Well, the beta test application site for Final Fantasy XIV has opened up, and while the beta may only be for the PC, it is a great chance for those interested to poke around in what could be a fantastic MMO experience. For the curious, the requirements are: Be at least 18 years of age Possess a Square Enix ID account (Register for a Square Enix ID account here, if you don't have one already) Possess an internet connection Be capable of downloading large amounts of data Be capable of submitting bug reports in either Japanese, English, French, or German Like any other beta test, there will be several waves and opportunities to enter the beta so don't be discouraged if you don't make it in initially. For those looking for the PS3 experience, it seems that will be revealed "at a later date." Despite that, 2010 is going to be the year for this game's release, and I, for one, am excited. Read More...

A lot of people were disappointed by the recent Video Game Awards held on Spike TV, and in most cases the disappointment is very much deserved. Although the award ceremony was filled with professionals and had some fantastic exclusives to premier, it still comes off as very much forced and not at all exciting. Fortunately, for the gaming audience there were some great trailers shown. As Binh said in a great article that covered the results of the show, the true stars were the trailers. Read More...

You know the storyline.  You know the tricks.  But how is it still so fun?  New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another smash hit in a long line of Mushroom Kingdom mayhem courtesy of Nintendo.  Staying with their desire for accessibility, Nintendo took all the ideas and concepts that made the original Super Mario Bros. 2D platforming franchise a success and used that as the base for New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Read More...

The LEGO® brand is known the world over. Beloved by kids and cherished by adults, “playing LEGOs” has been a part of our culture for over 50 years*. So, when the LEGO brand hit store shelves as a series of video games, consumers were elated. With tie-ins to licensed products, the games took on a life of their own – becoming immensely popular with the young and old. Something else popular with multiple demographics is the rhythm game genre. Enter LEGO Rock Band – a melding of the two products in a marketing dream scenario. Read More...

There are times in any gamer’s life when you find yourself blearily looking for a clock, attempting to adjust your eyes to read the time. You find yourself trying to comprehend how the time reported is much later than the internal clock in your head. How much time have you lost? Minutes? Hours? If Runic Games is using that time as a measure of success of their recently released Action-RPG Torchlight, there must be a party in Washington every night! The story begins in the small mining village of Torchlight. Ember, a mineral of extraordinary power (and possible corruption) was found in a nearby mine. Read More...

Imagine that you are a character from your favorite fairytale. The main character, if you will. Now imagine that some one has gone through your story and removed the part where you were the important and significant. Everyone shunned and ignored you in your own story. What would you do? Go bat nuts crazy and slaughter all of the cute inhabitants to show that you really are the star again? It's what I would do. Well that is the very basic version of what is going on in Play Logic's Fairytale Fights. Read More...

Ratchet and Clank has enjoyed a really good run these past 7 years, and A Crack in Time is a great cap to the "future" series. In what may be the final game in the series, Ratchet must rescue Clank from Dr. Nefarious (the villain from Up Your Arsenal, the third game in the series). Before we get in to deep, let's get a quick glance back at the Future trilogy thus far. In Tools of Destruction, an evil tyrant named Tachyon set out to revenge against the Lombax's for destroying his race. This is the first hint we get that Ratchet isn't the last Lombax in the galaxy. Read More...

Disclaimer: This is not an official review of Aion, but will be from the perspective of a casual MMO player, and serves more as an impressions of my first month with the game. As of writing this, I have reached level 16 with Asmodyian Assassin and around level 10 with each of my 3 other characters. Aion is the latest MMORPG from Korean developer NCSoft, and was quick to break pre-order records amongst MMO tiles with over 400,000 pre-ordered. Aion utilizes the Crytek engine and produces beautiful results. Aion takes place in the world of Atreia, and you choose one of two opposing races of humans. Read More...

Reinventing the Vinyl WheelYour palms sweat heavily as you approach the stage. There's a twitch, a solitary twinge of excitement racing through your veins and ready to explode from the tips of your fingers onto the vinyl that awaits you. The lights flicker and flash and the crowd roars as you make your entrance. You deftly weave between songs and paradoxical rhythmic patterns, cross-fading between sultry sirens and heard edged break beats. You match the intensity of the crowd with every pull of the record, every scratch rivaled by their increased volume. Read More...

It's time to transport yourself back to the time of Metal and Rock. Back when the ancient gods of Metal ruled the universe and gave birth to everything we now know as Metal music and Hard Rock. A time where Eddie Riggs ends up and needs to help the humans and their allies bring down the horrors of Gloom Metal and Emo-itude. Oh and take down some big, ugly demons along the way to bring down The Lord of Darkness. Err I mean, Pennywise. Read More...

Since the Wii has come to market and the need for keeping those WiiMotes charged and useable has been a concern for hardcore gamers. So then the rechargeable AA batteries got pulled back out and WiiMote specific chargers began to get pumped onto the scene. Some were good. Some just horrid. But they all kept things working as long as it was just the WiiMote you had and nothing else. Not even the gel jacket to protect TV's around the world. These chargers were workable as long as you didn't care taking the extra time to slide out and disassemble everything to charge the batteries or swap in new ones. Read More...

Borderlands Review: A Cell Shaded Grind Loot. Every role playing game experience has it in abundance. It's the life's blood that drives a player to move forward. For that next precious piece of armor, that dominating piece of weaponry, or that elaborate spell scroll with it's twenty minute animation sequence. It's what the love-hate relationship of most RPGs is based on. Why I had so much fun with Borderlands in spite of this is due to the fact that Borderlands is using the RPG mechanism to compliment the existing FPS experience and not trying to cram it down the player's throats. Read More...

Here we go again with the new age Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider game that we all loved, quite literally, 2 years ago. Only this time, it's a different artifact being tracked and a new villain for Drake and friends to out smart. All of it has a very epic, action film taste to it. Evading guards, traversing a modern warfare and running through the snow in Tibet make for a great adventure along with a very witty and humorous feel mixed in. Now we've all heard and seen the hype for this game. It was selected as Best of Show at E3 this year and is already slated to capture best game of the year. Read More...

Let me start out by saying I really enjoyed this game. I was really excited about the game when I first heard about it but as time went on I became concerned it would be too childish. Yes it’s very cartoony and yes when you kill creatures they turn into fuzzy animals, but somewhere in the midst of all that I had a blast playing this game! The game-play is very simple and even the story line is not to complex, so it’s perfect for kids. With that in mind I was highly intrigued by this game. Read More...

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (titled sequel to the original Operation Flashpoint from 2001, the developer, Bohemia Interactive, preferred ArmA to be the original's sequel. Dragon Rising was developed not by Bohemia Interactive, but in house by Codemasters) positions itself not so much as an action FPS but moreso as a realistic battle simulation. If you would rather have something that's more run-and-gun, one man army, headshots left and right, nade spamming, knife stabbing free for all than maybe you should stick to Battlefield: Bad Company or Call of Duty 4. But if you want something realistic that requires tact and deft to win, then OF:DR is your game. Read More...