Sony has seen no end of bad press since just after they confirmed the early leak of the PSP Go. There was the lack of a second analog stick, the high price, the lack of clarity on what happened to UMD libraries, the price, and so on. But now the system has been released, and I’ve had it in my hands for several weeks and been able to evaluate the reality of things compared to the hype. So how does it measure up? Read on and find out.

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Anyone who has played at least a few hours of Dragon Age: Origins knows that over the course of the game certain areas become overrun with Darkspawn and are no longer accessible. The announcement of the first DLC since the launch of the game pretty much tells you that Ostagar is once such place. Read on for more details!

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One of the cool things about the new Nintendo DSi is the DSiWare feature that allows you to run apps and expand the functionality. As I mentioned in my ‘After a While’ Review, so far I have been largely underwhelmed with the releases, but it looks like things are starting to pick up! Read on for more details! Continue Reading

This has been a while in coming … since the launch of the PSP Go I have been annoyed that many games are coming out on UMD but not on the PSN Store, and many that DO come out are a few days or even a couple of weeks later. Certainly none of them are on sale, whereas Amazon had the wonderful new Half Minute Hero for 1/3 off the other day! Of course, that game also took 2 weeks to transition from UMD to PSN after release. OK … but those are all third party games and Sony has to negotiate with publishers to get them to release digital copies.

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I love classic games of all sorts. I still occasionally replay my copy of the original 1981 Castle Wolfenstein through an emulator and have always loved playing arcade games when the arcade collections are released. So when I heard that a Commodore 64 game emulation system was coming to the iTunes App Store, I was thrilled. Of course, that joy was short-lived as the app was approved but quickly pulled due to an exploit that allowed BASIC to run and potentially allow harmful code to execute (I know, I know, but still …). Anyway, recently Manomio have announced that a new version, stripped of any ability to run BASIC, has been re-released on the App Store! They provided us with a review code to test. Let’s take a look! Continue Reading

Context is everything. I hadn’t touched SiN since replaying SiN Gold when it was released for the Mac in 2000. Then they released the first ‘episode’ of SiN Episodes, called ‘Emergence‘ in 2006, which came with a Steam copy of ‘SiN 1′ as it was called. Naturally I played some then as I waited for the release of the episode, but didn’t make it all the way through. Since it is now more than ten years since the original release, I thought it only appropriate that I should do a Retrospective for a franchise that has spent its’ life in the shadow of Half Life. Continue Reading

Games on Social Networking sites such as Facebook are all the rage – when I check in on Facebook my home page is filled with information at how my various friends are progressing in things like Mafia Wars or Farmville. Similarly, there are plenty of fun games that folks play on MySpace, others that are Flash-based Web games, and still others that folks play on their iPhone. The problem – leaving one social network means leaving that game behind. But now that has changed – read on to find out! Continue Reading

We are all feeling the financial pinch!    Blue Plate Special is a weekly review of bargain apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing over $.99.

Before deciding this is not an interesting gaming option because it is the Lite version, read this review.  You may be surprised on what you find!  I have to admit I am usually not an fan of lite versions of paid apps, but this game is different.  One reason is Firemint has teamed up with Volkswagon to bring this game as an introduction of the new 2010 GTI.  Yes, the game is basically a commercial for the new GTI, but this also means it is a really nice version of the $4.99 Real Racing game for free!

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In my recent review of MySims Agents I stated “the simplicity, hand-holding and repetition will likely mar the experience”, and really thought this was a game that would end up sitting on the shelf untouched alongside the old GameCube game BeyBlade.

So imagine my surprise on the morning after Halloween, when my two boys had a sleepover and were playing video games, that I found them taking a break from Super Smash Bros to take turns working through MySims Agents! And then this Friday my younger son had a half-day and took time to finish it up! It isn’t the most challenging or advanced game, but apparently the ‘fun factor’ extends to middle school kids as well!

It is unfortunate that there aren’t demos for games like this, but if you are interested check out my review, and also head to Amazon and check out the user comments. It isn’t a huge game and is simplistic – my review and the comments agree on that. But there is more fun to be had for a wider audience than I originally anticipated!

Available from: Amazon.com

Fans of classic role-playing games have found that aside from so-called ‘indie’ games from developers such as Spiderweb and Basilisk and Soldak, their best bets for an ‘old school’ fix is finding something cool on either the Nintendo or the iTunes App Store. Another fine game in the style of the classic Ultima games has arrived, RPG Quest: Minimae! Continue Reading

Last year Electronic Arts released a game called NERF N-Strike for the Nintendo Wii. The game merged a NERF blaster that could hold a Wii-mote and an arcade-style shooter. Reviews were middling, but the hybrid game sold enough to become EA’s second-highest grossing game of the year. Now they are back with an improved blaster and a game with more features and claims of a better overall experience. So how did they do? Read on and find out! Continue Reading

Do you have an old, broken Dance Dance Revolution dance pad collecting dust in your video game collection?  If so, you might want to take a cue from Liz McLean Knight and make yours into a stylish yet uber geeky purse! Continue Reading

Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Now we begin the ‘post MW2 period of the season. But while many games were moved to get out of the way of the big release, we still have good stuff, most notably Left 4 Dead 2. This game was the subject of a big boycott effort because some felt not enough DLC was released and the sequel came too soon. Have they never played Madden? Anyway, the game looks great and personally I can’t wait for an excuse to get back to more zombie-killing madness!

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Early this year EA released SimAnimals, a game that allowed you to engage animals in their natural surroundings rather than in a zoo. You managed and guided their interactions and environments as you progressed further and further into a forest in a game that followed the typical ‘god game’ protocols. Unfortunately SimAnimals for the Wii was torn to shreds by reviewers for being ugly, clunky and boring. The DS version did slightly better, being seen as a fun but limited forest life simulator for kids. Now EA has taken the simulation to Africa on the DS and Wii once again, so let’s see if they managed to do any better.

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There is the old saying that ‘any press is good press’, and so while the hype-filled year leading up to Tuesday’s launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hardly needed help grabbing attention, the recent ‘leak’ of the controversial innocent-killing-terrorist portrayal video has brought loads of attention to the game. This includes making the rounds through the mainstream press including a featured spot on the morning conservative talk show ‘Fox & Friends’ that decried the violence and made erroneous citations of ‘proven factual links between video game violence and real-world aggression’.

But whether or not the recent media controversy had a direct impact on sales but one thing is clear – the combination of a super hyped media blitz and a history of solid releases has resulted in a record setting launch:

Activision is reporting one-day sales of 4.7 million copies of the game, accounting for more than $310 million in sales, making it the biggest video game launch in history.

Of course, I still advise PC gamers to wait for some of the hype to settle down to evaluate what was lost for the core PC game crowd since those things won’t be known for a while.

Source: Yahoo! Tech