These Tombs Aren't Going to Raid Themselves

"I hate tombs." - Lara Croft

There certainly have been a lot of bad Tomb Raider games over the years. I only really enjoyed the very first one as it was so unique and ground breaking for its time in storytelling, game play and graphics. Most of the games since have gotten lost in Lara's sexuality and/or felt more like Lara 'James Bond' Croft instead of a female Indiana Jones.

The latest edition, simply titled "Tomb Raider," goes back to the roots, actually before the roots. This is Lara on her first adventure, before she is a bad ass. She's ship wrecked on a "Lost" or "Arrow" style island full of ancient mysteries with supernatural events and bizarre human cults. The premise isn't new, but that doesn't matter. The game is just fun and is something that both fans of the original and those new to Lara's exploits should seriously consider playing.

Why? Follow me after the break...

How Tall Do You Need to be to Ride Dragons?

How tall do you need to be to ride the dragons of Skyrim?

Now that my daughters, my nephew, and all of their friends are hitting the big age 10 mark, I’m getting a lot of questions about video games. “My son really wants Halo for Christmas, but it’s rated M is it too gory for him?”

These are genuinely concerned parents who are not gamers and sadly don’t know their Skyrim from their Gears of War.  They’re not necessarily opposed to their kid playing a game with a weapon,  they just don’t know why I’d let my kids play Halo at age 10 but perhaps not Gears of War or Mass Effect despite the fact that all three games are rated “M for mature”.

Armed with the knowledge that all parents are different, all kids are different, and that parents know what their kids can and can’t handle, I struggled with a way to explain it to them.  Then it hit me... MOVIES!  

This thing called Kinect

Well, it required playing "the Birthday card" but not only did I score the new RB3 stuff last week but I was able to convince my Wife that I needed Kinect and a game or two for it this week...

She picked it up for me yesterday, and we got it all set up. We played for about 3 hours last night, then I played again with the kids this morning for another half hour before work. You definitely get a little bit of a work out if you are not a very active person, and I've got sore and stiff muscles today to show for it.

The Tech

Set up was easy, although you're gonna need a good sized room. You NEED to be 6-10 feet away from the sensor, esp if you want to play two players. If your living room is small... forget it.

Assuming you have the space, set up is simple, You plug it in, run a calibration thing for the room (takes about 10 min) and you are ready to go. The crazy thing is... how quickly it works.

Xbox Kinect User Interface (UI)

To be honest, the thing I was most excited about with Kinect wasn't the games, but the voice and gesture control of X-box media. This works well and doesn't require flailing, however it is much more limited than I had hoped. Let's break it down...

Keytar of Rock

Just played more of Rock Band 3 with the new keyboard/keytar.

It really is ingenious how Harmonix ramps difficulty up from 'normal' mode easy through hard and 'pro' mode easy through hard.  It is very easy to get started in normal mode, it's just one hand on five keys, very simple. And very easy to play standing up like a keytar.  Pro mode requires both hands and you'll want it on your lap or on a table.

Like the drums, getting started in simple but will take a long time to master.  And you definitely feel like your playing a piano and doing ok once chords kick in and octave shifts start happening at higher difficulties.   You might even think you're getting quite good until you run into a great pianist's music like Elton John!!

Suddenly you feel like you just got taken to school.  Which is really what makes music games like Rock band so exceptional. You learn to appreciate all the elements that go into making a great song, and which bands have stronger musicians on which instruments.

Put some cowboys in my sandbox please...

I've always respected and admired the technical achievements and fun of the GTA series, but the theme always kinda bothered me.  I never really could get into being a gangster or crime lord.  It's one of the reasons I enjoyed Crackdown more than GTA IV, despite GTA IV being a deeper more beautifully crafted game.

Red Dead Redemption takes the great technology and open game-play concepts of GTA and places them in a setting that is much more appealing.  While I'm sure it will be possible to be a 'bad guy' in the old west, it brings to life a genre that has been ill served to date by video games.  To finally have a western themed game that has all the polish, attention, and budget of a GTA title is very exciting for me, and probably one of the reasons the game was so highly anticipated by many.