Simpsons games have developed a pattern in the history of video games. That pattern is overall sucking. How can a franchise that is the longest running sitcom in the 50 year history of television been so inept at making even a playable video game? The next gen version of the Simpsons promises to deliver a gaming experience we have all longed for. The demo allows you to play as Bart and Homer, though you find that Homer is pretty much useless in this level. You battle the Lard Lad mascot, which is brought to life by the two aliens that show up every Halloween. Lard Lad is hell bent on destroying the city but there seems to be no time limit in which to stop him. Without spoiling the gameplay, you have to use Bart to damage the robot/mascot and bring him down. The commentary is done by our favorite newscaster Kent Brockman which actually is pretty cool. His Kent-isms are hilarious and there is plenty of them. The gameplay might take some getting used to. You seem to pick up life along the way, though I don’t know how. I kept killing the Krusty dolls that chased me around. There are plenty of things to pick up such as pickups which are only obtainable with the correct character. The game promises to deliver 16 missions that allow you to play as all 5 family members each with specific abilities as well as 170 NPC’s you can interact with. There should be plenty of Simpsons dogma for the many hardcore fans that are out there. The jury is still out on this one, but expect a full review once Gamefly delivers the game to my doorstep.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Conan punch a camel in the face when he was hammered. Great stuff. This demo… not so sure about that. The game does not hide from what it is, a very brutal, violent hack and slash. There are some very cool combos and hacking limbs off is fun as hell. Yet, there are some glaring issues and the camera is a huge problem. You cannot move the camera at all, at least from the level you play in the demo. This means that the background environments are going to bland as hell because you can barely see them. You basically have no idea where you are going until you get there. To not have a 360 degree camera angle at this point makes no sense. Especially when you have to deal with enemies in the same plane. The demo is short, ten minutes max if you know where to go. This game could be fun, maybe when you can obtain enough rubies or ruples or whatever the currency is. I like the ability to pick up almost anything and wing it at someone. Could be a fun rental, but as of right now. buying this game before some reviews come out might be a sixty dollar mistake.

We brought you the minimum requirements to run Crysis on your computer, so the least we could do is show you a glimpse of what you can expect from EA and Crytek. Here is some pretty gameplay with a splash of backstory, it has a Halo meets GRAW feel to it, but looks pretty amazing.

Most people that have managed to find a Wii are in love with Wii Sports. particularly with the bowling and the baseball. We have already seen some other iterations of the bowling games, but now Wii Baseball gets some competition with MLB Power Pros.

MLB Power Pros is a Japanese title that focses on pick up and play baseball using super cute little characters. Of most interest to me in this title is the ability to put your Mii’s into baseball games; I want to make a cartoon version of myself to play firstbase for the New York Yankees. Stay tuned for a full review of this title coming soon for the Wii. MLB Power Pros is also available for the PS2 if you don’t have a Wii yet.

This game is on the top of my list of titles to get, I always had a soft spot for Burnout and its crashbreakers. Graphically looks pretty good, but I wonder what they are adding to this game to set it apart from the other Burnout Series?

Looks like NFS is getting serious about online features, you can even get texts on your phone, watch for the details.

Myself and fierce Scuba went around Digital Life this past weekend and got to check out all the new stuff out there. He brought you his visions, now here’s how it went down from my eyes.

• Newegg had a pretty cool booth setup with gaming rigs all around. All consoles and PC were hooked to 40″ LCD HDTVs. The Xbox 360 Elite was running DiRT, the PC was running GRAW2 with a sweet PhsyX card in it, and the PS3 was running Heavenly Sword. However, the PS3 was hooked up with standard RCA cables and running in 480i. What kind of crap is that?
• Intel had some amazing gaming PCs setup running Quake 4 with a local multiplayer match setup. The games were running with at least 100fps during the games and looked amazing.
• RedOctane had a sweet booth with multiple Xbox 360 stations with Guitar Hero 3 demos. There were only 6 tracks available, and every station had the wired GH2 guitars. No new GH3 style guitars were to be found.
• There was a nice Gaming Arcade area setup with over 10 each Xbox 360 and PS3 running multiple games. Obviously the Halo 3 stations were mobbed all day.
• Toshiba had their new gaming laptops setup in their booth running Gears of War and BioShock. They had a tournament running every hour on Gears of War.
• Microsoft had a large booth showing off Windows Vista (not many people were in that part) and Games for Windows. They had Crysis, Hellgate: London, Gears of War and BioShock all running on pimped out Alienware machines. Crysis blew them all out of the water in terms of visuals.

We also sat down with some of the development team at Turbine who work on Lord of the Rings Online. I’ll have more information on that later today. Stay tuned.

I sat down and ran through the demo of Geon: Emotions for the Xbox Live Arcade this week. The game has a cool premise, but just doesn’t deliver, in my opinion.Geon plays like Pac-Man on crack. You go through all kinds of 3D maps with loops and different levels picking up dots. Yeah, you move around picking up dots. Once you collect enough dots, you hit the X button to flip to your opponent’s side of the map and race to the middle to score a goal. This goes on until one of you gets to 5 goals to win the match.There are various power-ups in each game, with each having a distinct effect. One allows you take away dots from your opponent, others allow you to attach an opponent through the map. Each one has a different effect depending on which Emotion you choose to begin the game. There are pros and cons to each Emotion, so you have to choose which works best for your playing style. I couldn’t figure out a playing style other than move around and get dots, so it just matters which power-ups you like best.I can’t see spending $10 on this game. It doesn’t offer enough depth, even for an arcade game, to keep me coming back. I think I’ll pass.

I am not a fan of superlatives, but this is the best hockey game I have ever played. The demo only allows a 10 min third period but the fluidity of the game is absurd. The players really look like they are on ice. When you circle with the puck the players will use their arm to shield the other player. Last year, the skill stick was innovative but was a little awkward and you would have to mindlessly push it when the puck was near. Now, a simple flick and the shot is away with much more velocity and accuracy. The graphics are insane on a LCD TV and the game looks astonishing in 1080i. I would be all over this game if it was not for the timing of the release, but they coincide with the beginning of the hockey preseason, so what are you gonna do? I strongly recommend checking this demo out, and buy the game if you are even a casual hockey fan. I played last year’s version until my fingers bled and I can’t wait to get my hands on this, whenever that may be.

The inevitable battle of the basketball franchiss which one will come out on top? 2k8 or LIVE, you be the judge? Who brings the sexy?