Steven DeVito

The Adventure game was lost to us for a few years - advances in technology had gamers expecting flashier graphics and faster gameplay - but the arrival of downloadable titles brought that genre roaring back. The team over at Telltale Games took up the mantle left behind by Lucasarts and showed the world that episodic content really could work with their recent continuations of the Sam and Max and Monkey Island franchises. Monkey Island is a series near and dear to my heart - the brilliant writing and offbeat humor opened my eyes to a world of video game possibilities. The Tales of Monkey Island series saw excellent reviews (with Metacritic ratings averaging in the low-to-mid 80s), and I absolutely agree with that assessment. But how does the series stack up as an episodic narrative? Find out after the jump.

Warning: ahead thar be spoilers! I'll be dealing with the way the plot and characters develop over the course of all five Tales episodes, and I can't do that without spoiling some of the more significant changes that occur. If you haven't played the series and have a particular aversion to having surprises revealed to you, then you should go play the games. They're excellent.

Welcome to "Worth It - Games Worth Playing this Week," a weekly column you'll find here every Monday. In Worth It, I'll sift through the games being released this week to let you know what you can look forward to and, sometimes, what is just too bad to ignore.

New ideas in game design are always risky, and this week we have two new entries to existing franchises that go in interesting new directions. I am glad to see major franchises taking chances, but there's a certain amount of inertia that comes with an established brand. So are what are these two games, and do they look like they will be worth your money? Find out after the jump.

Genre theory is an approach to media criticism that focuses on the customs and patterns that emerge from market successes and failures. Every other Wednesday, The Invisible Pigeon-holing Council considers the wide world of video game genres – where lines can be traced between games and what that means to gamers.

Long before there were computer RPGs, there were miniature strategy games, and before those games were the ancient board games - Chess, Checkers, Go, and Senet. These are games as old as history itself, games that have existed since man could first communicate the idea of battle. Before the rise of the modern first world, when every day was a fight for survival, the glory of war held a much greater sway over the lives of men. It is safe to say, then, that war games have a long, storied history, and the modern strategy genre has deep resonance with people the world over. Over the next several weeks, The Invisible Pigeon-Holing Council will be diving into the many sub-genres of strategy video games: we will look at their strengths, their weaknesses, and what you as a consumer need to know. This week, I will be laying some ground work for future articles and providing a basic introduction to the genre.

Welcome to "Worth It - Games Worth Playing this Week," a weekly column you'll find here every Monday. In Worth It, I'll sift through the games being released this week to let you know what you can look forward to and, sometimes, what is just too bad to ignore.

The Summer season carries on as we eke out a few quality games every other week or so. The arrival of downloadable titles has helped make this a better August than most, and there are some great options this week. Check out what this week has to offer after the jump.

The Toronto of Scott Pilgrim is reality, if it were created in the image of a game-obsessed perpetual slacker. Needless to say, it makes perfect sense to me. A traditional 2d Beat-‘Em-Up from the River City Ransom school, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game plays like a love letter to the first generation that truly grew up around console gaming, and it is a thing of beauty. Find out more after the jump.

Welcome to "Worth It - Games Worth Playing this Week," a weekly column you'll find here every Monday. In Worth It, I'll sift through the games being released this week to let you know what you can look forward to and, sometimes, what is just too bad to ignore.

August is usually a pretty bad month for new games, and, though this month has had some great DLC titles, they don’t seem to be enough to pull us out of these late summer doldrums. Without major gift-giving holidays or the convenient middle-of-the-summer timing, August is just left out. There’s only one major release this week, and it’s a sequel to a thoroughly disappointing game. Find out what I’m talking about after the jump.

Welcome to "Worth It - Games Worth Playing this Week," a weekly column you'll find here every Monday. In Worth It, I'll sift through the games being released this week to let you know what you can look forward to and, sometimes, what is just too bad to ignore.

This is a pretty big week in gaming, although perhaps not as much here in the CA community as in gaming at large. The time has come for EA to release its annual update of Madden, and that means a hectic week for gaming retailers. In the shadow of Madden, though, stand a pair of DLC titles with some serious potential. One is a new sort of game, and the other is full of retro charm. Find out more after the jump!

If there is anything an in-depth look at fighting games will show us, it’s that the genre suffers from being difficult to approach (funny, I think I’ve written something about that before). When the top priority is creating a deep, competitive, balanced combat system, it’s very easy to forget that there are consumers out there in the world that are not hard core gamers.  BlazBlue: Continuum Shift does its best to open up and appeal to those who know very little about fighting games, but does it succeed where others have failed? Find out after the jump.

Welcome to "Worth It - Games Worth Playing this Week," a weekly column you'll find here every Monday. In Worth It, I'll sift through the games being released this week to let you know what you can look forward to and, sometimes, what is just too bad to ignore.

It takes a pretty massive set of balls to release a game after Starcraft 2. Honestly, if I made video games, I would just give up and slink home with my tail between my legs. There are a few brave companies willing to stand in the shadow of the Blizzard giant, though. Dare you discover what products these fearless developers are giving us? Find out after the jump.

Let the rain of concrete pack animals begin anew!

Team17, producer of the much-loved Worms series, has at last announced an official release date of the Steam-powered Worms: Reloaded - August 26th. With a very reasonable $20 price tag, Reloaded promises to be the definitive version of Worms for any modern Windows machine.