Tea Leaves

Dripping with style and almost aggressive cuteness, Ninja Town for the Nintendo DS puts the “aw!” in “kawaii”. (more…)

How many software engineers does it take to screw up a beloved franchise? The answer is “However many work at Obsidian Entertainment.”

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is the second expansion pack continuing the ongoing disaster that is NWN 2. As those of you who bought the original game know, Neverwinter 2 took the original formula of the first game, and added to it ridiculous system requirements to draw graphics that weren’t that good, which you wouldn’t see anyway because the camera in the game was completely unusable. On top of that, they heaped a passel of crashing and hanging bugs, put the turd in the box, and shipped it to retailers all around the world.

Storm of Zehir preserves everything bad about NWN 2, but then adds new game modes and gameplay, proving once again the game publisher’s mantra: “Millions for new features, but not a penny for bug fixes.” (more…)

As a great fan of zombie games I feel I have to point out the momentous turn of events that we are currently experiencing in this generation of game consoles. I refer to the fact that there is now a major new zombie game out for every major console console platform. How can one be anything but happy about this?
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Ed note: This article originally appeared in the pages of PTD Magazine

“That’s obese!” the voice happily chirps.

The voice, belonging to an anthropomorphized bathroom scale, is my nemesis. It is Wii Fit, and every day it tells me I am overweight (or, after a night spent drinking too many margaritas, obese). (more…)

In a world where gamers complain that “there’s no innovation anymore!” but still always spend their money on the latest Bejeweled or the latest sequel to Prince of Grand Theft Halo, a game company that releases an innovative game is a rarity. A developer that releases two innovative games is almost unheard of.

A few years ago, Mousechief published The Witch’s Yarn, proving that there was something new under the sun. This game was, at heart, a “choose-your-own adventure” book, with the feel of a high school play performed by Colorforms toys. The writing was good, if at times a bit overwrought, and as near as I can tell, exactly no one bought it. (more…)

Several years ago Soldak Entertainment released Depths of Peril, a game that took some of the addictive elements of Diablo II and married them to a framework for inter-player competition. The graphics were simple but effective, and the controls were instinctive. I ended up not playing it as much as I’d have liked to in part because it has a “kitchen sink” feel. There were so many options in the game, available from the very start, that I ended up not motivated, but paralyzed.

Kivi’s Underworld is a similar game, with the fat trimmed out. It is a better game for it. (more…)

A couple of days ago I talked to Pete on iChat:

psu: Hey, should I buy Killzone 2, or should I just pretend I bought it and sold it again on Ebay after a day and then just go back to playing Halo?

peterb: (b)

My picoreview of Killzone 2: I should have listened to peterb.
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