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E3Feed Relaunches for E3 2009

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:18:51 -0500

Last year we quietly launched E3Feed just before E3 2008 to mild fanfare.

This year we've completely revamped the site. It's better, faster, stronger.

Besides a slick new design, some new features we've added include a more twitter-like automatic updating system, the ability to customize rss feeds, trending topics, and automatically populated preview images for most stories and videos.

For the uninitiated, E3Feed is a kind of automatic E3 news aggregator that pulls stories from dozens of popular news sources, swirls them around in a dusty cauldron, and pulls out only the E3-related stories. Everything is sortable, searchable, and subscribeable.

So stop wasting time refreshing 46 different tabs with different game news sites looking for E3 info, just leave your browser pointed at E3Feed.com

GameBump Launches e3Feed.com

Tim Grube — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:51:23 -0500

So you're not going to this years E3 in Los Angeles, CA? Well, we here at GameBump (and now e3Feed.com) are happy to announce the launch of e3Feed.com that will automatically collect all E3-related stories from all of the web's top news sources. It is separated into four sections (all, news, videos, and previews).

Head on over there and be sure to bookmark the page!

Hey, We've Got A Gallery System..

Aaron Dunlap — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:05:13 -0500

See that new-looking thing below this paragraph? I hope you do, because it would mean that the gallery system I just built (from scratch, because I'm like that) is working.

Launch Gallery: Gears of War 2

(10 images)

Lucky that I should get it done now, at 3am the morning E3 begins and the floodgates of screenshots and media kits are opened. Like everything else on this site, it's still a work in progress, so any feedback can be left in the comments of this story.

Right now it makes nearly exclusive use of JavaScript, which isn't very friendly to most mobile browsers and people who think any type of HTML newer than baggy pants will explode their computers. A flat, static, boring alternative will be available eventually.

Launch Gallery: Strong Bad's Cool Game

(12 images)

GameBump is Hiring! Be part of the team!

Tim Grube — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:42:57 -0500

I promise the flames die down eventually...

GameBump is officially seeking to hire talented writers who are interested in working within the gaming journalism field, so if you've got mad writing skills, have a drive for seeking out the latest gaming news and reviews, and know your way around a console or two, you're just what this new, fresh site is looking for. It also helps if you can take a joke (see above).

Applicants need not have experience working on another site, but they must include some recent writing samples to prove they're not in the fifth grade. Accepted applicants will be put on probation until they find their niche, be it news, reviews, previews, editing, interviews, editorials, or various features. Previous experience within the industry is an obvious plus, but mostly we're interested in people with a passion for videogames who'd like to join this exclusive, innovative team.

GameBump is also searching for additional programmers and graphics designers to help lighten the load on the rest of us; simply include the position you're looking at in the subject line of the email and our very own programming or graphics specialists will talk with you about specific knowledge you should already have.

At current all positions are volunteer, but you get free games, the chance to attend events/trade shows under the GameBump name, work experience, contacts, published material, and some flashy text for your resume. Also, you get to hang out with me and/or Aaron Dunlap - that's an experience that can't be replicated in and of itself.

We look forward to hearing from some great and talented people.

Instructions:

Include your position in the subject line, either: staff writer, general contributor, programmer, editor, or graphics designer
In the body of your email, include: any prior writing experience, your favorite game (and why!), your owned hardware, your preferred company (if you have one), how you heard about GameBump, what you think you can bring to the table, and why you're just dying to work here.
Attached, please include: at least one-two writing samples; this can be anything, but don't let it be less than 500 words. We want to get a feel for your style more than anything. And no viruses, please.

Send your email to me here and I'll respond to let you know I received it. If I don't respond, send another copy to here. Good luck.

Wii Review Bonanza, or: Your Wii is Sick - Must be Something you Played

Eric Jonathan Smith — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:25:13 -0600

Kneel. Place hands on either side of the ceramic-like object. Wait. A sudden urge takes you, spewing the remains of a previous ingestion. You glance at what was just created; between the remains of what were once good ideas you see those extra things you tacked on that seemed like a quick fix at the time but ultimately caused their own regurgitation. You lament at the pain you caused yourself, but deep down you can feel that the pain is still there.

So what have you been eating? Or in this case, what have various developers been feeding the ceramic bowl in question, the Wii? Their own regurgitation, that's what - and a little bit of Nintendo's own leftovers for good measure. The Wii is the one that's sick, suffering from delirious spells of minigame collections, shoddy ports, forced motion control schemes, and God knows what else.

A little examination is in order. Five case studies have been prepared, each a different opinion of how Wii software appears. Some of it isn't too pretty but fear not, we might even discover a cure. So lean back, relax, and try not to throw that Wii remote into the tv.

CASE STUDY #1: AUTO MINIGAME SUFFICIENCY SYNDROME

Subject: Namco Museum Remix

PROGNOSIS: Sudden ingestion of too many minigame collections causes repetition, boredom, and possible suicide in large doses.

A certain kind of bug that especially has a tendency to bite the older and wiser is nostalgia. It can be a pretty nasty little sucker, causing previously sane and logical men and women to do foolish things like pine for dated graphics and simpler gameplay styles. As the years have gone by, once bustling arcades have forever shut their doors and the game consoles of yesteryear require a type of mouth-to-cartridge action bordering on fellatio to get the games working.

Namco's Museum series of arcade home conversions are some of the first treatments that should come to mind when considering ubiquitous, readily available classical cures. After all, every system under the sun absolutely needs multiple versions of Pac-Man on it, right? Namco has now made sure that the Wii is no exception and has released Namco Museum Remix, the Museum containing the nostalgic classics and you guessed it the Remix consisting of Wii-specific minigames.

However, it's not a good sign when a classic compilation makes you wax nostalgia for older compilations. That's not to say that Namco Museum Remix has any large, glaring faults: it is by all means a competent product, even if you have to roll around Pac-Man in lieu of a standard menu interface, which can be slightly annoying. But no, as with any other compilation, its success or failure hinges on its selection of games, and Namco Museum Remix drops the ball a bit. Sure, it has standard classics in Xevious, Mappy, Dig Dug, and Pac-Mania (you know, that are available on most of the other collections) but trades in Galaga for its inferior predecessor Galaxian (dear God, why?) In the games that no one ever wanted to play section, there's Cutie-Q (a poor Breakout clone) and Super Pac-Man and Pac & Pal, two rather poor sequels to the original. At least it offers Gaplus (Galagas sequel) as a sort of cruel consolation prize.

If this somewhat mediocre selection of its past was all Namco offered in Museum Remix, this collection would be DOA. Luckily, they put a slight bit of effort in its resuscitation: the titular Wii-specific "remixes" of other classic titles. Unfortunately, they aren't enough to keep this one alive for too long. However, they did get the nostalgic feel down pat! Feel like playing the rollercoaster minigame from Final Fantasy VII? Play Galaga Remix! How about Whack-A-Mole? Then Gator Panic Remix is for you. Granted, Rally X Remix is a rather fair version, as are Pac Motos (a Pac-infused version of the original bumping off the edge game Motos) and Pac 'n Roll. But the problem is that these suffer the same shallow fate as other Wii minigame collections, and in the few minutes that you'll be done with them you're then left with merely the arcade collection.

Diagnosis? The entire weight of Namco Museum Remix will rest on how much you like the classic arcade games included. Considering the selection isn't all that great to begin with, the weight will likely fatigue the classics in a relatively short amount of time.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

She'll eat the monkey.

CASE STUDY #2: PORTROENTERITIS

Subject: The Sims 2: Castaway

PROGNOSIS: Patients suffering from contact to shoddy, careless ports from other systems suffer from: shattered belief in console's viability, fatigue, and indigestion.

One of the oldest epidemics in videogamedom is that of the port. Whether it was arcade to console, PC to console, or vice versa, the word port has connotations of mediocrity and for good reason: many ports are sloppy, rushed, stripped down versions of the original. Even in more modern times, ports retain that sloppy, rushed feel when they stray from the hardware they were built on. Unfortunately, this has been a lazy way for developers to cash on the Wii's success.

One such wave that has plagued nearly every piece of gaming hardware to ever exist, past, present, and future is The Sims. Popular with 15-year-old girls of all ages, The Sims is an omnipresent choice with casual gamers, and logic would successfully conclude that it should end up on the Wii.

The premise is simple: after constructing your Sim on a yacht, something bad happens and he or she washes ashore on a mysterious, deserted island with nary a volleyball around to keep as company. Obviously a tropical island is a terrible place to be lost, so it's up to you to guide your Sim to his/her ultimate goal of getting off the island alive. And to be perfectly honest, the interface in which you'll be accomplishing this works fairly well; with the Wii Remote acting superbly as a pointer in lieu of a mouse, navigating menus isn't all that hard.

Too bad the menus themselves looked like they were ported from a higher resolution without the proper tweaking. The entire game really looks very simple and to be frank, boring. You could choose to stay on the island for as long as you wanted, but when it looks that dull, why would you? Jagged edges are more reminiscent of the graphical hell that was the 32/64-bit era more than a tropical Eden.

But, this is a simulation at heart, and that gameplay still works. The Sim will have to collect resources to survive with the help of monkeys (of course) and eventually should have a decent little living space set up. There are also various goals that you can find scattered across the island that will give you some objectives amidst the rather open-ended (if not mundane) tasks.

Diagnosis? Not as bad as it could have been. Wii Pointer functionality works well amidst the poor resolution and the gameplay experience isn't a complete throwaway. More hardcore gamers, stay away (if the name wouldn't make them do so already).

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

My, Soulcalibur. You look as beautiful as you play.

CASE STUDY #3: MOTION SICKNESS

Subject: Soulcalibur Legends

PROGNOSIS: Prolonged exposure to poorly implemented Wii waggle controls can lead to: madness, frustration, and nausea.

Having new ways to control games means that there will be new ways for developers to screw up their implementation. Even after decades with a pretty standard diagonal pad and any number of supporting buttons, some still couldn't get it right. Poor control is absolutely killer to a game's success and probably the worst blight it could have.

Enter Soulcalibur Legends. A spin-off of Namco's eternal (also, a mere shadow of its former self) fighter, Legends tells the story of Teutonic Knight Siegfried Schtauffen and his dealings with Soul Edge, the evil blade. Yeah, it's a fighting game story. What the hell do you want from me?

Though it may have been built ground-up for Wii, it plays nothing like it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it was built ground-up to be a cheap cash-in. Siegfried and the other Soulcalibur heroes you command all control by swinging the Wii Remote as you would their weapons. It's a good enough idea in concept. In execution, it's abysmal. Controlling attacks in this manner is ungodly unresponsive and makes you question whether simple button presses would have been better. Considering this is a central gameplay mechanic, this is inexcusable. There is no way that Legends could be an adequate action title due to this flaw alone.

The game is also cringe-worthy in the visual department. In some aspects, especially the environments, it looks like a launch title for the PlayStation 2. That might be forgivable, but the level designs are as monotonous as the enemies you fight. Character models fair a bit better, because they are based around the designs from Soulcalibur II, if not taken wholesale from it. Legends also suffers from the tired design choice of "defeat every monster in the room before you can move on". Please.

I found myself looking more at the menus and the art in the story sequences because, well, they are actually rather decent, and not just in comparison to the game itself. I'd be tempted to say that the menus are the best part of the game. When all is said and done then, the most hardcore of Soulcalibur fanatics will be able to eke something out of this game though I wouldn't go so far as to call it enjoyment. The controls are just too poorly implemented for anyone with more than a merely casual interest in the franchise.

Diagnosis? Highly contagious, and not in the good way. Contagious in that it will creep up on your brain and soul and make you regret every penny and second spent on it. Unless, of course, you're just a hardcore and gullible fighting game fan - those people are crazy.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

Okay, so it's not the sexiest thing on earth. Maybe you can dig it.

CASE STUDY #4: THE MYSTERY BUG

Subject: Smarty Pants

PROGNOSIS: ???

Sometimes even the best doctors can get baffled. True to that, every once in a while a game will come up that makes you question why it was necessary to be in videogame form. Was it really easier to play Monopoly on a TV than on a board (Hint: no)? Much of the experience of such a famous and standard board game rests on handling those gaudy bills and tapping your piece of choice past go. In other words, the actual game could sometimes be boring, but having it physically in front of you kept you from falling asleep.

EA's Smarty Pants dares to go into this territory. It is a trivia game, not unlike the old board game pursuits of old. Each of its cavalcades of questions ranging from pop-culture to history has a multiple choice selection. There are a few different modes, including ones for both single remote and multiple remote setups, suitably nudging itself into party game territory.

So. That's it. That's Smarty Pants in a nutshell. Sure, there's some sort of dancing thing you have to do with the Wii Remote, but we'll not mention that any more for its own sake.

Is there a benefit to having a trivia game on a home videogame console? From my own experience, I'd have to say yes. Smarty Pants is actually fairly well presented, with voiceovers and decent sound effects that make it seem more like a game show than just a trivia game. The group mode, which requires multiple Wii Remotes, each acting like a buzzer, manifests this presentation style. As with anything trivial, in a group setting you'll likely find yourself shouting out the answers, as much as you may regret this in your memory later on. The fact that Smarty Pants is capable of this is something positive in and of itself.

Diagnosis? Smarty Pants is hardly a wonderful title, but it's not necessarily a throwaway. If you really want to play a trivia game on the Wii, it's a decent enough choice. But, uh, you know, you could buy a copy of Trivial Pursuit for less.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

I can't even tell what's bleeding.

CASE STUDY #5: NO MORE TEARS

Subject: No More Heroes

PROGNOSIS: Exposure to games designed for Wii from the ground up may cause: enjoyment, fun, laughter, and world peace.

"Will you do it with me?"

If any of the above games had asked you such a question, I hope by now youd have learned to at the very least understand the risk factors involved; simple precautions will keep your Wii from being subjugated to possible infection.

However, another game asks this favor, a game so dirty yet so clean, some would say downright filthy in content yet nearly spotless in design. "Will you do it with me?" If you're privy enough to hear those words uttered by Travis Touchdown, by all means, accept. Travis is the star of No More Heroes, a game with the distinction of being the near opposite of the Wii flu - it is a coherent, focused, original title using the Wii Remote in a startlingly effective manner.

The premise is straightforward but with spry delivery that never takes itself too seriously. Travis is essentially both a dork and a loser and while drowning his sorrows at a bar he runs into a mysterious woman named Sylvia who promises him he can be the world's top assassin all he has to do is off the rest of the world's top-ranked assassins. Naïve Travis of course accepts the offer, with his prime motivation being to sleep with Sylvia. Your prime motivation to play the game will likely be to see what outrageous and foul-mouthed things will come out of the mouths of Travis and his co-stars.

The game's structure is built around going after each of the 10 assassins. To get to each, Travis must pay Sylvia a fee, which he can earn by doing sidejobs like lawn mowing (seriously) and minor assassination gigs all within the façade of an open-ended environment and setting for the game, Santa Destroy. This environment is one of the game's faults because jobs and assassination gigs must be selected at specific locations before they can start, thus the free-roaming world really serves no other purpose than to add the filler of travel. Still, it is ultimately a minor issue.

How the story and gameplay unfold within each of the 10 main assassination missions is, in a way, underwhelming yet satisfying. Combat may appear simple at first, as pressing A controls Travis's attack, but Wii-specific moves come in the forms of finishers and grabs. If an enemy is near death, an arrow will appear on-screen, prompting you to move the Wii Remote in its direction for a super-violent finisher. Travis cuts his enemies into pieces, with blood and guts as exaggerated as his own persona. Later it is not uncommon to dismember entire groups of enemies at once, causing the entire game to slow down, ludicrous in its fulfillment. Travis also has a number of wrestling moves that are controlled by moving both the Remote and Nunchuk and do add a bit of variety. After every successful finisher, Travis also has a small slot wheel that can serve to make him even more powerful than he already is, providing temporary invincibility and the like.

No More Heroes is by no means a cure for the Wii's blues the game is not perfect. The aforementioned faux open-ended structure along with somewhat repetitive combat (the finishers never get old, however) and the fact that the assassin bosses take from dozens of hits to hundreds to defeat can sometimes sometimes leave a foul taste. But it lasts for but an instant in the presence of the rest of the game as a whole. Its language and bloody style may put some off, but if you're into that sort of thing, your Wii could really deserve the pleasure of doing it with Travis.

Diagnosis? While not a panacea, No More Heroes is certainly the type of original, short term treatment that the Wii needs in larger doses. A must-buy for anyone who needs a good action title for any system.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

GameBump is Hiring: Now you, too, can be tortured by our management

Shiva Stella — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:55:28 -0600

I promise the flames die down eventually...

Include your position in the subject line, either: staff writer, general contributor, programmer, editor, or graphics designer
In the body of your email, include: any prior writing experience, your favorite game (and why!), your owned hardware, your preferred company (if you have one), how you heard about GameBump, what you think you can bring to the table, and why you're just dying to work here.
Attached, please include: at least one-two writing samples; this can be anything, but don't let it be less than 500 words. We want to get a feel for your style more than anything. And no viruses, please.

Send your email to me here and I'll respond to let you know I received it. If I don't respond, send another copy to here. Good luck.

GameBump's Most Wanted List for 2008: It's time for change

Shiva Stella — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:56:27 -0600

If 2007 taught gaming journalists anything it was that much has changed since the days of yore - no longer are we paying $30-50 for quality titles that challenge, engage, and entertain us as gamers. Instead we are forking out boatloads of cash for matching accessories, consoles we can't locate without ebay, games that require patches to actually operate, and new, disappointing sagas without endings.

In the hopes of promoting change for 2008, then, here is GameBump's "most wanted" list written by avid gamers and directed toward the gaming industry. If you've been playing through 2007's offerings and wondering if you're the only one who's been confused about the latest industry trends - don't worry; you're not.

Xbox Live. It's broken. Fix it. And give gold members some additional boons.

We are not paying $50 bucks a year to beta test your product, Microsoft, and the more than lackluster service provided during and immediately following the Christmas holiday is not something gamers expect from the company behind the industry's current #1 console. Thankfully Microsoft is offering both its gold and silver members a free Xbox Live Arcade game as compensation for the screw-up, which is nice, but we'd rather have the stable, reliable service we paid for. For 2008 we'd like to see zero hiccups from Live as well as bonus material implemented for gold subscribers to further differentiate between gold and silver membership.

Buy me.

Only ship complete, functional games to retailers that do not require patches or the purchase of an HDTV to play.

Gamers are wondering why they are spending $60+ on incomplete games, essentially spending more money for less game with pretty graphics. Developers, we beg of you, please do not release a title that is damn near unplayable and then expect for us to be happy when you release patches to fix what should have been functioning properly to begin with. If that means your game isn't on store shelves for a holiday, so be it; if it means delay after delay in order to get it right, go for it - we'd rather have a full, complete game upon release instead of playing through beta versions for the six months it takes you to launch a patch. Remember that the very first gamer in line to purchase your product the day of release is your target audience and your strongest support: do not forsake him/her by selling an incomplete product.

Now what the hell does this shit mean?

While we're at it, stop it with the "buy the sequel" endings.

We also don't enjoy games that require guides to decipher their ends; we at GameBump are especially tired of titles that end just as the plot is really getting good. An ending should tie together all the previous plot elements into a complete, cohesive picture that leaves the player with the feeling that he just spent 20+ hours of his life solving a mystery that was "worth it."

Hire more writers, or at the very least acknowledge that the average gamer is no longer a 14 year-old brat screaming "fuck the world" every time he's asked to clean his room.

Dialogue has joined plot design on the back-burner of game development as of late, with developers seizing the opportunity to portray content to an adult market by "faking" adult; "fuck this" and "shit that" every single line does not offer quality entertainment, and in fact does nothing but enable Nancy Grace, Hillary Clinton, and attorneys that shall not be named to insult the industry by pointing out our nonsensical violence and trashy dialogue. While we're on the topic...

Rockstar, you can totally stop with the production of incredibly, unbelievably violent, crap-games.

Especially those that provide no entertainment value whatsoever and actually sicken the player with their pointless, extreme gory action that depicts the industry as excessively violent for no other reason than gamers are just murderers in the making. If we never type the word "Manhunt" again it'll be too soon.

Companies other than Nintendo providing quality games for the Wii that are more than just gimmicks or kid-friendly bundles of playable joy.

We love Mario. Everyone loves Mario. Mario is quite possibly the most recognizable icon on the planet, and we just about swooned over Super Mario Galaxy and its stupendous release on the Wii. The problem as we see it is that every Wii game not made by Nintendo does not reach the level of quality that Nintendo itself strives for, and in essence, reduces the console to a gimmicky, expensive paper weight. The Wii is an interesting device that has the ability to differentiate itself from its competition thanks to the popular Wii remote, but Wii Sports and Mario's offerings from the 90's aren't cutting it.

It's been over a year since the Wii released - where's my Wii?

For that matter, where are the Wiis being offered at base price ($250) to customers who can not afford the $500+ idiotic bundles that retailers keep forcing down our throats? We'd like to see Nintendo take great steps toward increasing the Wii's availability at retail and forcing retailers to offer the console at base price. I'd buy a Wii and I might even play more than Super Mario Galaxy on it - assuming I could find one.

Where are the game rental services besides Gamefly and Blockbuster?

I've spent most of 2007 shuffling between Blockbuster and Gamefly for rentals and have been nothing but disappointed by the high prices of both. I would love to see some increased competition in this area, especially from a company that actually has games in stock to rent out as opposed to some of these other, more affordable "options" (affordable apparently means "out of stock").

What about implementing release limits?

Some of us are of the notion that publishers should go back to yearly release limits like those previously imposed by Nintendo of America. Now that a company can release dozens of games a year there is zero incentive for anyone to produce a quality title - the industry just wants something, anything on the shelf, which is usually a something not worth buying.

How about some original protagonists?

Maybe instead of a grizzly, 30-something, short-brown-haired dude starring in every game, how about a kid or a black dude or a female who doesn't belong on a Maxim cover? We'd love to see some games that actually reflected a realistic demographic, one in which all Muslims weren't terrorists and all women weren't damsels in distress or prostitutes meant to be run over by a Grand Theft Auto character in a nice car.

I'll have no more of this, thanks.

A return to integrity for the industry.

We encourage our gaming journalist friends to adhere to their own strict integrity policies before selling content to the highest bidder; we'd also love to see publishers spending less money on marketing pieces of crap in deceitful, gimmicky ways and more money on releasing quality titles. Remember Metal Gear Solid? The original Tomb Raider? Mario Kart? That first Final Fantasy you picked up pre-VII? These are games that managed to sell due to their own quality and innovation - they did not require nor rely upon multi-million (or billion) dollar advertising campaigns to get the word out. Gamers, who are the people spending money on games, will do your advertising for you; all the industry has to do is create and release a quality product. The consumer's purchasing power and the gaming counter-culture will handle the rest.

Merry Christmas To All

Tim Grube — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:55:50 -0600

The GameBump staff would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Merry Christmas. GameBump will resume updating tomorrow, December 26. Save us some turkey and ham!

In the meantime, be sure to check out our exclusive short story written by our very own Aaron Dunlap.

[GOTY] Best Game of 07: The Orange Box

Aaron Dunlap — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:37:52 -0600

Despite what some award-show winners have to say, this wasn't a very excellent year for games. Think of the biggest, most-anticipated games of 2007 and think about how they turned out.

Halo 3 was probably the most anticipated game, and while its multiplayer component is pretty expansive, the single-player campaign (you know, the reason most of us buy a video game) was mediocre and occasionally downright boring. Assassin's Creed was another hugely-anticipated game, and it had the graphics and control scheme we all wanted, but in the midst of making all that it seems that Ubisoft forgot to throw in an actual game. What about Crysis? One of the most-hyped PC releases by the Microsoft camp? It sold less than 90,000 copies in its launch window.

Only a few of the anticipated games of the year really met anybody's expectations. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is, well, it's Call of Duty 4. You guys seemed to really eat up BioShock, too. Super Mario Galaxy is amazing as well. Our Game of the Year award is supposed to be about innovation, though, and aside from being very well-made products, what this year has really innovated things?

What about The Orange Box? Was anybody really excited for that? Were leaked screenshots filtering onto the web and rumors flying like they were for Halo 3? Not so much. People weren't really lined up the block to get them some Orange Box. Without much fanfare, it just... arrived. And when it did, our eyes were opened.

The Orange Box has three primary components and two secondary components. The big ticket items are: Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The not-so-big-deal items are Half-Life 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One. That alone is pretty innovative. For your $50-60, you're getting 3 new (albeit short) games, one somewhat-new (new for consoles) game, and one game that happens to be one of the top-5 games ever made. How often does that happen, a game's expansion pack coming out and including the full game and the previous expansion pack plus two ancillary games that are downright genius by themselves?

Portal, though brief (for most people), is a brilliant game. At heart it's a simple puzzle game, but through unique means it is given more character than most full-sized games. The cake is a lie, I'm still alive, weighted companion cubes, this game has produced more internet memes per hour of gameplay than any other game could ever hope to achieve. It's complex and simple simultaneously, beautiful and ugly at the same time, charming and depressing in the same moment. The concept of portals is intriguing and a technological marvel, but it would be quite simple to make 19 levels of portal-puzzles become a boring heap.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two is another giant leap forward for the Half-Life 2 franchise. The Source engine has been spruced up with new dynamic lighting effects, a particle physics system, and a new graphics system to allow for beautifully expansive vistas to be rendered in real-time. The way the story unfolds around you and the ingenious-as-ever level designs are all top rate. People who haven't played Half-Life 2 get confused when people like me go on about how amazing the level design is, but once you've had a taste for Valve's work you can't stomach anything lesser. Play through Episode One, Episode Two, and Portal with the creator commentary system enabled and you'll understand just how much thought and work went into nearly every element of the gameplay design. Valve's games get months and months of testing and tightening before they see the light of day, and it all shows. The sheer level of quality in any of these games is just staggering when compared to the sloppy layouts, imprecise goals, and backtracking you find in most modern games.

It's a congested season for online multiplayer games. Halo 3 with its mega-millions user base is probably the most-played game right now and Call of Duty 4 with its perhaps-superior online element is drawing a lot of players, but Team Fortress 2 is still wedging its way into the market. Perhaps the longest-developed multiplayer game we're likely to see for a while, TF 2 has as much character as any other Valve game. It's not Counter-Strike in terms of repressed teenagers working out their social issues with actual guns, it's something better. It's something for everyone. Everyone who likes shooting folks, at least.

Let's not forget Half-Life 2 and Episode One and the fact that The Orange Box is available for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, so for the people who aren't PC gamers, this could be their first chance to play these games. That in mind, there's dozens of hours of offline gameplay in this box. It's easy to discount an "old" game as not being worth anybody's time, but Half-Life 2 should be above such trivialities, being again one of the best games ever made.

If I can talk for a moment about the endings of Episode Two and Portal, sure they're not exactly the definition of "closure," but they're also not shameless, unsatisfying, "Buy the sequel" endings we're getting from nearly every game this year, from Assassin's Creed to Unreal Tournament III to Crysis . There's a difference between leaving the people wanting more and simply forgetting to include an ending. The Valve products leave you wanting more, the other games just destroy any sense of finality to the ending and kick you in the shins for having the audacity to become attached to the story.

So our Game of the Year is a compilation of 5 other games, partly because each game is an amazing product on its own, partly because the whole concept of packaging them all together is pretty innovative, and partly still because it's one of the few games of the year that didn't leave me disappointed or annoyed after it all. If I could instigate any change to the gaming industry, it would be more play-testing.

Most games these days are only play-tested while they're being developed to make sure there's no glaring bugs preventing the game from working, and as soon as the game is done it's stamped on a disk and rushed to stores via overnight shipping. Some games get a few weeks of post-completion play-testing, if there's time. Episode Two and Portal were play-tested for six months, deadlines and launch windows be-damned. They're not just looking for bugs and glitches, but seeing how people play the game, making sure they understand what they're supposed to be doing. If a goal is ambiguous, or if people are frustrated by an element, they change that part of the game to make sure everything is as clear and as fun as possible. Play through the games with the commentary enabled to hear just how much work goes into each element.

If Assassin's Creed had been play-tested for six months, I imagine I would hate it a lot less. They might have had time to realize that the gameplay is extremely tedious and overly-repetitive , that the game spends the first 6 hours telling you to avoid sword fights and the last hour putting you in nothing but sword fights, that the plot is ridiculous and impossible to follow, and that everybody is talking way too much. If Kane & Lynch: Dead Men had received any play-testing, they might have been able to do something about the entire game being a train wreck.

If anything, The Orange Box and Valve deserve Game of the Year just for striving for quality in a time when doing so is unfashionable, but they're getting it for reaching quality in a time when it's seen as too much work.

[GOTY] Best Portable Game of 07: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:16:00 -0600

Why It Won: Zelda games come around more frequently than Mario games and so aren't held to the same absurd scrutiny. In fact, after a lifetime of mostly-identical storylines (the princess is kidnapped, oh noes!) it wouldn't be altogether ridiculous to wonder when something new would come along for Link to do besides spend all day fishing, blowing into an ocarina, and looking for pieces of the much-elusive Tri-force. I'd all but discounted the series as an ad-tedium retread of the same concepts when The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass came along and I, feeling sorry for my oft-neglected DS, decided to give it a whirl.

Phantom Hourglass is refreshing on many counts. Rather than trying to transpose some pre-fab Zelda tale onto the DS and throwing in a few inane mini-games for the sake of utilizing the hardware's features (like nearly every Wii game being made still), Phantom Hourglass is built from the ground up for the DS and the dual-screen, touch-screen, and microphoney features are etched into the very fabric of the game. Though it may sound off-putting, the only way to control our cel-shaded Link is by dragging the stylus around the screen (no D-pad), the only way to skip through conversations is by tapping the screen (no face buttons), and except to activate them, every weapon and tool is exclusively controlled by the touchscreen. Need to extinguish a fire to continue through one of the countless labyrinthine temples, caves, and dungeons? Just it out? Need to send your boomerang on a serpentine course across the map to defeat baddies, break open some vases, and return their contents to you? Stay back where it's safe and draw a wiry course for the boomerang to follow. Need to remember the key to a puzzle, the best route through a maze, or the positions of hidden treasure chests? Just draw them on your map.

No element of this game feels shoe-horned in. The story is actually a bit engaging and not a repeat of the same thing we've been doing for 20 years now. There's no Ganondorf or Tri-Force or Epona or, hell, not even a Zelda. This straight-sequel to Wind Waker manages to be unique, fun, and simple at the same time. I was starting to think that there would never be a portable game that could hold my attention when I'm surrounded by high-definition consoles and crazy-huge gaming PCs, but here's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass proving me wrong.

Why You May Disagree: The most common complaint I read from naysayers is that the lack of D-pad controls is a "slap in the face" to longtime Zelda fans. Others find the constant ocean-faring tedious. Others are afraid that playing a game with a cel-shaded protagonist will damage the delicate fabric holding their heterosexuality intact.

But We Say: Is the reason you liked previous Zelda games because of the immersive story and addictive gameplay, or because you move the character around by sliding your thumb around a plastic cross? The touchscreen control might look awkward at first, but it feels perfectly comfortable. Also, since every tool and weapon is controlled via the touchscreen it would become too confusing to constantly switch back and forth from the D-pad to the stylus. if you want to control a character with a D-pad, try playing any other video game ever made. The sea-travel can seem a bit monotonous, but there's usually something to do on the way, and there are ways around it.

Runner Up:

Contra 4: This was the first game in a long time to "feel" like a Contra game. The fast-paced shooter is one of the best portables released this year and deserves recognition, but the joy it takes in its difficulty makes it a game not for everyone, and besides taking advantage of both screens the only real reason for this game to be on the DS is because it would look ridiculous on any other platform. What the game needs is a boomerang you control by drawing its path with the stylus.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions: The PSP release of the nine-year-old PlayStation classic, FFT: War of the Lions is possibly the best RPG available on Sony's handheld and is an absolute requisite purchase if you owned and loved the original. However, this fresh version does feature some subtle changes that tend to annoy fans, including slower spell animations, adjusted dialogue (though we find this a plus), and the lack of online multiplayer. Considering the huge potential for online battles as opposed to just ad hoc (which requires two PSPs and two copies of the game), this is a significant drawback.

[GOTY] Best RPG/Strategy Game of 07: World of Warcraft : Burning Crusade

Akshay Masand — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:50:16 -0600

Why It Won: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the expansion to the award-winning, life-absorbing MMORPG World of Warcraft. It adds new battlegrounds, items, lands, races, and much more to the original game. This expansion bumps up the content of the original game tremendously and makes sure that there's never mindless killing to get the huge number of experience points needed to level-up. While most of the content is for post level 60 players, there are also two new races, the Blood Elf and the Draenei, alongside with two classes: the Shaman for the alliance and the Paladin for the Horde, available to new players as well as old-timers who'd like to experience the lower levels again but from a new angle.

Before the expansion pack, World of Warcraft sort of "ends" once you reach level 60. With the addition of the expansion those who were already 60 now had the challenge of getting to the new level cap which is 70. New areas and quests were released to interest people to level-up alongside with all the player-versus-player action. New items encouraged many to farm for gold, PvP for honor points, and raid for goods to make their character all the more powerful. The new major PvP part of the expansion included an area known as "Eye of the Storm" which is a mixed capture bases and capture the flag type of game where whichever team gets 2,000 points first wins. It is exclusive to higher level players with two brackets, one for those who are levels 60-69 and another which is only for level 70 players. This all combined together proved to be a huge success for the WoW community.

The expansion added a rich new taste to the already great World of Warcraft which proved to be "The MMO to end all other MMO's". It's easy for any person to pick it up and enjoy it. It's well balanced and receives updates every so often as well. The decisions you make here are going to affect your character in the long run -- but you always have the option to change your mind. Overall, Blizzard did an excellent job and further enhanced the experience for older addicts and for those who are soon to become them. If you haven't tried this MMORPG, you need to head over to the site and check out the trial version to see what all the hype is about.

Why You May Disagree: World of Warcraft being a few years old, it's hard to believe that an expansion pack could be better than any original RPG or strategy game released this year. MMOs only appeal to a certain type of person. Most of the content is for level 60 players anyway.

But We Say: Burning crusade adds so much to the game that you could spend a whole year ignoring other RPGs just to hit 70. RPGs only appeal to a certain type of person too... RPG fans. And yes, the bulk of the new content is for people already at level 60, as the point of an expansion pack is to "expand" the game beyond its previous limit. The fact that there are two new classes and other treats for beginners/lower-levelers is a bit of a bonus.

Runner Up:

Mass Effect: The dialog and narrative system in Mass Effect is pretty innovative, but after hours and hours of listening to people talk, I'm not sure if there's anything else to do here. For a self-titled "Action-RPG," there's not a lot of action and the RPG elements become tedious after a while. It's beautiful and deep, but not a whole lot of fun. To be honest, if BioWare hadn't let it "slip" that there would be sex in this game I'm not sure if nearly as many people would have bothered.

[GOTY] Best Adventure Game of 07: Super Mario Galaxy

Solomon Lee — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:00:36 -0600

Our Review (*****)

Why It Won: Super Mario Galaxy is, quite simply, the best Mario platformer to date. Since Mario 64, many fans have eagerly anticipated Marios next 3D adventure as Super Mario Sunshine essentially received mixed reactions and reviews from the media and gaming community. Mario Galaxy is a testament to the lasting influence that Mario still has in the gaming industry today and considering the red plumbers history, this is no small feat.

Mario Galaxys innovative gameplay, breathtaking visuals and epic soundtrack provides an immersive experience for both casual and hardcore fans alike. With numerous galaxies to explore, planet-sized bosses to fight and 120 stars to collect, the gameplay feels refreshingly new and manages to retain the nostalgia charm of earlier Mario titles. Each and every galaxy is unique with its own puzzles and challenges that theres rarely a dull moment. The orchestral soundtrack manages to effectively transcend the players experience of seeing Mario soar into outer space with a sense of awe and wonder.

After the first few hours, it is evident that Mario Galaxy is extremely polished. So much attention to detail is visible in the character designs and environments that even the most casual observer would stop to take notice of this game. The controls involving the Wii remote and nunchuk are intuitive and manage to blend seamlessly with the overall gameplay for a smooth but enjoyable Mario adventure.

Why You May Disagree: One of the issues about this game involves the use of Marios transformation powers. When flying in a Bee Suit, you easily lose your powers simply by touching water if your flight gauge meter is empty. Similarly, certain areas can only be reached by utilizing one of Marios special powers that once lost, creates repetition in forcing you to go back to snag the necessary power-up to attempt the challenge again. Furthermore, additional quests such as collecting 100 purple star coins and the fact that certain galaxies need to be revisited often feels like a chore.

What we say: These issues raised with the game are minor as Mario Galaxy is the best Mario platformer to be released in a long while that exceeds expectations. Even after the game is completed, youll want to revisit the game just to explore the different galaxies, collect more stars, retry the mini-games and bask in the stellar soundtrack one more time. Mario Galaxy effectively demonstrates the real potential of the Wii system and what a truly innovative platform game should be. Period.

[GOTY] Best Action Game of 07: Assassin's Creed

Shiva Stella — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:38:19 -0600

Our Review (****)

Why It Won: From the outset Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed presented itself as a different sort of game, as a stealth title marked by unrivaled beauty and the promise of a more open-ended adventure boasting clever target assassinations, amazing buildings to climb, a great musical score and ambiance, and a level of seamless interactivity when the gameplay goes according to plan. It's a damn-near awe-inspiring feeling the first time you perch atop the highest guard tower, ride through the beautiful countryside with the sun at your back, or engage in roof-top leaping for that quick getaway following a smooth-as-silk assassination (or if you're like me, the tragic unexplained death of a civilian - practice makes perfect).

Its greatest feature, however, is how drastically ambitious the title is: with a wealth of assassination/combat options and the mechanics in place for either stealth or action-oriented gameplay - refreshing for those of us who appreciate the option for a change of pace - the game is positioned for fun and intense play full of subtle enhancements that showcase how far the industry has come since the days of Pac Man and plumbers. Thanks to next-generation technology Creed's world is full of responsive, helpless civilians with a lot of them on-screen at once, only this time without lag or draw-in factors you've encountered in other games: you can position Altair anywhere in a city and from the tallest structure spy the whole network of buildings, guard towers, and people scurrying around like tiny ants.

The storyline is one of the strangest you'll ever play, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable, especially if you love this era of history and adore those "alternative" twists; the plot will pull the majority of you in with its peculiarity and great voice acting (though apparently this last bit is debatable), and for a lot of us that's probably because the game is not another Prince of Persia or World War II shooter. It does not feature aliens invading the planet, the threat of nuclear bombs, a kingdom that needs saving from a wicked monarch, or a pretty little princess in distress (for how else do they come?) For attempting something more innovative and not akin to the popularized crowd of blockbuster sequels, shooters, or never-ending RPGs, I give Ubisoft credit.

Why You May Disagree: For the fun that I had with it, even I had my qualms with Creed's gameplay, which becomes quite repetitive and frustrating in terms of mission objectives - which boast almost no variety at all - and combat - Creed's nicely sharpened double-edged blade that makes one wonder if Creed suffers from an identity crisis: is it a stealth title, in which case combat is to be avoided, or an action title in which it's to be embraced?

Naysayers are also quick to point to the game's unbelievably confusing ending that actually requires a guide to understand what the hell is going on, some illogical hiccups (why can't anyone swim, and why is it that someone riding a horse is immediately suspect by guards?), AI that needs a bit of work, and the damnable crazy people and beggars who get in the way when the player is attempting an objective or key assassination. Overwhelmingly, though, the game's greatest fault is that it failed to implement what it excels at the most: its seamless gameplay and assassinations that make the player feel like she's controlling the action in a big-budget film than merely playing a game. While stabbing a guard in the stomach and slinking away, blending into a crowd, is a lovely treat for stylistic play, the immersion is immediately ruined by getting pushed by a beggar woman into a guard who draws his sword and raises the alarm so that you have to climb the wall and hide in a "shady retreat" half a city away.

But We Say: Even with its slew of faults and hiccups, however, it's still one of the most inventive and original titles to release all year, not to mention beautiful and a bit less linear than the rest of the market, and this combined with what the game does do well makes it enjoyable and highly memorable for most, something I know I'll keep coming back to over the years despite its obvious drawbacks. Even so, I'm sincerely hoping that Ubisoft Montreal makes the necessary adjustments for the next one.

Runner Up:

God of War 2 - Released early this year, this sequel to the groundbreaking God of War had a lot great features. In fact, it was just as good as the original. The problem is, it's practically the exact same game as the original. There is very little new content there, just what feels like a continuation of the first instead of a successor to it. If they'd have made the game for the PS3 with next-gen-caliber content instead of releasing it for the PlayStation 2, Sony might have had a system-seller on their hands instead of wallowing in third-place for over a year now and blaming everybody but themselves.

[GOTY] Best Shooter of 07: Call of Duty 4

Aaron Dunlap — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:49:18 -0600

Our Single Player Review (*****)
Our Multiplayer Review (*****)

Why It Won: Call of Duty was already an established series by the time Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came around. After Treyarch's Call of Duty 3, many had thought the series had caught the "sequel syndrome" that plagues almost any big studio franchise that gets a new installment each year, each game becoming just another iteration of the previous with one or two features interesting enough to be mentioned on the back of the game's box. Boy were we ever wrong.

Call of Duty 4 isn't a greatly ambitious game. It didn't have the mega-millions advertising budget of Halo 3, it didn't have the Ayn Rand-ian objectivist overtones of BioShock, and it didn't really require that you go out and buy a new $4,000 computer to run it like Crysis. The scale of the game itself is somewhat large but it's no Earth-vs-Aliens. What the game lacks in scope, however, it makes up for in pure quality. Call of Duty 4 is a fun game, a well-made game, and a rewarding game. From the first mission you're sucked into the world of modern Special Forces and you're never let go.

The single player mode may be relatively brief but there are no dull moments. This game doesn't sag during the middle and the ending doesn't disappoint. You can't say that about many games these days. There's no backtracking or boring missions stuck into the middle to give the game length, and there's no abrupt, "Buy the sequel!" ending. How refreshing is that?

The multiplayer mode, something that could be easy to overlook, is so amazingly intelligent that it rivals and, in my opinion, tops Halo 3's online mode. I've waited my whole life for a game that rewards experimentation with multiple weapons and playtypes instead of letting people get stick to one tactic and dominate anybody else. It's here, and it's fantastic.

Call of Duty 4 is what I want from future games. It shirks trendy gameplay gimicks and instead focuses on being the best at what it does.

Why You May Disagree: I've heard some complaints about the lack of tactical elements, such as the ability to issue commands to squad members or a cover system where you can press against walls and fire around corners. You know, like every other game made in the last three years. Some Halo kids take offense to our claims that Call of Duty 4's online play is better than Halo 3's.

But We Say: Just because the only way to get a military shooter not set in 1940s Europe used to be in the form of the a Tom Clancy tactical squad-based game, it doesn't mean things have to stay like that. Call of Duty has never been a tactical game, so why should they start now just because that's what everybody else is doing? Some people don't like those kind of games. Some people just want a straightforward shooter where the only weapons aren't an M1 Garand and American pride. Too often games have these features and ride them to death. The Brothers in Arms games that featured squad commands, how many times did they shove it in your face? Rather than becoming a one-trick pony and a slave to one or two gimmicks, Call of Dut 4 focuses on overall quality and not marketing bullet points. To the multiplayer naysayers, I suggest they give the game a fair try. If anything, they probably find it too difficult because they can't jump around and obliterate an entire enemy team with a shotgun and an oversheild.

Runners Up:

Halo 3 - One of the most advertised, best selling titles of this year-slash-lifetime, Halo 3 has a lot of quality features. Unfortunately, none of them are in the campaign mode. It's reasonable that Bungie figured everybody would be buying the game for the multiplayer, but all twelve of us who were more interested to see what a bloated, runaway development budget could do for single player games were rather disappointed. This category is about the overall shooter experience, and a good multiplayer mode with a mediocre campaign mode does not a Best Shooter make.

The Orange Box - Valve's amalgomated parcel of gaming value known as The Orange Box is an extremely good gaming experience, but unfortunately the definitions for the Best Shooter category nearly exclude it. Portal is more of an adventure/puzzle game than a shooter, and Half-Life 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One all released before this year. For new content, that only leaves Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2. Those two are great, but compared to Call of Duty 4 they don't quite make it.

BioShock - This steam-punk underwater adventure is a critical and financial success, but not many of the staff here at GameBump were quite as impressed as everybody else. Personally, the ridiculously short supply of ammunition early in the game when enemies are attacking you from all sides is what broke the experience for me. Sure it had storytelling, and impressive visuals, but I didn't have much fun finding them. Managing Editor Shiva Stella says the game isn't even a shooter and that I'm wasting my time writing this paragraph.

Check out the Game of the Year 2007 Homepage.

GameBump's Game of the Year Starts Tomorrow

Aaron Dunlap — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:47:41 -0600

Our first annual Game of the Year Week here at GameBump begins tomorrow (Monday, December 17th).

Every day of next week we'll be unveiling another of our picks for each category, culminating with the final overall Game of the Year being unveiled on Saturday. Will your favorite game get the nod, or Kane & Lynch sweep all the categories? Stay tuned all this week to find out.

Check out the Game of the Year homepage to stay on top of things and see what our categories will be.

New GB Features: Improved Search, Related Stories, Less Clutter

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:33:57 -0600

Although there's no bubble-lettered notice under our logo indicating as much, I still consider GameBump to be in a beta stage. We're still working out the kinks, adding features, and optimizing performance on a daily basis.

Two big features have been added today: a less sucky search engine, and a less-cluttery full-story appearance.

Improved Tag Search

According to my own usage as well as some emailed comments from readers, our old tag search was "incredibly frustrating." Besides being slow, you could only search for one tag at a time. That's fine if you want all stories about the PlayStation 3, but what if you want all reviews for PlayStation 3 games? You had to either browse through all of the reviews for PS3 games or browse through all of the PS3 news for reviews. That's a pain.

Now you can search for multiple tags appearing in a story. For example, if you wanted to find reviews for PlayStation 3 games you could search:

"review" +playstation 3

You can also exclude tags you don't want to appear. If you wanted to find stories about politics that AREN'T about Jack Thompson, you could search:

politics -jack thompson

You can even specify the author of the story for inclusion or exclusion in the search. To see all reviews for Xbox 360 games NOT written by me, just search:

"review" +xbox 360 -author:aaron dunlap

Or to see everything I've written, search:

author:aaron dunlap

If you just want to see what headlines will return without having to crawl through all of the stories, you could also use our new Quick Search feature that shows matching stories in headline form in one clean list instead of pages and pages of stories. The linked example shows all PlayStation 3 stories.

Reduced Clutter & Related Stories

When viewing a story in full page/permalink mode, there used to be an unholy mess of "submit to" links and an ambiguous "Read the linked story" that created quite an eyesore.

Now, there's a pretty little "toolbar" that condenses all that information into something visually appealing. When a story has an external URL attached to it, instead of seeing "Read the linked story" you'll see the link's domain and the title of the linked page automatically. Links to submit to Digg, Propeller, Reddit, and Del.icio.us are also a bit more organized and dynamic.

There is also now a "Related Stories" feature on every article that displays up to 8 or so stories marked with some of the same tags as the story you're reading, sorted by age with newest first. Now, you'll always have the latest news relevant to any story right at your fingertips as well as some recent items you may have missed.

Next on the block for upgrades are the member profile pages and perhaps more commenting features.

If you have a suggestion or request for any changes, tweaks, or new features, leave a comment.

Unrelated Bit of Trivia

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:42:32 -0600

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but I just thought I'd point out that our integrity policy, which we here treat as a constitution to govern all of our actions here at GameBump, includes the following section:

Advertising on this website never equates to endorsement, and vice versa. No content will ever be created or posted at GameBump by or at the request of any third party. Outside companies impose no authority whatsoever over our editorial or management practices.

In Short: If you see an ad for a game here, it doesn't mean we like it; and if we say we like a game, it doesn't mean the makers paid us off. Nobody can influence our opinions.

As an independent company not beholden to any larger corporate masters, we feel it is important to disclose all of our policies and that they be as reader-friendly as possible. We get requests all the time to feature sponsored content from game companies that we have to decline, as much as we'd love the money, because we refuse to allow third party companies to affect our coverage in any way.

However, we're not above accepting free materials from game companies IF it helps us provide coverage and never with any conditions attached. Like most outlets, the games we review are often sent to us by the publishers, but we never take that into account when impartially reviewing them.

Nintendo DS Game Contest Winners Announced

Tim Grube — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:30:26 -0600

The winners are in everybody! We finally got contact back from both people and the winners are:

Iliana Blair - Glory Days 2 DS
Coby Schluter - Tony Hawk's Proving Ground DS

We have a bunch of future contests planned. All you have to do is sign up and be a member of the GameBump community! Click here to register today!

Contest: Win Need For Speed ProStreet

Tim Grube — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:00:00 -0600

We're back again with another contest for those of you who didn't win the last one with Tony Hawk and Glory Days, so don't despair! This time, we teamed up with Electronic Arts and Special Ops to give away one copy of Need for Speed ProStreet for the Xbox 360.

Again, all you have to do is be a GameBump member and we will randomly pick a winner at the end of the contest. When the lucky winner is chosen we will then contact this person before we announce him/her on the website.

If you're not a member, you can sign up by choosing "register" on the right side of the website. Once registered, you will automatically be entered into this exclusive giveaway. If you are already a member, then you simply do nothing - three cheers for laziness!

The contest will end on Friday, November 23. One winner! Good luck!

GameBump Exclusive Giveaway - Tony Hawk & Glory Days 2

Tim Grube — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:35:54 -0500

As promised, we have our very first contest here on GameBump and we're giving away two Nintendo DS titles to a lucky reader. The two games consist of Glory Days 2 and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. This isn't a contest, it's more of a giveaway because all you have to do is be a member!

On the right hand corner of the website, you will see "Register". Click that to become a member of the GameBump community. Once registered, you will automatically be entered into this exclusive giveaway. If you are already a member, then you simply do nothing!

The contest will end on Saturday, November 10. One winner! Good luck!