Condemned: Criminal Origins

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Sega
Review Type: Looky
Version: Promo Shot


Back in college, when my head was filled with fantasies of indie filmmaking, I helped shoot a short film in an abandoned asylum outside of Orlando, Florida. The place was scary as hell. The top floors were illuminated by daylight, allowing the urban explorers to closely examine the scrawls on walls, piles of abandoned personal belongings and scattered paperwork. Then there were the bottom floors; dank, cold and lightless. It was impossible to stand there in the dark of the basement without hearing your heartbeat in your ears.

Seems like our country is overrun with places like this -- decrepit hospitals, schools and hotels all sagging under the weight of decades of dust and disrepair. Every town has one, and almost every other video game is set in one. Condemned: Criminal Origins takes the next generation's first stab at rendering spooky squalor. This screen depicts, of all places, an abandoned fast food counter. With the move toward healther eating and growing concerns regarding the meat industry, it's not hard to imagine a future where the burger joint becomes the new haunted house.

Ratchet: Deadlocked

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

My knee-jerk reaction to Ratchet: Deadlocked was to protest the "darkening" of the Ratchet & Clank series with one of those Invasion of the Body Snatchers screams. But there's no need to point and howl, really, because the changes are slim. Sure, Ratchet has a new supersuit, but that's only because he's been kidnapped and forced to play the Running Man against his will. The humor, vibrant colors and diverse alien worlds of the original are all intact and relatively unmolested. Really, the big change this game makes to the series is in tightening the focus on combat -- something that was already a huge part of its appeal. This narrowing risks repetition, but does so by throwing so many varieties of battle at the wall that its difficult to tire of all the robot-blasting mayhem.

In the spirit of arena combat, Ratchet: Deadlocked sports a diverse array of online contests, from classics like Capture the Flag, to Unreal Tournament-style node battles. Against humans, the game becomes much more deadly. See that number next to the guy's name? That's why he's destroying you and there's very little (besides hours and hours of practice) that you can do about it.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Platform: PC
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Review Type: Looky
Version: Trailer/Promo Shots


This weekend's Blizzcon saw the official announcement of The Burning Crusade expansion to World of Warcraft. Rumors of the new Blood Elf race and 70 level cap were confirmed. All the details are available at Blizzard's preview site. The preview trailer gives us a peek at Outland, a new continent that had better be the home to at least one Sean Connery reference.

LA Rush

Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: Midway
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

LA Rush, plays a lot like Driver before "on foot" gameplay derailed the series like a fatal blow out. Rather than aide and abet crimes, here you street race, earn cash and build up your arsenal of pimped out cars. This is territory well covered by Rockstar's Midnight Club series, but I get the feeling that there's plenty of room in the fast and furious field for more than one urban street racer.

My biggest gripe is with the game's slow-motion crash sequences -- a direct crib from Burnout 3: Takedown that does more to bog down the action than enhance it. In some situations LA Rush is very forgiving. The code nudges you around trees and other narrow permanent fixtures. But tagging most traffic is usually disastrous.

The cut scenes contain suprisingly elegant character animations. Kudos go to the motion capture team for making the bounce, boast and strut of urban culture look so damn (dare I say it?) pretty. The music, while sufficiently blingy, can be grating. A sure sign that I'm getting old and that the divide between hip hop and rap is growing more cavernous.

The strangest part of LA Rush is the game's announcer --the guy that tells you how many laps you have to go and other important stuff like that. He sounds like an old white dude that took voice-over lessons from Stan Lee. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Midway legally, contractually and morally abilities to hire Michelle Rodriguez for that job?

Flow: Urban Dance Uprising

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Ubisoft
Review Type: Looky
Version: Trailer


A breakdancing game is a great idea, but check out how hard this game bites on Dance Dance Revolution. The mechanic is identical. I suppose there's no harm in creating more content for the popular dance pad peripheral, but you'd think they'd try to come up with something besides better music to differentiate themselves from DDR. Because, really, it's not hard to find better muic than corny eurobeat tracks like "Boom Boom Dollar."

Trailer here.

Shadow of the Colossus

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Shadow of the Colossus is all about scale. The seamless land you explore is vast. The behemoths you must fell one by one tower over you like skyscrapers. When you finally make the dangerous climb to the crown of one of these beasts, the tension is palpable. You hang on for dear life as the creature shakes its head, hoping to fling away. And the satifaction of bringing the monster down is immense.

It's a game that invites hyperbole not just in terms of size, but in description of its quality. The polish that Team Ico has buffed onto this modest adventure is damn near radiant. The evocative score, artful look and pared-down story create as compelling and complete a gaming experience you're going to find. Don't miss out on this one.

Recommended

Barry Hatter

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Metro 3D
Review Type: Looky
Version: Promo Shot


There's a certain honor in creating value-priced shovelware. These cheapy knock offs are the pulp of the video game industry. But, for some reason, this cynical grab at the J.K. Rowlings crowd seems to cross a couple lines. Firstly, the name Barry Hatter seems to taking advantage of dyslexic (or at the very least, stupid) Christmas shoppers. Porn companies have come up with better Harry Potter take-off titles. And then there's the above screen. We all know that brooms are a bit phallic in nature, but is it absolutely necessary for the kid's eyes to be crossed as he tugs at that bit of wood between his legs?

Midway Arcade Treasures 3

Platform: Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: Midway
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Compilations of classic games are a good thing. One of the major problems with gaming is that our history is lost with every generation. Software catalogs start from scratch with every new gaming platform, leaving the majority of games to fade into obscurity.

Sure, the emulation scene has done an admirable job of keeping then flame of old school gaming alive. But commerce will soon render their efforts illegal and copyright will do it's unwritten job of pushing antequated or consumer-shunned content into extinction.

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 does the valliant job of preserving eight fairly forgettable games. Having blown their load with the first two volumes, Midway scrapes the bottom of their barrel for racing games remainders. The top billed, Hydro Thunder, San Francisco Rush 2049 and San Francisco Rush the Rock: Alcatraz Edition are the most recent and the most forgetable -- all sitdown racers of a similar, unassuming breed. But Offroad Thunder stands out for its sheer gaudiness. The racer's butt-ugly textures are painted with a day-glo-meets-vomit pallate. The soundtrack blares roaring engines and obnoxious guitar solos. The game itself is overly forgiving and floaty -- your truck seems to bob up and down like a jet ski as it rounds the dirt track turns.

The older half of the games did a better job of pushing my nostalgia buttons. Off Road and Badlands, both top-down racers, are rendered in intricate and artful sprites. S.T.U.N. Runner's wireframe combat racing recalls the satisfying twitch gaming of Tempest. Most special to me was Race Driving, a extremely unforgiving driving simulator rendered in the bland, textureless 3D of low-rent VR. I spent quite a bit of money as a teenager trying to master the loops and jumps of the game's stunt track. Taking the game for spin conjured memories of the Pompano Beach shopping mall where I spent many Saturday afternoons.

Zboard

Platform: PC
Manufacturer: Ideazon
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail


Custom gaming keyboards are a great idea. I'm still amazed that PC gamers still settle for the uncomfortable keyboard/mouse configuration just because that's what we've become accustomed to. The qwerty keyboard was invented for typing, not gaming. And yet after all these years we insist on forcing a joystick's functionality into the round hole of a word processing interface.

Ideazon's solution to the problem is to meet PC gaming traditionalists half way. Their Zboard "Ultimate Gaming Keyboard" recreates the "WASD" control scheme in oversized buttons on the far left. The genius behind their design lies in the "custom keysets" which can easily be removed and swapped out for other layouts. That way your wife doesn't have to type out her email on your dorky Call of Duty 2-themed layout. I'm currently using the World of Warcraft model, which does the trick as far as labeling important key stroke functions, emotes and other gameplay functions. Sadly, the World of Warcraft keyset doesn't come with the oversized directional buttons that the FPS models all come standard with. So, sadly, I'd still going carpal in my left hand after long dungeon crawls. I'm seriously considering cannibalizing two keysets to create an ultimate hacked keyset for my own World of Warcraft play style.

Not Games: Doom

Here's the problem with most video game movies; they're based on deriviative product. The "story" behind the Doom games is a hackeneyed mix of Aliens and H.P. Lovecraft. Nothing terribly original. What made Doom an amazing game was its ability to immerse and isolate the player, to take them someplace different and make them feel fear. What makes Doom a shitty movie is that it does none of those things. There's very little to set this picture apart from the miserable direct-to-video sci-fi pics you see on the new release wall at Blockbuster (besides the 45 days it will take to get there).

Andrzej Bartkowiak isn't the next Uwe Boll. But when video game level designers are better at lighting a scene than your cinematographer, a serious reconsideration of your career ought to be in order. The movie's much touted first-person action sequence feels more like a county fair dark ride than a frantic shoot-or-die scenario. The movies only highlight are the 15 seconds when chainsaw meets Pinky -- and you get that in the trailer.

Seriously. Stay home and play video games.

World of Warcraft Expansion

Platform: PC
Publisher: Blizzard
Review Type: Looky
Version: Unconfirmed Screenshot


Hotchy-motchy! The horde are getting Blood Elves! At least, they might be if these screens uncovered by WorldofWar.Net don't turn out to be elaborate fakes. Blizzard is set to unveil details at the forthcoming Blizzcon, so we'll learn if these shots are bona fide soon enough.

There's a school of thought that imbalance between the horde and alliance on many servers is a direct result of the fact that baddies (Orc Taurens, Undead, Trolls) all appear to have suffered a critical hit from the [Ugly Stick]. There's a good chance that this sexy daughter of Elune is Blizzard's attempt to lure superficial World of Warcraft players to the dark side.

via Kotaku

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Capcom
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

The Nintendo DS, with its dual screen layout and touch input, is an unconventional gaming machine. Emboldened by Nintendo's step out of the norm, publishers seem a bit more willing to do the same. And so lucky American audiences get some consultation time with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This adventure game puts the player in the shoes of the titular defense lawyer, a legal novice thrust into several high profile murder cases. As Phoenix, the player must investigate the crimes, collect evidence, interview suspects and witnesses and then plea his client's innocence in court.

The game is essentially a work of interactive fiction enhanced with animations, light point-and-click evidence gathering and optional voice input (objections may be shouted into the DS's microphone). Mainstream gamers, more accustomed to the freedom of RPGs and open world titles like Grand Theft Auto, may find Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney's gameplay a bit remedial. And they wouldn't be wrong. The game is a throwback to a time when gamers were satisfied to engage themselves in interactive yarns -- because that's all that computers could manage. It's true; Wright's options feel very limited when compared to other contemporary games. The player doesn't control Wright so much as point him in the right direction, as in a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

But that doesn't mean that the mysteries are simple to crack. A bit of thought is required to ask the right questions and present the proper evidence. Trial and error is discouraged by the judge, who will only tolerate so many dead-end lines of questioning.

Simplified gameplay and atypical setting make Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney a true "alternative" title. It's a quirky diversion with a "classic gaming" feel and little replay value. 'Core gamers would be wasting their money on a game like this. But they've already got a ton of games to play. This ones' for the rest of us.

Not Games: Video Mods

Hey, check it out! Magneto's using his mutant powers to...play the drums. So does he have metal drum sticks or something?

This screen comes from MTV2's Video Mods, a show that creates music videos using characters and settings from video games. On paper, the idea might sound intriguing considering the amount of quality entertainment we've gleaned from good machinima like Red Vs. Blue. But this is not good machinima. It's marketing.

That's not to say that Video Mods isn't entertaining. It's probably one of the most unintentionally hilarious programs on cable television. And here's why; the show is stinks with video game industry's desperate longing to be cool. And just like the younger brother who spends all his allowance on parachute pants or a lime-green mohawk, video games just wind up making an ass of themselves.

This is the part where us cool kids point and laugh.

Shin Megami Tensai: Digital Devil Saga 2

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Atlus
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Review Code

It's impossible to look at a game like Shin Megami Tensai: Digital Devil Saga 2 without bringing bringing up Final Fantasy VII. The role-playing game from Japanese developer Square looms over its genre like a super-deformed, materia-enhanced end boss. And not because the game was innovative or even all that good. Final Fantasy VII had the good fortune of coming out at the launch of the original PlayStation and becoming by default the "first RPG" of a generation of gamers.

Shin Megami Tensai: Digital Devil Saga 2 cribs almost all of its moves directly from the Final Fantasy VII playbook. Turn-based battle? Check. Magically infused future world? Check. Randomly encountered battles? Check again. The similarities are too numerous to count. Surely, many are now genre staples, but considering the amount of time that's passed since Final Fantasy VII bowed I'd prefer more evolution, besides stylish graphics (which SMT:DD2 has in spades) and a deep character customization system.

And yet, while slogging through encounter after encounter, slowly strengthening my party of freedom-fighting VR demons, I couldn't help but get swept up by the rhythm of the battles. There's a reason why dozens upon dozens of RPGs have adhered to Final Fantasy VII's riffs. Because they work.

But I've been down this heroes path before and my gut tells me that its going the same way it always has. I'll meet my foe at some kind of high-security weapon facility, I'll battle them in mutated form and perhaps lose a party member or two along the way. A fine ending for a epic quest. I'm just not sure I have the heart (or 20 hours) to see it through.

NFL Head Coach

Platform: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: EA
Review Type: Looky
Version: Promo Shot


Sports fans are geeks. At least, that's the way I look at it. Nobody considers them geeks because they're numerous, mainstream and generally very, very manly. But take a close look at the stat-centric hero worship that most 'core afficianados take part in and the earmarks of dorkdom are all there. Now take a look at this thrilling bit of concept art from the forthcoming NFL Head Coach and tell me that cosplayers are the weird ones.

Still Playing: Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee

Platform: PSP
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

The fact that Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee remains one of the most compelling games for the PSP says as much about handheld's software catalog as it does about the game. Its been a slow summer for new PSP releases, leaving most of us to revisit the games we picked up at launch in May. Along with Lumines, this modest golfing port continues to grab my attention.

I've been painstakingly unlocking every item and character in the game. Just this week I made it to the Gold level tournaments, the highest and most challenging tier of matches in the game. The climb to the top has been a difficult, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding. This formula makes for a fairly successful embodiment of Nolan Bushnel's game design credo -- make games "easy to learn, difficult to master." This game accomplished that goal. It's simple swinging mechanic sucked me in and the gradually rising difficulty kept me hooked.

I was never a fan of real-world golf, but there's something about the level of strategy, precision, patience and precision required to score under par in Hot Shots: Golf Open Tee that's starting to change my opinion of the sport. You won't be seeing me out on the links anytime soon, though. I've got too many video games to play.

Recommended

Tony Hawk's: American Wasteland

Platform: Multiplatform
Publisher: Activision
Review Type: Looky
Version: Production Trailer

The fact that Activision is really milking the Tony Hawk franchise is pretty much indisputable. The series has taken a story driven turn since Tony Hawk's Underground, and since then has become more and more concerned with the culture of skateboarding. These attempts at relevence have had limited results, particularly when depending on a butt-ugly character model of Bam Margera to help "keep it real."

If there's any benefit to making the eighth game in a fading series, it's that you get experiment a little. This production trailers focuses on a portion of the game's graphical style which directly recalls the classic, punk-influnced cartooning of Jim Phillips -- best known for the "Screaming Hand" graphic he designed for Santa Cruz Skateboards.

In the game the art is created by Phillips' son Jimbo Phillips and introduced as the panel art of an underground comic book.

I can't see this kind of niche culture being a mandate from the Activision marketing department. Unless, that is, their marketing suits are so damn savvy that they're trying to lure aging, 30-year-old ex skaters like myself with a calculated touch of punk rock nostalgia. They'd do that, wouldn't they?

Trailer here.

Jak X: Combat Racing

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Just a few posts ago I comment on racing games and their need for additional action to hold my attention. Jak X: Combat Racing is the kind of game I was talking about. The game is a cross pollenation of cart racing ala Super Mario Kart and the automotive carnage of the Twisted Metal series. In fact, Jak X: Combat Racing wisely samples DNA from nearly every such game you can name, in an attempt to create the ultimate battle race hybrid. This sampling is best seen in the game's varied race modes. The Death Race, which charges you with slamming into as many drone vehicles as you can, feels cribbed straight from Burnout 3: Takedown. And the Artifact Race, in which you rush to capture flag, recalls the gameplay of Smuggler's Run.

Jak X: Combat racing is by no means perfect, though. The organic look of the futuristic race tracks (dictated I'm sure by the design of the ongoing series) conjures painful memories of Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Nooooooooo!

Not Games: O RLY?

The Orly Owl on Battlenet Confuses the French
The Gaming Age Forums Lets the Owls Out
Wikipedia Explains the Meme
You're The Man Now Dog Compiles the Owls
O RLY Before the Owl

Mario Kart DS Bundle

Platform: Mario Kart DS Bundle
Publisher: Nintendo
Review Type: Looky
Version: Box Art


Between the Nintendogs Bundles and this fiery red Mario Kart DS Bundle, I have a suspicion that there's going to be a lot of Nintendo products under Christmas trees this year. The color reminds me of those Atomic Fireball candies that were all the rage in middle school. Not the hue that I'd pick. I'm eyeballing the Pure White import to replace my launch Silver model when my touchscreen gives out.

We Love Katamari

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Namco
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Only gamers with the blackest or hearts resisted falling head over heels in love with last years quirky sleeper Katamari Damacy. The sequel, We Love Katamari, retains the same superflat graphic style and glitchy, J-pop soundtrack as the original. Very little has been changed control-wise and that's okay, because Katamari Damacy was nearly perfect in its execution.

The one major gripe most gamers had with Katamari Damacy was that it was too short. I generally don't agree with this criticism, because in my mind game length isn't directly related to game quality. Still, Katamari Damacy felt a little like a proof of concept -- one that We Love Katamari fully explores and expands, adding new multiplayer contests as well as a boat-load of goal oriented missions. My favorite of which is the one where you roll the sumo wrestler over food until he's fat enough to crush his opponant.

If I had to nitpick We Love Katamari my only gripe would be that much of the game's added length comes from returning to already played areas with new objectives. That's it.

Recommended

Eyetoy: Operation Spy

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshot


You gotta love squeaky-clean teen models. I half expect to see this same kid in the JC Penny Catalog, or maybe even (if he's lucky) with a couple of lines on 7th Heaven. What's missing from this pic is the slack-jawed expression you can't help but make when playing Eyetoy games. There's something about the wiring in the human brain that doesn't allow us to look this "cool" when we're looking at live video images of ourselves.

F.E.A.R.

Platform: PC
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Multiplayer Demo

If there's one thing I can count on from PC first person shooters, its their ability to make my computer seem woefully out of date. It happened with Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 and I'm getting that same, not-so-fresh feeling from F.E.A.R.

It's a bummer playing these graphically intensive games at the lowest settings. You can tell you're missing something great. But all you get are flat textures and rigid shadows.

One benefit of playing without the graphical bells and whistles is that you get to experience the gameplay boiled down to its simplest form. And F.E.A.R.'s multiplayer doesn't seem to offer much different. It's a fast-paced frag fest marred only by how convenient it makes spawn camping. But multiplayer isn't what I'm coming to F.E.A.R. for in this first place. It's the creepy first player story that I'm interested in. That and a new motherboard and processor.

Download the multiplayer demo here.

Indigo Prophecy

Platform: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: Atari
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Indigo Prophecy is a video game with an inferiority complex. It one of those games, like the early Resident Evil titles, that longs so violently to be like a movie, that they inadvertently mire themselves in bad game ruts. Take Indigo Prophecy's cinematic camera angles. Sure, they offer a visually striking angle on the game's events. But they also cause your character to veer out of control and bump into walls every time the camera jumps to a new position. Try to imagine how The Bourne Identity would have played if Matt Damon's agent suffered from a debilitating inner ear condition. That's what it looks like when your character bumbles across a room, bumping clumsily against a wall before finally coaxing open his own bedroom door. More and more, I'm beginning to see the wisdom of Killer 7's "on rails" control scheme.

The game's opening menu also asks if you want to start a "New Movie" rather than a new game. Seriously. If I wanted to start a new movie I'd be watching something out of my Netflix cue, not fooling around with my Xbox.

But the game shame seems to stop there. The rest of Indigo Prophecy is a fascinating experiment in game mechanics new and old. The title is essentially a classic adventure game, like King's Quest or Leisure Suit Larry. You talk to people, discover items and make game effecting decisions. The story is essentially a supernatural murder mystery and you play as the investigators and the killer.

There's no combat to speak of. Action sequences play out in a Shenmue-like fashion. You react to events my moving the analog stick. But rather then simply move your character ala Dragon's Lair, you play what amounts to a game of Simon. Mimic the color coded directions properly and your character succeeds in dodging ghostly flea monsters or winning a game of basketball. Fail and you try again.

Flawed or not Indigo Prophecy is worth a look for its audacity to stand out in the increasingly homogeneous field of console games.

Getting Up

Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: Atari
Review Type: Looky
Version: Promo Shot


P. Diddy and Mark Ecko look ticked. Their expressions remind me of the looks that Ricky Gervais gets on The Office or Extras when he says something particulary offensive.

The game that these two gentlemen are daring us to play revolves around graffiti -- a controversial subject that has already spawned a couple of exceptional games (Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future). When I heard that Getting Up had combat, I was a little disappointed. Since when do street artists and taggers also need deadly black ops ninja skills? I probably shouldn't question these decisions. After all, this is a world where you sell a game by staring down your potential customers.

If anything, I'm looking forward to Getting Up for the chance to bomb trains and tag street signs without affecting my permanent record. That and the soundtrack featuring original compositions by RJD2 and one of my all time favorite tracks, "Cavern" by Liquid Liquid.

Ridge Racer 6

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Namco
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshot


For me the appeal of straight-up racing sims has always been pretty elusive. Even so called "arcade-style" racers don't really do much for me unless, like Burnout 3: Takedown, they give me the ability to wreak some kind of havok. I'm guessing the appeal of more straight-laced racers like Grand Turismo 4 or Ridge Racer 6 is fantasy fulfillment. I'm just not one of those guys that dreams about driving fast cars through exotic locales. I'm the guy that dreams about a car with windows that don't fog up in the morning.

Two things I'm noticing about the new screens for the Xbox 360 version of Ridge Racer 6: The cars don't look too shiny. Also, the car sponsors are old-school arcade games like Pac-Man, Bosconian and Galaxian -- not the kind of thing that's gonna make a racing game really jump out at me, but it's a start.

Trauma Center : Under the Knife

Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Atlus
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I know what you're thinking: "Not another surgery game! When will game designers start making games about something different, like space marines or football?" Until the glorious day comes that our store shelves are overflowing with war simulations and first-person rehashes of Aliens, we're just going to have to make do with been-there-done-that games like Trauma Center: Under the Knife.

In all seriousness, the promise of innovative (or at least more interesting) games on the Nintendo DS is finally starting to bear out. Trauma Center: Under the Knife makes use of the stylus and touch screen by allowing you to make incisions, sew stitches and inject medicines by hand. The experience, especially when using the forceps and scalpel, is a very tactile one.

Surgery is a harrowing experience in the game. The patient is forever on the edge of some kind catastrophe and unexpected complications almost seem always pop up. The difference between sucess and failure depends not only on remembering and completing the many steps for your procedure, but also maintaining the patient's vitals with medication. It's a juggling act that tests the players dexterity, memory and nerves.

The game sports an anime-styled look and traces the story of an irresponsable young doctor who may just have the mystical gift of "The Healing Touch." Okay. So the story might not be the most realistic, but we're not talking about brain surgery here.

Recommended