Do you know what happens when mix all the colors together? Basically nothing, you just get an unimpressive grayish brown that can only be used to describe dirt. And this is exactly what happened to The Saboteur, a game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by EA: they took everything good out there and threw into a blender hoping for a magical result. Unfortunately what came out was not a rainbow, but an abomination that feeds on gamers’ fears.

The first thing that drew my attention was the name.  Saboteur – a game I loved back in the days when Commodore was the tip of the technological iceberg and two-frame animations were acceptable. That game’s main character was an athletic female ninja with no notable background, so because of that name I was kind of hoping for something similar when it came to The Saboteur. … More

You know those movies with post apocalyptic settings in which the main character has a special mission of great importance, where he needs to go somewhere or do something that can change the course of history and that can even mean salvation for the entire human race? If you do, forget about them when going to see Zombieland, because this one is nothing like that. It’s a simple movie, with a simple plot, a simple story and a natural ending to all that, and I love it for it. I love and respect it for its honesty and simplicity and I think that this combo offers more than most pretentious movies do. I’m more impressed with a film that accomplishes everything it has set out to do, than with one that aims high and fails memorably at reaching its goals. … More

Have you seen this girl, the new teaser trailer released by Iceberg Interactive today, comes to celebrate the global direct download launch of the game on various portals such as GamersGate and Impulse. The box versions of the game can still be preordered from Iceberg webshop and they will be shipped out early next week with the UK retail release date on the 11th.

In my opinion the story behind the trailer is many times more impressive than the actual footage to say the least, but a picture is worth a thousand words (or so they say) so a film must be worth a gazillion words. Here is the story and I’ll let you decide for yourself the truth value of that statement: … More

As soon as the calendar month tag flips to December, all hell breaks loose: the PR departments switch to hyper drive, Marketing overdoses on dirty tricks and retailers go out of their way to create a “new and exciting” web of promotions in which they hope the naive, unsuspecting consumer will get caught… again. No matter how old, cheap and obvious the whole ritual is, customers act surprised each and every time and go along with it, sacrificing embarrassing amounts of money on products they would normally ignore if it was June. I wish I could say gamers are special, that they developed some sort of immunity when it comes to advertising and that years of experience have thought them not to go with the flow, not to believe that shiny and cheap means better, and not to let themselves mind controlled by simple spells such as “Holiday Special!”. But … More

Ubisoft is renowned for using the same IP for countless iterations until it has been sucked dry of any novelty or appeal. So the press release that surfaced today, announcing a new installment for the Prince of Persia series has the same surprise value as the night-day cycle.

The video game currently in development is called Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the storyline behind it will naturally complement the one on which Sands of Time has been build upon. The French developer has promised a gameplay experience that will follow in the footsteps of the previous game, but enriched with innovations that will not disappoint the fans of the famous series. … More

The movie comfortably rests midway between a drama with a few funny moments and a romantic comedy with a serious dose of realism. Tipping the scales towards one side or the either is just a matter of viewer taste and mood at the time of the viewing, but no matter the perspective the film’s presence in one’s long term memory is short lived.

The plot is rather simple: Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel); boy falls in love; girl is looking just for fun and does not fall in love; boy is in pain; viewer is trying really hard to care. The stream of events follows this general pattern throughout the entire movie and there are no surprises in stored for you, no special events, no change of pacing, no nothing. … More

At the beginning of this month Bioware released its latest fantasy RPG for both PC and consoles, and ever since then it’s been raining roses, praises and applause. But is it really that good or are we again witnessing the power of EA’s marketing’s machine combined with the strength of the hypnotized masses? We’ve invested a few days of gameplay into it to find that out for you.

The character customization section that you will need to go through at the beginning of the game is decent enough and there is a pretty good variety of elements you can mix together in attempting to create something to suit your tastes. But don’t expect it to be extraordinary, because it’s far from it: you can create something… humanoid, but don’t try to create a character that looks, walks and talks just like you because you’ll be wasting your time. … More

9 is an eighty minutes long CGI film produced by Tim Burton, which presents the story of a group of tiny human-made rag dolls that fight for survival on a post apocalyptic world that was once much similar to our own. Reminiscences of the machines that brought the complete extinction of the human race still roam free in this world and pose a deadly threat to any living thing, including the nine little dolls which are brought to life by the voices of great actors such as Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly and Elijah Wood.

The post apocalyptic setting is slowly but surely becoming one of the most boring and over used ones out there. 9 makes no exception from this, and quickly embraces stereotypical elements like the streets filled with wrecked cars, the empty grey buildings, the rust, the dust and the acid rain. … More

Whether they terrorize us and make us shiver under the blankets or they just make us laugh hysterically until we cry, zombies will always remain a great source of entertainment. Apparently video games industry veteran Jeff Strain feels the same way, as he has recently announced the formation of Undead Labs, a game development studio based in Seattle that will focus on online games. But not any kind of online games, but the definitive massively multiplayer online zombie game (MMOZ). So double undead trouble!

Strain left NCSoft last summer (we hear a roar of applauses in the background) with the declared goal of building from the ground up, together with a few of the most talented developers, a creative studio that targets a new breed of MMO for console gamers. … More

Here is a small fact: you are going to die.

A reassuring announcement: Please, be calm, despite that previous threat. I am all bluster – I’m not violent. I’m not malicious. I’m a result.

The Book Thief was written by Markus Zusak and was first published in 2005. Since then it has reached the rank of best seller in many countries, won a panoply of awards and enjoys the support of many readers, writers and critics. I bought it in Zurich a couple of years ago because luck, destiny or whatever your personal superstitions allow you to call such things, made it to be the only one in English in that book store. Ever since then I can’t shake the feeling that I didn’t choose the book, but on the contrary, it chose me. … More