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Rainier's Articles


PC Preview - 'FreeStyle Street Basketball'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006

Genre: Sports
Publisher: Vivendi
Developer: JC Entertainment
Release Date: Q1 2007

It is within the bounds of possibility that you could sell a million copies of anything in Korea, as long as it was a massive multiplayer online game. Ideally, it should be an MMO you can play with one hand, freeing up the other hand to smoke a cigarette.

Freestyle Street Basketball is, at once, a demonstration of this principle and an idea I'm surprised we haven't seen before now. This is a game where you can create and kit out a cel-shaded cartoon avatar, and then

'Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors' (Wii) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2007 - July 13th

Developed from the ground up to take advantage of the Wii and its motion-sensing technology, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is set to slice its way onto Nintendo’s next-generation platform. This exclusive title utilizes the Wii’s motion-sensing controls as players use the Wii Remote to slash, parry and blast their way through a land filled with trademark Dragon Quest foes. Developed with both longtime fans and casual players in mind, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is poised to take video gaming to an entirely new level of fun

NGC/PS2/Xbox Preview - 'The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006

Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Vivendi
Developer: Krome Studios
Release Date: October 2006

Spyro's newest venture is entitled A New Beginning, and for good reason. With this new game, the reset button's been hit on Spyro; all past adventures have been forgotten in favor of giving one of the hardest-working mascots in video games a fresh start.

In this case, it means shifting the onscreen action's focus from cutesy platforming to surprisingly intense action. Krome Studios, the dev house that gave the world Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, has set out to make Spyro's newest adventure feel like "playing through a

PC Preview - 'Caesar IV'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006

Genre: Simulation
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
Developer: Tilted Mill
Release Date: Q3 2006

Caesar IV is the latest in the distinguished Caesar line of city-building sims that rose to great fame as part of the late, lamented Sierra Entertainment. Even though it's been a good eight years since the last iteration came out to positive reviews and much love from simulation fans, Vivendi Universal has allowed developer Tilted Mill to bring back the franchise for one more outing on the PC. What's special about this title is that the development team includes many staffers who've worked on

'Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3' (PS2/Wii) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2007 - July 12th

Get the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 [PS2/Wii] Trailer off WP (8mb)

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 takes the lightning fast fighting, flying and action that made its predecessor, DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2, last year’s #1 fighting game and takes it to a whole new level with exciting new features. For the first time in Dragon Ball Z history, the Wii platform will feature online gameplay, connecting DBZ fans around the country. Meanwhile the PlayStation 2 system version of DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 will be the final installment of Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi series on this

PC Preview - 'Joint Task Force'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006

Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Publisher: Vivendi
Developer: Most Wanted Entertainment
Release Date: September 2006

You may be able to overcome countless terrorists, foreign insurgents, and enemy armies, all before breakfast, but in Joint Task Force, your greatest enemy might be CNN.

JTF is a story-driven, tactical RTS from Most Wanted Entertainment. You play the part of a fictional, multinational peace enforcement unit, with missions set in such recent real-world hotspots as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Colombia, Iraq, and Somalia. Your unit may not be real (Most Wanted's aiming for gameplay over realism here; to quote them, "Real is not fun"), but

PS2/Xbox/PC Preview - 'Scarface: The World is Yours'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2006

Genre: Grand Theft Pacino
Publisher: Vivendi-Universal Games
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Release Date: Fall 2006

The Godfather might have been a fun sandbox game in its own right, but let's face it: it completely failed as a licensed title. From the total lack of subtlety to ludicrous elements like the horse-head stealth mission, the game sometimes felt like a profoundly extended exercise in missing the point of the original movie. I bring this up because the upcoming Scarface: The World is Yours is in some ways a remarkably similar title. Not only is it a GTA-style sandbox

'The Witcher' - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2007 - July 12th

The Witcher represents the pinnacle of storytelling in role-playing games, shattering the line between good and evil with a world where moral ambiguity reigns. In a beautiful, rich game universe created by artists first, technology second, the player becomes his own hero in an epic, action-packed narrative uniquely defined by his actions. Returning to the roots of the role-playing genre with a fresh and modern approach, The Witcher emphasizes story and character development in a vibrant world, while incorporating tactically-deep real-time combat like no game before it.

Immersed in a vivid but harsh fantasy world, the player assumes the role of

'Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer' - Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2007 - July 12th

In Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, players are transported back to the Forgotten Realms shortly after the events detailed in the original Neverwinter Nights 2. Following the climactic battle against the King of Shadows, the player awakens alone and stranded deep beneath the earth. Surrounded by a horde of evil spirits, the player embarks on an epic adventure that reveals his true destiny.

Set in harsh, spirit-rich Rashemen, near the powerful nation of Thay, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer will present players with an exciting new campaign; epic levels; dozens of new feats and spells; new races,

'Harvest Moon DS Cute' (NDS) - Facts & Features

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2007 - July 12th

The cheerful Harvest Goddess and misunderstood Witch Princess have always had a love-hate relationship through time, but who would have thought that the Witch Princess would unknowingly cast a spell banishing the Harvest Goddess to another world! In the Witch Princess’s haste to undo what she had done, she sent all 101 Harvest Sprites to find her…against their will of course.

The task of finding all 101 Harvest Sprites and bringing back the Harvest Goddess has fallen to you. Now it's up to you to restore the magic of Forget-Me-Not Valley. Seek out the Harvest Sprites as you plant