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Of the few forums I follow with fervor, I happened to be at the Maniaplanet Forums at exactly the right time when one of the devs started playing the dev-titled “stupid games” to give out beta keys to test Trackmania²: Canyon (“Canyon”). It was really a fluke, and as I entered the first beta round I …

The Nod Problem: if God is all-powerful, can God create something too heavy for God to lift? I’m nearly finished with From Dust, so once again I violate the implications of our “First Impressions” category, but I didn’t want to shoulder in on any other writers in case they wanted to do some impressions. So here …

Back in ’03, a small French game development company, Nadeo, created a racing game within a system designed to allow people to easily build and share a plethora of community-created content. This Trackmania was a platform with so many outlets. It had fresh racing gameplay distilled down to bare essentials. It had a track editor …

From Dust is one of the summer games I am most looking forward to with Rock of Ages and Trackmania 2 following in chronological order. From Dust is a multi-platform game that advances the god game genre to heights of new beauty. The creator, Eric Chahi of Another World and Heart of Darkness fame, says …

Is it fair to be doing first impressions of a game I’ve already finished? Should I not be reviewing it instead? Maybe. And shouldn’t I be pretty hard, even in first impressions, on a game I bought for $49.99 on Friday night and finished Saturday afternoon? Finished in probably… three hours, if I’m counting generously?

You’d think so. Under normal circumstances, almost certainly. But Child of Eden is not normal. It’s scarcely a game, and in it, “finish” does not necessarily equal “end.” While it will hold far from universal appeal, Child of Eden envelops the senses in ways few games can: not merely luminous but numinous, a dance of magical light and sound so precious and so sensually immortal it defies description.

The Escapist reports that sometime in the Land of 2011, a high-definition remake of cult classic Beyond Good & Evil will be coming to PSN and XBLA. New textures, higher-poly models, remastered soundtrack. Nothing else about the game (including the vexing controls) are set to be changed, but this game is worth your time if …

If you ever thought that the game buying public couldn’t possibly stoop any lower, you’ll be pleased to hear that Just Dance for the Wii has once again embedded itself at the top of the UK sales chart, toppling Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in the process.  Not only did it surpass Bioshock 2, Bayonetta and …

You’ve doubtless heard of Ubisoft’s appalling new DRM solution: that PC games from Ubi require a constant internet connection, and will in fact kick you out of the game if your connection drops during play. People who’ve gone hands-on with it describe it as worse than originally expected. Will be be cracked? Sooner or later, …

Far Cry 2 was one of the biggest disappointments in gaming history. Anyone who disputes this is… wrong. And yet Ben Abraham, an unassuming gamer, chose to play through the shitgasm that is this game with a caveat: die, and he’s done. His goal was to get closer to the relativistic experience of a game, …

Yesterday Steerpike wrote a thoroughly enjoyable take on Electronic Arts going back to its evil ways, but in all the fuss and rightful condemnation we shouldn’t be forgetting that there are other players in this game too and that they’d like a minute under the spotlight as well.