Gamertell

Title: The Horus Heresy: False Gods
Author: Graham McNeill
Publisher: The Black Library
Release Date: 2006
Price: $7.99
Rating: One thumb up and one down, 79/100, C+, ** 1/2 out of five.
Pros: Incredible writing, great story, memorable characters are built up more, hard-hitting description
Cons: Same problem most sequels have. Too much attention to smaller details and it occasionally blocks out the story. Also inconsistently deals with characters.
Overall: It’s full of flaws but for a sequel it’s worth the money.

With False Gods, Graham McNeil has written a great second installment to the Horus Heresy series that tries too hard to outshine Dan Abnett’s Horus Rising.

Click through for the full review…

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In 1998 Sergei Lukyanenko created a dark fantasy mystery-thriller franchise that will grow to include four books, two movies and a computer game.

This Russian craze is known as World of Watches and began with the book Night Watch released in 1998 and translated into English in 2006.  The movie Night Watch was released in 2004, two years earlier than English translation of the book. The move is quite incredible although it is a bit bizarre and only loosely based on the book.

The franchise will soon be expanded further with the fourth book titled Final Watch being released in English October 2, 2008, and a second movie tentatively titled Twilight Watch and released in 2009.

The PC game Night Watch, developed by Nival Interactive and released in the United States on June 29, 2006, follows both the books and the film. The game is a weird mixture of strategy and role-playing that plays out like…

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Now that we’ve looked at the games that have made the Prince of Persia series so popular, it is time to take a look at where the franchise is heading.

Prince of Persia: The Next Generation

As the franchise moves forward, the Prince is set for yet another transformation. After the Sands of Time trilogy came to a close, Ubisoft decided that the series needed a new direction. And while we still don’t know very much about the upcoming Prince of Persia title for…

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The past year hasn’t been too kind for the Bratz franchise. It was just last summer (2007) that Bratz made its debut on the big screen and was widely reviled by critics nationwide as one of the year’s worst films and failed to break $10 million dollars. Now, word comes that Ubisoft, the third-largest game publisher in the industry has won a $13 million payoff from MGA Entertainment, the makers of the popular Bratz line of toys.

The court battle had been fought over the sudden termination of the license that was moved over to THQ back in 2003. Before the breaking of the agreement, Ubisoft had been publishing Bratz games for the…

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Cnet’s Don Reisinger posed a very heated question to gamers of the world today on the Digital home: “What’s the best videogame series of all time?“. He lists a few of the bigger (and safer) franchises - Halo, Mario, GTA, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc. before positing a couple of more obscure series like Lunar and Shenmue. Then, he wisely turned to the masses, opening up the comments section to the

potential flame war

discussion of the greatest series ever to hit the gaming world.

The results were relatively unsurprising. The above mentioned standbys got the largest number of shout-outs, along with the Command & Conquer, Civilization, Mega Man, Half-Life, Madden, Splinter Cell, Fall Out, and Smash Brothers series. It seems as if the bases are fairly well covered, but I’d like to open the floor yet again - what are your favorite series?

Read [Cnet Blogs]

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In November 2005, RedOctane launched the first Guitar Hero game which was an instant hit and changed the music game genre forever.  It is to music games, what Wii is to video gaming in general – a breath of fresh, innovative air. In the 26 months the Guitar Hero series has been around it has grossed more than $1 billion in North America.

Activision, the game’s publisher, announced on Monday (January 21, 2008) that the Guitar Hero franchise has set a new industry record by crossing the $1 billion-sales mark in just 26 months. However, the company has not taken into account the revenue generated by song downloads. The franchise’ lifetime North American sales stand at 14 million copies, according to NPD.

The publisher also announced that Guitar Hero III - the latest title in the franchise - was s the best title in 2007 in terms of “units and dollars.”  Activision has also claimed that GTIII is the best video game of all time in a single calendar year.

The franchise has pioneered a revolution within the music game genre and has had a deep cultural impact. The tales of karaoke nights being replaced by Guitar Hero-playing sessions are now part of gaming folklore, and a testament to its cultural impact.

Read [Kotaku]  Also Read [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

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