Video Game Review

CHICAGO – We’ve all played games that start frustrating but eventually find an engaging rhythm. And we’ve all played games that start off successfully but fall apart over time. Rarely has there ever been a game that straddles that line for more of its playing time than “Alice: Madness Returns.”

CHICAGO – Based on the incredible box office returns, a lot of the people reading this have probably already seen Michael Bay’s divisive “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” It’s understandable that they may want to continue the adrenalin-pumping adventure at home with Activision’s latest game based on the legendary Hasbro toy line. Sadly, as much as the movie pops in 3D, the game is disappointingly flat.

CHICAGO – I must admit to not being a huge RPG fan. Sure, I’ve played the big ones of the last few years and know my “Dragon Age” from my “Fable” from my “Final Fantasy,” but I often run into the same problems — a depth of customizable play that I just don’t care about. Some RPGs feature so many options and so many details that I get lost choosing which shield/sword combo to carry into battle or which spell loadout to take on the next quest.

CHICAGO – Clearly, Activision and Treyarch aren’t satisfied with dominating the shooter market for only part of the year; they want the entire calendar. How else to explain the most ambitious DLC expansion plan in console shooter gaming history?

CHICAGO – Last summer, Disney Interactive, Pixar, and Avalanche Software teamed on the ambitious-but-flawed “Toy Story 3,” a game that dared to do something more than your standard family movie tie-in. The game didn’t work 100% but it was a masterpiece compared to most games based on animated films. They’re back this summer with the tie-in for “Cars 2,” with similar results.

CHICAGO – You may have seen the Ryan Reynolds superhero vehicle “Green Lantern” and want to bring the adventure home or see how it translates with a controller in your hand. The movie disappointed most critics and fell short of box office expectations? How does the game compare?

CHICAGO – By now you’ve probably read that the long-anticipated “Duke Nukem Forever” is a total disaster, a glitch-heavy, poorly-written exercise that would have been disappointing as DLC but is downright insulting as a standard release. I really wanted to be able to give the game a pass, to report that critics have been too hard on it.

CHICAGO – “Red Faction Armageddon” is a stellar game for players who like their action explosive. The last game in this franchise, “Red Faction Guerilla,” was based more on open-ended gameplay with destruction being a key element.

CHICAGO – Two years ago when “The Conduit” was released for the Nintendo Wii, I wrote a review that claimed that it would “open the door for more shooters” for the console that never seemed too adept at releasing them. Sadly, development for the Nintendo Wii actually seemed to go in the other direction, as the machine seems now to be in that tragic phase when it’s being essentially ignored in favor of the next system (which Nintendo will reportedly announce at E3).

CHICAGO – Game developers have spent decades fine-tuning the art of puzzle-solving. How do I get from point A to point B? How do I defeat enemy X to do so? It is the foundation of almost every video game. But most developers have used the same tools to build on that foundation, primarily building their houses with hand-eye coordination, whether it’s jumping a platform at the right time or shooting an enemy with perfect precision.