It’s difficult to believe it was only last fall when Left 4 Dead first impressed upon us the importance of the buddy system when faced with B-movie inspired zombie uprisings. A year to the date later, we’re presented with a sequel that is bigger and more fleshed out than its campy predecessor. There are more missions, more infected types, more weapons, more items, and more game modes. The quantity of content is an obvious plus, what with the impending zombie apocalypse looming in our not so distant future. Sure, we’re going to need all the practice we can get, but does Left 4 Dead 2 sacrifice quality for quantity?

The gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t vary much from the original game’s winning formula of shooting down zombies with friends. Your four person team still wades through thousands of undead, progressing from safe house to safe house en route to a tense stage-ending crescendo, followed of course by the part where you run like little girls in hopes of reaching...

The last time I strapped on a pair of shin guards and laced up some Sambas, I was on one of the best eighth grade teams in the state of Ohio. My coach’s name was Danny, our team was called the Fairfield Thunderbirds, and our white shorts were dangerously transparent if the forecast called for rain. These bits of minutiae aren’t likely to pop up in Football Genius: The Ultimate Quiz, but unless you are familiar with international soccer, the 3500 included questions will seem every bit as trivial.

Football Genius is similar to many bar-style trivia games. One to four players (represented by Avatars) are presented with multiple-choice questions. Answering quickly will net you higher points, and wrong answers will subtract from your total. There are several different variations on the formula from round to round, but all will test your intimate knowledge of international, English, French, German, Italian or Spanish soccer. As for me, my knowledge is pretty close to...

Since the dawn of time, man has had an insatiable instinct to shoot dinosaurs in the face with high-powered weaponry. Sadly, our forefathers could not curtail their joyous expeditions and blasted these majestic beasts straight into extinction. Thankfully, modern men can simulate the thrill of the hunt by killing virtual dinos. Will Jurassic: The Hunted quench our carnal needs of slaughtering oversized lizards or does it somehow kill the dinosaur-hunting fun?

The game’s plot is perfectly ridiculous. You play as private security officer Craig Dylan as he escorts the daughter of the missing Dr. Sayrus into the Bermuda Triangle. One freak lightning storm later, and you are stranded on an island full of dinosaurs, German U-boats, and futuristic drone ships. Our hero takes everything surprisingly in stride from the get-go and is mowing down reptiles immediately after the opening cut scene. Story continuity, writing, and voice acting are not among the game’s strong points...

It’s been only a few short years since the music genre exploded with the release of the original Guitar Hero. Since then, we’ve moved on to forming full bands of plastic guitars, mics, and drums. Despite the progress, many feel the genre’s already on the verge of becoming oversaturated and stagnant. DJ Hero hopes to keep things fresh by exploring beyond pure rock music and adding a new plastic instrument to the mix. At $120, DJ Hero certainly isn’t cheap, but is the hip-hop fantasy it fulfills to a 30 year-old white nerd worth the scratch?

At the core of the DJ Hero experience is of course the turntable, so let’s begin by talking about the hardware. While surprisingly utilitarian looking, the unit itself feels very sturdy with well-placed buttons, knobs, and switches. Every part of it moves fluidly, including the crossfader switch. Having every unit be wireless was a smart decision as well. There’s even a compartment that contains all the standard controller parts...

Remember when Diana Ross and friends brought soul into the land of Oz with The Wiz? In a different cultural twist, Beyond the Yellow Brick Road brings some Japanese flavor to a beloved classic by turning L. Frank Baum’s work into a turned-based dungeon crawler. It may not have Nipsey Russell, but is this reimagining worth the return to Oz if nobody’s home in Soulville?

The charm that accompanies Dorothy and friends comes primarily pre-loaded for those already endeared to the story, but the unique art style adds a nice new flair to characters. There’s not a great deal of character development or dialogue in the game. What is there, however, is well written and keeps the story moving along as the foursome sets out to defeat the four witches of the seasons and reclaim the Wizard’s magical eggs. Perhaps now is a good time to mention that the game doesn’t exactly follow the classic movie’s plot very closely. In fact, beyond the quartet of travelers and the titular Wizard,...

Before spending time with Bakugan: Battle Brawlers, I have to admit that I knew very little about this adolescent phenomenon. In fact, aside from having to navigate past wide-eyed boys grasping Bakugan products every time I walk down a toy aisle, I’ve had no prior contact with the franchise. The game is clearly not aimed at me specifically, but does it do the cartoon and toy line justice? More importantly, will kids like this game enough to stay home and play it so that this thirty year-old man can peruse the G.I. Joes in peace?

The premise of Bakugan shares many similarities to other popular monster-centric collectible card games. There’s a group of anime-styled kids that each have their best bud monster along with various other elemental themed monsters known as Bakugan. Rather than just having monster cards, however, Bakugan are spheres that transform into representations of their true supernatural forms. The game still includes cards, but the cards play different...

Shipwreck’s Take: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games may cause gaming aficionados to chortle and pass it off as just another mini game collection aimed at an unwitting casual user base, but maybe it’s worth finding out why this series sold so well when it visited the Summer Games two years ago. It turns out, in addition to having two of the biggest icons in gaming on the cover, the original is actually a well-made game that (as cliché as it may sound) is great for the whole family.

While not something I’m likely to play on my own, Mario & Sonic is meant to be played with others – and that’s just how I played it. The day Mario and Sonic arrived, my in-laws just so happened to be coming over for dinner so I threw the game in to see how it would fare. To give you some background on my in-laws gaming exploits, they don’t own any videogame consoles but they do enjoy games like Wii Sports and The Beatles: Rock Band. They also don’t really have an affinity for these...

Hero’s Saga: Laevatein Tactics is a strategy role-playing game for the DS. Charged with assembling a band of rebels to overthrow an empire ruling the fantasy land of Yulamecca, this title is full of grid-based isometric maps, classes upon classes of cartoon-like characters, and the gentlemanly etiquette of turn-based battles. Laevatein Tactics checks all the boxes, but does it make the right moves to stand out in the crowded SRPG battlefield?

The aforementioned evil empire stays in power with the use of magical weapons known as Vaettir Arms, and these weapons are central to many of the game's mechanics. Fortunately, a mysterious girl presents the main hero Ernesto with one of these powerful weapons early on. From that point forward, it's all about defeating imperial forces and claiming their weapons as you build your ranks. By equipping a character with a Vaettir Arm, you determine their class and appearance and imbue them with a unique skill that can be performed...

It's been about a month and a half since I sang praises for The Beatles: Rock Band and based upon the outstanding sales it has seen in that timeframe, it is safe to say that a lot of other people are enjoying the game as well. I'm going to go ahead and assume my review was responsible for the game's success, but I'll throw The Beatles a bone and say that some of those purchases were due to their musical genius. You are now able to delve deeper into that genius with the release of the first downloadable album, Abbey Road. Does this iconic LP carry the weight of its $17 price tag or will you end up wishing you never gave them your money?

First and foremost, I'm a big fan of the Abbey Road album. Along with Revolver, it was one of the first re-mastered Beatles CDs I purchased. The first half of the album is chock full of memorable singles like "Come Together", "Something", "Octopus's Garden", and "Here Comes the Sun", while the second half is a medley of shorter numbers...

When Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection released last year for the Wii, PS2, and PSP, it garnered my vote for “Most Surprising Game of 2008”. Now it has launched for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with hi-def graphics, online leaderboards, an improved game engine, and three additional tables. So it should come as no surprise that FarSight Studios and Crave Entertainment have succeeded in making this mean game of virtual pinball even meaner. In fact, let me just be blunt and throw the hyperbole out there: this is the finest video pinball game available and you need to play it.

The primary reason this compilation is so great is the thirteen classic tables included. Take a look at this list: Funhouse, Taxi, Medieval Madness, Gorgar, Pin*Bot, Whirlwind, Black Knight, Firepower, Sorcerer, Space Shuttle, No Good Gofers, Arabian Nights, and Jive Time. These are some of the greatest pinball machines ever concocted… and Jive Time (sorry, it’s a bit dated for my...

A lot of games have firefights and heroes, but few take it as literally (or are named so bluntly) as Real Heroes: Firefighter. Developed by Epicenter Studios which was co-founded by longtime CAG roland13x, Firefighter hopes to light a spark amongst fire dousing enthusiasts and action game loving Wii owners alike. Does this first-person hoser quench that burning sensation or will you simply feel hosed?

A game where you are spraying water at fire risks flaming out very quickly, but Real Heroes Firefighter keeps things interesting by constantly changing the environments and the tasks at hand. Suiting up as a rookie in Engine Company 13, you join a team of personable firefighters as you protect one of the most varied districts in the history of flammable locations. You get to deal with nine different locales including an industrial complex, shopping mall, earthquake-ravaged bridges, a natural history museum, and an amusement park. While the earlier levels seem like the...

People have been playing Final Fantasy for over twenty years now (some of you may have actually even completed one or two of them in that timeframe). To commemorate the big 2-0, Square Enix has released Dissidia: Final Fantasy, an RPG/fighting game hybrid featuring the lead heroes and villains from the first ten entries in the series. The game certainly is loaded with familiar faces, but will the RPG loving fanbase find a fighting game to be too much of a grind?

First of all, you’re probably thinking a story involving twenty-two different Final Fantasy characters in the confines of a fighting game must be pretty convoluted. You’re 100% correct. Apparently two gods (Chaos and Cosmos) tie all the Final Fantasy worlds together (all this time I thought Chocobos and Cid were the common bond). The heroes and villains collide in Secret Wars fashion as the tides turn heavily in Chaos’ favor. In order to restore the balance between light and dark, the ten heroes are required...

DesertEagleXIX’s Take:
It was 1993 when I first fell under Raiden II’s influence. I had been wandering through the dim recesses of my local arcade, searching for a shmup worthy of my tokens, when Raiden’s unique Plasma Beam grabbed my attention. I stood before the game’s attract mode transfixed by the glowing serpentine weapon. I marveled as the beam encircled its foes, stripping its prey of energy, like some kind of cosmic python.

The emblematic ray is what separates the Raiden series from the rest of the shmup world. The game’s other weaponry- a spreading Vulcan shot, and a penetrating laser, offer little distinction from the armaments of countless other shooters. The beam allows player to focus on bullet dodging, as it automatically locks onto foes. Recent Xbox 360 release Raiden IV still features the iconic Plasma ray, presenting players with two variations for use. However, neither will protect novice gamers from the title’s tenacious difficulty.
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Darkest of Days brings forth an interesting concept through a mix of time travel, futuristic weaponry, and famous historical battles. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to tear through Civil War infantry with an assault rifle, here's your chance. Or maybe you’d like to prematurely torch the Ancient Roman sentries of Pompei with a fireball launching flamethrower? Well, you can do that too. But does the game capitalize on these novel ideas or is your time best spent elsewhere?

The game starts with you fighting in your native time period as a soldier under Custer’s command at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Of course, that’s not really the side you'd want to be on, and right before you are ready to bite the big one a mysterious portal pops onto the battleground and you are dragged to safety by a man who bares a striking resemblance to Sam Neill. Sam's doppelganger is your new "partner in time", Dexter. You quickly learn that M.I.A. soldiers are perfect employees...

The opening cinematic to The Beatles: Rock Band is so cool that even if you lived under a rock for the past 46 years only to emerge and immediately pick up this game, you'd still understand completely and without question how cool - and influential - The Beatles were. There's no doubt about that, but did the game itself send chills up my spine and garner all my lovin' or was my plastic miniature guitar left gently weeping?

Here's pretty much all you need to know: if you are a fan of The Beatles this game will not disappoint. Playing through the forty-five included songs is not only a treat to the ears, but it's absolutely gorgeous. As you may already know, the game follows The Beatles' career in chronological order through famous concert locations and on to their later studio years. The early classic venues such as The Cavern Club and the Ed Sullivan Show are better looking than anything I've seen in this style of game. But it's when you progress to the Abbey Road...

Following it's World Tour side-trip, Guitar Hero goes back to the standard numbering scheme and is ready to melt your face off... or at least greatly speed us all along on our inevitable highway to carpal tunnel syndrome. Guitar Hero 5 is everything you would expect and little more, but it's the most refined and polished Guitar Hero to date.

Upon starting the game up, you'll have the option to enter Party Play mode, select your instrument and difficulty, and jump immediately into a random song without going to the main menu. Additional players can join in as well, and since everyone can play whatever instrument they want, there's no longer the disappointment at being relegated to singing duties. The Party Play mode is pretty slick and is perfect for groups because players can switch out easily and songs can be skipped. The new interface is a huge improvement to the menu scrolling that has plagued past music games, and makes the game easier to pick up and play at...

What do you get when you mix mountain climbing, heavy Buddhist overtones, disgruntled ghosts stuck in limbo, and Wii gesture controls that not only include motions for Meditating, but also Deep Meditating? You get a chillingly good horror adventure that quickly scales up the rare echelon of quality adult-themed Wii games. Who knew?

Cursed Mountain puts you in the shoes of famed British mountaineer Eric Simons as he arrives in the Himalayas in search of his brother Frank. It seems Frank was hired to retrieve an ancient artifact high atop Mount Chomolonzo, but hasn't been heard from in days. As you arrive to a deserted village at the base of the mountain, it’s apparent that something has gone horribly wrong. As you ascend to attempt to save your brother, you'll discover the events that were set into motion and they are presented with excellent pacing and intriguing plot progression. Those events often dip into areas of gray morality and mature themes that are handled...

To say G.I. Joe is the most-beloved franchise of my childhood is a bit of an understatement. Above Transformers and beyond Masters of the Universe, if I had allowance money, it was going towards filling out my troops or providing them with a sweet new ride. Heck, I even sent away for my very own create-a-figure and I have the certificate to prove I am an official member of the Joe team - "Hard Fist" at your service (boy, that sounded a lot cooler when I was nine). So when the news came that there would be a live-action movie, it was apparent there would be an accompanying videogame not far behind. I was pleasantly surprised the film turned out to be decent, but can the same be said for the first G.I. Joe game in seventeen years?

First off, I think the game made a smart decision by not sticking to the movie's storyline. This allowed them to utilize the huge roster of Cobras and Joes including everyone's favorite seaman: Shipwreck. The game's story is actually a different...

It's been awhile since we last saw him, but B.J. Blazkowicz returns in Wolfenstein to single-handedly mow through an entire army of Nazi's and stamp out their latest occult-based endeavor. Mixing large quantities of supernatural creatures with high-powered weaponry and a good amount of gore has always produced a winning formula in the past, but is it enough to still blow us away in 2009?

Although it doesn't push the genre forward, Wolfenstein does a nice job of bringing classic elements of the series into modern gaming conventions. Early in the game, there's a little bit of a hallway-shooter feel as you are fighting through the human Nazi troops. Rather than the old run and gun style, though, these fights have a distinctively Call of Duty iron-sighted approach that will have you using the environment for cover. Comparing the game to the Call of Duty franchise does illustrate the game's main negatives: the controls are a bit stiff at times and the graphics are sharp...

A Sudoku game with a plot? Yes, it seems any puzzle game can be turned into an adventure these days as Sudoku Ball Detective sets forth to solve a murder by putting numbers in grids... that are on balls. Is it a case worth cracking or is this a mash-up that's dead on arrival?

The murder mystery unfolds in a small town when a wealthy and elderly party-thrower suddenly collapses and dies. As the town's detective, you must gather clues to identify which of the seven party-goers is the culprit (anyone in this town ever heard of natural causes?). This scenario could have lead to a Clue-like cast of well-defined characters with interesting attributes and personalities, but the plot in this game is extremely bland. As there is no spoken audio, I had a very difficult time discerning one senior citizen from the next. All the characters are in various on-again/off-again relationships, which made things even more confusing to me. It got to the point where I was only confident...