Game Log

Soon after I plunked down a few Kickstarter bucks for Broken Age, Wasteland 2’s campaign popped up. Back in my Apple ][... more

In terms of overall game-play, Skyrim stays pretty close to the system Oblivion used. You roam a giant open-world map, revealing new locations... more

The BioShock Infinite season pass DLC is a nice way to get a few extra hours out of the original game.... more

I guess they are rebooting Tomb Raider again? I really liked the last two games in the series and I don’t... more

Well, I tried. Three times I have started playing System Shock 2 and each time I just get frustrated or bored... more

I thought the original Call of Juarez was a better-than-average shooter that was bolstered by it being set in the Old... more

This was a free game on Steam on the day of the sequel’s release. I grabbed it without knowing... more

The fourth Blackwell game continues to make improvements over its predecessors in terms of technical polish. There is also... more

This and the previous Blackwell Unbound apparently were intended to be a single game with flashbacks and intertwined plot lines. Many of the... more

Another day, another Blackwell game completed. These are solid point-and-click adventure games. The puzzles aren’t too hard and the stories are... more

The first four Blackwell games went on sale on Steam this week for around 50¢ each. These games have... more

Have you ever wanted to be the star of your very own nihilistic, anti-war fever dream? Well, look no... more

Hotline Miami is an ultraviolent, fast-paced arcade-style game that owes a lot to Smash T.V. and Berzerk. Although it uses both analog sticks,... more

I really wanted to like Brütal Legend. but once again Doublefine has created a game that is a triumph of... more

This sequel is an improvement over the original Borderlands. The basic shoot everything and look for loot game-play remains, but... more

In the above scene from Memento Mori you are supposed to trick a little, abused girl into thinking she’s your friend.... more

I understand that this game was originally a Nintendo 3DS launch title. So, by the standards of portable gaming,... more

Billed as a first person shooter RPG, Borderlands focuses on collecting loot over story. There a lot of superficial similarity with... more

Over the past few years I have had a love/hate relationship with The Walking Dead T.V. show. Unlike most of the trash... more

Clocking in at 31 gigabytes of disk space needed, Max Payne 3 is a monster of a game. I would have... more

I’m on a bit of a tear here finishing off games. I guess after that last Winter Steam sale... more

I had hoped that when they adapted the Web version of Surgeon Simulator into a full game they would have added a funny... more

Like a gazillion other people, Doublefine Adventure was the first Kickstarter that I bought into. It was scheduled to come... more

Infinite is a worthy successor to the original BioShock. It’s not so much a sequel as it is a re-theming of... more

Another game that came bundled with my new video card. I had never played a game in this series... more

More episodic point-and-click adventure from Telltale Games. This series is definitely geared more towards younger gamers but there is... more

I played the first Assassin’s Creed several years ago and, while I thought it was an okay game, I was never... more

Contract J.A.C.K. is billed as a prequel to the super-excellent shooter No One Lives Forever 2. What we really have here... more

When I heard that this game featured Michael Biehn as the main voice actor I was intrigued. When I saw... more

The first Darksiders was a blatant rip-off of (some might say “homage to”) the The Legend of Zelda. While it maintains much... more

This game has been on my back burner for quite some time now. I play a little here and... more

While Invisible War was not without its merits, it really lacked the depth of the original Deus Ex. This third installment attempts... more

This is another game, like Dream Zone, that I owned for years (decades actually) and was never able to finish.... more

The Tiny Bang Story is a small puzzle game that I think is designed more for younger players. Most of... more

The original BioShock was a great game with an interesting plot and a wonderfully unique setting. I never really understood the... more

Crysis feels much more like the Far Cry sequel I wanted back when I played Far Cry 2. Once again you are dropped... more

Darksiders is a game that is utterly derivative of Zelda. You are tasked with exploring various “castles,” each of which gives... more

It took about twenty years, but I finally beat Dragon’s Lair. That’s twenty years of dying for no reason, guessing... more

I’m not a huge fan of 2-D platform games. Even modern ones tend to be rather shallow when it... more

This game had one of the best trailers ever. None of the narrative spark that permeates the trailer is in... more

The Icewind Dale series is built on the same game system as the Baldur’s Gate games. Unlike Baldur’s Gate these games are focused more on... more

Giana Sisters is a reworking of an old Commodore 64 game that itself was a note-for-note ripoff of Super Mario Bros. This... more

Costume Quest feels like an off-hand idea thrown out there at a pitch meeting. I’m sure the designers had just... more

Syberia II picks up right where the first game left off with you racing by train into northern Russia in... more

Oblivion is a huge, open-world RPG made by the same folks who made Fallout 3. In fact, it plays very much... more

I’ve been playing a lot of adventure games these days. In Syberia you play Kate Walker, a lawyer working for a... more

Dream Zone is a graphical adventure for the Apple IIgs that I was never able to complete when it was... more

Despite their flaws, I have enjoyed playing all the games in the King’s Quest series up until now (I ,II, III & IV).... more

Fresh off of completing Broken Sword, I decided to continue my point-and-click adventure gaming with The Longest Journey. Like Nico from Broken... more

Broken Sword is a point and click adventure game from the ninties. You will spend most of the game playing... more

Mass Effect 3 is the satisfying conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy (ME1 & ME2). The Reapers have finally come to reap and it’s... more

Alan Wake was developed by the same people who made one of my favorite games, Max Payne. Unfortunately, there is no... more

Fresh off of Goldeneye 007 I am continuing my Wii FPS fix with Conduit 2. Apparently somewhere between 1 and 2 they... more

I’ve had this game for quite a while now and have been waiting until I complete it before writing... more

I never played Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64. I guess the original was noteworthy for making the controls on a console... more

Dear Esther is a noble little experiment that pushes the notion of video games as art. The problem is, it... more

There have not been many wild west shooters. I guess there was Outlaw for the 2600 and, of course, now there’s Red... more

Okami follows much the same formula of a typical Zelda game. You proceed through the game by defeating the boss at the... more

I have never really been a fan of superhero comics. What I know about Batman comes mostly from the Super... more

Sword & Sworcery is a bit more art than video game. In fact, the game itself is more of a... more

Phantasy Star II and III are probably the only 16-bit era JRPGs that I actually completed when I was... more

I liked the original Dead Space well enough. The sequel is just more of the same endless dark hallways, jump scares,... more

I guess the best way to describe Other M would be “disappointing.” Judging from  screenshots of the game you would assume... more

This game has been lying dormant in a plastic bin in my basement for more than a decade. Back... more

I have just been plowing through the sequels of nineties FPS’s lately. This time it was back to Castle... more

It’s been quite some time since I tackled a Sierra 3-D adventure game (See my reviews of Kings’s Quest I, II & III and Leisure Suit... more

This is essentially the same game as Doom 3 except with the lights turned on and fewer monster closets. What both... more

The original Duke Nukem 3D was perhaps the best of the first wave of FPS games. I also really liked Rise of... more

This is the game that forced me to update my video card last year. I remember playing the first Far... more

I missed out on the original Tomb Raider game in the 90s. I think I downloaded the demo and... more

Pushing balls around has never been more fun! I have really enjoyed the last few Tomb Raider games like Tomb Raider:... more

Although it’s a massive 30-40 hour game, New Vegas is really just an stand-alone expansion pack to the wonderful Fallout 3. If... more

I have had this game sitting on my video game to-do list for a long, long time. This is... more

Having whet my appetite for adventure games on the excellent Sam and Max series, I thought it would be a good... more

Having been burnt twice by buying the technically challenged Wii versions on Season 1 & 2, I decided to... more

This is the fourth Oddworld game. The first two were great 2-D puzzle platform games of which I was reminded of... more

Zeno Clash brings brawling and melee combat to the FPS genre and makes it work. Whenever a game has attempted... more

This is a sequel I have been meaning to play through for a few years now. The original Deus Ex was... more

Painkiller is a first generation FPS that’s about a dozen years too late. Unlike most modern shooters, your goal is... more

This game is noteworthy for its incredible, painterly art style. The characters and backgrounds are all rendered with vibrant... more

Mass Effect had a really interesting storyline and I was pretty excited to delve further into the universe of Shepard... more

Portal 2 is incredible. You’ll find plenty of gushing reviews just about everywhere else on the ‘net so I will... more

Season two is more of the same point-and-click adventuring that was done so well in Season one. The puzzles are... more

This is one of the best games you can buy for the Wii. There are nearly a dozen classic... more

It took about a year of on-again / off-again playing, but I finally made it through this DS remake... more

“Leathermen don’t get nervous… leathermen don’t get nervous” The immortal words of Glenn the Leatherman from Village People movie, Can’t... more

This was my third journey into the world of Grand Theft Auto and I am starting to pick up on the... more

So, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working my way through F.E.A.R. and its two expansion packs: Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. I... more

After many months of playing I have finally finished all three of the games included in this excellent limited... more

Aim for the arms! Aim for the arms, dammit! Ever since I installed my completely unnecessary 5.1 surround audio... more

This is one of the first games I bought for my new iPad tablet. Puzzle Agent is essentially a clone of Professor... more

I have written about The Ocarina of Time on this Web site before. That game is considered one of the best... more

Dead Space Extraction is yet another “on-rails” Wii shooter game. The Wii, with its pointer controls, is the perfect platform... more

The Conduit is one of the few games for the Wii that makes an honest attempt to appeal to hardcore... more

The Wii has two areas in which it excels: family friendly games and pseudo-lightgun shooters (meaning, you point the... more

GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS was my first Grand Theft Auto game and it remains one of the best games on... more

Mass Effect is another BioWare RPG that I picked up on Steam for five bucks during their holiday sale (along... more

No that isn’t a black square you are looking at above. It’s a  screenshot. A screenshot from Doom 3. Forget... more

It’s been quite a while since I have been able to make myself play another BioWare Game. I really... more

This was a cartoony and fun side-scrolling platformer with nice2.5-D graphics. A bit easy and lacking the exploration and... more