Paul Meekin

CHICAGO – Hi, my name is Paul Meekin, and I’m an “XCOM”-aholic. Firaxis, has brewed an almost perfect concoction; mixing the bitters of hardcore strategy gaming and punishing difficulty with the sweetness of character customization, resource management, plus a dash of ’50s camp as the proverbial sugar on the rim.

CHICAGO – Racing games typically come in two flavors: Simulation and Arcade. On the Arcade side you have the excellent “Burnout Paradise,” “Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit,” “Blur,” and about a dozen more games that focus on the speed and excitement of driving a car as fast as possible, and don’t really bother too much with things like braking systems, cornering, or legality.

CHICAGO – “Marvel Vs. Capcom: Origins” is very much like a trade paperback comic book. It collects the first two chapters in the Marvel Fighting Game Franchise; “Marvel Super Heroes” and “Marvel Vs. Capcom” into one ready-to-play collection. Both games were developed by Capcom, developers of the legendary “Street Fighter” series, as well as about 50 other games you’ve probably heard of, played, and loved.

CHICAGO – For sports gamers, late summer into early fall is a stressful time on the wallet. This is when EA Sports releases their holy triumvirate of sports titles; “Madden,” “FIFA,” and “NHL,” all within a month of each other. “Madden” is always a blockbuster release here in the USA, with midnight launches, coverage on ESPN, and enough hype to direct a Kanye West music video.

CHICAGO – I played the first “Borderlands” with my roommate two summers ago, marathoning nightly 6-hour sessions in a haze of not-just-hookah smoke, delighting at the acid-trip aesthetic of the proceedings. Midgets, monsters, vehicles, rocket-launching sniper-rifles, giant angry dragon things — it felt like we were Alice and we made a wrong turn on our way through the Rabbit Hole.

CHICAGO – Despite the Wii U being the focal point of Nintendo’s E3 keynote address, details on the system’s pricing and release date were conspicuously absent. Those details were filled in today via a special event held in New York City. The Wii U will be available on November 18th, and come in two flavors, a bare-bones version with 8 gigs of storage at $299.99, and a deluxe version, with a game stand, charging station, free game, 32 gigs of storage, and sleek black finish, for 349.99.

CHICAGO – Considering its iconic nature, it’s funny that “The Transformers” franchise has never been about its story. Outside of Optimus Prime dying, or that time Ultra Magnus fought the junk-bots to a Weird Al song, casual fans would be hard pressed to remember a specific episode or occurrence in the series that really stuck with them.

CHICAGO – “Madden NFL 13” opens with a rousing monologue from everyone’s favorite justice-obstructing Ravens linebacker, Ray Lewis. Sitting in a dimly lit and smokey locker room, he extols the virtue of hard work, tenacity, and pride, as images from the prior NFL season are projected on the lockers before seamlessly transforming into footage from the game, highlighting its shiny new physics engine.

CHICAGO – It looks like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s biggest smash this year might be the double axe handle he hit on John Cena at Wrestlemania. It’s been revealed that “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” has been pushed back to March of 2013 in order to convert the film into glorious, screen-darkening 3D after test audiences were understandably upset about a lack of 3D muscles.

CHICAGO – Hulu, in addition to being a most enjoyable word to say while jumping out of a plane (Huluuuuuu!) is also one of the most popular websites on the internet for streaming video from television’s biggest channels. Featuring content from FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS and a litany of other networks, Hulu.com has essentially replaced the re-run in eyes of the American lexicon.