In 1993, the Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast unleashed its Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. One of the game’s most appealing factors was its classic, no-computer-or-board-necessary gameplay; you simply carried around your tournament deck and booster packs and went to battle wherever you found opposition. The game quickly became the obsession of the post-D&D generation, eventually leading to national tournaments. Magic: The Gathering saw at least one unsuccessful attempt at crossing over into the videogame … [Read more...]
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Say what you will about games tied-in to movies, but it’s hard to refute that only two such titles have ever really lived up to the hype: Activision’s Spider-Man: The Movie and, now, Electronic Arts’ The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The first game’s vertical real-estate, coupled with a good fighting mechanic, made it a surprising success. So what makes Return of the King even better? Well, first you’ve got the fact that EA’s Return of the King (RotK) presents the only opportunity consumers will have until … [Read more...]
Xbox Music Mixer
The Xbox Music Mixer is an interesting little product that’s difficult to categorize. Not a peripheral-game combination like the Eye Toy but not a pure peripheral either, the Music Mixer was designed to more or less transform your Xbox into an all-in-one piece of digital entertainment hardware. In many ways it achieves this goal - assuming you’re not expecting much beyond a simple interface and some basic options. The Xbox Music Mixer encompasses software with a playback interface and a handheld microphone. Its four key … [Read more...]
Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu
Why is it that game developers feel the need to take good franchises and completely ruin them when porting them to the Game Boy Advance? There’ve been too many such failures to count, and if Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu is any indication, this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. While Atari did a passable job with its DBZ: Budokai series, Taiketsu should serve to warn potential licensors of what horrible things game developers can do with their properties. Taiketsu is a button-mashing fighter of the worst kind. … [Read more...]
DVD Review: Pirates of the Caribbean
Before you go worrying that we're becoming an "entertainment" site rather than your source for all things gaming, let me say this: We're called "DailyGame" for a reason. Still, not unlike yourselves, we like our DVDs and home-theater systems, too, so we've decided to venture into DVD reviews as well. Please let us know what you think of our new content, whether you'd like to see specific DVDs reviewed, and whether there are specific genres you'd like us to focus on. Just email Jonas and speak your mind. We're here to … [Read more...]
Developer Interview: "Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma"
Even if you're too young to remember the "Mission: Impossible" television series, you're surely familiar with the recent movies starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. With an elite team of hackers, some martial arts skill and more than a few high-tech gadgets, Ethan Hunt is a bit of a next-gen superhero, albeit in a slightly more capitalistic vein. Atari has recognized this everyman's "superhero" status and opted to create a videogame based on the continuing adventures of Ethan Hunt. As you surmised from the feature films … [Read more...]
Q&A With Gastronaut Studios
A few weeks back, the DailyGame staff paid a visit to the Indie Games Convention in Eugene, Oregon to see what was coming in the world of indie development. While we were there, we were incredibly impressed with Fuzzee Teevee, the first title from Gastronaut Studios. It was a title that grabbed a lot of interest from the crowd, and we felt it was only fair we let the rest of the gaming world hear about it. What follows is our Q&A with the founder and sole employee of Gastronaut Studios, the makers of Fuzzee Teevee. … [Read more...]
Interview with the "Project Gotham Racing 2" Team
As soon as Xbox launched with the outstanding Project Gotham Racing at its side, racing-game fans everywhere were clamoring to see what sorts of enhancements the sequel might have. The single- and multiplayer racing was fantastic, but what would happen when online aspects were added to the mix? The style-friendly kudos system was addictive, but what about being able to compare those scores to your friends', and would the tracks the next time around be a little more forgiving? The day that will answer all those questions … [Read more...]
"Ruff Trigger" Interview
Playstos', makers of Ruff Trigger, a console title for Xbox and PS2 took a few minutes to answer some questions about their upcoming title, and we have the whole interview right here. … [Read more...]
GarageGames Tells All About Independent Game Publishing
Not all the great games come from big publishers. Case in point: GarageGames, a publisher from Eugene, Oregon, that has taken the role of publisher, distributor of independent games and even producer of an inexpensive game engine for small developers. Recently, we got to speak with Jeff Tunnell about GarageGames and independent publishing. DG: Can you give us the basic idea behind GarageGames? What products and services do you offer to the gaming development community? What can gamers expect from the titles you … [Read more...]