Email Author Gary Hodges

2008 Stories by Gary Hodges

• Whatever Lucasarts’ Fracture Is Breaking, It Ain’t New Ground

  published October 23, 2008

  One of the oft-repeated historical curiosities about the Maya is that they conceived the wheel yet never found a practical application for it.... More >>

• A Two-Point Plan to Save Gaming News

  published October 9, 2008

  Recently, I wrote on joystickdivision.com about a link between one of gaming's biggest PR companies,... More >>

• There’s Nothing Evolutionary About Spore

  published September 25, 2008

  After years of development and nearly as many years of hype, Spore has arrived — an event made so big by the association of Will... More >>

• Too Human for the Xbox 360 fails to live up to epic expectations

  published September 11, 2008

  Well . . . I wish I could say I was surprised. Too Human, simply put, pretty much blows — probably not a great shock to... More >>

• Braid reinvents video game storytelling

  published August 28, 2008

  In the 25 years or so I've been playing games, never once have I encountered an earnest conversation about what a game means. You see every... More >>

• Even Darth Vader and tits can’t save Soulcalibur IV from monotony

  published August 14, 2008

  You hear the same words used over and over to describe Soul Calibur IV, words like "forced." "Jarring." "Anachronistic." But to me, the... More >>

• Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution releases your inner despot

  published July 31, 2008

  Gandhi is threatening to invade my country if I don't share the secrets of gunpowder with him. Consulting with my advisers, I'm told his army is... More >>

• Space Invaders Extreme brings gaming back to its arcade roots on the Nintendo DS

  published July 17, 2008

  Battlefield: Bad Company is a video game published by Electronic Arts for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. It's a... More >>

• Metal Gear Solid 4 is part movie, part game, and all failure

  published July 3, 2008

  How much of a game has to be interactive for it to actually be a game? I’m not being snide; it’s a serious query. If an... More >>

• Ninja Gaiden II delivers buckets of blood but no polish

  published June 19, 2008

  It's probably a good thing Game On wasn't around to review Ninja Gaiden when it hit Xbox in 2004 — we probably would've written... More >>

• Castle of Shikigami III tests the bounds of Wii loyalty

  published June 5, 2008

  John Edwards might see two Americas, but this simpleminded little game enthusiast is more preoccupied with America's two Wii owners. One is the... More >>

• Grand Theft Auto IV does not deserve a perfect score

  published May 15, 2008

  If you read reviews the way I do, you've already started by checking out the score, and now you're back here to see what the hell my problem is.... More >>

• Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is a pricey peek at the next Gran Turismo

  published May 1, 2008

  When the trailer for Star Wars: Episode I first hit theaters, some fans bought tickets for the movie it was presented with, watched the... More >>

• Monotonous game play leaves Baroque just that

  published April 24, 2008

  Atlus' Baroque imagines eternal life in gaming limbo. It isn't pretty. First of all: God bless Atlus. As a publisher devoted to... More >>

• Viking: Battle for Asgard sets sail for a shallow game play experience

  published April 10, 2008

  Viking: Battle for Asgard shows promise, but not much more. It's nice when a game comes along that pleasantly surprises you. I... More >>

• Condemned 2: Bloodshot trades the original's suspense for lousy online playability

  published March 27, 2008

  Who said first-person games need a second person? Developers seem to believe that their first-person games are required to include online... More >>

• Patapon for the PSP marches to the beat of a different drummer; a tedious, repetitive one

  published March 13, 2008

  Patapon marches to the same damned drummer, over and over again. You'll know in the first few minutes exactly what Patapon... More >>

• Words get in the way of an otherwise stellar Lost Odyssey

  published February 28, 2008

  Words get in the way of an otherwise stellar Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey wants to be Microsoft's answer to Final Fantasy — not... More >>

• Geek chic

  published February 14, 2008

  When it comes to giving a game a vibe, "awesome" is an easy mark to hit. Explosions, hot chicks, macho one-liners, and salivating mutants are all... More >>

• No amount of sharpening can save Samurai Warriors: KATANA

  published January 31, 2008

  The very first time I saw the Wii's motion-sensitive "Wiimote," a single thought bounced in my head like a toddler on corn... More >>

• Unreal Tournament III blasts new holes in old terrain

  published January 17, 2008

  Unreal Tournament III is ideal for overcaffeinated teenage boys with PlayStation 3s, broadband internet connections, extensive online... More >>

• Keep Dreaming

  published January 3, 2008

  The inevitable challenge faced by Wii developers is this: Can you create a game so spectacularly awesome as to prompt a gamer to even... More >>