Video Games

The Wii has two areas in which it excels: family friendly games and pseudo-lightgun shooters (meaning, you point the Wiimote at the screen like a gun, but you are really just moving a mouse pointer and not really aiming your controller at targets). House of the Dead: Overkill is about as far away from a family friendly game as you can get. The game is non-stop blood, gore, incest and cussing. You know... "mature themes." Fortunately, the depravity is backed up with some great on-rails shooting and pitch perfect grindhouse inspired art direction and humor. If you are going to play this, make sure to invest in a Wii Zapper or similar gun accessory for the Wiimote or risk some serious wrist pain.

GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS was my first Grand Theft Auto game and it remains one of the best games on that platform. When Vice City went on sale on Steam I decided I had to try out a proper 3-D GTA game on the PC.

Mass Effect is another BioWare RPG that I picked up on Steam for five bucks during their holiday sale (along with Jade Empire). This is a fantastic looking game. The Citadel (screen shot above) is an  absolutely spectactular environment in which to roam around. This is also one of the first RPGs I have played in which every line of dialogue is voiced—a big help for me and my poor reading skills and short attention span.

The story and the rich universe in which it takes place is top-notch (as far as video games go). The game does a good job in pointing the player in the right direction so I rarely felt like I was lost or didn't know what to be doing. This means the game can be a big linear at times, but, as a lazy gamer, I don't mind that at all.

No that isn't a black square you are looking at above. It's a  screenshot. A screenshot from Doom 3. Forget story and inventive game play, Doom 3 is all about mood lighting. And by "mood lighting" I mean darkness. Lots and lots of darkness... and shooting things.

It's been quite a while since I have been able to make myself play another BioWare Game. I really liked the Baldur's Gate games, but Neverwinter Nights left such an awful taste in my mouth that I have been avoiding their titles ever since. I only decided to give Jade Empire a try after playing Fallout 3 which had revived some of my faith in RPG style games.

Aside from the hour or two of GTA 2 that I played on the PC years ago, this was my first Grand Theft Auto game. I don't find that whole gangsta thing terribly appealing. However, mature rated games are very hard to come by on the DS so I decided to try this out. Having finally completed the main storyline, I have to say this one of the best games on the DS by far.

Mirror's Edge is another free-running inspired game like Assassin's Creed. But unlike Assassin's Creed, the acrobatic roof running is actually an integral part of the game mechanics and fun. With its puzzle-based level design, this game has much more in common with Portal than anything else.

Pictured above is one of the many exciting "sit and watch some guys talk" missions from the PC game Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut. Yup. Your goal on these quests is to find some guys, sit on a bench, and listen to them. No this isn't a Wii Fit balance game, it's Assassin's Creed!

Fallout 1 and 2 are two of my favorite computer games. Those games had a great style to them, engaging post-apocalyptic story lines and a great turn-based combat system. Fallout 3 is a worthy 3-D successor to those games that falls short only in its game combat mechanics. At first glance Fallout 3 looks like a first person shooter. You can try to play it that as a standard shooter but you will soon find out that it's and awful FPS.

 Braid got a lot of critical praise when it was released for Xbox. When it went on sale for the PC on Steam for $4.99, I immediately grabbed it. For once, this is a game that actually lives up to the hype that surrounds it.