I get my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 today. I will be back in a few days to post my impressions about it. I never really played the previous versions of the game. However, I did own GTA Vice City (just like the rest of the world) but I spent all my time just driving around and listening to the really great soundtrack. I’m looking forward to playing Grand Theft Auto IV online. I imagine this is what will convert me to the series. I consider myself more of a “casual gamer” so this will be interesting.

There will be no new Xbox Live Arcade game this week (probably due to the GTA IV release). Lost Cities was released last week. So if you haven’t already, perhaps you can give Lost Cities a shot this week. It is a 2-player card game I’m finding quite addictive. The premise is that you are an archeologist set to begin expeditions to lost cities. It costs money for each expedition so the idea is to come out in the end with a nice profit higher than the opponent.

Mario Kart Wii is a nice collaboration of many of the great ideas we’ve seen in many the previous versions. The slide boosting, drift boosting, battle mode, and all the classic arsenal like bananas and turtle shells. One of the best upgrades added to the Wii version is 12 player online racing. The game also allows a second player to play split-screen on the same console during these online matches. Unlike the Mario Kart DS, there are online battle modes and now with up to 8 players! (more…)

A ranter at techradar.com tends to sound dumbfounded in his article, by success of the Wii and why roughly 25 million people have purchased one. If you read many game site rants towards the Wii you can see the same pattern. Traditional gamers just don’t seem to understand the Wii’s success. In my opinion Nintendo has come up with an amazing business plan and it worked! As long ago as 2005, Satoru Iwata made it clear that they would focus on nontraditional gamers and go after the non-gamers or the parents of that gamer. Well turns out, Nintendo did Just that!

What does it take to attract a non-gamer? Well take a look at the Wii games current gamers are calling crap on the Wii. Take a hard look at their ugly faces and realize this is the face of success. Nintendo has found out what non-gamers like and are creating games to cater to them. This doesn’t mean Nintendo developers are not creating traditional games. However, It appears the “Hard-core gamer” doesn’t want to see these casual games at all. It seems in retaliation, game reviewers give these casual games very low rating scores and horrible reviews. There is enough evidence in sales to show how ineffective game reviews are on these casual games. For instance, look at the reviews or rankings of Carnival Games, Mario Vs Sonic, and Wii Play. These games have been very successful in sales.

The Nintendo bashing article here.

AudioSurf has been available on Valve’s Steam service for some time now. There has been a recent rumor that it will be appearing on Xbox Live soon. Unfortunately, these rumors don’t look to promising. I have been playing AudioSurf for the PC and using the Xbox 360 Controller. I can see this being a good match also considering the PC version awards achievements similar to those on Xbox Live. Personally, I’d like to see AudioSurf on the Zune or IPod in the future. Keep reading and you’ll figure out why an mp3 player would be a perfect match for this kind of game. (more…)

 My Word Coach falls in that category of DS games that have many gamers arguing they are not games and do not sound enjoyable. Some believe these games are a blatant† aberration†: an anattempt to gain a quick buck. I believe this form of entertainment† is referred to as Edutainment. Argue the semantics† as much as you wish, but I’m finding My Word Coach an exhilarating† experience! The game is filled with mini-games designed to increase the size of your lexicon†. The game implies that this form of lexical† enhancement is sure to improve your relationship. Who would have thought a few years back, a simple game could increase the size of your lexicon! (more…)

Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS is a spin off of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) Final Fantasy XII (FFXII) game. Square-Enix totally went back to the drawing board on this one. The end result is pretty damn good. Forget all the turn-based mechanics you normally see in Final Fantasy Titles. Similar to Final Fantasy XII for the PS2, The game is real-time. However, this game resembles more of a traditional real-time strategy. Each member of your party is called a group leader. For each group leader, you can summon monsters to fight with them, or espers. Each leader and esper falls under one of three categories, melee, range, or flying. Like most strategy games, one category bests the other. Here we have, melee beats range, range beats flying, flying beats melee. You can mix and match your groups for more advance strategies. (more…)

When I first started playing Baroque for the Nintendo Wii, I was excited to engulf myself in a hack and slash, rpg dungeon crawler. I grinded my way all the way to the bottom level of a tower that is consist of about 20 randomly generated floors. During my journey, I acquired some very nice gear and leveled up to 27. My sword was laced with an electric buff that caused electrical damage and usually gave me one hit kills. When I manage to get to the final floor I felt the usual grand feeling of accomplishment. After the FMV ended, I was sent back out of the tower to the ‘Outer World’ at level 1 with none of my gear and none of the attribute boosts I acquired. First response, “OMFG, WTF!!! What did I do wrong?” After reloading my save file 5 times and realizing no matter what I got the same results. After my frustration waned, I thought further about what this game could about. In the game, there are spheres that you can store up to 5 items. Then it hit me…”Wait a minute…I was meant to die! I was meant to die not once but many times! I played the game entirely wrong!” (more…)