Shin Megami Tensei has always been one of the most well regarded RPG series. Despite being utterly blotted out by the likes of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Megaten has succeeded in carving out its own niche here in the states. Part of the reason for this is simply that they are great games. The last title, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, was not only a solid role-playing affair, but was also a tantalizing piece of philosophy.

Once when I was a kid my mother decided to grant my brother and I permission to play in a neighboring empty lot. See, the kicker is that the lot was made completely of dirt and this was during a rain storm. We spent the entire day hucking giant globs of sodden real estate at one another. In short, dirt is fun to play with. Codemasters knows this, so by extension, DiRT is also fun, and for the exact same reason that my brother and I loved that bemired plat.

Project Sylpheed is famed gaming company Square Enix’s latest attempt to break out of the mold and establish themselves as a company renowned for more than just Ultra-Japanese Role Playing Games. The game is decent enough, to be sure, but if Square Enix wants to establish themselves as a great developer outside of their main genre, it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than this.

If there’s one thing that can be said about CB Games, it’s that we are definitely a friend to the Indie developer. Which is why we are so psyched that student developed De Blob has been picked up by THQ and will be making its way to the Wii. The game sports some of the best graphics yet on the system and unique gameplay to match.

It is immediately obvious that the formula is innovative. It is designed from the ground up as a two-player experience, not unlike the cooperative missions in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Every level will be tailored to a two player style including never before seen techniques and moves that will require unprecedented amounts of team work.

This morning I was extremely excited to hear that there were rather well founded rumors floationg around that Sony would, in fact, be cutting the price tag on the PS3 by one hundred dollars within the next 7-10 days. I even starting nosing through some of my own financial documents to see if I would finally have the spare cash to grab one. However, new developments from Sony have us questioning the idea.

Remember all those incredibly dull bar top arcade machine that always seem to be hidden away in some corner of the local tavern? The ones with all the boring card games that people only play when they’re piss drunk and either they have no friends, or they’ve been a dick and their friends no longer want them around. That’s Touchmaster. That also seems to be a prerequisite for enjoying the game.

Touchmaster is a new DS game that is basically the embodiment of every joke made about Nintendo hardware. If you haven’t already figured out that it’s a mini-game compilation, then you haven’t been following the DS release schedule very closely.

When the Virtual Console was officially announced all were pretty much flabbergasted. The idea of this type of endeavor was and is still pretty much unprecedented. After the twentieth time we got stuck with some weak-sauce NES sports game, we started to hope that there would be some original content to round out the package a little bit.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been impressed by the amazing success of Wii’s first six months at retail. Not many believed it was possible for a company to have success in three separate console generations, but Nintendo is poised to do just that. Historically, it has been completely impossible for any hardware manufacturer to get past that little hump and become an industry mainstay.

Tenchu Z is to the Tenchu series as Tomb Raider Legend was to the Tomb Raider series. It’s a stagnant, even tragically failing series that has received new revitalization from a game that isn’t necessarily great, but it proves that the series still has legs, and the potential for greatness in coming iterations. It's just too bad there was a lot of crap between the good parts.

The Darkness is the story of Jackie Estacado, an up-and-coming mobster. After some work related incidents, the family Estacado belongs to turns on him and now it’s a kill or die scenario for Jackie. Little does the crime family know, however, that Jackie Estacado is no ordinary mobster. A long dormant curse/secret/power (whatever you want to call it) lies in Jackie’s soul. Basically what that really means is that this guy is capable of some ridiculously cool s*.

In a move that will probably surprise absolutely no one, Ken Kutaragi, the mastermind of all things Playstation, has stepped down from all posts at Sony Computer Entertainment. Word is that he will still hold an advisory position, but he will not have any real decision making power.

A big hit for Take Two Interactive and Rockstar today as the British Board of Film Classification in the United Kingdom have seen fit to forbid the upcoming slasher game Manhunt 2 from crossing their shores. Well not exactly, but they did reject the opportunity to give it a rating, which means that the game may not be able to be legally supplied anywhere in the country.

There are a lot of games out there these days that have interesting ideas. The vast majority of these titles however, end up being nothing more than a loose frame work for that idea. Gaming industry pundits saw Crush's groundbreaking 3D to 2D world altering system and thought it stood a chance of being a tech demo. However those fears can now officially be declared unfounded as Crush proves to be much more than just a tightly woven game.

Normally I would be content to sit on the sidelines and watch the fanboys light themselves on fire like protesting Buddhist monks in the wake of the comments contained in Will’s and Rich’s editorials "Has Nintendo Officially Abandoned the Hardcore Gamer?" However, I feel like I can contribute to this discussion.

The beginning CG movie in Mortal Kombat Armageddon says something to the effect that so many Mortal Kombat fighters have come about in the recent years that they’ve begun to tear apart the fabric of the universes existence. This recent incarnation of the Mortal Kombat franchise sings much the same tune as the last few games in the series, though; It’s chock full of goodies, but all of them are tragically underdeveloped.

Back in March, we reported that David Jaffe, creator of both God of War and Twisted Metal, had (possibly drunkenly) admitted at the Playboy Mansion that he had begun the design process for God of War 3. We’re a set of fine fellows over here at CB Games, and we decided that it was cruel to make Jaffe go it alone on this one, so it was decided that we would issue a list of things that absolutely must be in God of War 3 in order to assist one of this industry’s great designers.

Odin Sphere is a style of game that seemingly begs to be ignored by the mass population. It hits every major point that will cause the general consumer to look away. Odin Sphere’s amazing imagery, rock solid gameplay, amazing soundtrack, and captivating storytelling all fit seamlessly together to form an experience that is going to be talked about amongst enthusiasts for decades.

We decided that it was, is, and would be ill-advised to continue writing these entries without giving the readers an adequate idea of what the playing fields were like. After all, what good does it do to go into lengthy verbose descriptions and accounts of a game if folks can’t actually picture it? None! So for that reason, today is going to be all about maps. No, I’m not talking about Magellan; I’m talking about boards, sets, fields, levels, whatever you call them it’s on the menu today.