Like Christmas coming on the 25th of December or Independence Day on the 4th of July, you can set your clock to the release of EA Sports’ latest Madden football title. Every 2nd Tuesday in August not only marks the beginning of the NFL season for many fans, it also signals the onslaught of autumn video game releases. Madden’s certainly a big deal; gamers buy new consoles for the next edition of Madden, for goodness’ sake.
There’s no question that EA Tiberon cares just as much about the game of football itself as they do their famous simulation based upon it, but the short development cycle usually allows for only a handful of small touches and refinements to be made over last year’s title. The question that arises every August is a simple one: is it better than the previous Madden, or should I skip this year?
Those who pay attention to our marvelously irregular podcast will know that I’m a one-trick pony when it comes to RTS games on PC. I played Age of Empires II nonstop for nearly ten years, so when Microsoft Game Studios announced that Age of Empires Online was in the works at Robot Entertainment (the successor to series creators Ensemble Studios), I danced for joy.
The folks at Bungie have wrapped up their “swan song”, Halo: Reach, and are moving onto whatever the hell they’re doing for Activision for the next ten years.
Seriously, they’re moving. Bungie’s got to be finished with everything at the moment, since they’re moving their whole office to a new location. If that’s not a sign the disk has been shipped off to Microsoft, I don’t know what is.
There’s also a shiny new trailer for the “Most Highly Anticipated Game of 2010,” so take a look for yourself. Also, email those folks a picture of you holding StarCraft II and flipping them off. Lying bastards.
Both Official Playstation Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine will be first on scene with exclusive details and screenshots when their issues drop on September 2, 2010.
Announced during Spike’s VGAs in December, little to no information about the Batman sequel has seen the light of day, although some grumblings about Talia al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and Two-Face making an appearance have certainly peaked my interest. Let’s see how this plays out, shall we?
It seems like each time they release a successful football simulator, professional or college, they always feel the sting of the legal paddle.
To commemorate the release of Madden NFL 11, a class action lawsuit by almost 6,000 retired NFL players has been filed against EA for the use of player likenesses in Madden 09’s historic teams.
During last week’s Comic-Con spectacular, Bungie revealed two major additions to its already beefy Halo spin-off, Halo: Reach. Both should be familiar to Halo fans, but might not be quite what they expected based on previous iterations of the franchise.
Thanks to its highly anticipated launch after nearly 12 years of waiting, fans responded to the sci-fi sequel in a big way, accounting for 1.5 million sales in the first two days of availability.
It’s already the highest-selling PC game of this year and the fastest-selling strategy game “of all time.” And that’s only one-third of the whole game!
But is it any good? We’ll find out when CFD!’s John DeLuca emerges from the bowels of his computer chair and reviews the game. Stay tuned, dear readers.
In a move that should really surprise no one, the PC version of Fable III has been delayed to an undetermined later date.
A Microsoft rep told IGN that while the 360 edition of the game is on track for its October 26 release date, the two versions “are now on different schedules as we’re focusing on building experiences optimized for each platform.”
Given the fact that Fable II never saw the light of day on PC, I wouldn’t mind seeing a quick port show up a few months before the sequel comes out so PC gamers are caught up. Hopefully this gives Microsoft a bit of headroom in that department.
The days of Evel Knievel may be long gone but the daredevil stuntman’s spirit rides on in Hello Games’ PSN-exclusive Joe Danger. One difference between Joe and Evel? Besides the whole “reality” thing, Evel never saw the absurd Trials HD-style obstacle courses Joe needs to navigate.
Most comparisons to Joe Danger do often bring up Trials, and for good reason. Those familiar with the spirit-crushing difficulty of the latter will find refuge in Joe Danger, as the same basic premise (and controls, to an extent) are present in Trials without the obscene and frustrating ramp-up in difficulty. There’s always the same goal in a Joe Danger track: finish by any means possible. Moving from left-to-right often accomplishes that quite nicely, though a number of ramps, traps, springs, walls, buildings, and explosives may stand in your way.
Welcome to Crush! Frag! Destroy’s! inaugural edition of InterReviews! — a supplementary podcast and article that will go up along with certain game reviews. Basically, how this will work is Mr. Scott Thompson and myself, Sage Knox, will be asking each other questions about the game (in this case, Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii). We’re going to talk about what we liked about the game, what we didn’t like particularly well, and what we’re looking forward to in the future. If you want to listen along with us or take this article on the go, you can find the mp3 here.
The last time I remember feeling the same rush of adrenaline and sense of speed (in a video game, mind you) that I did from Blur was Burnout Paradise. If you want the down and dirty explanation of the game, take one part Mario Kart, shake in some Motorstorm, and then add some of that special Burnout 3: Takedown sauce. Blur wastes no time in drawing those comparisons. You’ve got the power up-based attack mechanics from the former, the rails-to-rails physical feel of Motorstorm, and the aggressive screen-tearing behavior of the latter.
We at CFD! don’t often construct lazy lists of awesome things in order to drive hits and inspire controversy, but in what we hope will become a regular feature we felt obligated to shine a spotlight on notable game releases on the Apple iPad.
The first batch of titles for the shiny new device were surprisingly strong for a system launch, possibly because there’s not a huge difference between games for the iPhone/iPod Touch platforms and the iPad aside from resolution and screen real estate. Hopefully that means if you own just one of these devices you’ll be able to share the enjoyment these fine titles provide:
It’s been called “worthless,” “a big iPod Touch,” and “an unnecessary step between a smartphone and a laptop.” Depending on your financial situation and your level of experience with Apple’s iPad, you might tend to agree with the aforementioned statements.
I don’t remember a more highly-anticipated and highly-controversial piece of consumer electronics ever having the same exact effect on people only after they’ve used it: the iPad is magical. I’ve never experienced anyone who hasn’t been absolutely spellbound by the tablet. Maybe it’s the simple, familiar interface or the beautiful screen, or perhaps it’s the feeling of being in an episode of Star Trek, complete with data pad. Whatever it is, the shortcomings of the iPad are easily overlooked once you hold it in your own hands.
Skateboarding video games have a storied history. Reaching critical mass with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999, the genre has experienced twists and turns that include the likes of Thrasher: Skate and Destroy to ESPN X Games Skateboarding on the PlayStation 2. EA Black Box’s Skate opened a new chapter for tired skateboarding-flavored games by introducing an innovative, mind-bending analog stick-based trick system and realistic physics that complimented the believable environments, bucking the ever-intensifying wild and ridiculous style trending in the Tony Hawk titles.
Join the CFD! editorial staff as they bicker incessantly and vent their collective neuroses on air... and somewhere along the way they talk about games too.
Interested in advertising on CFD!? Click Here
Experiencing tech issues/site glitches? Click Here
Hot news tips? Ideas for site improvement? Click Here
Publishers: Want CFD! to review your products? Click Here
It’s been called “worthless,” “a big iPod Touch,” and “an unnecessary step between a smartphone and a laptop.” Depending on your financial situation and your level of experience with Apple’s iPad, you might tend to agree with the aforementioned statements.
Rob Thomas
Rob Rich
Sage Knox
Beki Sutcliffe
Dustin Stevens
Jason Smith
Scott Thompson
Aubrey Klanecky
Zuri Grimm
Loading ...