Earlier this week I posted a hardware review of Evil Controllers Evil D-Pad model for the Xbox 360. If you read the review you know that I really liked this controller. It was responsive, comfortable, and much more effective than the crappy stock Xbox 360 d-pad.  The only down side to the Evil D-Pad controller is the price. A lot of readers also commented that they would be interested had the controller not cost $75 (for wireless).

Well, today I got an email from Evil Controllers saying that it is running a sale this week and that their prices are deeply discounted. I figured it was my duty to report this considering the interest some of you readers showed. To find out more, hit the jump. Read more… »

The relationship between video games and media licenses is equivocal to that of Jason Voorhees and college students.  For every Goldeneye or Matrix: Path of Neo there are twenty cheap, broken cash-ins that nobody in their right mind would ever fish out from the bottom of the bargain bin.  It’s mystifying because video games have the potential to be an excellent representation of their license if cards are played right.  The Naruto Ultimate Ninja series has – to my persisting astonishment – consistently been fun and entertaining, and I could even see it appealing to some people who have no understanding of Naruto.  Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 builds on its predecessor’s design and presents itself well, and the result is a surprisingly engaging game.

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Just like the Wii when it was first released, Kinect has a lot to prove in the eyes of non technology savvy consumers . The Playstation Move has established its niche: it’s a more precise Wii-Mote – that’s a pretty easy concept to grasp for all of the millions of households that already have a Wii.

But the Kinect features something a bit different – no tactile control whatsoever – in fact, everything is controlled by your body, which is read by a giant camera. Naturally this would create skepticism, followed by shouts of “it probably doesn’t work”. Fortunately for Microsoft, it does.

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This week demos are making their return to Wii-Ware. In addition to your usual weekly assortment of downloadable titles, four demos made their way to the Wii-Ware service today. They’re actually pretty decent titles as well. Unfortunately, these titles are only around for a limited time only…so download them while you still can.

The full list of this week’s titles and demos awaits you after the break. Read more… »

A few weeks ago a representative from Evil Controllers, a small 3rd party gaming controller manufacturer/designer, approached me asking if Gamer Limit would be interested in reviewing some of their products. Always being down for a hardware review, I jumped on the chance. To my surprise, the gaming controller they wanted me to review was their new “Evil D-Pad” for the Xbox 360.

As you can see in the image above, the only real difference between the Evil D-Pad controller and the standard Xbox 360 controller is that the Evil D-Pad has replaced the oh so problematic Xbox 360 d-pad with four individual buttons. At first, I though, “Who would want this? It’s just a PlayStation D-Pad on an Xbox 360 controller; especially considering it’s priced at $54.99 for the wired version ($74.99 for the wireless).” I couldn’t imagine dropping this kind of money on a new d-pad for a controller.  Then I actually sat down and played a few games with it. Read more… »

“Universal Console”. These two words have been thrown around for quite some time. In 2007, Silicon Knights president Denis Dyak gave a presentation at Game Convention entitled A One Console Future. Eat, Sleep, Play, Inc. co-founder David Jaffe has also put out the call for a “single standard” platform in his blog Criminal Crackdown.

The concept is gaining reinvigorated press today with an interview between CVG and David Reeves, Capcom COO. Reeves views the universal console, or ‘console agnosticism’, as something close to inevitable, and predicts that it will happen in the next 10 to 15 years. Gamers may not have to wait that long — OnLive is definitely throwing its hat in the ring as the console-to-end-all-other-consoles with the December 2 release of its $99 OnLive game system, touting that you can “[p]lay games instantly” with “[n]o high-end hardware required” and “[n]o patching or upgrading” needed.

When all is said and done, the OnLive game system may be more than that. Read more… »

If I asked you what Spectrum Shock was, you may be mistaken in thinking it was an unheard of spiritual successor to System Shock, or maybe a bad TV show about a guy who can manipulate electromagnetism, or maybe even a movie with Alan Rickman. In fact, it is the debut game from Boxfrog Games featuring all the tilting and tapping you can fit into a device rife for tilting and tapping.

So how does it shape up to the other titles on the app store? Is it a Canabalt or a Can Of Ba… Okay, even I’m not crass enough to finish that pun. Hit the jump to find out why Spectrum Shock should be the next game you download to your iPhone.

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Fresh from Sony comes a new video of Propaganda Games Darren Hedges discussing some of the more juicy details of Tron: Evolution that are sure to make mouths water. Propaganda’s game director seems to hold nothing back as he lets gamers know about the combat style, animation, upgrades and more. Gamer Limit definitely has more for you after the jump.

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It’s amazing for veteran video game enthusiasts of the 16-bit era or older like me to look back on the development of franchises that continue to endure the test of time. Some franchises like Mario or Metroid soar gloriously beyond their roots. Other franchises seem to be coughing and sputtering towards their graves; unfortunately Phantasy Star Portable 2 is one of these. Phantasy Star Portable 2 shows that despite some incremental gameplay tweaks, the formula is stale and nothing we haven’t seen before. What results is a lackluster game at best with the multiplayer being the only spot of reasonable fun.

It almost feels insulting to bring up the story for how squandered the single-player narrative is. Three years after the events of Phantasy Star Universe the Gurhal System’s lack of resources is putting it in great peril. The world is saved by the development of a new form of interstellar travel that lets Gurhlians migrate to the depths of space. As your mercenary team, Little Wing, travels into the great beyond you encounter old and new threats that form the bulk of the story. The story doesn’t take a back seat so much as it just gets left behind in the dust, as Phantasy Star Portable 2 drives off without a clue of where it wants to go.

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Have you ever wondered how one of the many high speed car chases in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit would translate in real life? Well, EA seems to have answered that question with a new live action video that pits a Pagani Zonda against a Lamborghini Murcielago police interceptor, as it dodges spike strips and evades low flying helicopters.

Unlike in the game however, they don’t smash up these extortionate exotics. Pity.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit launches today in Europe.

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In the run-up to the launch of Gran Turismo 5 next Wednesday, Sony’s advertising campaign for the game is in full swing with the release of a new advert starring the ever hilarious Kevin Butler.

So it turns out that Mr. Butler is fully responsible for the delay of GT5. Shame on him.

Only 5 agonising days left…

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Just as we can point at a Halo title nowadays and say “It plays like Halo,” we have arrived at the time when we can point at a Call of Duty title and say “It plays like Call of Duty.” This is not a game where you will be leaning carefully from cover and picking off the enemy one by one until the way is clear. Instead, you will be pulling headshots as fast as possible to advance through levels and avoid being pinned down. The weapon selection is all era-appropriate, but in the end Call of Duty weapons tend to blend together for me, with the notable exception in Black Ops of a crossbow with optional, explosive-tipped arrows that’s good for a laugh and some mayhem.

Treyarch flavors the traditional Call of Duty FPS gameplay with a few on-rails machine gun moments, giving us the helm of a heavily-armed riverboat, and plopping us into the gunner’s seat of an iconic Soviet Hind helicopter gunship that any Red Dawn fan should instantly recognize. We even get to guide a black ops team in Russian territory from the cockpit of an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

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