Latest Articles
comic | 11/15/05 | Aaron Stanton
Sometimes articles rub people the wrong way. Sometimes somebody criticises a beloved video game, or says the wrong thing in an editorial about Nintendo. Sometimes, though, they just mention the fact that they\'re a girl that happens to play games. This week\'s twoplayer comic is partially in response to the reader reaction we got from an article we published last week called,
A Look Behind Alice: A Woman\'s Reason for Gaming. The character profile of a casual gamer was received with mixed results.
Did You Say Something? is this week\'s twoplayer comic.
Twoplayer game comics are published weekly at
http://comics.gamesfirst.com.
feature | 11/14/05 | Shawn Rider
Last week we published the first part of Shawn\'s in-depth look at the twisted world of Sociolotron. Billed as the ultimate adult MMORPG, Sociolotron features unprecedented levels of player freedom and sexual gameplay. But Shawn found that, much like novels by the Marquis de Sade, the bizarro sex quickly becomes banal and the real meat of the game lies in the ways players build their characters and live out alternative lives within the game. In Part Two of his feature, Shawn talks to senior citizen male prostitutes, lesbian lovers, and a wheelchair-bound mafioso who commands four in-game sex slaves. He also talks to Patrick Lagny, who has created Sociolotron almost single-handedly, about what motivates him to make such a game.
Needless to say, this article features explicit language and frank descriptions of adult and sexual themes. Reader discretion is advised.
feature | 11/12/05 | Matt James
Matt\'s back with another bag full of the good stuff. This time through the Mailbag we\'ve got some more comments about the revolution controller (they just don\'t stop), a bit of \"debate\" about the veracity of the Giantology.net website, and once again GamesFirst! exhibits deft diplomatic skillZ and averts yet another potential international conflict. No thanks necessary. That\'s what we\'re here for.
podcast | 11/11/05 | Val Townsend
Here it is, another episode of the GamesFirst! Weekly Wrap-Up. This week Val takes a look at the latest news stories, as well as reviews of Shadow of the Colossus for PS2 and GameTap, the new broadband gaming service for PC. She also has a preview of the very intriguing second-generation Xbox 360 title, Crackdown, which comes from the creator of the original GTA and Lemmings. You know you want it, and it\'s right here.
editorial | 11/09/05 | Aaron Stanton
Assuming you\'re lucky enough to get an Xbox 360 on the November 22nd launch day, you\'re going to want to have a game to go with it. Sure, you can throw in Halo 2, but you\'re not going to see the true power of the system until you have something that\'s built for it. The problem is, what do you buy? How do you judge quality before the system releases? It\'s a dilemma we\'re going to try to address. We break down the games that will be available on launch day to help you decide which ones fit best in your DVD tray.
comic | 11/07/05 | Aaron Stanton
The Doom movie managed to hit #1 in the box office right after its release. Since then, competition from other titles have forced it down the chart, with one magazine reporting a 120% drop less than a week after it\'s release. Don\'t ask me how that\'s possible, except that - if the charts wrap-around to the top of the screen like many old NES games - that would put them way up there at the top. Possibly one of the greatest money makers of all time. Who knows? Take a look at this week\'s twoplayer comic (
Part I and
Part II) to see which Doom-isms made a safe transition from the game to the movie.
Twoplayer game comics are published weekly at
http://comics.gamesfirst.com.
feature | 11/07/05 | Shawn Rider
We published Shawn\'s preview of Sociolotron a year ago. Sociolotron is an adults-only RPG that plunges players into an anything-goes world of post-apocalyptic London. Sex, drugs, and occult rituals play prominent roles in the world, as does free agency, community service, and player-based self-governance. A year ago the game was in beta testing, and since coming out in a final version a few months ago Sociolotron has seen some refinement and enhancements, but remained essentially the same game, heavy on role-playing of all sorts. Rather than a review of Sociolotron, Shawn revisited the game and its players to take a closer look at the phenomenon that is Sociolotron in a two part series. This week we present the first portion, and next Monday we\'ll post the conclusion.
Please note: This article is not for the feint of heart or impressionable youths. Remember, Sociolotron is rigorously policed and not available for underage players.
interview | 11/06/05 | Aaron Stanton
In all the hype of the videogame industry, celebrity gamers and stereotypes often become the representative face of an enthusiast group comprised of some of the most interesting human beings on the planet. Regular gamers are a vast array of individuals: fans who have never been content to merely assimilate to industry wishes, makers who have hack and mod, and young scholars and fashionistas who have legitimized and accessorized games. Sometimes it\'s nice to pull back from the glitz and focus on the grassroots gamers who make up the real gaming community. In an effort to examine the role games play in the life of a single gamer, Aaron spent some time with Janny Stratichuk, one woman who loves her videogames.
podcast | 11/04/05 | Val Townsend
This week in the Wrap-Up, Val Townsend, the Atomic Goddess, takes us for a ride through the wild world of videogame news. It\'s a beautiful thing: reviews of Far Cry: Instincts and Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2, plus a preview of indy game effort Project: Offset, which looks incredible. All of that, plus the latest news in the gaming industry makes this the best 7:37 you\'ll spend this weekend.
podcast | 10/30/05 | Val Townsend
Get ready for a spook-tastic episode of the GamesFirst! Weekly Wrap-Up. This week, Val takes a moment away from creating Halloween mayhem on the radio to bring you a roundup of the scariest gaming news, reviews of Evil Dead: Regeneration and Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse, and a preview of Capcom\'s upcoming Xbox 360 title, Dead Rising. It\'s a podcast chock full of gory, gory goodness.
comic | 10/24/05 | Aaron Stanton
Jack Thompson\'s letter offering to donate $10,000 may have been satirical, but not nearly satirical enough. A number of games designed to meet his criteria have sprung up across the Internet, evidently eager to top the lawyer\'s demand. It\'s a good thing that Jonathan Swift\'s proposal, the one which Thompson compares his own letter to, was a bit more obvious. Crazy things could have happened. Check out this week\'s twoplayer comic,
A Modest Proposal Gone Wrong.
Twoplayer game comics are published every Sunday at
http://comics.gamesfirst.com.
comic | 10/18/05 | Aaron Stanton
Nintendogs had a strong showing when it released in Europe, helping to drive up sales of the Nintendo DS system by 400 - 700% across the continent, according to Nintendo. The question is, what will Nintendo do next? Other friendly household pets? We\'ve got an idea. Check out this
week\'s twoplayer comic.
Twoplayer game comics are published every Sunday at
http://comics.gamesfirst.com.
editorial | 10/16/05 | Matt James
Matt James is back with the mailbag, and after the mountain of email we got regarding our very non-controversial views on the Nintendo Revolution controller, we\'ve got to hand it to him: He carried that whole big bag up the stairs himself and didn\'t even strain anything. This is a classic edition of the GF! Mailbag: Gamers get fanatical about their hardware, and it\'s amazing how many people are driven to put their thought down although they have very little imagination or vision for how games could be even better than they already are. We\'ve said it before and we\'ll say it again: Sales figures are a false indication of quality.
editorial | 10/15/05 | Aaron Stanton
A recent posting on RootKit.com suggests that Blizzard installs software that watches the personal information of people playing their game. The software is designed to hunt for cheat-ware, but reads the title headings of any window open, regardless of its relation to WoW. The poster reports that he, \"watched the Warden sniff down the email addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, (and) the URL of several websites that I had open at the time.\" Don\'t like that? Too bad. Considering that it\'s part of Blizzard\'s anti-hacking measures, it might be considered illegal for you to turn it off, or even try to. At what point do we consider this a problem?
podcast | 10/14/05 | Val Townsend
Val\'s back, and this week we have a podcast full of all the goods. We look at all the latest news, from the announcement of Peter Jackson as executive producer for the Halo movie to the Governator\'s attack on violent videogames. Tristan checks in with a review of Burnout: Revenge, and Aaron takes an early look at Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It\'s seven solid minutes of audio goodness.
Dig that podcast, yo.