Game On

American gangsta.When stores open at midnight on the day of a game’s release, you know it's big.
 
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV is the first installment in the popular series designed for the latest game systems. The Grand Theft Auto series was the first notable game outside of the RPG genre to introduce open world game play back, which it did back in 1997 with the release of GTA 1. Now, 11 years later, with GTA 4 the evolution of the series continues.
You take on the role of Niko Bellic, a Serbian who's come to Liberty City to meet up with his cousin and find that special someone. The core game play remains intact. Players navigate a massive interactive city while completing missions that earn you props in the organized crime world.
One of the series’ stand-out features is that players can ignore the main plot and just drive around filling their criminal fantasies. Killing virtual people on the street may not seem like fun, but after five minutes in Liberty City most folks will be running from the law and beating pimps with baseball bats. The way that GTA brings out the worst in people is part of the beauty of the whole series.

crush or be crushed. As a kid I remember my grandfather spending all day playing golf. I never understood why anybody would want to hit a little ball from hole to hole. But when the original PlayStation released Hot Shots Golf about 10 years ago, I gave it a swing, and it turned out to be great fun.
 
Hot Shots Golf is back in the console realm once again with Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. With revamped single player content and improved online play, Out of Bounds brings the series' signature style to the PlayStation 3 quite well.

In a better world, we’re all cartoonsThis was going to happen; it was just a matter of when. Electronic Arts has taken one of their premier franchises and combined it with the hottest game system around. The first installment of the Sims franchise for the Wii has arrived under the name My Sims. This game is much more cartoon-like, giving it a bright atmosphere and different approach.
If you're looking for the standard Sims game, you're in for a surprise. This version of the game is a lot simpler and easier to play. And, thanks to the Wii controller, there are plenty of new features, most notably building. The one thing that is really annoying is load times. Every time you go into a house or access the design interface, it seems like it takes forever.

What happens in vegas stays in vegasHigh Rollers, Straight Shooters
 
The original "Rainbow Six: Vegas" is one of the best shooters to come out on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. A streamlining of the "Rainbow Six" style and a tighter and more contemporary game play engine made this a successful game. This also made it successful enough for a sequel. But like most great games with follow-ups, this could be a worthy successor or an over priced add-on to the original.

cool stuff happens in the future. "Army of Two" for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 shows that the buddy genre is alive and well. Published by Electronic Arts (EA) and using the Unreal 3 Engine, this third-person shooter is a nice change from all the first-person shooters out there. The story is about two fictionalized military contractors who are more or less mercenaries and are given missions that take place in different parts of the world, spanning from the years 1993 to 2009. In an age of macho, testosterone-inducing shooters, this game seems to top them all. Throw in some swearing and over-the-top blood theatrics followed by air guitar antics, and guys might worship this game.
 
Still, it's a complex game that co-op fans will appreciate as one of the best multi-player games of its generation. Despite its cartoon action elements, "Army of Two" is more a thinking man's game. Those who play strategically will be rewarded with more money and glory. The game takes the basic idea of shooting alongside a friend and adds welcome complexity. What makes the game work is what's called the Aggro system. Essentially, the more attention you create for yourself, the more Aggro you have. This helps your partner become somewhat invisible and free to move about. Switching the Aggro back and forth between the partners helps you progress through levels.

It’s time to get smashed. Nintendo has heard the cries of gamers and released the highly anticipated "Super Smash Bros. Brawl." In collaboration with Japanese game makers Game Arts and Sora Ltd., Nintendo has come up with yet another reason to buy a Wii (if you can find one). This game features an updated roster, improved fighting system, a bucket load of more content than its Nintendo 64 and GameCube predecessors and a fully-fleshed out single-player mode with online play.

 Gamers and fans of the "Smash Bros." games who are worried about too much change in this game can rest assured; the game you loved on the 64 and GameCube is very much back but with a polished facelift and a lot more layers. The game looks and sounds like its predecessors, and yet it provides a completely different visual and audio experience.

It's that time of year again. And if you love baseball and own one of the major video game consoles, then it's time to "play ball."
"Major League Baseball 2K8", or "MLB 2K8", for short is an improvement over last year's game. When the 2K6 version of this game came out, it had a lot of issues that were hard to get past, but when the 2K7 was released it addressed a lot of those issues and fans were for the most part pleased.
On the outside, New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes grabs the game cover, pushing aside last year's cover boy, Derek Jeter. But announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan return. Inside, "2K8" features refined gameplay, and fixes some of the problems from the last title. Developer Krush Games went all out and included the following changes for "2K8": 90 playable, real-life minor league baseball teams and players, player trading cards, a new pitching scheme - in which the pitch type is chosen with the analog stick - and a revamped analog batting system. A new throwing system and other changes that make this a better game.

It’s okay to shoot, they’re only endangered on their home planet. The "Turok" franchise has been quiet over the last few years. The last offering, "Turok Evolution" didn't quite live up to the original game. Still, developers Touchstone and Propaganda Games haven't given up hope that there is something left in the Turok series. While this game is an improvement from the last one, Turok's latest adventure leaves much to be desired.
As in the original, you play as Turok, a Native American and member of an elite squad of soldiers. Turok's spaceship crash-lands on a jungle-covered planet where he finds time to blast apart some dinosaurs.

Forget everything you ever thought about guys in dorky glasses.The Orange box is a collection of five fantastic first-person shooter
games and is priced around 60 bucks for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and
PC. Valve, the games' publisher, blends the older "Half Life 2" with
some new content and delivers a great collection of games. Even though
the PS3 edition is quite good, it runs noticeably slower than its Xbox
360 counterpart and the PC version runs best on a higher-end PC system.
It
starts with "Half Life 2," which despite its age looks stunning and
showcases magnificent environments like rippling water, has a ton of
action and gives some of the newer games a run for their money on the
physics side. As the protagonist, Gordon Freeman, you don't just play
to find out what happens, you also experiment. There are chain
reactions with exploding barrels, splintering wood and zombie slaughter
all unfolding while you're skimming across the water on a hovercraft.
If you've played this game before, then there's nothing new here. The
uninitiated, however, will find a treasure chest while exploring this
game on the newer game consoles.

The clear cut number one in ’07It seems like game publishers don't make original games anymore, just
sequels to hit games, and Capcom is no exception. Its latest release
"Devil May Cry 4" is the third sequel to the hit game Capcom released
on the Playststion 2 back in 2001. The original was a forerunner in the
extreme combat genre and a predecessor to hugely popular games like
"God of War" and "Blood Will Tell." While the concept may not be
revolutionary, "Devil 4" is largely up to the task of reinventing the
genre that it helped to establish.