The Command and Conquer series of games is brilliant, and it doesn’t care what anyone thinks. All you have to do is blow up Big Ben with a nuclear missile to find that out, and that is exactly what I did in the first Command and Conquer. Fast forward a dozen or so years and a few things have changed. [...]

There is a simple question that keeps me up at night, gives me chills and causes me to break out in random cold sweats, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? You have asked yourself the same thing many times I’m sure, so to put all our minds at ease, I tried the classic educational crime puzzle game (enough adjectives [...]

If you’re like me, you watched the last five years of Halo game releases and got slightly confused. Starting with Halo 3, the supposed last in the series, Microsoft released Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition. Now they have announced Halo 4, and I can’t think of a single reason why besides money. [...]

It took me a few years, but I think I’ve outgrown the feeling that I was “too old” for Pokemon. When Pokemon started hitting Game Boys everywhere, I snidely insulted anyone I knew who played it. If you were one of those people, I am sorry. I have now played and watched a lot of media intended for children, and [...]

We already explored the early growth of video gaming and Atari’s hand in its destruction. Now it’s time to ask, how much has gaming evolved since its rebirth through the miracle of Nintendo? You can expect me to cover some big ideas about gaming, and I hope you will either agree or disagree in the comments below. Here is what [...]

Ninja Gaiden 3 releases on Thursday the 22nd, and I can’t say that I particularly care how well it does. My first Ninja Gaiden was the Team Ninja creation for Xbox. My last Ninja Gaiden was the same one. I never beat level two. Such a sad story for a game on my Xbox shelf. So, clearly I have a [...]

The Cool Ship breaks down Mass Effect 3 from three perspectives, fanboy, our hot girlfriend and missed opportunities. Read on and choose your destiny! Fanboy- by Micah Mangin I heart Mass Effect more than any other game or series. I’m biased, and I’m a Bioware fanatic/lunatic, but each entry in this space trilogy accomplishes the singular feat of separating my [...]

Did you know retro arcades still exist? You have to look for them, but they’re there, subtly carving a chunk out of the mountain of entertainment available to consumers. I visited a retro arcade last weekend, a place called Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. It wasn’t a museum to me because I got to play the games and spend piles of [...]

If you ever went to an amusement park as a child you remember with joy those moments spent riding roller coasters and waiting in lines with nothing but your anxiety and a severe sunburn to comfort you. Maybe you remember laying down to sleep after a long day of amusement, feeling the rush of crazy inversions and steeply angled hills [...]

What’s all this nonsense about free-to-play games? We used to proudly pay to play Everquest, even before the epic elephant mount in the room took over subscription based gaming, relegating smaller subscription based games to sit in the corner with a niche cap on. Now, Everquest itself is going free to play next month, the Star Trek massively multi player [...]

I’ve been waiting for what seemed like forever, but the demo for Mass Effect 3 has arrived. It would be intensely cruel of me not to share my thoughts and impressions. Read on and dream of once again bending the known universe to your will through Commander Sheperd’s biotic aptitude and penchant for shooting aliens without prejudice. The menu screen [...]

We are absolutely spoiled rotten by the modern video game industry. Big game publishers can saturate any major or niche market with a smorgasbord of titles with little to no consequence to their total revenue. Less than 30 years ago, a major game publisher tried this same method with disastrous results, causing the video game industry crash of 1983. I [...]

Feb. 14 approaches, a day that for many geeks and gamers heralds nightmares and pain, and for others contains blissful love. I am of course talking about the release of Twisted Metal for the Playstation 3 console. If the hype is more than just another one of Calypso’s schemes, we are in for a treat. By the way, Calypso is [...]

You have two types of people, those who know who John Madden is, and those who don’t. For those who don’t, I wonder if they think Electronic Arts conjured the name to use for their NFL themed games. Those who know are the ones who probably remember his commentary, if not his coaching and Super Bowl wins with the Oakland [...]

Person A: “Mega-Riboxord-san is the best, his special attack is un-blockable!” Person B: “No my favorite character is Tim, he has the best combos. I will pwn¹ you!” [steps on soapbox] This fictional dialogue demonstrates the difference of opinion I’ve seen when it comes to fighting games, even among the fighting fans themselves. Sometimes when I just sit in a room [...]

Racing fans, The Cool Ship is jamming it in reverse and taking you back for lap two of the retro racing review. The focus this time is on console racers, as promised, and I also promise to surprise you with my picks. Expecting Gran Turismo? Denied! Forza Motorsport – Xbox Cool factor: ground-breaking I used to be an Xbox fanboy, [...]

I wanted to review a retro car racing game, but in the course of playing a few I ended up rediscovering so many racing games I’ll just have to combine them into a two part review. I’ll call it, the retro racing review! Load up on Red Bulls and stash a few Zelda cookies for the duration. Quarantine – PC Cool [...]

When PC gaming accessory maker, Razer, watches Star Wars, it hears, “help me Razer, you are my only hope,” and apparently it thinks Leia represents the PC gaming community. Now Razer will be restoring the supposed disturbance in the force with their latest unveiling, Project Fiona. I have to hand it to Razer, this tablet makes handheld gaming systems look [...]

I just had one of the most fulfilling and despairing experiences of my life, I beat the Japanese RPG Chrono Trigger for the first time. I beat it only to discover that there are 13 different endings, only one of which I unlocked. This is normally good news, but I got Skyrim for Christmas. I need to play Skyrim! Summary [...]

Santa isn’t the jolly old elf you’ve always thought he was. I just played Hunter: the Reckoning Redeemer and found out his true intentions and discovered the source of his magical power over children. Santa is a zombie. Summary You heard me right. Santa is a 15-foot tall infestation who carries a bag full of flesh eating teddy bears and [...]