It's time to check in on the beta of Requiem: Bloodymare produced by Gravity Interactive.

MLB 08: The Show came out at the beginning of March, just as pre-season baseball began.  Although I enjoy watching sports, I would classify myself as a casual sports fan.  Consequently, I am merely a casual sports videogame fan: yes, I play from time to time, but mostly, they just collect dust in my collection.  So, when I saw this game on the horizon, I thought it best to send it to Lone.  Lone, you may remember, was one of the contributors to our article on Madden ‘07 roles.  He is also superbly qualified to review sports games as he often plays through multiple seasons in a given title, and is a huge sports fan.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution is a middle-of-the-road game with mediocre sound and graphics, but great use of the Wii’s versatile controller giving players a preview of how future games could be played.  Though I wasn’t a huge fan of the game, with a few tweaks it could be a lot of fun.  The challenge of the controls has a certain allure to it.

I have spent many a night with friends huddled around the table in a darkened room: dice rolled around the table as we took turns battling for our plastic men's lives.  With any luck, the attack proved fruitful.  Battles were won or lost with outcries from opponents.

Many will realize that I am referring to the board game Risk and will know the thrill of a strategy becoming successful or going south all together.  There is a joy to be found in forming a strategy used to make moves and plan attacks.  To top it all off, trading up for the one piece to higher ones, almost felt as though I was leveling up a character. 

If you were to make a sandwich with strategy, role-playing and layer on a medieval world you would have a game called Fantasy Wars.  In this game, you battle your way though missions and campaigns fighting against monsters and anything else that stands in your way.  It is truly a board game come to life on your PC.

The fantastic thing about progress and change is all the great new things that come with it. Sure you can look back and take ownership of the past and even revisit it now and again. But a visit is just a nostalgic look back at how things used to be so that we appreciate how things are now.

Eschalon Book I is the first installment in a trilogy we're told. I have to admit, I was excited when word of Eschalon Book I came to my inbox. Maybe it was the anticipation of playing an all new, unknown RPG and world that built it up in my mind, but all of that build up was for naught as this game failed to entertain me on so many levels. From a gameplay perspective all it would have taken to make the game far more fun are simply some form of camera controls and some higher resolution than 800x600. But there's some potential here.

In years past, I have spent hour upon hour consuming countless bowls of Doritos and gallons of green Kool-Aid (which contributed to my girlish figure) working to create virtual societies that, I felt, had the perfect layout with all the right buildings and parks, trees and police stations, only to have it all destroyed by a natural disaster.  A tornado, earthquake, or other random disaster would wreak havoc on my quaint little town and all would be lost.  If you are anything like me the “Disasters,” resulted in many broken mice and smashed keyboards.

So it was with a sense of caution that I ventured into playing City Life 2008 Edition, wary of the frustration the game might bring, but instead I found myself pleasantly surprised.