Every year, as we close shut the calendar and look ahead to the next, we dream about what enchantments wait in the new year. Hell, with game developers delaying their big holiday titles with greater frequency, we have no choice but to wait – our eyes and minds teased with image of the next new…

It’s that time of year again where wishful lists are dutifully drafted before being checked and rechecked. That’s Santa’s job, you might argue, but I can’t take anything to chance. Not in a household where years ago, my wife quit frowning at the litany of digital bauble that dotted my list and began using common…

It’s pretty safe to say that without the support of Master Chief, Microsoft never would have soldiered this deep into the console wars. Bungie’s much-lauded launch title, Halo, arguably did as much to evolve the console-based first person shooter as Goldeneye did for the prior generation, and it helped put the Xbox in a nice…

In a generation when so many beloved 8-bit properties have made the leap to the third dimension, revitalizing their brand and teaching gamers new tricks while showcasing their fancy new looks, it’s quite jarring that the venerable Castlevania series has stumbled hard whenever it has stepped aside from its usual 2D platforming action. That damned…

“Wake me when Alan Wake is released.” That used to be my running joke when my most anticipated game announced in 2006 failed to materialize year after year. In fact, for a spell of time between late 2007 and early ‘09, the game completely vanished from Microsoft’s radar, leading many to believe that it had…

Lara Croft is arguably the first true celebrity of video games. Sure, there have been mascots that have crossed over to the mainstream and become household words, but Lara did what neither Mario nor Sonic could ever do. She made gaming seem cool and adventurous to those who often looked upon the hobby as child’s…

Boomshakala!!! If there’s any phrase that brings me back to midnight marathons spent in my college dorm hunkered around the Sega Genesis and a Multitap; it’s that infectious rallying cry that signaled another monster jam by my dynamic duo of Bill Clinton and Shaquille O’Neill. NBA Jam may have been a mainstay of every early-90’s…

Sonic the Hedgehog is the MC Hammer of gaming. In the mid-1990s, the blazing blue hedgehog blasted onto the scene and dared Mario to keep up. After fumbling for years, Sega finally captured lightning in a bottle, producing a star character they could send toe-to-toe with Mario and crafting a game that measured up to…

A few weeks back, I reviewed Alpha Protocol, which marked developer Obsidian’s venture into new IP after a successful career of stepping into other RPG franchises to deliver sophomore efforts. There seems to be a few developers out there who have mined that niche, and while Obsidian might be the go-to developer for RPG sequels,…

Over the last several years, veteran game developer Obsidian has built a strange niche for itself – becoming the go-to developer for the sequels to popular role playing games. In the past, they’ve pinch hit in the Dungeons & Dragons realm with Neverwinter Nights II, picked up BioWare’s baton for the Knights of the Old…