I first started hearing about Minecraft on twitter. The messages were cryptic, describing some sort of game involving mining for ore or some such thing. They were little snippets of “Finally, I found coal. Now I won’t die at night!” and “ZOMBGWTF ZOMBIES!!!” or “How do you make bricks?”. I had no idea what kind of game they could possibly be describing.

Then videos started being linked. I passingly glanced at a few of them. The blocky aesthetic of the game was neat, but I couldn’t really tell what the heck was going on in the actual game. What finally pushed me over the edge was listening to our friends over at the Joystiq Podcast discuss the game on their show. Justin McElroy’s experience with Minecraft really got me wondering just what kind of game this is.

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Crackdown 2 is one of the most brutal punishments one can inflict on a critic. There is nothing to say about Crackdown 2. At best, you can spin a handful of disappointments into a competent, but bland review. Once the review is over, that same critic will then place Crackdown 2 on a shelf, where it will sit for months. Later, he will realize it’s utter worthlessness, and eventually trade it in to some form of used game service. Its worth will be approximately seven dollars, and that man will look at himself and wonder, “Did this game really deserve this kind of time and effort?”

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We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3, people have been trying to outdo the precedents established by Rockstar. They have had to go bigger and more over-the-top crazy with each game to keep things interesting. With GTA4, Rockstar tried to scale things back and make it a little more serious.

Thank goodness Volition didn’t do the same thing. 2008′s Saints Row 2 continues the tradition of open world games that provide a huge, goofy action experience where the world is your playground; a playground filled with fast cars, giant explosions, and rival gangs to take down. It marks the first time I have stuck with an open world game long enough to finish its story mode.

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"Viva!"

Blowing things up has, and always will be fun. “Red Faction: Guerrilla” is, at its core, a game about blowing stuff up. Volition’s mastery of the sandbox genre, combined with the incredible amounts of destructive freedom delivered by the Geo Mod 2.0 engine make for a stellar experience.

Volition’s experience with open world games is very apparent here. The map is intuitive and easy to read, the controls are very tight, and the game has a very high level of polish.

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