It’s been a long, bumpy ride, but Sam and Max have finally reached the end of their latest journey.  We’ve battled evil space apes, petulant pharaohs, elder gods and their minions, even a misguidedly demonic dummy.  The final episode of this third season leaves us with our biggest challenge yet: saving the city from a giant, mutated, rampaging Max-beast, and most importantly, attempting to save Max himself.  Naturally, this will involve more crazy characters, a few pointed jokes, and plenty of zany puzzles.  But how does this finale measure up against previous episodes?  How does the season fare overall?  Is it worth taking the plunge at last (for those of you who’ve been holding out)?

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BioWare has done a more than fair job so far at releasing DLC.  A few of their packs have been decent, a couple above and beyond what I generally expect of DLC, and now with the release of Golems of Amgarrak we get a new end of the spectrum.  If you don’t want to read the rest of this review, I can tell you how much this DLC is worth in dollar terms right now: one shiny American dollar.  Big Dragon Age fans might be interested in throwing down more.  The measly five dollars they ask for it, however, is overpriced for what it’s worth.  In short, this is Dragon Age’s worst DLC to date, and its shortest, to boot.

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I’m not really a huge zombie fan.  When it comes to the supernatural, I’m more into werewolves and the kind of vampires you would find in an Anne Rice novel.  I enjoyed the Evil Dead franchise, 28 Days Later and the more recent Zombieland but I would never peg myself as a zombie lover by any stretch of the imagination.  What I am a big fan of is Plants vs. Zombies, Dead Rising (despite its flaws) and the Resident Evil games.  I’ve had fun with zombies in video games, so when I was given the chance to review Burn Zombie Burn, I was kind of excited.

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PC gamers, sometimes it just seems like you haven’t any luck.  After missing out on Fable II, the announcement that its sequel would not be a 360-exclusive was welcome news.  However, today, Microsoft admitted that the PC version of Fable III is no longer on the same schedule as the console game.

Originally scheduled to release together on October 26, Microsoft said only that “The console and PC versions are now on different schedules as we’re focusing on building experiences optimized for each platform.”  No new PC release date was given, although the company promises “news soon.”

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Sam & Max’s third season has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.  If you’ll forgive the cliche, it’s had its ups and downs, its times at which the series seemed to push the envelope of what an adventure game could be, and the moments when everything felt a bit too recycled.  However, as the season nears its finale with its fourth episode (out of five), does it seem like it’s been worth the price of admission?

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Fans of the point-and-click genre are fond of reminiscing about the “good old days” while simultaneously lamenting the death of their favorite pastime.  However, with a deluge of remakes of classic games (such as Monkey Island and Broken Sword) not to mention the birth of new goodies like Tales of Monkey Island, it seems as if our mouse-clicking fingers still have some use in them yet.  Recently, Deep Silver announced they’re doing their part to keep the genre alive by releasing (via digital download) Lost Horizon, a point-and-click adventure game apparently inspired by the book of the same name. (more…)

EA Maxis, the video game geniuses responsible for The Sims franchise, has announced that they are going to reveal the sequel to their other hit franchise –Spore– at Comic Con ‘10. Apparently, Spore is going to take a different turn with their latest addition in the series, becoming an Action-RPG.

According to Comic Con’s website, EA Maxis is going to reveal a “brand new, Sci-Fi Action-RPG based on the DNA of Spore” at the event this year. Not much else has been said about the upcoming Spore project, but by the time Comic Con is over, more details will be unveiled. Knowing how well EA Maxis has made all of their games so far, I can’t wait to see what they pull out with this one. Stick with us to hear the latest news on new addition to the Spore series!

It’s too few and far between these days that we get to experience solid console co-op games. The last enjoyable one off the top of my head that I played extensively was Resident Evil 5, and that was already well over a year ago. Oh, and Borderlands, which is certainly fun, but moreso in the way that you and some friends can “hang out” and do a ton of mindless (the story is as generic as generic gets and you know it!) but really fun missions. That’s why when Bethesda announced they were publishing inXile Entertainment’s upcoming co-op title Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, I’ve kept my eyes peeled ever since. Luckily, at E3 I had the chance to play an extremely polished demo of Hunted and walked away with feelings of probably the game I would have been hands-down most excited to take home with me from E3.

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The last episode in Sam & Max’s third season was so unique, so entertaining, and so enjoyably challenging that I wasn’t sure TellTale could top it.  The third episode picks up where the last left off, and, as the title suggests, Sam discovers (to his horror) that someone has stolen Max’s brain.  Our dear friend then goes into a Noir rage as he sets out to find out what happened to Max’s brain and get it back, bashing a few skulls in along the way, if necessary.  As a result, the beginning of the game is dark, grainy, and just about everything else you’d expect from a Noir-esque detective flick.  Sam takes on a grittier, angrier persona, and you must puzzle your way through various interrogations in order to progress.  I thought this was all brilliant, and though not quite as fun as the film-swapping adventure of the last episode.  It was fresh, entertaining, and different (especially when you choose “Noir” as a dialogue option, and Sam goes into a long, metaphor-heavy monologue).  Sadly, the fun doesn’t last more than the first few minutes of the game: as soon as Sam discovers the whereabouts of his “little buddy’s” brain, the old Sam returns.

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When it comes to horror video games, Resident Evil tops the chart, nails the head shots, and splatters the screen with blood and gore. Although the popular series changed its mainstream viral formula with the “action horror” award-winner Resident Evil 4, fans still consider the second game a hot favorite. Leon S. Kennedy may be a teenage girl’s knight in zombie gut-stained armor now, but he wasn’t always such a looker who rolled with Umbrella’s punches as slickly as the bad puns and bingo jokes. Once upon a time in Raccoon City, he was a rookie cop whose first day on the job ended in city-wide decimation. He slogged through grimy sewers, followed a corporation’s blood trail, befriended Redfield’s sister … and fell for one dangerous lady in red.

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Remember that old awesome board game we used to call Chess back in the day? Yeah, that old game that’s been around for some-odd centuries or what-have-you. Or maybe you stuck to your guns in the simpler red and black checkers game, and that’s cool, too. But we wouldn’t want you to miss out on the upcoming Battle vs Chess, SouthPeak’s upcoming chess game using 3D models and beastly war ravaging pieces taking chess to a whole new level. It’s only going to be able for just about every platform ever except for that newfangled iPad doohickey, too.

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Sam and Max continue their adventures in episode two of their third “TV” season, The Devil’s Playhouse: The Tomb of Sammun Mak.  After seemingly defeating their enemy and coming to a startling revelation at the end of episode one, episode two picks up only minutes later, in the same basement room.  This time, Sam and Max discover a projector (which connects with Max’s psychic aura), along with four rolls of film that tell the story of their grandfathers (Sammeth and Maximus) at the turn of the century.  Because of Max’s abilities, the duo is able to experience their grandfathers’ adventures through the projector, as the modern duo struggle to find out what happened to their forefathers and learn more about the history of the dreaded Devil’s Toybox.

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I’m new to the crazy antics of the Freelance Police duo Sam & Max, so I didn’t know what exactly to expect from the first episode of their third season.  I’ll tell you one thing: crazy doesn’t even begin to describe it.  However, I was relieved that TellTale has worked to make The Devil’s Playhouse accessible even to franchise newbies like myself.  Set up like a TV show, you’re introduced briefly to the main characters, and a narrator (who is a hybrid of Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling) guides you through.  The gimmick of this series is Max’s newly discovered psychic powers that enable him to use the Toys of Power in various ways.  I’m telling you, crazy.

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Do you play Battlefield: Bad Company 2? Are you known to enjoy a carbonated beverage or two? If your answers to the aforementioned questions are both “yes”, then EA has a pretty sweet deal to offer you. For a limited time only, specially marked cans of Dr Pepper will have a promo code that will unlock the Kit Upgrade DLC, a pack that includes four new sets of uniforms, weapon skins, and additional achievements/trophies.

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Left 4 Dead 2’s brand new campaign and game modes debuting in its first DLC installment, “The Passing,” will be available on the Xbox 360 and PC Thursday, April 22.  Included within  is a new campaign that features new weapons and game modes, as well as  cameos from some old friends. See those silhouettes behind the Left 4 Dead 2 cast? Look familiar?

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