I have to admit that back in 2005, I laughed at the idea of "Lego Star Wars." The whole concept seemed too kid-friendly and too corporate at the same time. But I was quickly swept up in the game's quirky sense of humor, refreshingly tight game play and surprising depth. I enthusiastically embraced all the "Lego" games that followed ("Lego Batman" still gets plenty of mileage, and the new "Lego Rock Band" is amazing if only for the presence of Lego David Bowie). But I was disappointed with "Lego Indiana Jones," which felt too loose and not as sharply whimsical as the other games in the series.
Now comes "Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues," which incorporates elements from the first three "Indiana Jones" movies and augments it with a healthy dose of 2008's middling "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
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About the time Trekkies are starting to exhaust the special features on their new "Star Trek" DVD's and Blu-ray discs, they can expect to see the franchise's long-awaited MMO ready to go live. Though it's been in development for about half a decade, it looks like all systems are go for 2010, and the first class of cadets for "Star Trek Online" will see the game's closed beta test start up on January 12th in preparation for its February 2nd launch.
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If "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" hackers really have unlocked a hidden game mode called "Global Thermonuclear War," it would be a fitting tribute Matthew Broderick's character in the 1983 movie "WarGames" who famously did the same thing on a government computer. "GTW" is one of three multiplayer modes that some players claim to have found locked within "MW2," possibly as content planned for a later release as DLC.
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The original "BioShock" offered up a pretty excellent special edition, if only because of the incredibly well-made, desk-worthy Big Daddy statue. Now it looks like "BioShock 2" is following in his large, clunky footsteps with an equally compelling special edition.
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It stands to reason that with a "Kane & Lynch" movie in the works -- potentially starring Bruce Willis -- IO Interactive would want to keep their franchise in motion on game systems. An announcement today indicates that they intend to do just that in 2010 with "Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days" for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The sequel, which IO says will come laden with a "new visual experience," already has a trailer up on KaneandLynch.com and sounds like it will play up violent shock-value scenes just like the series' first installment did.
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Although we're in the midst of the busiest video game time of the year, it's important not to forget the great games that were released, you know, earlier than last week. For example, "Borderlands," which is adding new DLC content on November 24th. I spoke with Paul Helquist, the Design Director on "Borderlands" downloadable content, to get the scoop on what we can expect with the "The Zombie Island Of Doctor Ned." For one thing, zombies. And islands. And a guy named Ned.
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There's no denying that the original "Left 4 Dead" hit the nail on the head with its fantastic blend of action, suspense, and co-operative play. And here we are just one short year later with a follow-up that Valve promises delivers much, much more: more locations, more weapons, more infected, and more variety is the name of the game in "Left 4 Dead 2." So does the core gameplay still shine with all the extra trimmings there hiding it from view?
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We recently sat down with Tomo Miličević and Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars to talk about their collaboration with EA and BioWare for "Dragon Age: Origins." Specifically their song, "This Is War," made its debut within the game. Check out the clip up top.
"Left 4 Dead 2" drops today and you may be one of many out there that's itching to grab a copy and jump online. Before I get to posting my review, I need to spend a bit more time with the game post-release to really see how the game handles with the countless servers running the whole zombie apocalypse show.
I only say this because this past weekend on Xbox Live I ran into an enemy more deadly and more terrifying than "Left 4 Dead 2's" own Witch or Tank infected. If you can't tell from the headline above, I'm talking about lag.
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The "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" airport scene may have stirred up hostilities in Russia, but Activision denies that the game was banned and claims a censored version of the game was already prepared for the Russian market. The company says that decision came without government pressure and was made internally.
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