Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
Guys and girls, we’re living in the last days of humanity. And I’m not talking about some crazy Mayan calendar voodoo that claims we’re all out of here at the end of 2012. We don’t even have that long, I’m afraid.
See, according to a bunch of billboards you may have seen while traveling during the long weekend, Judgment Day is May 21, 2011. In other words, less than a month from now. Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
It’s been about a month since Nintendo’s 3DS portable gaming system debuted in the U.S. I’ve spent a lot of time with the system and have reviewed several of the launch titles for The Daily Toreador. Now, I feel more than comfortable reviewing the hardware itself.
The 3DS is Nintendo’s successor to its immensely successful DS, and the relationship is immediately apparent. At first glance you might mistake the device for a DSi, with its two screens and inner- and outer-facing cameras. Both systems share the same number and placement of buttons.
But there are three primary differences here. One is the circle pad, which operates like a console controller’s analog stick. This works astoundingly well, and feels great on your thumb while giving you much more control over character movement than just a d-pad gives (though the 3DS also has a d-pad below the circle pad). Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
On Tuesday, three elementary school students in Houston were injured when a gun was accidentally discharged during lunch. A 6-year-old boy had the gun in his pocket.
This goes way beyond any typical debate about guns on college campuses, obviously (unless you want to argue for concealed carry for kindergarteners, in which case you’re an idiot). In fact, me trying to either defend or condemn something like concealed carry would be pointless here, as it’s not really relevant to this issue.
But what is relevant is gun safety and education. Continue Reading…
This feature was a somewhat long time coming. I came up with the idea while sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office when I was having medical problems months back, and thankfully the editors at GamesRadar liked the idea, and gave me the opportunity to write it for them.
I worked on a lot of original art for the feature (a sample of which you can see above) which they didn’t end up using, but still… The entire feature was a lot of fun to produce, and I’m grateful to the editors (Brett Elston in particular) for working with me on it.
You can read the feature on GamesRadar.com. Read it, love it, Tweet it.
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
If you’re like me, you’ll be hit with a lot of nostalgic memories when I mention old adventure games like “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis,” “The Secret of Monkey Island” or “Beneath a Steel Sky.”
These point-and-click adventures were, in some ways, the pinnacle of storytelling and puzzle-solving for their day. As time went on, however, the genre started to die out. It’s seen a bit of resurgence lately, with the success of episodic games from Telltale, but those games feel pretty modern. If you really want a throwback to the good old days of adventures, you want “Gemini Rue.” Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
Politically correct language is something that often makes sense, but just as often seems idiotic. Debates over PC terms seem to be most common with religious subjects, such as with the “war on ‘Christmas’” frustrations that seem to pop up every year.
Easter isn’t immune, either, as one Seattle school allegedly forces Easter eggs to be referred to as “spring spheres.” Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
With all of the ports and fairly half-assed games available for the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, it would be easy to overlook this “Ghost Recon” title as more of the same sub-par stuff. But if you do, you’ll miss out on one of the best games available for the new handheld. Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
Last week, Amazon launched its new Amazon Cloud Player service, which allows you to play your music — whether bought from Amazon directly or uploaded from your own collection — anywhere, provided you’re around a computer or an Android device.
But the music industry, in their infinite wisdom, was quick to say, “Uhhh, wait a minute.” See, they saw a service that says “music” on it and realized it wasn’t something they were profiting from directly, and that upset the men in suits. Continue Reading…
Originally published in The Daily Toreador.
Hardware launches aren’t always filled with quality games. Not every launch title can be “Super Mario 64” or “Halo,” after all. But there are some games that absolutely should have spent more time in development. “Asphalt 3D” for the Nintendo 3DS is one of those games.
My first Nintendo 3DS review is for Super Monkey Ball 3D, and it was published in The Daily Toreador.
The “Super Monkey Ball” games have sort of become staples of Nintendo hardware launches lately; first on the GameCube, then the Wii and now the 3DS.
The primary gameplay mode in the “Monkey Ball” series is a fun rendition of those old “ball in a maze” games you might have played with as a kid, where you have to tilt the maze in different directions in order to get the ball bearing to the goal.
