The very first major announcement I can remember hearing about Fable 2 was the inclusion of a dog. There may have been major announcements before that, but I have to confess, my brain works kinda like an etch-a-sketch - shake it up a little bit, and it gets wiped of all recently added information. When I heard about the dog, my reaction was sheer skepticism. I can’t name a single game off the top of my head where the main character had a pet I cared about. Before I get to the rest of this review, I want to take a minute and publicly eat some crow. Peter Molyneux promised that gamers everywhere would develop an emotional attachment to their dog, and he delivered. Pretty much right from the start of the game, I genuinely liked the dog - a lot. The dog behaves in a very organic manner. It runs around completely of it’s own volition, and always comes back to you. When you’re standing still, the dog will roll around on it’s back, or chase it’s tail, or any number of other things real dogs do. The dog will help out in combat, point you to treasures, and find spots in the ground where you can dig and uncover various items. It’s hard to explain exactly why the dog is so endearing - it’s really something you have to experience for yourself.

Peter Molyneux made good on his promise about the dog, but what about the rest of the game?
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With the recent news that Namco Bandai would be releasing DLC for SoulCalibur IV that would allow 360 owners to play as Darth Vader, and PS3 owners to play as Yoda, I thought it would be a good time to explore the topic of DLC that’s already on the retail disc - which is, in fact, the case with both vader and Yoda.
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While it seems that piracy and issues of DRM management continue to grow with each passing year, the emerging trend of offering games for free could eventually become a way to ultimately eliminate both problems. With high profile developers like DICE bringing their popular Battlefield franchise into the realm of free to play, this business model is becoming an increasingly lucrative prospect.

I am by no means calling for the eradication of cutting edge graphics and triple A production values from the gaming industry, but instead suggesting that the play for free model provides an alternate to the astronomical development costs of current generation titles. Anyone with any doubt as to the viability of this model only needs to take a glance at the Korean video game industry where free to play games have an almost 90 percent market share. By literally nickel and dimeing it’s way to the top, popular Korean free to play MMOs show that even by no charging upfront, it is always possible to turn a profit.

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While many “core” gamers have frowned upon Wii Music almost since conception as just another gimmick, the recently released song list has not helped ease these preconceptions. With songs like “Twinkle Twinkle” as well as “Yankee Doodle” the conception of Wii Music as anything but a kids game has been solidified. However the track listing is really worth a second gander; in it can be found some really interesting things. While it seems that Nintendo played it safe, while not trying to invade the Rock Band/Guitar Hero space, Wii music has provided an outlet for music that really couldn’t find a place in the music games space as it had previously existed.

When the first proof of concept of Wii Music was shown at E3 2006 it was nothing more then a tech demo, which involved using the wii-mote to conduct an orchestra, mainly consisting of controlling the tempo at which the orchestra performed. While the final product is a bit different, focusing on communal play and the mimicking of over 60 different instruments ranging from trumpets to cheering (but still including the orchestra mode as a in game mode), one aspect has thankfully remain unchanged in the final retail version: the inclusion of classical music.

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Dead Space has been pushed as a survival horror game with an engaging plot, and unique combat system. Some of those things are true, some of them aren’t. The total package, while enjoyable, isn’t exactly what I was expecting when I sat down to review this game.

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With Max Payne seeming to be another critical flop, it may finally be time to put an end to all game to movie transitions. It is an interesting conundrum with the games industry seeing the reinvigoration on the comic book industry with the never-ending releases of summer blockbusters, while at the same time having all of their efforts critical and financial failures. Why is it that recent comic book movies have done so well? Is it a simple matter of comic books having a broader social appeal or has it come down to the handling of the source material?

Many of the comic to movie transitions come from franchises established far before the conception of video games, thus contributing to a much larger fan base, however it is impossible to ignore the success of contemporary graphic novel to movie transitions like 300, and Sin City (With the upcoming Watchmen film seeming to retain a high level of quality). While a larger fanbase may contribute to the box office success of a film, it speaks nothing to the critical reception and quality of said film. Although the comic industry has had it’s share of flops, it has also had some of the greatest successes in cinema history; which is something that no game to film adaptation can even think of claiming.

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Whenever the topic of the future of gaming comes up, I immediately begin blathering on about immersion, and how as time goes on, games only get more immersive. Normally, I’m referring to top notch visuals, high quality surround sound, and deep, engaging plots. Fable 2 has shown me that immersion comes in more flavors than I had previously thought.
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For those of you who would prefer to read this review entirely in pirate speak, you may do so here.

Age of Booty (formerly Plunder) is a pirate themed RTS developed by Certain Affinity, and published by Capcom. From the start, this game has shown a lot of promise. Capcom aimed to provide some high quality RTS action in a guppy-sized downloadable package, and they delivered.
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Gamecenter CX, the DS game based off of the hilarious Japanese television show Retro Game Master, is truly an experience that every gamer should play. The show consists of Japanese Comic Shinya Arino playing a variety of video games (usually retro games) and his trials and tribulations of either completing them by himself, with help from one of his assistants, or failing all together to complete the game. In the game based off of the show, you play as a young child of the 1980’s being issued challenges by Arino in order to progress through the game and unlock “new” games to play.

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I have recently been questioning the reasoning for why I play video game, and no matter how many answers I run through my head, the singular truth has evaded me for quite some time. I find myself thinking about the innate escapism that gaming provides while also fulfilling the need for instant gratification, but these answers feel empty. Is there some deeper meaning or is it simply providing another stimulus to break up the monotony of life?

Science would side with the latter, arguing that the reason for playing is purely based on the brain functions that are take place through the experience. Often when science and video games collide it usually entails a limited study about the effects of violent video games on “young impressionable youths,” while ignoring much else. However, in a 2005 study done by the Helsinki School of Economics¹ on the physiological and emotional responses induced throughout the experience of a game, it was found that “emotional game events may vary as a function of the active participation of the character.” To put it simply a positive emotion and physiological response was noted whenever a player was contributing to an experience no matter the positive or negative outcome in-game; while the negative emotions were only registered during a replay of a failed attempt of the game.

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