Apple's iPad has been around only since April, but since its release I have drawn two conclusions:
1. It is a great machine for playing games.
2. Game developers have not come close to exploiting its potential.
Oh, there is plenty for sale in (...)
Sony s PlayStation Portable is the most high-powered handheld video-game machine on the market, but it s usually my third choice when it comes to on-the-road action.
It s all a matter of size. Apple s iPhone, which has become a solid (...)
The video-game store looks more like a multiplex during the summer months, with just about every blockbuster action movie getting an interactive tie-in. More than half of the films on last week s US box-office top 10 list have related games. Next (...)
In the early 1980s, after Muhammad Ali retired, boxing was losing its mojo. It took two larger-than-life brawlers to bring star power back to the ring: Mike Tyson and Little Mac.
They were the stars of the 1987 Nintendo game "Mike Tyson's (...)
When it comes to high-speed driving on Nintendo consoles, the action pretty much begins and ends with one name: "Mario Kart. The Wii version was last year's bestselling game worldwide, and no one has made a serious effort to challenge its dominance (...)
Video-game combat has come a long way since the turn of the century. In the 1990s, 3D shooters like "Doom and "Half-Life were aimed at the PC audience, with the occasional gem (like "Goldeneye 007 ) popping up on a console. All that changed in 2001 (...)
When Nintendo started its WiiWare download service last May, the range of its original games was laudable, with the action, puzzle, strategy and simulation genres all represented. The games themselves weren t all that great, but the promise was (...)
Like so many American creations - baseball, comic books, rock n roll - the video game is a mongrel art form. Literature, music, art and film all get jumbled together in this relatively new medium, but even that isn t enough: Designers have to figure (...)
What does Auld Lang Syne mean, anyway? And who knows the lyrics beyond the first verse? Don t you want something a little livelier at your party? Wouldn t, say, Queen s Another One Bites the Dust be more appropriate after a largely dismal (...)
Notwithstanding the success of Wii bowling, video games exist largely to give most of us abilities we don t already have. I m not even talking about careers as exotic as NFL quarterback or spaceship captain; I mean physical activities like executing (...)
WASHINGTON: Like Christmas season, the Halloween season seems to get longer every year. My local grocery store starts selling Halloween candy the day after Labor Day, and costumes have been on display at the mall for more than a month now. And if (...)
Is it possible for a video game to express an anti-war viewpoint? After all, most war games revel in jaw-dropping violence, from smoothly executed head shots to massive explosions. When you re mowing down hordes of aliens in Halo or Gears of War, (...)
I don t envy video game designers who have to work on movie tie-ins. Artists have to duplicate the look of a film with a much smaller budget. Writers have to stick pretty closely to someone else s script, even as they stretch a two-hour story into (...)
One of the best features of Nintendo s Wii is the Virtual Console, a downloadable library of more than 200 classic games. It s a great resource for young gamers who want to see what they missed, and for geezers who wonder if old favorites were as (...)
Just a few years ago, it was somewhat of a surprise when a NASCAR driver said he used video games to get ready for real-life races. Nowadays, virtual racing is a standard element of the training regimen of professional drivers, particularly the (...)