Heretical as it may seem, I have to start out by saying this: I don't like Diablo . I played the original game and I have played Diablo II but not its expansion pack (this is mainly due to the fact that somewhere in Act II or III, I was wandering around this teleport labyrinth and simply got aggravated because this sort of pointless wandering was one of the main things that bugged the crap out of me about the game in the first place). There appears to be some substantial subs...

Okay, so it could just be me, but I remember 'round about the time MS was getting ready to launch Vista, a flurry of press releases and interviews in popular trade publications like PC Gamer and, naturally, Games for Windows touted this new initiative that Microsoft planned to seriously hawk the PC as a gaming platform. There would be huge in-store displays at your favorite game retailer with demo kiosks, banners, and other niceties comparable to the floor space given to consoles. Vista h...

I finished Prey recently. It may be that in my old age I have developed a short attention span (I blame my wife), but unlike many other reviewers, I really felt as though the game wore out its proverbial welcome, like the friend or family member that you're very fond of who visits for Christmas but won't take a hint that you're ready to go to bed. The story revolves around a Cherokee named Tommy who is tired of life on the rez and has nothing but contempt for his heritage. Tommy's grandf...

  I recently played through the story mode in Snapshot Adventures: The Secret of Bird Island , Gametunnel's 2007 Casual Game of the Year award winner. The game was created by Large Animal Games. This game, like many so-called "casual" games is clearly aimed at kids, but the gameplay will also appeal to adults. The idea is that you are travelling around the country, meeting with acquaintances of your grandfather, a renowned bird photographer, and attempting to unravel the circumstances ...

Go to any major gaming site (ign.com, gamespy.com, gamespot.com, to name a few) or the official Spore website and look at the forums discussing the Creature Creator, a limited version of which became available for download yesterday and the full version of which will be available for retail purchase tomorrow. You will invariably find many comments that say "I can't believe EA/Maxis/Will Wright/Will Wright's evil clone is actually charging $10 for this software; what a rip-off!" I'm having a ...

On the surface, this game seems like a great idea: cobble together a game extremely similar to X-Men Legends II except instead of restricting the roster of heroes and villains to traditional X-Men/Brotherhood-types, throw in the kitchen sink of Marvel paragons and ne'er-do-wells. And it's actually a terrific idea; the execution, however, falls rather short of its goals. The plot of this game, that Doctor Doom has cobbled together a temporary alliance of supervillains to help him steal t...

I just finished reading Frogboy's Information Society post, here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/321098 . It got me thinking about something. I'm a bit of a political nerd; before I got married and my priorities were rearranged (I love you, honey!), I was much more of one. I think that TPM is a game I would like, but I've been reluctant to purchase it because of some of the points made by reviewers. So my question is this: Would Stardock consider patching TPM to address complaints like the ...

I finished Mass Effect last night. Rather than posting a conventional review, I decided to list my likes and dislikes. First, though, a bit of background is in order for the uninitiated (i.e., people who've never heard of ME ). Mass Effect is the latest role-playing game (released for the XBOX360 and later the PC) from Bioware, creators of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, among others, although it has much more in common, from a gameplay perspective, with Bioware's more rec...

My wife got me a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir for Christmas, so I've been playing for about a week now. Judging from the response on the official boards ( http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/ ), people either love or hate this expansion. I'll try to give some of my insights into why this is the case by examining some of the new features in turn. First and foremost, SoZ has a functional overland map of the sort that hasn't been seen in a major RPG release since the SSI ...

I've read a lot of negative reviews of the Red Alert 3 download-only expansion and the new Watchmen game released to coincide roughly with the new film version. While some of the points raised by reviewers in critiquing these products are valid, I disagree with the overall evaluations. Here are my thoughts: First, let me say that I belong in the camp of Command and Conquer followers who enjoyed Red Alert 3 and generally found it to be a fun and worthy follow-up to RA2 . Altho...

I was just checking out the weekend buys at impulsedriven.net and it looks like The Witcher is on sale for the low price of $10 this weekend. If you enjoy role-playing games and you haven't played it yet, you should run not walk to the Impulse site, and get it now. It's a terrific game at a great price. Here's hoping CD Projekt makes The Witcher 2 at least as good as this one!

What opinions do people have about Direct2Drive? How does it compare to Impulse and Steam?