Publisher: Intermediaware
Developer: Intermediaware
System Requirements: Minimum System requirements: Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7 / 800 MHz processor / 256 MB RAM / DirectX 7.0 or later
Genre: Puzzle
Release Date: Available Now
Written by: Ian Davis

Let’s get this out of the way: Captain Backwater is pirate-y. It’s hard to communicate the fullness of this meaning. Backwater takes every pirate cliché in an awkward embrace, leaving you to sit by and pretend not to notice. If cheesy pirate sayings don’t float your boat, worry not; the theme can be surgically removed from the actual gameplay without harm. Once you carefully perform such an operation, you’ll find Captain Backwater a rather charming, straightforward puzzle game.

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Manufacturer: TekNmotion
MSRP: $29.99
Written by: Ethan Nixon

Today, I have for review the TekNmotion Yapster Blaster headset. This headset has quite a powerful impact for the price and size. The universal headset supports both PC and XBOX 360. Inside the package you will find the headset, necessary adapters to connect to the XBOX, and a USB amplifier. The cables included with the Yapster Blaster are quite long, so get ready to scrunch them up.

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Publisher: Nexon
Developer: Eyedentity Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, Pentium 4 dual-core CPU, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 7600 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9.0c or newer, broadband Internet connection
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

MMORPGs have become a major segment of the modern gaming landscape, but many of the most successful of them feature content that really isn’t meant for the younger gamer. Publisher Nexon brings PG-13 material to the genre with Dragon Nest, a fantasy/action MMO that tries to tone down the graphic violence while still making the game enticing to adult gamers.

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Manufacturer: Cooler Master
MSRP: $49.99

After my wonderful experience with the NotePal LapAir, I was a bit surprised to have another Cooler Master product sent to me in the mail. I figured that with such a fine laptop cooler like the LapAir, they wouldn’t need another product. It turns out, however, that Cooler Master has a high-end cooler for serious laptop gamers. For gamers with money to spend, this is a laptop cooler with all the bells and whistles.

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It’s been predicted by some that our mobile devices are killing the handheld gaming market. With games like Virtual City Playground and Steambirds: Survival in the iTunes app store, there are definitely good reasons to leave your handheld and home. While the vast majority of apps are nowhere near the caliber of the highest rated DS and PSP titles, gamers are beginning to see some of their most beloved titles (Katamari and Scribblenauts for example) ported over to their iOS devices. And with the ever improving processors in smartphones, the potential of apps is only increasing. Check out this week’s selection to see if you agree.

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Publisher: Alawar Entertainment, Inc.
Developer: e-FunSoft Games
Minimum System requirements: Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7 / 800 MHz processor / 256 MB RAM / DirectX 7.0 or later
Genre: Time Management
Release date: Available now
Written by: Mindy Hartman

Attention fashionistas! Are you ready to style models, put on fashion shows and compete to have the most profitable boutique on the planet? Alawar Entertainment Inc. and e-FunSoft Games present Juliette’s Fashion Empire, the latest time management game for your speed-clicking, action-chaining amusement.

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Publisher: Overhaul Games
Developer: Overhaul Games, Interplay
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 3 GHz Pentium D or better CPU, GeForce GT 120/Radeon HD 2600 XT or better graphics card, 512 MB RAM, 1 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated (original game rated Teen)
Release date: Available now

Old games are like a comfortable pair of shoes that have faded over the years. Sometimes you want to take them out, polish them up and take them for spin. This is what Overhaul Games has done with the 2000 FPS classic MDK 2, a goofy, definitely retro piece of gaming history that’s a simple yet refreshing shooter diversion, even after more than a decade.

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Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Certain Affinity
Genre: Hack and slash
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Certain Affinity has made their name through map creation for a variety of other games. Crimson Alliance sees their bid to take to the gaming stage proper. It is a hack and slash dungeon crawler in the same vein as Bastion and Torchlight, in that it offers player input in terms of item and weapon choices. However, if you prefer a game where you have to decide whether to wear your “Tights of Valhalla” or your “Ankle Socks of Death,” then you should move along quickly using your “Stockings of Swiftness.” Micro management isn’t part of the game’s ethos – simplicity is. For example, you only get three characters to choose from. The game offers both single player campaign action and a four player co-op mode (available both locally and online). So is Crimson Alliance worth a trip through the dungeon?

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Recoil Games
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

One of these days, someone really ought to release a game called “Metroidvania” and retire on the never-ending residuals. That superlative; the Reese’s Peanut Butter cup-style fusion of two great things – in this case Super Metroid and Castlevania; is usually all an action-adventure fan needs to hear to know their money is well spent. Those titles certainly hit a sweet spot for people who hunger for games that reward methodical exploration with carefully doled out abilities that open new, exciting reaches of whatever castle or labyrinth they happen to be exploring. A few years ago, Chair Entertainment (a subsidiary of Epic) took the “Metroidvania” formula and married it to the spy genre; churning out one of the better titles that year, Shadow Conspiracy. And while the wait for that game’s sequel continues, we now have Recoil Games’ Rochard to scratch the itch as their PSN exclusive aims to send players scrambling through a variety of interstellar installations solving puzzles, chasing down new pathways and keeping the “Metroidvania” dream alive.

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Team ICO
Rating: T (Teen)
Available: Now

In the age of HD gaming, backwards compatibility is a mixed blessing. While it makes for a “nice-to-have” feature on the back of the console’s box, the truth is many of your old favorites are more visually pleasing when revisited in your mind’s eye. Once you get these ancient treasures running on spiffy new hardware, and splashed across a pristine 1080p widescreen, all those ugly blemishes once hidden by reduced resolution tear at your peepers. So, the loss of backwards compatibility on later iterations of this generation’s consoles is not that big a burden when you consider the care and craftsmanship that Sony has implemented in spit-polishing some of the PS2’s most prominent releases. Taking a long-awaited place alongside the previously released God of War and Sly Cooper collections are two of the PS2’s crown jewels – the sublime Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – fully remastered for a new generation to play and the past to covet.

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Inevitably, most things become boring. This fact is one of the reasons I like iOS games. If I spend a dollar on an app and play it for an hour, I feel little remorse when I move on to a different game. Whereas with console/PC games, when I spend between twenty and sixty dollars, if I haven’t invested 5-10 hours (hopefully more) in the game, I’ll typically wait to purchase another title. This week’s collection of apps are all great titles and with the exception of Squids, they’re all titles that are thoroughly enjoyable but don’t require a lot of attention. Essentially, they’re ideal mobile games. I singled out Squids because, as you will soon read, it has an interesting story and mechanics that deserve a little more devotion. Enjoy!

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Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: id Software
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Once upon a time, id brought fire to the masses. With the advent of the first person shooter (popularized by their two fisted salvo of Wolfenstein and Doom), id tapped deep into the collective gamer mindset and dreamed up a compelling new genre that gave life to our most visceral impulses. By putting the BFG into our hands and letting us loose on the demonic hordes, they revolutionized the marketplace. They provided a compelling product that underscored the evolutionary shift transpiring. These games weren’t necessarily just for kids anymore, and with the spark ignited, developers weaned on Doom and Quake began adding to the mosaic by taking a fairly simple archetype born from that primal urge to blast stuff and turning it into the box-office busting behemoths we battle through each holiday season. id may have burst onto a barren wasteland way back when, but in the decades since, the landscape has grown fertile. With the release of their long-gestating new IP, we watch to see if id’s Rage can cut through the boisterous noise of their crowded competition.

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(Editor’s Note: The App Attack was too big to be contained in a single day. Here’s part 2.)

I was thinking of naming this week’s App Attack the “Depressed Edition.” Why? Because on September 23, summer officially ended. On the plus side, I now have more hours, without the sun, to fulfill all of my anti-social activities (like freelancing and gaming). If you find yourself lamenting the prolonged evening hours, do yourself a solid and buy some of these apps; half of them are free to try!

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Publisher: Robot Entertainment
Developer: Robot Entertainment
Genre: Action-Strategy
ESRB: Teen
Release date: October 5, 2011

Orcs. I hate them. You hate them. Their continued existence promises to bring only pain and suffering. They are a constant threat to the well-being of society, and should be dealt with swiftly and violently. Robot Entertainment’s Orcs Must Die! is an action-strategy hybrid that poses a question that is surprisingly difficult to answer: What is the best way to kill an Orc?

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Publisher: UTV Ignition
Developer: UTV Ignition
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Before the digital distribution networks, PSN and XBLA, became the showcase for ambitious indie darlings like Braid and Limbo, these cyber storefronts featured a dependable selection of classic arcade titles and addictive puzzlers. In fact, on the day I bought my 360, I logged more time playing the freebie Hexic than I did with the show stopping Call of Duty 2. That’s the beauty of a good puzzle game: if the concept is tight and the execution flawless, the intangible “just one more level” mindset takes root; leaving those speaker-blasting battles to wait another day. Nowadays, the marketplaces are jammed with a vast menagerie of downloadable delights, representing all genres. Where these once bite-sized titles have grown much larger, smaller titles like Mercury Hg exist to tax your brain.

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