Review: Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward

Posted on September 9, 2009 by geelw

Platform: Nintendo DS/DSi

Developer: GAMEINVEST

Publisher: O-Games

# of Players: 1

Rating: E(Everyone)

Just as Tower Defense has spawned legions of clones, games such as Diner Dash have brought forth all sorts of fast-paced casual games across every platform where speed and timing are key in order to keep virtual customers happy and coming back for more. Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward takes this familiar formula and drops it into a medical-themed setting with over 60 levels of pill pushing, bed sheet changing, patient shifting total madness that can also be see as a playable analogy for the current health care system (if you choose to look at it that way). If you’re a DS owner looking for a little excitement in the ER, now you can have all the fun of being a nurse without changing bedpans, consuming too much caffeine or pulling a double shift.

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Interview: Creating Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Posted on September 9, 2009 by geelw

One of the more impressive Nintendo DS games created to date is Fighting Fantasy: the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, created by London, Ontario-based Big Blue Bubble, Inc., published by Aspyr Media and set to hit stores on October 26, 2009.

What makes the game so amazing is how close it comes to replicating the experience of many great PC RPGs from years ago wile feeling completely fresh thanks to the DS touch screen and a dedicated team of artists and programmers looking to bring the book to life and beyond in portable form. FF looks to be a classic, deep first-person role-playing experience set in an huge game world running at a blazing 60 frames per second with full, intuitive touch screen controls and the ability to map locations as you like in order to uncover every nook and cranny of the world you’ll explore.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask Damir Slogar, Big Blue Bubble’s CEO and Goran Marinic, the game’s Lead Designer a few questions about the game, most of them submitted by fans over on the game’s Gamefaqs page. In addition, I’m more than pleased to show off the excellent concept art and weapon renders I just received, which hasn’t been published anywhere else online. Continue reading →

Review: Darkest of Days

Posted on September 8, 2009 by geelw

Platform: Xbox 360

Developer: 8monkey Labs

Publisher: Valcon Games

# of Players: 1

Rating: M (Mature)

Official Site

Score: B

If you can overlook its technical issues, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Phantom EFX’s shooter, Darkest of Days. For their first major console and PC release, developer 8monkey Labs has cooked up a supremely cool entry in the extremely crowded FPS genre that focuses on a solid single player story-driven experience rather than hanging its reputation on the usual multiplayer shenanigans many gamers come to expect. The shooting action using a combination of historical and tricked out futuristic guns is indeed thrilling during the massive battles you’re dropped into during the game. Granted, some hardcore FPS fans will pick the game apart for its flaws and fail to enjoy the experience for its good points. For the rest of us, following the compelling story as it plays out turns out to be the really surprising thing, even outstripping the action at some points.

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Dead Ring O’ Death Temprarily Killls DoD Review!

Posted on September 8, 2009 by geelw

Did you hear a really loud scream this morning around, say, 5:07 or so? Amusingly enough, my 360 rolled over and RRODied this morning, which meant I had to snag another (grrrr). Anyway, my Darkest of Days review is going up later this evening. Stay tuned.

*UPDATE* ding! Your review is now ready!

Darkest of Days Blasts Into Stores… Well, SOME Stores

Posted on September 8, 2009 by geelw

As you can see from my review, I liked this one, warts and all. Go give it a try once you go read why. For those of you who can’t find the game at a major game retail chain – Phantom EFX is selling it directly on their website, a few online non-game retailers (such as Amazon.com) as well as offline retailers carry it as well. If you’re curious about DoD and haven’t played the PC demo yet (there isn’t a 360 demo available yet) or have other reservations, there’s always Gamefly, or some other rental outlet, right?

The Beatles: Rock Band Final Song List/Pricing

Posted on September 8, 2009 by geelw

“All together now:” Who’s not even the least bit curious about how this game will affect the interest level in both the music games genre and video gaming in general. With media outlets covering this as if it’s some sort of alien spacecraft making first contact and interest in the game from plenty of non-gamers who grew up listening to the Fab Four, it’ll be quite interesting to see how this translates at retail starting tomorrow.

Anyway, here’s a chunk of the press release that just landed in my inbox. Gallery to come in a separate post.

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Dealing Death Due to Double D’s of Doom and Destruction!

Posted on September 5, 2009 by geelw

In English: a reviews update: Darkest of Days showed up yesterday (it’s really good so far) and Demon’s Souls is on the way as well (I’ve pored over the manual and a few other pieces of cool stuff from Atlus and I know I’ll be VERY busy for a while with this one). Got a few DS, Wii and PS2 entries to add next week and in the coming weeks as well…

I’ll be back later with a few impressions… that is all!

Dead Space Extraction Goes Gold

Posted on September 3, 2009 by geelw

EA has announced that Dead Space Extraction for the Nintendo Wii has gone gold and should be in stores on September 29, 2009. Also announced was a nice bonus: pre-ordering the game at selected retailers will give gamers access to four of the game’s ten challenge modes for solo or co-op play. The Wii exclusive game is a prequel to the events of last year’s huge sci-fi/horror action hit on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Dead Space and was developed by Eurocom with a huge assist from Visceral Games.

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Prima Announces Scribblenauts Official Guide Book

Posted on September 3, 2009 by geelw

In case you’re one of those folks that REALLY gets stuck when Scribblenauts launches on 9/15, here’s what to look for at your favorite game shop:

Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! – Coming Soon to a Console Near You!

Posted on September 2, 2009 by geelw

After making quite a splash on the Xbox 360, the next entry in the popular Scene It? movie trivia game series will appear on all three home consoles this year. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Screenlife have announced that Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! is currently in development at A2M (Artificial Mind and Movement) and will be available this holiday season. The new game will feature thousands of all-new questions including many on 2009 film releases, an improved single player game (hooray!) and loads of mini-games.