Wizardry was one of the founding pillars of Western computer role-playing games in the heady era of the '80s. How did it end up so popular in Japan?
LucasArts were one of the last few names to survive from what has arguably been one of gaming’s most exciting eras stretching from their founding during the 80s as players and programmers came to grips with the new medium and …
The auction is over and the results were not quite what everyone had expected. After a long year of expectations, fiscal results, and grim news, a number of THQ’s pieces have suddenly found themselves in new hands. So here are …
This is your in-depth introduction to the world and gameplay of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk.
A Survey of the 2013 Gaming Post-Apocalypse
As 2012 comes to a close, it’s time for a look at what’s waiting in 2013!
As I did last year on Bitmob, I thought it would be interesting to survey what the …
I'm frustrated that the tradition of journalistic coverage on video games has now become a sort of joke told with Doritos in one hand and a cup of Mountain Dew in the other.
When I wanted to reply to community …
Assassin's Creed pens a history rife with conspiracy illuminated by Templars and Assassins. It makes players part of a mosaic of pivotal moments that decided the fates of nations with a clever blend of stealth, parkour, and philosophical challenges shaking …
On October 5, 1962, Sean Connery introduced himself to audiences in the UK for the first time as James Bond in Dr. No.
Since then, Bond has gone up against murderous megavillains lounging around titanic secret hideouts and an array …
The shot above is from Roberts Space Industries which can be seen after signing up on the site which shows a countdown to October 10th. Not sure what the picture represents yet, but it's a good guess it's concept art …
WARNING: This gets very spoilery towards the end when I start talking about the big finish, but the first four points should be safe reading. Still, if you really don't want to be spoiled and you haven't finished
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(Full disclosure : The following is a revision of content from my blog discussing several of the same points with additional material. I also hold no stock in any of the companies discussed and do not plan to
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It has been years since I took to the stars with the first Starflight on the Genesis.
It was out on PCs first, but all I had was an Apple so I missed out the fun until
…
There's a lot of sequels packed into next year's schedule, but what about the games that aren't? What of the multiplatform kind that won't require anyone to pull out their e-knives in an exclusivity rumble? Do such things even exist? …
Carpe Fulgur is slowly making a name for themselves in translating foreign games (primarily Japanese ones at the moment) and making them available in English on PCs, much in the same way Working Designs did on consoles years ago.
Their …
So what's in store for 2012?
Nintendo has thrown down the Powerglove and rumblings continue circulating around Sony and Microsoft's possible ripostes.
With so much anticipated next year, I thought it would be interesting to survey what it has to …
Contra holds a special place in my heart. The blitz of action and super powered weapons, two player co-op, and shooting the heart at the end bullet by bullet to see how fast it would actually beat never really got …
Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Adam Smith had written about this awhile back, an 8-bit inspired, retro arcade game inspired by Ghosts 'n Goblins called Maldita Castilla by indie developer Locomalito and it's utterly worth trying out – along with everything else …
You’ve probably seen that LucasArts is hiring for some apparent new-game projects. Specifically, they’re looking for people to work on an open-world RPG, first-person shooter, and aerial-combat title. The company also licensed Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology back in April.…
Back when visuals left much to the imagination, designers would sometimes try to squeeze a bit more effort into what went into the box along with the floppies and cartridges to describe what would be waiting inside.
It was often …
The Elder Scrolls have a massive history and the boxes to go with it.
In 1992, CGW had called Bethesda Softworks “The House that Gretzky Built” in a two-page spread that took readers on an insider's tour of the company. …
Duke Nukem Forever. After fourteen years of teases and trailers, for someone that remembers hours spent playing Duke Nukem 3D, it's an almost eerie thing to see it on a shelf.
It's not entirely unbelievable to think that some gamers …
So by now, you've probably already heard of Call of Duty Elite – the pay service that Activision is scheduling to roll out in time for Modern Warfare 3 and which will also have support for Black Ops. Looking back, …
The PlayStation Network is still out for the count and could be down for a few more days. Some players are already going through withdrawal, especially those who picked up the new SOCOM or Portal 2 for PS3 and have been …
What if you could go back and change history? Would you save the world? Or use it to avoid spiky traps as you rescue a princess from an evil Vizier in ancient Persia? Games have done their part in trying …
The Killzone series has been called by some as Sony's Halo – not necessarily a Halo “killer” as the first game had been labeled by the media, but with as much of an action packed personality. Both games are exclusive …
New World Computing: Explorers Welcome
1983 – 2003
Out of his Los Angeles apartment in '83, Jon Van Caneghem's New World Computing – inspired by Wizardry, Ultima, and their Dungeons & Dragons roots — would spend three years programming and designing …
FTL Games: Less Was More
1982 – 1996
FTL Games doesn't have the kind of catalog that any of the other developers on this list do, but their first computer role-playing game would leave an undeniable mark. I didn't actually …
Interplay: From Bards to Bombshells
1983 – Present
Interplay once dominated computer role-playing games in the late eighties alongside its peers. Although they would later be known as a publishing powerhouse responsible for Black Isle's Fallout series and Planescape: Torment …
Sir-tech: The Old Standard
1979 – 2003
The road to the first Wizardry didn't start with a role-playing game or in someone's basement. It started with a mailing list.
It was the late seventies, and would-be dungeon master Robert Woodhead …
Origin Systems: We Create Worlds
1983 – 2004
From his tentative steps with Akalebeth and then on to the first Ultima and its sequel, Richard Garriott clearly saw just how successful his computer role-playing game was going to be when …
I was a little late to the computer-role-game-playing party growing up. I remember looking up at Wizardry boxes: the dragon emblem wrapped around a diamond and Werdna's glaring red eyes from beneath the outlined fringes of his hooded cloak. Or …
Think James Bond, only throw out parkour in favor of carpet bombing and gadgets for gunplay. That's Treyarch's fictional take on the Cold War with Black Ops as it drops players into the shadows around the world to fight the …
Good Old Games pulled a fast one on players at the end of September in a PR stunt that felt as if they had sprung a trap on everyone and chuckled when pies hit the fan instead. Not a lot …
Normally, I don't go for zombie games whenever I can help it. I never understood the attraction. But Dead Rising showed me that something in the experience eluded me.
The joy in having photojournalist-hulk Frank pick up his first bench …
Ys games don't often make their way out of Japan – and not because of the cheesy dialogue in the title – but when Ys Seven hit shelves last month, it made a money splash with both a regular and …
The first thing you should know about Mafia 2 is that you won't have to pretend that you're a race car driver.
To players that had gone through the first Mafia, at least on the PC where it needed …
Ys Seven was released last week for the PSP, but the biggest surprise for me was the huge amount of fanservice that publisher Xseed games had lavished on it. It's crazy what they included with the premium edition.
Remembering the …
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Ys is pronounced like “ease”) on the SNES was my first exposure to Falcom's action RPG series. At the time, I thought it was just a quirky, side-scroller with cool music, neat visual effects, and …
(Originally written for the "On the Contrary" community challenge, I couldn't post these until now due to some wonkiness with Bitmob's old editor. Now that it has cleared up with the awesomely new update, here's what I had come up …
(Originally written for the "On the Contrary" community challenge, I couldn't post these until now due to some wonkiness with Bitmob's old editor. Now that it has cleared up with the awesomely new update, here's what I had come up …
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