well as more modern attempts to capture the retro feeling through graphics and/or sound (known as Retraux as a sort of portmanteau of Faux Retro), is one of my favorite styles of entertainment. The Seventies,...
Become little plastic pirates and explore epic environments!
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean By Travellers Tales and Disney Interactive Genre: LEGO-building, action-adventure Rating: E10+ for Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief Once again the venerable designers at Travellers Tales partner with a license holder to translate a property to the LEGO medium. This time, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean gets the treatment. It’s every bit...
Build and explore to your heart’s content in the retro-styled world
Terraria By Re-Logic Genre: 2D sandbox action-adventure-puzzler-RPG? Not rated, but if it were it’d probably be E10+. Terraria is an extremely addictive sandbox game that supports co-op, and you will need your friends for this. You make your character from quite a few presets of color and basic look; you create a randomly-generated world, small,...
Become the legendary monster hunter again
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings By CD Projekt RED Genre: RPG Rating: Mature for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of books about the professional monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia, have yielded two games for the PC thus far. The first...
First person shooter encourages you to kill with skill
Bulletstorm By Epic Games and People Can Fly Genre: First-person shooter Rating: Mature for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol Kill with Skill! That’s always been a tenet of most first-person shooters. But here, it’s the main idea of the game! In Bulletstorm, you play Grayson Hunt,...
Red Faction delivers more action from the Red Planet
Red Faction: Armageddon By THQ and Volition Games Genre: Third-person shooter Rating: Mature for Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence The Red Faction series has long been a staple of the shooter genre, featuring revolutionary (at the time) destructible terrain ever since its first release as a first-person shooter back in 2001. Its second outing...
Puzzle games offer a refreshing break from violence
One of my great loves, as you may well know from my other articles, is the puzzle genre of games. These are for when you just need to kick back and enjoy solving problems at your own pace. Sure, there’s something to be said for fast-paced action and drama, but you can’t beat a refined,...
Japanese animation opens up a whole new world of storytelling
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator and a founder of the studio, Studio Ghibli, known for making films that appeal to young and old. Through the friendship and work of fellow director John Lasseter, known for his work at Pixar, Miyazaki’s films have received star-studded dubs (translations) and imports into the United States, for enjoyment...