True fact: one in 1,368 readers will be struck and killed by a falling meteor while reading this. That type of absurd humor jams the subversive, satirical action-title Bad Day LA way past chock-full. Rock star game designer American McGee pokes fun at our national pastimes of racism and classism during our Bush-Era culture war of fear.
Our hands-on look at Bad Day LA's demo began with a bang - a jumbo-jet filled with a cache of bioterrorist weapons crashes into the Santa Monica freeway during
By
Edge_
posted February 15, 2006
We're used to gradual evolutions in gaming, be they in technical, graphical, even artistic fields. And you might have expected the same as gaming explores other new horizons, such as politics, current affairs, satire.
But with Bad Day LA, American McGee has taken a tradition that had long since become dormant (in mainstream games at least), and has pushed it from a standing start to a racing finish.
Taking on fistfuls of current taboos - terrorist attacks, immigration, obesity, tsunamis - it
The checkered history of Los Angeles suggests that on occasion it can help, ahem … redefine the concept of the human love/hate relationship. Even so, the city's seen nothing like this. In the third-person action game Bad Day L.A. you'll face missions involving plane crashes, zombie hordes, meteor showers, riots, a tsunami, an earthquake, and more. Crips vs. Bloods this is not.
At the center is misanthrope and reluctant hero Anthony Williams. He's a former Hollywood agent so disenchanted
If you think that a massively multiplayer online game needs to be backed by a giant software company to be successful, millions of Puzzle Pirates players would tell you differently (and likely precede it with "yar!"). Now, the decidedly not giant group of puppet masters behind that innovative and instantly fun game have concocted a new strategy MMO: Bang! Howdy - this time set in the Wild West. Like its predecessor, Bang! Howdy is a breeze to run on nearly any PC and is as addictive as any

A would-be hero sleeps peacefully. Suddenly, he springs awake, saunters out of his home and gets swept away on an engaging quest, ultimately saving his world from destruction and a greater evil. This plot descriptor may sound like your typical action RPG setup – Link to the Past anyone? But with gorgeous artwork, levels that build themselves as you go, an exotic world and a grizzled narrator who somehow adds immensely to the experience, developer Supergiant Games is making sure Bastion sets itself apart from the vast horde of typically mediocre action RPGs out there...
Paul Crocker, Lead Narrative Designer at Rocksteady Studios, donned one of our magical interview headsets at E3 last week to give us his thoughts on Batman: Arkham Asylum, which may turn out to be the best Batman game we've ever played. Crocker discusses the reason for the game's short delay, its inspiration, story, gameplay, and more. Have a listen below!
Think of a great superhero game. No, not a good one — there are plenty of those around — but one as essential as, say, Grand Theft Auto IV or BioShock. You’re struggling, right? That’s because there aren’t any. Or rather there weren’t any until Batman: Arkham Asylum came along.
The Caped Crusader has had something of a dodgy past both on the silver screen and in games. From the ace 1989 Tim Burton gothic epic that grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars domestically to the franchise-murdering Joel Schumacher colour-saturated camp-fest Batman & Robin that barely limped past the $100 million marker, Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego haven’t had it easy.
We're about to commit what some geek groups would consider heresy: Maybe the world was better off not having a game based on The Dark Knight, Batman's wildly successful and delightfully dismal summer movie outing from last year. Yes, we saw the movie (four times, thanks, and that's not counting IMAX viewings); yes, we loved it. But what are the chances a rushed-through-development movie tie-in would have actually been good?
Stealth, stalking, and all-out brutality. How Batman is taking back the mantle from the games that stole his schtick.