Blog Posts by Mike Smith

Classic look, updated innards. One of the most successful home computers of the early 1980s, the plasticky, off-white
Commodore 64 holds a very special place deep in the heart of countless thirtysomething
one-time geeks.

If you're one of them, prepare to have your wallet lightened.

Announced this week via a flyer in Blu-Ray copies of 80s throwback Tron Legacy, the Commodore 64 is coming back, courtesy of startup Commodore USA. The new machine -- dubbed the Commodore C64x -- is externally similar to the old machine, clacky retro
keyboard and all, but the internals are all new.

Rather than the original machine's 1 MHz processor and 64KB of memory, the C64x's retro
exterior hides a machine that's comparable to a modern

In today's world of 3D movies, intricate video games and complex electronic toys, an evening spent playing board games has become something of a novelty -- a nostalgic moment to tackle the same pastimes our grandparents might have enjoyed back when they were kids.

And having been developed around the middle of the 20th century, that's about as far back as the majority of today's classic board games go. But if you're sitting down to play
one of a handful of genuinely historic board games -- like backgammon, Go, or
chess -- you're following in the footsteps of countless generations. Humans
have been playing board games since the dawn of civilization. Here are some of
the oldest and most

Fed up with repetitive, time-sink Facebook games? Is your farm going nowhere, your city a ghost town, and your mafia a morgue? Fear not: there's a lot more gaming to do on Facebook.

Led by big-name publishers like Sony and Electronic Arts, social network entertainment is getting bigger and better while remaining free to play -- and some of Facebook's new breed are nearly ready to take on the consoles at their own game. Here are five of the front-runners:

Dragon Age: Legends

Dragon Age: Legends - EATop of the list is Dragon Age: Legends, recently released by publisher EA to support its critically acclaimed PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 role-playing epic Dragon Age 2. Hand-drawn Legends isn't as graphically rich as its big

Waiting for a good racing game is like waiting for a bus: you sit there for hours, and then
suddenly three come along at once.

And let's be honest about it: outside of a few standouts, the last couple years haven't been kind to racing fans. But things are about to get better, because 2011 is lining up
to be a banner year for the genre. Bringing gamers new titles in a diverse
range of franchises -- from Super Mario Kart to Forza to Twisted Metal -- 2011
promises to be packed with high-octane variety. Here are just a few of the
titles to watch for.

Shift 2: Unleashed

Shift 2: Unleashed

Where better to start than with the Need for Speed franchise? It's a trendy name these days,
thanks to last year's superlative

Crysis 2

Platforms: X360, PS3, PC

Crysis 2 Sci-fi shooter Crysis was a PC exclusive back in 2007, famed for stretching the platform to
its limits with its class-leading graphics. Indeed, running it with its visual fidelity
maxed out is a challenge for even today's top-of-the-line hardware.

Its sequel releases this week, but this time it's not just for those with pricey PC rigs: both Xbox 360 owners and PS3 fans can now enjoy what's been hailed as one of the most graphically-advanced
video games ever made. If you believe the hype, Crysis 2's optimized engine
will deliver all the bells and whistles of the original game, plus a few
extras, all somehow shoehorned onto a five-year-old, $200 game

Homefront

Platforms: X360, PS3, PC

THQ's Homefront Genuinely original settings are rare in video games. But THQ's Homefront -- a seemimgly generic, near-future first-person shooter -- boasts a storyline that's had many jaded gamers pricking up their ears. Set in 2027, it tells the story of an invading North Korean army sweeping its way across a greatly weakened United States, and casts the player as a
soldier in the home-grown resistance movement. Pretty compelling stuff.

So it's something of a letdown that Homefront's story -- penned by
celebrated screenwriter John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Conan the
Barbarian, and the superficially similar Red Dawn) -- looks to be one of
the most disappointing aspects of

LEGO Star Wars Forgettable
toy-to-game crossovers litter the history of video gaming. Although spinning
off hit toy lines into games is an obvious way to broaden their appeal, the
resulting software rarely makes much of an impression on consumers or critics.

But the Lego franchise, which gains its newest installment this week, is different. It's
responsible for a total of 50 million sales over the last 14 years, the bulk of
which have come since 2005, when the Lego brand suddenly shot to the top of the
game charts out of what seemed like nowhere.

What happened? A flash of inspiration -- blue-hued, and accompanied by an unforgettably iconic "fwoosh" sound effect. Lego alone wasn't enough to crack the

Just Dance 2 - Ubisoft Music games are singing the blues.

It's been over five years since Massachusetts-based developer Harmonix revolutionized the genre, thrusting the original Guitar Hero to the top of the charts, winning a stunning collection of awards, and birthing a franchise that'd eventually rack up over two billion dollars in sales.

But now Guitar Hero is just a memory, euthanized by publisher Activision last month following a sharp downturn in revenue and a series of poorly received spin-offs. And competitor Rock Band -- Harmonix's next work, published by Activision rival EA -- isn't in much better shape. Although its most recent effort, Rock Band 3, earned considerable acclaim, it's widely thought to