Playing Thief: Deadly Shadows recently, I was struck by how well the game would work with achievements. The game practically screams for them. In each mission, you can select from four difficulty levels, and in addition to increasing enemies’ perception and lowering your own resistance to damage, the higher difficulties will require you to collect […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Achievements and the Lack Thereof

Lots of times, people look down on casual games as if they’re a lesser animal. Peggle could never be as good as World of Warcraft. Bejeweled can’t hold a candle to Killzone 2. But I find that sometimes I’m not in the mood to play the in-depth games. There are times when I’d rather play […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Casual Games

Having finished the single-player game in Street Fighter 4 with both Sagat and Sakura on the same day a couple weeks ago, it really dawned on me how much stronger certain characters in the game are compared to others. I’m not talking about characters like Dhalsim and El Fuerte – I think they’re both pretty […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Street Fighter 4 and Game Balance

I’d never before played an import game. This whole thing was really kind of an accident. Wait – I’m not making any sense. Lemme ‘splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up. I’d been wanting to play Prototype for a while, and when I found a copy the PC version on EBay for $20 whereas it’s […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Import Games

Like Greg, my love of gaming goes way back to my early childhood and begins with the goodness what was the Atari 2600. I have fond memories of my mom and I playing Pac-Man, Combat, Yars’ Revenge and even the debacle that was E.T. I think we went through a joystick every six months, those […]

Read the rest of Gaming Made Me – Frank Needs a Quarter

Greg asked me to contribute my own “Gaming Made Me” article and in doing so, provide insight into my own gaming past.  I have to be honest, that when I read his email, outlining what he was talking about I was gripped with fear.  When I then read his draft of his own article, that […]

Read the rest of Gaming Made Me: Brandon Begins

I’ve been following Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s “Gaming Made Me” series for the past week or so now, and I’ve really enjoyed reading nostalgic tales from different people in the industry about which games most influenced them. The series has inspired me to go back and re-evaluate which games most inspired me as I grew up. […]

Read the rest of Gaming Made Me: Greg Waxes Nostalgic

In general, I’m not a big fan of fighting games. In fact, outside of an arcade setting, I suck at fighting games. Using a joypad to throw dragon punches feels as foreign to me as using a spork to cut steak. This is why I bought my SlikStik arcade controller years ago for playing Street […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Street Fighter 4

Moving target release dates kill me. Staggered release dates are worse. I’ve only recently realized how many games I’d expected to be playing by now that I’m still waiting for. The one frontmost in my mind is Trine. The game has intrigued me since I first heard of it, but the fact that my wife […]

Read the rest of Waiting to Play

I’d let you know my opinion of the engaging Ghostbusters (gave it away a bit there), but I’m sure Greg will let you know his feelings about that game once he’s gotten through it, so I’ll throw in my opinion of a game he’ll be unlikely to comment on instead… It’s easy to take the […]

Read the rest of Thoughts on Fight Night Round 4