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Got my copy of EGM yesterday, but didn't have time to crack it until I had started seeing reports about Dan Hsu's editorial in the latest issue today. Apparently, some publishers have gotten peeved at EGM's less-than-favorable coverage of specific games—Mortal Kombat, Assassin's Creed, and whatever junk sports game Sony's put out lately.

I have a difficult time making choices in videogames. Usually this isn’t really much of an issue. Most games don’t ask players to choose one path or response over another and thereby close off a particular area or sub-story. On some level, I still cling to the idea that giving players multiple story paths from which to choose and more ways in which to shape their own experience represents an important part of gaming’s continuing evolution. So why is it so hard for me to make choices?

I don't care what Cevat Yerli says about their "upscaling" game engine, Crytek's partnerships with Intel and nVidia, or the many gamers (including me) who insist that Crysis scales well and runs just fine. The reality is that this is a game that, despite a relatively lengthy development cycle, was probably released one generation of hardware too soon.

Got my copy of EGM yesterday, but didn't have time to crack it until I had started seeing reports about Dan Hsu's editorial in the latest issue today. Apparently, some publishers have gotten peeved at EGM's less-than-favorable coverage of specific games—Mortal Kombat, Assassin's Creed, and whatever junk sports game Sony's put out lately.

Having recently received The Orange Box as a Christmas gift from my dad, I can now count myself among the multitude of lucky gamers who have experienced Portal. As fantastic as it is—and it is indeed fantastic—one of the biggest revelations I’ve had as a result of playing Portal is the concept of in-game commentaries.

Frankly, I haven’t played nearly enough games this year to justify making a “best of” list. Not only that, but I think “best of” lists are usually far too subjective to warrant the concreteness with which they’re presented. That being said, I still got to play some truly exceptional games this year. Of the games released in 2007 that I have played, the following three were my favorites.

As I write this, I'm in a tiny little town in middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma. My cell phone barely holds a signal. The sole television in the house is a 12-inch that only shows programs of a religious nature. All the food is vegan. Alcohol is prohibited. The lone internet connection is a dial-up through a computer that takes several seconds to display a word after it has been typed. Oh yeah, and videogame playing is expressly forbidden.

There are tons of things I could discuss about Mass Effect, but the thing buzzing around my head today and for the last few days is that every time I see a picture or screenshot of the game, I wonder: "Who the hell's that?".

Despite the enormous success and popularity of Guitar Hero and the recently released Rock Band, it seems that there is still a small but vocal group of cynics and naysayers who like to pop up in internet forums and belittle players for "wasting" their time on "fake" instruments when they could be learning the real thing. Here are three reasons why these criticisms are completely out of tune with reality.

In just under two years, my much publicized and prized 37 inch Sceptre LCD HDTV died an unceremonious death. There were few warning signs and end was quick and final. I've since recovered from the ordeal by purchasing a 40 inch Samsung LCD and in the process of doing so I picked up some valuable lessons I'd like to share with our readers.