Gamertell

Shiny Shiny has a very interesting (if brief) blurb on one of the coolest, funniest shooters of all time: No One Lives Forever. The game was a super-smart spy spoof with a ton of sass, and Shiny writer LucyHedges posits that the game was also steeped in feminist ideals. Citing the smart, fully-clothed and ultra competent female protagonist and overt “feminism for dummies” dialogue, Lucy thinks the game was quite an anomaly in the testosterone-soaked world of PC shooters. The title is now a super-bargain at $12.99, so if you missed it the first time around, you’d be smart to pick it up now.

Obligatory female gamer comment: I’ve got to agree, and admit that I’ve always loved the game. Come to think of it, I also loved that Portal featured a female lead character (especially one without triple-D cups or clad in a thong and heels), and of course I get a little kick out of positive, cool female game characters. So I want to give a quick shout to Jade of Beyond Good and Evil, Cortana from Halo, Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, and Samus from Metroid.

Read [Shiny Shiny]

Blacksite: Area 51 is one of the first games to question why we are forcing ourselves into such a bad situation. While it does it in a way that doesn’t entirely follow the true political reality, the message is quite clear that America might be completely screwed.

There’s a lot to take in. From the war on terror to war in America’s own streets this game mocks the politics of fear. Sure, the game is beautiful even without the blatant political insults to presidential administrations past and present. There’s just something about the war in Iraq ending to fight a domestic threat that makes it even more intriguing…

MORE »

The present day mythical creature kill-a-thon known as Legendary is a little longer than a month away from being released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (and later for PC). When the game is released on September 30, 2008, on consoles (November 4, 2008, for PC), players will enter the body of Charles Deckard, a thief who opens Pandora’s Box in New York City.

GameCock is offering a special bonus for those who choose to pre-order Legendary at participating retailers. Also, on the same day of the game’s releases, a graphic novel based on Legendary will also be available…

MORE »

Videogame characters are starting to become as lovable and relate-able as characters from movies and television. Ubisoft, for example, is taking it to the next level with the upcoming squad-based first-person shooter, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, as the latest video below demonstrates (video contains some adult language).

The video shows how much the creators got into the characters of the game, even basing them on real soldiers. Although the names have been changed, they went into great detail with subtle personality characterizations of these men.  For example, one of them has named his bazooka Stella and treats it like…

Click through to watch the video!

MORE »

Gears fans, did you play the game for its story? Probably not but that isn’t stopping Epic games and Del Ray publishing from releasing three novels based on the games. The first one out the gate is Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, by Karen Traviss. It’ll be released on October 28, 2008 - just in time for the second game, which hits…

MORE »

Reports last month of additional content to paradigm-busting, platitude-eliciting puzzler Portal were heart-stopping revelations for die-hards Valve fans.

But, according to GameSetWatch, Valve’s Doug Lombardi said the new levels for Portal will be culled from the Portal: The Flash Game map pack. While there’s still plenty of reasons for console players to be happy, there are now a few to get riled up about, too…

MORE »

CNET’s Don Reisinger is sick of the me-too mentality in our industry. In a post titled “Why I’m boycotting first-person shooters,” Reisinger lays out his annoyance with the “suits” running development studios and the Hollywood mentality dominating the once-creative and quirky world of videogames. is plan of action: boycott FPS titles, since he sees them as the most offensive…

MORE »

At E3 2008, Activision and a representative of id announced that they are working on a follow up for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Details at the moment are hard to find, outside of the press conference given at E3.

For those of you who haven’t been too involved with the evolution of Wolfenstein, id took the franchise for a turn that made it more popular in 1992 with…

MORE »

Sony and Zipper Interactive revealed a new online game to add to their repertoire. The game is MAG, short for “Massive Action Game” and massive is no joke.

MAG supports up to 256 players in one game at one time, putting a bit of stress on even the PS3’s harware. This allows for full campaigns that could will make a long-running shooter experience.

At E3, Andy Beaudoin (Lead Designer for Zipper Interactive) introduced the game and gave some details before showing a trailer of the game. He said they wanted to…

MORE »

After its trip into modern warfare, the Call of Duty franchise is returning to the World War II time frame. The big difference is that it will be focusing on a new front in the war to end all wars. Call of Duty: World at War will be focusing on the Pacific theater as you island hop your way to victory or death.

Details on this new CoD release are sparse but from the information coming out, there is really not that much that innovates in terms of the war/shooter experience. It’s not developed by Infinity Ward, the company behind CoD2/CoD4. It’s developed by Treyarch, the developers of CoD3 and will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii.

One of the details that has been released is that it will have a darker, grittier undertone that will…

MORE »