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So you just got an iPad for Christmas. You already have all the essentials loaded — Facebook, Twitter, iBooks, whatever news app you prefer.
It's a good time to be a gamer, as studios continue to release thrilling adventures with clever stories, tight gameplay and spectacular production values. So many fine games have been released in 2011 — particularly in the last few months — that you'd need to use up a lot of sick days to catch up to them all.
The U.S. Navy forced a North Korean ship on its way to Myanmar to return home after a standoff two weeks ago, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Sony makes PlayStation game consoles and, through a joint venture, cellphones. Gamers have been asking for years why it hasn't combined the two products. Well, it finally has, with Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play.
There are a handful of games that critics like to discuss when we talk about the evolution and maturation of the video game. "Braid." "Red Dead Redemption." "Mass Effect 2." Lately, "Portal 2."
Whether you're watching a Hollywood action movie in an IMAX theater or college hoops on a 3-D TV, there's no denying the wow factor of current 3-D technology. And the trend isn't lost on video-game companies — particularly Sony, which has been trumpeting the 3-D environments of recent PlayStation 3 games like "Killzone 3."
If you think U.S. politics has gotten ugly, wait until you've spent some time in the city of Kirkwall. The Templars want to subjugate the mages. The priests of the Chantry don't trust the brutish Qunari. The Dalish elves want to avoid humans altogether.
In this corner: Marvel Comics. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, all with their own comic books, movies, action figures and lunchboxes.
Batman, Superman, the Joker, Lex Luthor: Good or evil, they're the biggest names in comics, and they're key to the early success of Sony Corp.'s ambitious "DC Universe Online." But DC has introduced hundreds of heroes and villains over the last 75 years, and Sony intends to shine the spotlight on many of them with regular game updates.
A somber President Barack Obama led a moment of silence on Monday for a nation stunned by an attempted assassination against an Arizona congresswoman that left her gravely wounded, several other injured and six people dead.
When President Barack Obama steps out on the South Lawn of the White House Monday morning, the thoughts of the nation will turn to Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of an assassination attempt against her.
As a young video-game fanatic, I was one of the first on my block to line up for "Tron" when it hit theaters in 1982. So I was one of the first to be dazzled by its then-state-of-the-art computer graphics — and disappointed with its jerry-built story of corporate espionage, a tale with less emotional resonance than a game of "Asteroids."
Nearly three-quarters of American households own a device that's used specifically for video games, whether it's a console, a handheld device or a dedicated computer, according to Nielsen Co. Add to that all the people who play games on their smart phones or their home or work PCs, and no one's immune.
Activision's "Call of Duty" series has become such a global phenomenon that the controversies surrounding each release are more interesting than the games themselves. The latest edition has even drawn the wrath of the Cuban government, thanks to a mission based on an attempt to assassinate a young Fidel Castro.
The United States may remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as early as next July, U.S. officials said Sunday, provided the government in Khartoum meets an assortment of benchmarks.
I've spent so much time playing "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" over the last five years that, by now, I ought to be able to give Eric Clapton a run for his money.
The launch lineup for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Move features all the types of games that have been popular on Nintendo's Wii: bowling; tennis; golf; even exercise.
When "Halo 3: ODST" was released last year, the once vibrant Halo universe felt exhausted, as though even its creators at Microsoft Corp.'s Bungie Studios were bored with it.
Video-game wars, like those in "Halo" or "Call of Duty," are usually seen from the grunt's-eye view. If you want to play general, with thousands of troops following your every order, you have to turn on your computer, home to real-time strategy (RTS) epics like "StarCraft II" and "Age of Empires." Developers have produced a handful of Xbox and PlayStation RTS titles, such as "Halo Wars" and "Civilization Revolution," but their more cerebral gameplay may never have the mass appeal of shootouts like "Gears of War."
Ever since Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto III" became a cultural phenomenon in 2001, rival studios have been trying to compete with crime epics of their own.
John Madden misses the broadcast booth.
Twelve years is an eternity is the video-game business. In 1998, the Microsoft Xbox didn't even exist, and games for the top consoles — Sony's PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 — were still regarded as kids' stuff in comparison with the more demanding fare you could play on a PC.
This summer has been so oppressive throughout most of the United States that even driving to the video-game store feels like an ordeal. Fortunately, you don't have to leave home to experience some of the season's most interesting games — you can download them directly to your console.
Apple's iPad has only been around since April, but since its release I've drawn two conclusions:
The protagonist of "Crackdown 2" (Microsoft, for the Xbox 360, $59.99) is a SWAT cop whose most distinctive skill is a vertical leap that lets him scale the sides of skyscrapers. However, once you're 20 stories high, you'll discover that most of the buildings in Pacific City are topped by roofs that jut out a foot or so — just enough to prevent our superpowered hero from climbing on top.
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