Mainstream professional wrestling has more in common with the cast of Saturday morning cartoons then any television drama. Man’s best and worst traits are identified and amplified in the larger than life characters: the snob, the hero, the witty, and the racist. There’s no room for a personality of vague definition. Read more…

If Sonic fans are waiting for the hedgehog’s next great game (or even the first good racing game) then there’s bad news ahead: all Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity manages to do is scratch his legacy once more. Read more…

Sega’s invite to play games and eat cakes was too tempting, so Ripten arrived with pockets deep enough to hold a week’s supply of food, and pilfered enough grub to fill them. As well as the iced-goodness, Sega were keen to ram Condemned 2 down our throats. Fortunately, Monolith’s bloody, brutal horror also left a rather sweet taste in our mouths. Read more…

Inside Sega’s Lair

With The Club’s release imminent and Condemned 2 on the way, Sega invited Ripten down to their headquarters for a nice chat and an early look. Read more…

As well as announcing its website’s launch, Atari have released several screenshots of the new entry to the long-running survival-horror series Alone in the Dark. Read more…

Tight, controlled movement is at the heart of Bizarre Creation’s work. They produce score-chasing games that entice players with addictive self-improvement challenges. When driving, you must brake and turn perfectly. When shooting, you must move and attack flawlessly.

It works, of course, especially when tied into online multiplayer and competition. Project Gotham’s ranking boards are sought after in hours of practice by millions of players. Geometry Wars was hailed as the greatest Xbox game of its early stages – an impressive achievement for a tiny Arcade game.

But what else can they do? Can they take their brand of play to new frontiers, to new genres? The developers sought to find out with The Club. Read more…

Zack and Wiki set off to save adventure in video games

Monkey Island was a merry union of pirate and adventure; two familiar elements of much classic fiction. It was a challenging, light-hearted quest centered on the endearingly useless Guybrush Threepwood that proved successful enough to warrant a series of sequels.

Now that series has slipped away from the spotlight, as has the genre itself.

Today, things can change. The Wii and DS, ideal formats for point-and-click play, are dominating, and audiences are really buying into cerebral challenges – evidenced by Brain Training’s huge success. It’s time for sorely-needed saviour. Read more…

Earth’s got some new noisy neighbors in Universe at War

Real-time strategy developers must feel particularly anxious when releasing a game: their product will undergo the scrutiny of thousands, if not millions, of skirmishes and campaigns.

The slightest issue will be pounced upon by the internet’s forums. Communities will rage over a minor imbalance which can then be exploited by experienced players. It’s extreme play-testing that pulls apart those of superficial quality and only leaves the enduring, well-realized games standing. Read more…

It’s said that war changes a man. Fresh-faced and eager, he works his way through training, and before long, is shipped off to battle – carrying boyish dreams of valour and glory alongside his new helmet and rifle. Then, he loses something. Midway through the fighting and bloodshed something is broken off from him. He returns home a hero – a cynical, bitter hero.

Advance Wars is the best example of this. After serving for over a decade solely in Japan, it was thrust into international conflict. Now seeing millions of battles in the West, a few campaigns saw its unique, fragile and bright spirit crumble.

Days of Ruin is the new man, the returning hero. Read more…

Cooper Lawrence, current internet hate-figure, has relented over her ignorant comments regarding Mass Effect, as issued in an infuriating Fox News broadcast. Read more…

Rockstar’s battle to get Manhunt 2 released in the UK has taken another turn, effectively resulting in the game being banned once more. Read more…

In a medium so focused on control, it’s refreshing to play a game that makes you feel so free.

Nights: Journey of Dreams proves itself a true successor in this way, and despite working in a 2-D gameplay plane, flying is liberating. Sweeping through the sky as you deftly manoeuvre, surmounting each hurdle and meeting every challenge, is an experience of graceful serenity. Read more…

Light gun gaming has suffered since the 90s. Arcades continue to struggle in the west, and advancements like high-definition are killing off the old technology behind the shooting mechanic. Read more…

Atari have announced that the next of Dragon Ball Z’s franchise of fighting games will be on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Follow the jump for the first screenshots. Read more…

The “reality” of professional wrestling is as shunned as it is guarded. Adam Ryland, Grey Dog Software designer, however, cracks this world open with a new update to his deep simulation, Total Extreme Wrestling, where fans are given the chance to tinker, crafting the industry into their own vision. Read more…

Bizarre Creations’ perspective on the action genre made The Club an intriguing inclusion on the release schedules. They lack the genre-experience for this game to be conventionally interesting; it’s a new type of product from a developer known for racing and two-dimensional retro. Read more…

Tomorrow Sega will be releasing a demo of Bizzare Creation’s The Club onto Xbox Live, just for those European and Australian gamers who deserve it so much. A similar event happened for Playstation users two weeks ago. Read more…

There’s long been a group of committed, tech-savvy people who like to produce their own custom arcade cabinets. Their latest design is an excellent Metroid themed masterwork, which cannot fail to bring forth nostalgic feelings for the gamers able to recall the era of gaming dominated by Nintendo’s NES. Read more…

It’s the elegant, immediate control system of Sensible Soccer that makes it so enduring and influential. To play soccer, you need to kick, so give them a “kick” button. Oh, and we should let them run too. Finished. Read more…

Microsoft has dropped the price of its popular racing wheel by $30, hoping to target Christmas shoppers sporting a new $99 price-tag. Read more…