Okay, so what's the point of a videogame?  Why do you play games?  Do you play them to be educated?  Do you play them to learn (some aspect of) history?  Do you play because they're entertaining and fun?  On two of these three counts the latest Test Drive title, Test Drive:  Ferrari Racing Legends gets good marks, on the third not so much....more

My son is 14 and is an absolute Pokemon fanatic. Not only does he have huge stacks of Pokemon cards covering his bureau, he can recite every statistic and attack for just about every Pokemon character known to man. When he was younger, he also had the toys and regularly had battles with friends. Now that he's a teenager, he's hooked on the Nintendo DS Pokemon games. Since Pokemon games are generally rated E for everyone, I'm good with his addiction....more

Disney Pixar’s Brave movie might have spent a relatively short amount of time, for a Pixar movie, on top of the box office rankings but those other movies on the list don’t (all) have games to support them.  Disney Interactive has done a great job lately of showing the industry how to put out quality licensed games....more

In the world of racing games, you have your simulation racers and you have your arcade racers, and then you have your games which are somewhere in between.  To this point, I would have classified the Dirt franchise as a simulator with arcade tendencies… a very good simulator with arcade tendencies.  With Codemasters' newest release, Dirt Showdown, however, I have to rethink my position....more

When I first saw that Universal was turning the classic Milton Bradley game Battleship into a film, I just shook my head. Upon learning that the fellers at Double Helix Games were making a video game version of the motion picture adaptation, I felt like crying — and that was before I learned the game (and the movie) focused on an alien invasion! Yes, from the original pen-and-paper version that originated in 1943, to the various electronic board game and PC/console variations that have come and gone since then, there has always been something missing from the Battleship equation, and now that void has been filled: aliens....more

At their booth at the 2011 E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Capcom had quite a few playable games on display. The problem with these demos is that they are usually a very small portion of the game and are sometimes not representative at all of what the game is really all about.  Kind of like movie trailers, demos can be terribly misleading.  Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma demo wasn’t deceptive but it did make it tough to get a bead on what the game is all about.  After playing through this action RPG, I can tell you there is much more to the game than what they showed. ...more

Mario loves sports.  Mario loves Olympic sports, basketball, baseball, kart racing, soccer, and so many more. And tennis - we can't forget tennis. Mario has been into tennis for nearly as long as he's been stomping Goombas. He was a ref back on the simply named NES title, Tennis, back in 1985. And, in 1995, he got off the referee stand and onto the court in the ill-fated Virtua-Boy title Mario's Tennis. In all, there have been six Mario-based tennis games, plus that original Tennis title. Today we will be looking at the latest version of tennis in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Tennis Open....more

The years have simply not been kind to Max Payne. Between a murdered wife and child, one double-cross after another, and a near infinite number of goons slaughtered by his own bullets, Max Payne's existence has descended into that of a tortured one — and the constant consumption of painkillers and scotch certainly have not helped matters any. Normally at this point in one's life, the contemplation of either suicide or a much-needed vacation may enter into the mind. In this instance, Max has opted to travel — though his journey may just prove to be that of a suicide mission by the time it's over. Talk about two birds with one stone, eh?...more

The mess that is ex-cop Max Payne is back for another tale of angst and defeat. Except this time the tale is not noir nor it is even in New York. He is the same ole' Max but now up to his eyeballs in the politics and crime of Brazil's Sao Paulo. There has been much thought put into the storyline of Max Payne 3 and while not the same noir of the first two titles in the series, it works. In a nice touch, the game does flashbacks to New York before Max absconds to South America. They show a glimpse of what made the first two games so special to many. It is a nice touch by Rockstar to help bridge the two types of Max Payne games....more

Both my kids loving watching music videos. I admit that there are a few of them that really get me in the mood to dance as well. I'm not much of a going out to party kind of a girl so most of the dancing I do is done in the privacy of my own home. That way, the only ones that are going to laugh at me are the kids and possibly our three cats. Most of the time when I dance, I'm doing it as part of a workout routine. No matter how graceful I do or do not look while I dance, it's still a great way to burn off calories....more