Staff Writer: Mike cut his teeth on Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo gaming. He’s seen bits go from 8 to 16 then 32 to 64 and beyond. He’s always felt at home in arcades, darkened buildings with rows of glowing monitors before they became extinct. He’s managed a video game arcade, a successful independent gaming store, and operated a gaming website of his own. His battle with personal demons has been a major influence on life experiences and writing recently and it seems the perfect opportunity to marry gaming and writing.
General Akamoto is having a pretty bad day. Just as he’s about to become Japan’s new Shogun, he’s betrayed by one of his own and killed. The icing on the cake? Someone is impersonating him. Skulls of the Shogun features fantastic art and sound design that marry themes from ancient Japanese art style with Cartoon Network style. The aesthetic attention to detail by 17-Bit is remarkable. The whimsical Japanese fantasy setting is brought to life by magnificent character and level design, and accessible, progressive tactical strategy gameplay. (more…)
The Call of Duty franchise practically prints money for Activision shareholders. It is for this reason that an annual release in November is as certain as Thanksgiving. 2012 marked Treyarch’s turn in the development driver seat and they are looking to show that they aren’t just the Call of Duty “B-Team.” Unfortunately, Call of Duty: Black Ops II falls short of the lofty expectations set forth by the stellar World at War and the original Black Ops. (more…)
