Review: Halo 4 a strong first effort for new developer
New developer 343 Industries handles Bungie Studios’ signature franchise with care, successfully juggling innovation with the need not to change too much.… Read More »
What I played (April 17-May 1)
Over the past two weeks, I’ve mostly been playing games I reviewed or intended to review, but I managed to sneak in some “Gears of War 3″ beta and start “Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga,” a role-playing game that more folks should be talking about.… Read More »
Halo: Reach review: Yeah, it’s great
With “Halo: Reach,” Bungie Studios has created its signature franchise’s most finely tuned, feature-packed game to date.… Read More »
What I played last week (June 13-19)
If I don’t include what I played at E3, there’s not much to talk about, so I’ll quickly run down everything I played at the show in a big giant list at the end.… Read More »
What I played last week (June 6-12)
I crammed in lots of “Super Mario Galaxy 2″ in advance of my review that ran in Friday’s paper, managed my weekly couple of hours of Borderlands and sampled a few other titles. Now, it’s time to pack for my trip to E3.… Read More »
Lessons for Activision in Microsoft-Bungie divorce
This week’s split between Activision and the president and CEO of “Call of Duty” developer Infinity Ward is shaping up to be a classic rift between creative talent and the people who cut their paychecks are a fact of life. But for an example of a smooth gaming divorce, let’s look at the negotiated split between Bungie Studios, developer of the Xbox 360’s “Halo” games, and Microsoft, back in 2007. Microsoft bought Bungie, previously a developer of Mac games, back… Read More »
X10: ‘Halo: Reach’ impressions
Thoughts on what I saw of “Halo: Reach” at X10 on Thursday.… Read More »
What to play this weekend (Feb. 12-14)
“BioShock 2″ (rated M, $60 on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, $50 on PC): You’ll return to the underwater, Art Deco-influenced city of Rapture in the sequel to my favorite game of 2007. I’ve deliberately been avoiding reading too much about it, so I’ll keep this preview nice and short. Early reviews have been generally favorable, and this game packs an online multiplayer mode the original title lacked. “Dante’s Inferno” (rated M, $60 on Xbox 360 or PS3): Loosely based… Read More »
Online play for original Xbox to end April 15
Late last week, Microsoft took a step anyone who follows Xbox Live has known would come eventually. The company announced that on April 15, it will end support for online play of original Xbox titles. While it would seem that Microsoft, a company with pretty deep pockets, should be able to afford to keep the old black box online indefinitely, the company acknowledged back in August that the original Xbox was the reason friends lists on the Xbox 360 are… Read More »
What to play this weekend (Feb. 5-7)
The new “Star Trek” MMO is the lone major release, but you can pick up “‘Splosion Man” on the cheap on Xbox Live. If you’re a PC gamer who hasn’t played the first “BioShock” yet, a couple of sites are giving away the original if you preorder the sequel.… Read More »