Video Games Content includes recent video game reviews written by Gameroni site staff and guest contributors. http://www.gameroni.com/ Jason Venter writes: "In the interests of full disclosure, I should start by saying that my GelaSkins didn't cost me a penny. If you decide to get some for yourself, you'll have to pay for them (around $20, no less) or you'll have to talk someone into buying you a gift certificate. As a result, your experience and eventual level of satisfaction may differ from mine. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/635.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/635.html Lewis Denby writes: "I've got a joke for you. What do you get if you cross a Nintendo DS with stereoscopic 3D? A headache! Ahaha! " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/588.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/588.html Lewis Denby writes: "For me, two things defined Dragon Age: Origins, one of the most ambitious and fictionally rich RPGs in recent years. The first was the depth to its world, the cavernous reach of its narrative, which included a history spanning many thousands of years. The land of Ferelden was too often steeped in fantasy cliche, but it wasn't just the setting of a video game; it was a place with a back-story and politics, inhabited by different races, all vying for their own means thanks to their own prejudices. Dragon Age, ultimately, wasn't a game about mythical creatures living in a faraway land; it was about us, and our world, and how we might reflect upon that if prompted in the right way. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/584.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/584.html Rob Hamilton writes: "I found Star Ocean: Till the End of Time to be filled with annoyances. From the futuristic theme disrupted by spending much of the game on medieval worlds where characters were forced to use primitive weaponry TO horrid combat AI for your non-controlled party members TO a number of annoying supporting characters TO tri-Ace seemingly putting more effort into one big plot twist and post-game dungeons than the actual quest...it was easy for me to get frustrated to the point of putting the game down. In fact, I think it took three sessions (with lengthy hiatuses between each) for me to just get through the main story. The post-game dungeons? Haven't touched them. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/583.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/583.html Andy Chalk writes: "The Silver Lining is a long-in-development project created by a group of dedicated and obviously adoring King's Quest fans who want to redress what they see as the failure of the last official King's Quest game to properly wrap up the series. To say they persevered against all odds is hardly overstating matters; this is the group, after all, that ran headlong into Activision's legal team and came out in one piece. I admire that determination to get this game done, especially since the whole thing is being built by volunteers and given away free, and because of that, and a flickering hope that things might get better, I've been loathe to really drop the hammer on it. But with with the midway point of the series reached and passed in The Silver Lining Episode Three: My Only Love Sprung From My Only Hate, I think it's time to quit beating around the bush and just tell it like it is. And it is, to be blunt, pretty bad. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/575.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/575.html Lewis Denby writes: "I just realised I forgot the most important bit in my retro review of Quake a little while ago. The most essential, crucial, wonderful aspect of the entire game, and I forgot about it. I'm useless. I'm going to shoehorn it into this review of Quake II, and hope you're all okay with the astonishingly tenuous method by which I link it all together. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/572.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/572.html Jason Venter writes: "When you sit down to play a Mario sports title, you have the right to expect something special. Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 was one of the most addictive golf games ever released, a clever and well-executed take on golf made memorable by the crew of golfers that included numerous favorite characters from the Mushroom Kingdom. That release was followed by a string of quality tennis, soccer, baseball and track and field games, always with polish and plenty of fun to go around. Now there is Mario Sports Mix, a compilation of four sporting events--basketball, dodgeball, hockey and volleyball--that arrived on Wii last week. Developed by Square-Enix, the new release appears to do all of the same things right that its predecessors did and even throws in what is perhaps the strangest boss battle that you'll ever see in a sports title. Unfortunately, none of that adds up to an especially positive recommendation. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/566.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/566.html Tom Chick writes: "To get loot in Assassin's Creed, you gently pat the pockets of the dude whose throat you just sliced. In Bioshock, you open a corpse in much the same perfunctory way you'd open one of the game's crates or desk drawers. But in Dead Space 2, you stomp something to get the medkit, credits, or ammo out of it. You stomp it with a screenshaking ferocity, a fleshy splurching sound effect, a manly grunt, and a spray of blood and often profanity. It makes curbstomping in Gears of War look like pattycake. Dead Space developer Visceral is bound and determined to live up to the name. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/560.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/560.html Jason Venter writes: "Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s meant a lot of things. At school, it often meant playing The Oregon Trail. MECC's slightly educational and very cool computer game was a terrific way to kill 45 minutes or an hour when I had my studies finished and wanted to do something a little bit different to occupy my time. I got my elementary education in a one-room school in rural Oregon, so there were few superior activities available for me at the time. Now, years later, I can remember those days by playing a browser-based update to the classic title on Facebook. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/556.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/556.html Jason Venter writes: "In case you hadn't already noticed, Monopoly Millionaires launched this week on Facebook. I started playing it on the very first day it was available because over the years, I've come to love Monopoly and have frequently enjoyed its digital adaptations. The classic board game has been a success on numerous platforms and I've played several of those releases, including the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 3 and various PC editions. I don't mind saying that I enjoyed all of them a great deal more than I do the Facebook edition. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/541.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/541.html Jason Venter writes: "If you're the right sort of person, perhaps a puzzle game will change your life. Bejeweled might make you ponder the African diamond mines, Tetris the communist revolution in Russia. Many of us don't turn to introspection after twisting digital blocks or lining up digital blocks, though. We don't play puzzle games to ponder life's big issues, only to kill time. Hexius, a polished and affordable puzzle game available for download from the AppStore, provides a way to kill plenty of time in small and enjoyable chunks. Just don't ask it to make you think or to otherwise change your life. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/517.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/517.html Jason Venter writes: "There was a time when the mere thought of Mickey Mouse was exciting. Most of us probably remember that time, but it's hard to imagine that today's kids will share our fondness for the beloved character. He simply has too much competition these days and Disney nostalgia can only go so far when the studio has barely made any effort at all to make the character relevant in the 21st century. The occasional re-release of old material just doesn't cut it, particularly when so much of that content was produced in the 50s and 60s and modern animation seems to have advanced along the mean-spirited trail that Looney Tunes so effectively blazed. So it is that one of the most famous mascots in the history of mascots is fading away from the public eye, relegated to the role of Disneyland greeter. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/513.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/513.html Rob Hamilton writes: "Faery: Legends of Avalon is a game that won't truly be able to be judged until its sequel(s) have been released. Depending on the degree to which Spiders Studio can refine and improve their promising concept, I can see me eventually looking at this turn-based RPG as an intriguing, if clumsily executed, beginning to a fun series. I also can see me simply dismissing it as a mediocre start to a forgettable collection of games. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/508.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/508.html Lewis Denby writes: "Were you to try returning to Omikron: The Nomad Soul today, you'd probably find it to be problematic. Firstly, it's near enough impossible to get it to work on a modern PC (trust me, I've tried), and really, who owns a Dreamcast any more? But secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it feels so painfully old and creaky that you'd probably struggle to make it past the opening. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/469.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/469.html Andrew Cretella writes: "Quake Arena Arcade marks the fourth time that Quake III has been re-released since the game's debut in 1999, making this port the fifth version of the game in total. From the beginning, there was little doubt that this was never going to be the definitive edition of the game. It had to justify itself against the control inadequacies of being on a console and a swindling $15 price tag (considering the fact that one of the game's superior versions is available for free). What really needed to be done in order to make Quake Arena Arcade relevant was to offer content that is both substantial and unique to this version -- instead, it's a port that stays almost entirely within the scope of Quake III and Team Arena, transferred to a platform it isn't suited to. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/462.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/462.html Rob Hamilton writes: "When I started Infinite Undiscovery, I had high hopes. There was an action-packed beginning where protagonist Capell gets broken out of a prison, escapes through a forest and meets up with a band of (for lack of a better term) freedom fighters. There were interesting control features. While you only controlled Capell, by hitting a couple buttons, you could access certain abilities used by other party members to do things like break rocks, shoot fruit out of trees, surprise foes before initiating battle and so on. And there was an interesting premise concerning a group known as the Order of Chains and their goals to completely chain your planet to the moon -- an act that was causing all sorts of things to go wrong such as an increase in monsters and people mutating into invisible killing machines. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/459.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/459.html Rob Hamilton writes: "Witch Hunt reminds me of a lesser version of Leliana's Song. Both are DLC quests for Dragon Age: Origins that probably would be best appreciated by gamers who had some sort of connection to a particular female character in the main quest. However, while Leliana's song provided a pretty neat tale of betrayal and redemption, Witch Hunt...is just there. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/445.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/445.html Jason Venter writes: "Railroad Constructor is best described as a clone of another puzzle game that you may have played. Remember that game where you have a bunch of tiles on the screen and you have to place various pipes together to form a path through which water can flow? This is that game, only the pipes are train tracks and the water is, well... the water is trains, just like you'd figure. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/442.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/442.html Andrew Cretella writes: "The re-release of X-Men Arcade seemed like a noble cause: reviving a beloved arcade classic with online functionality to create a new hub for what was a long-dead multiplayer game. Unfortunately, X-Men Arcade could not possibly be a more dated game, one that has no hope of satisfying the modern gaming expectations that have evolved in the 18 years since its original release. At best, the game serves as an astonishing reference point for comprehending just how far the medium as come; but at worst, it's an outrageously overpriced piece of software that should have remained a memory. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/440.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/440.html Jason Venter writes: "I've never been one of Sonic's foremost champions. When he was at his most successful in the Genesis days, I was hoping for his failure because his success left me fearing that Mario and friends wouldn't be around to entertain me in a few years. Time changed me, though, and it changed Sonic. The famously blue hedgehog went from being a relevant mascot to… well, let's just say that the years did him no favors. After playing a string of Sonic games that were too often nothing more than a cut or two above passable, I began to believe that a hedgehog revival simply wasn't possible. " http://www.gameroni.com/posts/415.html http://www.gameroni.com/posts/415.html