videogames

It may have been a rough year to be a videogame, but what would the end of the year be without some lists? You've already had the displeasure of seeing this year's most disappointing, so why not reward yourself this holiday season with a list of the best games 2012 had to offer? … Read more

It's not easy being a hockey fan these days. But honestly, has it ever been? With an all-but-official lockout looming over the NHL like a dark cloud, there's not much to be excited about. Sure, the optimistic puck-faithful seem to agree a deal will be reached before Christmas, but what's there to do in the meantime?

As luck would have it, NHL 13 hits the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles just a few days before the NHL's collective bargaining agreement is set to expire. Whether or not the team owners and players association decide to … Read more

Have you ever preordered a video game? Did you feel good about yourself after doing so? Yes? No? Truth is, you should almost never, ever, preorder a video game.

A preorder does virtually nothing for you, but it does a great deal for various other parties. First off, it's a free loan. Think about it. You're essentially giving a game retailer 5 or more dollars for free. All you get back in return is a receipt that you've done so. A big-name retailer now has your 5 dollars that it, in turn, can do whatever it wants with. Sure, it might seem trivial on a small scale, but multiply your 5 dollars times the amount of preorders made a day, and we're talking millions of free unearned dollars here.

Game distributors and retailers also use preorder data to gauge interest in a title. They're basically using your donation to measure how successful a marketing campaign is even before anyone has played the game. And once you've pledged those few dollars, odds are you'll be back come release day. If not, the money stays with the retailer, where you'll most likely use it on another title -- or even worse, forget about it. … Read more

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's 38 Studios gaming company is crumbling around him.

As news spread over the past week that the company was hurting for cash, spending $49 million of a $75 million state loan, the Boston Globe reports that the young video game publishing house laid off all of its nearly 400 employees as of today.

"I'm stunned, and I'm heartbroken," Leominster fantasy author and consultant to 38 Studios R.A. Salvatore, told the Boston Globe. "This is one of the best teams I've ever seen assembled. They were doing … Read more

Video games are an expensive hobby. A typical new release for a console like the PlayStation or Xbox costs about $60. That might not seem like a lot relative to the number of hours of entertainment you can reasonably expect from a game, but it's still a pretty big chunk of change.

For example, when LEGO Star Wars III and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean came out last year, they were priced at $49.99 apiece. My kids desperately wanted both.

Sorry, kiddos, but in my day we dropped a quarter in a slot and liked it. No way … Read more

Image Comic's "The Walking Dead" series has seen explosive success over the past few years even though the monthly comic book has been in production for nearly nine years with its 97th issue due out mid-May. It's been licensed out in almost every way imaginable, highlighted by an adapted television drama that just concluded its second season on AMC.

As a longtime fan and reader of "The Walking Dead," I've realized that what makes the franchise so good is that it focuses more on the human reaction to a worldwide outbreak rather than the carnage an apocalyptic zombie narrative could more easily weave. It's not without a fair share of gore, but its black-and-white pages force you to consider emotions first and bloodlust second.

So while it's no surprise then that "The Walking Dead" has now found its way into a video game, I was curious to see how developer Telltale Games would convert the character-driven series into a game, especially since Telltale's story focuses on a main character not yet discovered in the comic or TV show.… Read more

Video game enthusiasts can hold out hope that Netflix will still make a foray into video game rentals.

Earlier today, Netflix announced that it had canceled plans to break out DVD-by-mail operations into its own service, called Qwikster. Last month, CEO Reed Hastings unveiled the strategy for the new service, which included video game rentals.

While Qwikster may be gone, the idea for enabling people to rent Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 titles is still on the table, Netflix Vice President of Corporate Communications Steve Swasey told CNET.

No word on when a final decision might be made yet, so … Read more

If there is one lesson to learn from the most disappointing titles of 2010, it's "don't make a movie game." It seems that this year followed a bizarre pattern: the better the film, the worse the game. Almost half our list consists of failed attempts at such adaptations, more than any year before it.

Unlike last year's dishonorable list, we've decided to tackle games that let us down rather than picking out a handful of bad games. We've personally tested out each of these titles that failed to impress and can vouch for … Read more

Though it's not as blasphemous as talk of Justin Bieber supposedly playing Marty McFly in some ill-conceived "Back to the Future" remake, the fully licensed video game does seem like a promising extension to the classic story of Marty and Doc Brown.

Developer Telltale Games (Sam & Max, Tales of Monkey Island) plans to episodically release five chapters of Back to the Future: The Game, the first of which is titled "It's About Time." Not much regarding the game's actual gameplay has been disclosed, but the debut trailer does hint that Marty will … Read more