In case you forgot it was coming, the Guitar Hero III 5-song demo we were promised a few months ago arrived on Xbox Live yesterday.  The tracks available are:

Joystick Johnny features a pleasant and varied list of arcade classics replicas. There are approximately 25 different games to choose from, including clones of Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Frogger, Missile Command, Spy Hunter, and Joust. 

I found that all of the clones perform just like the originals, so the gameplay of Joystick Johnny was enjoyable, but the game doesn’t come with instructions so if you haven’t played a particular arcade classic before, you are forced to decipher it on your own. 

Bounty Bay Online is an interesting new MMORPG that reminds me of the old Nintendo Uncharted Waters game with a small number of differences. There’s little to do with ‘story’ beyond the 1500s where you’re the commander of a sailing vessel determined mostly by what you most want to do in the game.

(This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the Orange Box).

Because the Orange Box is really a collection of three different games (five, if you count Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and 2 separately), it didn’t seem fair to review them all as one package.  Therefore, this will be a partial review for just Portal, one of the games included in the package, and one of the most innovative games to be released in some time.

War can be devastating and horrible.  In the case of Ageod’s American Civil War (ACW) it’s down right exhausting.  ACW is a turn based strategy game that allows the player to manage every last detail of the civil war fought between the neophyte American states in the mid-nineteenth century.  ACW is diverse in its offering with scenarios based on specific battles, a year long campaign, or in “minister” mode you can be the leader of the country pulling the strings of millions of people.  With that kind of political power you will need plenty tools and this game does not disappoint.  The rest is up to you.  You will need patience, a cool head, and the dispassion to order the death of your countrymen.

Loki was the game that would combine four great mythologies into one great game. Or so we were led to believe. But after eight hours, 1841 dead enemies and 43 deaths of my character it was plain to see it wasn't all we had hoped it would be.