7.75 With just about every one of Nintendo’s console releases, there has been an era-defining Mario title to accompany it. The original NES was, in many ways, defined by Super Mario Bros. a game that significantly altered the fate of the industry. The N64, as flawed as it was in comparison to Sony’s disc-based PlayStation,…
From pretty much the beginning of my life in gaming, Pokemon has been a major force in my RPG consumption. I will never forget the first time I played a friend’s version of Pokemon Gold at a Terrell Tiger football game with the stadium lights to illuminate the screen of his GameBoy Pocket and how…
9.25 The sun is setting in Mexico. In the small border town of Chuparosa, this is the time of day where things start to get rough. The drunkards, whores, and gamblers begin to emerge and even spill out into the street with their sinful escapades. On a nearby porch, an old gunslinger silently gazes toward…
9.5 There are a number of games that have been on my radar for a long time that I just haven’t quite gotten around to. I’m just putting the finishing touches on Red Dead Redemption for the first time, I recently posted my review following my first-time playthrough of Bioshock, I have another review for…
9.25 I expected Bioshock to be a great game. A fantastic setting, amazingly consistent atmosphere, responsive combat, and a gripping story await anyone who inserts Bioshock into their console’s hard drive. I even expected things to get tense as I found myself face-to-face with one of the now legendary Big Daddies and even question my…
As much as I love music lists, I often find year-end catalogs, particularly ones ranking songs rather than albums, to be quite weak. There is a tendency to focus on hits or to only include one song per artist. Not only is this disrespectful to artists beyond the Top 40 who may have had killer…
10 The moon hangs over Novigrad. After a day filled with monster hunting, bandit slaying, exploring, exploding, galloping and card playing, Geralt of Rivia winds down the day by helping one of his many ex-lovers escape persecution from the extremist, witch-hunting Church of the Sacred Flame. After telling her goodbye, Geralt watches as her ship…
I have a lot of great history with Fallout: New Vegas. Initially introduced to the franchise with Fallout 3, I was incredibly excited and frankly a bit incredulous when I found out that a second 3D Fallout game existed toward the close of my stint in high school. One of my none-too-bright friends (I grew…
***1/2 Trent Reznor’s latest 5-track EP starts out strong in a new direction before resetting and heading down the same beaten path of chaotic synth crunchiness that he’s walked since the ’90s. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s hard to fault one of the greatest artists of all time for sticking to his guns.…
*** I’ve always heard a lot about Sleater-Kinney. From everything I had read about them, I expected to hear an ass-ripping record from an apparently very successful overseas concert that would make me a lifelong fan after years of hype, similarly to what I experienced with The Ramones and their Live Musikladen record that came…
The Soundtrack Online 